Today, I tried to sign up for the Tonik insurance plan through Blue Cross in California. I answered all their questions and based on my answers was quoted a certain price for health insurance. I then gave them my CC information. Upon completion of this transaction I received the following email:

Congratulations! Your application has been approved for DN15 with a 20% increase in premium. This decision was based on the information you submitted.

I could send you the full text of the email, but you get my issue. Nowhere did I have the ability to deny this coverage. I then had to argue with them for an hour to get them to cancel. I had to send a screenshot of the total page which did not say anywhere that they could just randomly raise the price. After an hour of throwing a hissy fit and getting them to let me email the cancellation instead of faxing it they finally sent me a cancellation email. I still don't feel safe though.

I think people should know about this. It can't be legal. I'm also sending you the screenshot I took of the total page. I should have known better than to sign up for insurance called the "thrill seeker" but I was desperate and they tried to take advantage of me.

Is there any place to report these deceptive and evil insurance selling practices? You can't just quote someone a price, take their money and then raise the price, can you? I would also like to add that I am an attorney and I did read the fine print.

Aasma, you may want to try contacting the California Department of Insurance to ask them where to complain about what happened. You should also check out the Health Insurers page on the California Attorney General's website for more information.

Jim at Circuit City's consumer affairs division wrote,

I have some follow-up information on this matter to share with you.

Thanks to your Web posting, we have been able to determine that a few employees at one of our stores incorrectly charged a customer for work that our firedog techs did on the computer that he purchased. The manufacturer notified us that the PC in question did need a repair and we coordinated the repairs with the manufacturer. The customer should NOT have been charged.

We have reached out to the affected customer to apologize to him for any inconvenience and to make sure a refund is provided. We have also taken steps to ensure that our associates are aware of company policies on this issue.

I hope this information is helpful,
Jim

Frankly, we were suspicious that Circuit City was taking advantage of the faulty PC inventory to make a little extra money, so we're happy to see the company step up and correct this oversight so quickly.

A colleague of mine recently purchased a new Acer desktop for his dad from Circuit City in Lancaster, PA. After the checkout process he noticed a $40 charge from Firedog on his receipt. When he questioned the Circuit City employee about the charge, she replied "Firedog had to fix the computer by updating the bios."

He had seen an advertisement in a local newspaper for a desktop that he felt was a good buy. He knew that his dad was still using an aging desktop and thought this system would be perfect for the kind of tasks his dad uses the computer for. So he drove 30 minutes to pick up the system to give his dad later that evening. When he got to Circuit City, he quickly picked it out proceeded to an employee to purchase system. The first thing out of the sales associates mouth were, "You'll need to upgrade the system if you plan on using it for anything beyond surfing the web.".

A little history about my friend, he is the new systems purchaser for the company we work for. He knows about hardware and software and what they are capable of doing. He is NOT an inexperienced buyer when it comes to computers.

So he turned down the video card upgrade, the hard drive upgrade and memory upgrade that the sales associated recommended he would need. Of course all of these upgrades were services that Firedog could perform for a fee. He told the sales associate, "Look, I know what I'm buying and this is all I need.". After convincing the sales associate of this, they finally started the check out process. So he slides his credit card through and signs for the purchase. The sales associate hands him his receipt and he is on his way to his dad's with his new computer. Until, after a quick scan of the receipt, he notices a $40 charge from Firedog. He turns right around and asks the sales associate what the line item was for. The sales associate replies that Firedog needed to setup Windows Vista and flash the bios for the computer to work.

What?

To which he replies, "So you setup Vista, which was working just fine in order to update the bios?". Yes, says the sales associate. Regardless of the fact that Vista booted up just fine with out the update, he was more disturbed with the fact that Circuit City would sell him a computer that they knew didn't work or so they say. Unfortunately, he was short on time and did not press the issue in the store. Later the next day he sent off an email to the Firedog supervisor for the store explaining his disappointment in the nickel and dime charge.

Back to school shoppers beware!!!

Travis, your friend shouldn't stop with the Firedog supervisor of the store. He should contact Circuit City's executive level and let them know that you specially refused any additional "help" from this Firedog associate, only to have him meddle with your purchase without your consent and then charge you for it. They owe your friend a $40 refund.

Based on the chart provided at Surfline.com, the U.S. carriers are some of the worst culprits. Delta charges $150 each way, United charges between $100-$200 each way depending on board length, American charges $100 each way, and Continental charges $95 each way. (As you might expect, Jet Blue and Southwest are both more affordable, at $25 and $50 each way respectively.)

According to the Los Angeles Times, Delta says surfboards require too much special handling, and of course they blame fuel prices:

The surfboard fees are high because the boards require special care and extra handling, Delta said. They don't go through the normal baggage carousel but must be carried on special elevators to the claims area.

"There are handling costs associated with surfboards that we have to account for," Delta spokesman Kent Landers said. The hike in charges also reflects a general increase in fees to "cover and reflect the unprecedented increase in fuel costs," he added.

Surfers disagree:

But surfers contend that the fees for their boards are unfairly high compared with other items. Although they are large and need special handling as an oversize bag, a typical short board weighs about 4 pounds while a larger board may swell to only 15 pounds.

"It's not the weight thing," said Marcus Sanders, a Huntington Beach surfer and editor of surfing website Surfline.com, whose airline fee guide received 20,000 hits in the first two days it was posted last month. "They just think that it's an extra pain on their employees, that the boards take up extra space on their planes and that we make up a small percentage of its passengers."

The article points out that the combined fees from Delta and Hawaiian airlines cost one traveler about half what a new kite board (think smaller surfboard) would cost:

"You know, I just realized I'm going to be paying $360 to take my board along," Cowan, a Ridgway, Colo., resident, said after checking in his board, which was 4 feet, 9 inches long and weighed about 11 pounds.

Both the LA Times and Surfline.com suggest you look at foreign carriers if you want to avoid or minimize fees.

"Airlines' Fees for Surfboards are Dinging Surfers" [Los Angeles Times] (Thanks to David!)

RELATED
"Breakdown of boardbag charges by airline" [Surfline.com]

Click for larger versions:

(Thanks to Jerry!)
(Photo: Getty)

Those extra airline fees, compared airline by airline [Airfarewatchdog]
Checked bag fees, airline by airline [Airfarewatchdog]

John found himself the proud father of a $10 fine from WaMu this morning because he exceeded 6 transfers from his savings account during a single billing period. When he called in to find out why this happened, he was told it was a federal regulation: "The representative from Wamu said there was nothing she could do and I need to better monitor my account. Honestly I just want to know if anyone else has had this problem?" It's a real regulation, John, but banks don't have to charge a fine—they can also simply warn you or not allow the seventh transaction—but then they wouldn't get to make another $10 off of you.

John writes:

I talked to the person who couldn't do anything for me and then I talked to a "Manager". She explained to me that there are federal regulations that state that a person can only transfer money 6 times in a billing cycle.

The regulation she's referring to is Federal Regulation D, and in section 204(d)(2) it defines exactly what constitutes a savings account. One of the characteristics is there can only be up to six pre-authorized or automatic transfers—however, you can make as many transfers as you want in person or via an ATM machine.
 
The $10 fee WaMu hit you with was entirely their own invention, however. A footnote to section 204(d)(2) describes what banks can do to ensure customers don't go over the limit:

In order to ensure that no more than the permitted number of withdrawals or transfers are made, for an account to come within the definition in paragraph (d)(2) of this section, a depository institution must either:
 
(a) Prevent withdrawals or transfers of funds from this account that are in excess of the limits established by paragraph (d)(2) of this section, or
 
(b) Adopt procedures to monitor those transfers on an ex post basis and contact customers who exceed the established limits on more than an occasional basis.

Call us pessimists, but we bet every major bank opts for an ex post fine in order to generate additional income. That means if you have to make more than six transactions in a given month, use an ATM machine if you can.

(Photo: Getty Images)

Customer service has been no help, so Matt emailed people at the executive level. Although several addresses bounced back the message, Matt did receive a promise that Qwest's executive VP that someone from customer service would contact him to resolve the matter. That was on March 31st, and he still hasn't heard back from anyone.

Here's the email Matt sent to the Qwest bigwigs:

Dear Teresa Taylor,
 
My name is Matt [redacted] and I am writing to you on behalf of my mother, [redacted]. Recently, she was the victim of some very bad customer service, of which I wanted to make you aware. My mother was satisfied with her service, but when she attempted to add a long distance plan to her decades-old account, adding to Qwest's bottom line, she was bumped off her plan, signed up for a two year contract without her knowledge, presented with false claims that she would save money, asked to pay an additional $60, and prevented from using the service for which she paid, for approximately a week at the time of writing.
 
My mother has had the same phone service for over three decades, including Qwest and your predecessors in the area, at the phone number [uh-oh redacted as well]. She has had DSL internet with Qwest for approximately 8 years, signing up for a 256 kbps line with an internal DSL modem. Her bill in February for these two services totaled approximately $63. For most of this time, she has been very satisfied, except for the times when her connection would be unavailable for days or weeks at a time. Tech support representatives were often completely unhelpful, despite keeping her on the phone for hours. On one occasion, over a three-day weekend, she had to wait three and a half days to have someone reset her password after she had forgotten it and accidentally erased it from her computer.
 
Recently, she made a phone call to Qwest to try to sign up for a long distance plan to replace her plan with AT&T. This should have been a simple call to add a relatively inexpensive service, but she was given a hard sell to change her plan. She was told that she could save $11 by switching to a bundle that would include phone and internet service at 1.5 mbps, and an additional discount for bundling her phone, internet, and DirecTV service. The operator failed to mention that she would be signing a two year contract with Qwest as part of the Price for Life program, the new bill for phone and internet would total approximately $66, she would be ineligible for the new DirecTV equipment that new customers receive, and that the service would fail to work with her current modem, requiring her to buy or rent a new one. Soon after, she was unable to use her internet and approximately a week passed before the issue was resolved when my mother and I spoke with someone in the sales department.
 
When I called into Qwest and had an opportunity to speak with a salesperson about the problem, she was the first person we found remotely helpful and was able to find the tech support operator, "Roger," who finally discovered the problem. It was at this point that the representative told us that my mother would have to pay $60 for a modem or pay $5 a month to rent the moment. She had the audacity to claim that my mother would still be saving $6 if she paid $5 every month in perpetuity for the modem, despite the fact that a $5 increase would bring the cost to $71, which would be $8 more than she paid on her February bill. My mother could receive credit for the time her internet was down before the source of the problem was found, but if she did not choose to take advantage of the offer to send a modem, she would have to keep paying for unusable internet.
 
I asked to have my mother's plan revert back to her original plan and after a long time spent on hold, I was told that this would not be possible as the plan was no longer offered. I asked to at least have the Price for Life contract removed and she was eventually able to do this after another period on hold. A supervisor offered to have the modem sent overnight with no additional shipping costs, but we were told that we would still have to pay for the modem. The operator gave us her personal work email to us so that we could contact her with further questions, which was a nice gesture, and my mother and I ended the call.
 
Although I am happy that we eventually discovered what had happened to bring my mother's internet down, we are both completely unsatisfied with the proposed resolution and the road which brought us here. As I said in the first paragraph of this letter, my mother had been satisfied with her service, but when she attempted to add a long distance plan to her decades-old account, adding to Qwest's bottom line, she was bumped off her plan, signed up for a two year contract without her knowledge, presented with false claims that she would save money, asked to pay an additional $60, and prevented from using the service for which she paid, for approximately a week.
 
We ask that you instead consent to a resolution which we believe is fair, where my mother receives local phone service, DSL internet at 1.5 Mbps, and a free modem that will make the service usable, at the same price she was already paying, as well as a free upgrade to new DirecTV equipment, discounts for bundling her current DirecTV with her phone and internet, and credit for the time she has been unable to use her internet service. We believe that the upgrade to 1.5 Mbps and new DirecTV equipment is fair for a long time customer whom has happily put up with so much frustration for years, and will prevent future confusion with tech support operators who have been unfamiliar with her current modem and TV equipment. This will also allow Qwest to stop maintaining an outdated line. If you wish to propose an alternative, please let us know. My mother is already looking at prices for competitors and working on a letter to Consumerist.com, the Better Business Bureau, and the Iowa Attorney General, so we ask that you respond to this message promptly or by April 4th at 5:00 pm at this address.
 
Thank you for your time, and your attention to this matter.

"Can you explain to me why 31 law firms had to be involved with the plaintiffs?" Judge Pauley asked, adding that he "found a disconnect" between the number of the different groups of plaintiffs and the number of law firms. Ms. Sweeney [of Coughlin Stoia] explained that the "bulk of the work" - 84.7% - was done only by just six firms. Among those six firms are Ms. Sweeney's firm as well as the Philadelphia-based firms of Berger & Montague and Kohn Swift & Graf.
 
One sticking point yesterday involved a separate $32 million legal fee award that the card issuers had agreed to pay Coughlin Stoia and three other firms. The fee came in a similar lawsuit brought in California that was dismissed on appeal.
 
A lawyer who was objecting to the settlement, Irving Bizar, yesterday advised Judge Pauley to take those $32 million away from the law firms and add it to settlement pool.

Two years ago I purchased items for my grandchildren at KidsStuff.com. This month (March 2008) I found an $18.00 charge from them on my American Express card. I phoned the accounting department and asked what the charge was for. I was told that it was an "automatic" charge for "joining" the KidsStuff "club." Of course, I never placed an order to join any such club. The accounting department offered to reverse the charge to be effective in five days. I demanded a reversal show up by tomorrow and promised to advertise their automatic charges everywhere I could. Believe me, I am a big internet purchaser and this sort of rip-off shouldn't happen, especially after not having been on the site for over two years. The obvious lesson is to be sure you always go over every single charge on those credit cards. Those small $18 charges can add up to big money for unscrupulous companies.

C, we suggest you take a look at your AmEx statement from a year ago and see whether or not there's an $18 charge then, too. According to the KidsStuff.com website, you'll get a "free" three month trial with your first order, and then get charged $18 a year—so you may have been unwittingly paying for this "membership" for a while now.

Q: How Can I join?
A: When you place your first order, sign up for your FREE Three Month trial. You'll get the reduced club prices for every item on your first order and for every order you place for the next three months.

Q: What does it cost me to join?
A: As a first time Customer, you receive a FREE three month trial. After that, it is only $18.00 per year for these great savings. At the end of the three month free trial, we'll automatically charge the membership fee unless you tell us otherwise. If you forget to tell us and notice the charge on your credit card bill, just give us a call and we will cancel your membership immediately. We will also issue you a full refund as long as it is within 90 days of being charged.

Hello Consumerist! I'm writing in because I just had an experience with something called "cramming" and I thought your readers should be informed. I handle my parents telephone bills because of all of the shady stuff these telephone companies do. While reading this months bill I notice an extra charge placed by a company called Enhanced Services Billing Inc. (I'll call them ESBI for short) for 13.27. I've had lots of trouble with telephone support in the past and I really didn't want to call up the customer service number just yet so I started searching on the net for anything regarding this company and it's services.

What I found disgusts me. First I stumbled across this blog "http://sharingthesecretoflife.blogspot.com/2005/11/enhanced-services-billing-inc.html". That blog post was very informative and introduced me to the term "Cramming". The FCC has a good description of what cramming is at this web page "http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/cramming.html"

"Cramming" is the practice of placing unauthorized, misleading, or deceptive charges on your telephone bill. Crammers rely on confusing telephone bills in an attempt to trick consumers into paying for services they did not authorize or receive, or that cost more than the consumer was led to believe.

ESBI was the one pushing charges onto my account for another company called Total Enhanced Services Billing Inc. Confused? Let me try and explain. ESBI is a middleman, they have contact with your local phone service provider (in our case it would be AT&T). In my case, Total Enhanced Services Billing Inc got a purchase request for whatever its service is (I think this is their service http://www.mytppv.com/) they forwarded that request to ESBI which forwarded the request to AT&T and charged it to our bill.

Cramming happens without consent from you, if your phone company gets a request to add charges to your bill from a company like "Enhanced Services Billing Inc." then they will add the charges no problem. With such shady tactics I thought that getting the charges off of the bill might be a real hassle, but I called the number on my bill and was transfered a few times to a representative from ESBI. The woman asked for my phone number and the exact date the charges were placed on the bill, I tell her and she informs me that she is going to transfer me to the company that actually placed the charge, Total Enhanced Services. I'm transfered over and tell her about the situation, she gives me a name that the order was placed under, "Chris". I deny that we ever ordered such a service and that I do not know anybody named Chris, she quickly offers to remove the service, credit our bill, and gives me a confirmation number.

Why would they be so quick to resolve the issue? If they resolve the issue quickly there is less of a chance that you, the consumer, would complain or write to the FCC or whoever else. Bad publicity means more people checking their bills for these phony charges which means less revenue for them. I advise everyone to check your bill and make sure everything is in order, we can't let these sneaky snakes get away with stuff like this.

I have a complaint about hidden fees that some car dealerships try to get away with.

The state of Texas charges any business an inventory tax in January of each year for products in warehouse at the end of the year. It's not much, @0.02% of the retail value of the item. Some large national companies ship inventory out of state to other warehouses to avoid paying the Texas inventory taxes.

Several New and Used car dealerships go one step further and try to charge the consumer the Vehicle Inventory Tax on every car sales receipt during the year.

Although the Texas department of transportation office says by definition the "Vehicle Inventory Tax (VIT) - A property tax that dealers pay on their business inventory. This is NOT a tax that is required to be paid by the consumer." referenced at www.txdot.gov/publications/motor_vehicle/section01.pdf

The finance person at the dealership doesn't like it but persistence has prevailed. Though they claim to not be able to remove the fee, I have successfully negotiated out of paying this hidden fee at the dealerships by quoting this manual. They usually adjust the sales price down to cover this line item on the retail purchase contract.

(Thanks to Mike!)

"Motor Vehicle Dealer Manual - Section 1" [Texas Department of Transportation]
(Photo: A contradiction of terms)

Here's his full email:

I have been working for ATT (Cingular, before SBC bought ATT Wireless) and starting March 11th, they are going to be doing a trial in the Southeast Market in charging customers who call in to make a payment. $5 is the charge to be exact, and they expect it to roll out nationwide by May.

I would be forwarding you the official internal memo, but they do monitor our emails with Nazi prowess...so no official email from them..

This upsets me as two fronts, as first, a customer. Why the fuck would they CHARGE their customers for taking their payments?

"So, you're telling me I have to give you MORE money for giving you my regular payment?"

"Yep"

Secondly, it upsets me as an employee. I feel this is taking advantage of our customer's trust, because even when we put it on all of their bills, and let people know, there will be tons of reps that won't let the customer know they're being charged for taking their payment.

I feel that if this gets enough word and bad press, maybe this shit ball of a company will change its mind.

We doubt they'll drop the fee, though—it sounds like a classic case of a company deciding to no longer foot the bill for what was formerly an included customer service.

Prediction: someone will introduce "live operator" surcharges in the next 24 months.

(Photo: Guillermo Esteves)

McCollum said the main culprits are third-party companies that advertise ringtones and other services on the Internet, often promising that the service will be free. When customers—often teenagers—sign up, they or their parents are then surprised to find charges on their wireless bill.

"They will download this thinking it's free because the advertising on the Internet says it's free," McCollum said. And when the charge shows up on the bill, it's not always clear what it is, either, he added.

"This advertising is wrong, it's deceptive ... and it's all over the Internet," he said.

AT&T (T: 35.06, +0.23, +0.66%) Mobility has agreed in the settlement to police such agreements with third-party providers and make it clear what the charges are for.

"It's going to say 'ringtones,' and it's going to give them an opportunity to cancel," McCollum said.

"AT&T to repay Florida customers" [Orlando Business Journal]
"AT&T Mobility Agrees to Pay Consumers for 'Free' Ringtones" [Fox Business]

FTP SURCHARGE

For rentals in the United States, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, St. Croix and Canada when the renter chooses to receive frequent flyer miles from the following U.S.
Airline programs Budget will assess a frequent flyer surcharge equivalent to USD $.50 per day up to a maximum of USD $2.00 per rental. The amount assessed is
collected by budget to offset a portion of Budget's annual cost of participation in frequent flyer programs.

What we'd really love to know is whether or not the various airlines have hiked their own "participation fees" for third-party companies like Budget—and now Budget is passing the cost on to renters.

I know you already did a piece on strange hotel charges a little while ago, but I was in the Bahamas at the Comfort Suites in Atlantis and I thought this was so misleading I took a picture of it.

I just think it's outrageous-if it wasn't bad for the Earth, I might as well be leaving on all my lights when I leave the room, just to get my money's worth! I was with a family of 4, and we booked the hotel because it was cheap. However, they did not include this 24 dollar a night tax! We stayed for 6 nights-they jipped us of $144!

PREVIOUSLY: Watch Out For These 14 Hidden Hotel Fees
10 Annoying Hidden Hotel Fees

Dear Ian:

On behalf of Comcast I would like to apologize for the $1.99 fee being assessed to your account. This fee is assessed when you make changes to your account, like changing the level of services you receive, but it is not for changing marketing preferences. This should not have happened, and we've reviewed your account to verify that the marketing profile has been updated properly and the credit has been applied to your account. Per my voicemail, we have laced an additional credit on your account for the trouble that you experienced.

We've also coached the representative who processed the change to your account and are taking steps to make sure this process is clear to all of our representatives, so this doesn't happen again.

We'd like to thank you for sharing this feedback with us and thank you for being a valued Comcast customer!

Sincerely,
Frank Eliason

[Frank] explained that the charge on my bill was the result of someone's mistake rather than Comcast policy and credited me for a month of service.

I work for Comcast and I think I know what is going on with the $1.99 charge to stop sending junk mail.

In some markets (mostly the old AT&T Broadband ones), there are small fees for making a change to your account that is processed in the back office and don't require a technician to go to the customer's home. Such changes include things like:

- Upgrading or downgrading digital cable service from one tier to another.
- Upgrading or downgrading the speed of a customer's high speed internet service.
- Adding or removing calling features on Comcast Digital Voice.

Some markets make these changes for free; others charge a small fee for this (the decision is made by the local market, not by Philadelphia, so complaints to people in the market and the local franchise authority may help). The largest fee that I am aware of is $5.

Here's where the junk mail part comes in: in those old AT&T Broadband markets, we control things like stopping junk mail, stopping bill inserts, etc. by adding a line item to the customer's bill. It doesn't charge the customer anything, it just notifies us that the customer doesn't want junk mail.

However, to add this line item to the customer's bill, the representative is required to enter a change of service order, just as if the customer had requested an actual change in the services they want from us. So this is really a matter of Hanlon's Razor, not deliberate company policy.

The best way to avoid this charge in the first place is to bundle a request to stop junk mail with another change of service. Requesting no junk mail at the time you get your service installed is one good way. The alternative is to call in after the charge has "posted" to your account and ask for it to be reversed, like your submitter did.

As I don't work in public relations, I'd appreciate it if you could keep my name and position out of this. I'm in the sometimes uncomfortable position of seeing a lot about how the system works but not having the power or authority to do anything to change it, other than advocating for more customer friendly policies with my superiors (which I try to do on a routine basis).

I noticed a $1.99 "change of service" charge on my most recent Comcast bill. During an online chat, a Comcast rep explained the source of the fee:

"It looks like on 2/5/08 you contacted us and requested to have all direct mailers stopped on your account. There is a one time "Change of service" fee associated with making that change on the account."

I had in fact called Comcast a few weeks earlier and asked them to stop sending me anything except a monthly bill. They were happy to do so, but had not told me that they would try and stick me for $2. They rep removed the fee from my bill.

Your readers might want to be on the lookout for bogus charges on their Comcast bill if they've ever spoken to Comcast on the phone. Perhaps this is how they pay for people to fill seats for them at FCC
hearings.

-Ian

We can't come up with a way to justify charging someone to stop sending them junk mail they never asked for, though.

(Photo: Tyler Durden's Imaginary Friend)

• I was not told anything about a "standard policy" to sign me up for the protection plan upon having warranty work done.
• I specifically declined to sign up when pitched on the idea.
• I was signed up anyways.
• I received the letter stating that there would be no charge.
• They attempted to charge a cancellation fee for canceling a plan I never agreed to.
• I had to waste time and energy to haggle to get the charges off, when it really should have been a simple fix.

I am writing to let you know about some shady behaviors by DirecTV concerning their "protection plan" in the hopes that you might be able to warn other DirecTV subscribers of their practices and save them the cost of charges that should not be assessed to their account.

I recently signed up for DirecTV service at the end of November 2007. Later in December my area suffered from a severe storm, which blew my dish out of alignment. I called DirecTV about having this fixed. At that time, I was told that they warranty dish alignment for the first 3 months (90 days) of use, which my dish fell under. I was pleased, but out of curiousity asked what would it would cost if this happened again outside of my warranty period. I was told the charge would be ~$75, but if I were willing to sign up for the "Protection Plan" at $5.99/mo it would not cost me anything. I declined to sign up reasoning that it was unlikely my dish would be affected more than once a year, so signing up would provide me no cost savings. In about a week, a service person came out, realigned my dish, all was well.

About a week later, I received what looked like some junk mail from DirecTV. Nine times out of ten I would not have even opened it since it was not in an envelope, but by random chance I did. Inside was the letter thanking me for signing up for the DirecTV protection plan, which as noted I never agreed to sign up for. Upon further reading I noticed, as can be seen in the pictures, the plan purchase price was listed at $0.00/mo. At first I was annoyed and a bit angry at being signed up for this crap without my consent, but if they weren't going to charge me (as evidenced by the letter) then whatever. However, I was now on notice to check out my bill to make sure no charges were appearing.

Upon examining my bill, I was charged for a prorated portion for one month, and a full amount for the next month. ($.60 and $5.99). Of course, I called DirecTV to get this charge removed from my bill, which took a frustratingly long time. The customer service representative told me that it was DirecTV's standard policy to sign up any subscriber to the protection plan at the time they have warranty work done, which of course was not relayed to me when I ordered the warranty work. After haggling with the CSR for a bit, he finally agreed that I should have the cost credited back onto my bill. However, I was then informed that there was a $10 cancellation of the protection plan fee that would be assessed on this plan that I never signed up for in the first place. More haggling ensued, at which point, the CSR offered me a $5 credit for 3 months (totalling $15) to make up for the mistake, actually making me come out a little "ahead."

Really, that was not the point though. First, I was not told anything about a "standard policy" to sign me up for the protection plan upon having warranty work done. Second, I specifically declined to sign up when pitched on the idea. Third, I was signed up anyways. Fourth, I received the letter stating that there would be no charge. Fifth, they attempted to charge a cancellation fee for canceling a plan I never agreed to. Sixth, I had to waste time and energy to haggle to get the charges off, when it really should have been a simple fix.

Many consumers may have never opened the sign up letter in the first place given that it looks like junk mail, and therefore would never be tipped off to the fact that these charges would appear on the bill. They might also be lulled to sleep by the fact that their letter says the plan will come at no charge. I imagine DirecTV is charging a lot of people for these plans without their knowledge, and many of these people will never take advantage of the protection. $5.99 might not be that much per month, but if you charge enough people this amount every month it adds up. Also, if someone attempts to cancel farther down the road, they might not be willing to raise a stink about the $10 cancellation fee so long as they are getting most of their money back. This also lines DirecTV's pockets with money they should not be getting.

• Groundskeeping
• Towels (other than room—e.g., pool or fitness center)
• Business center, fitness room
• Safe
• Housekeeping, bellman gratuity fees
• Water and newspapers
• Energy surcharge
• Early check in or out/extended cancellation
• Shuttle service
• Baggage-holding
• Bartenders
• Room block fees
• Mini-Bar
• Random incorrect charges

Fodor's point out that federal law requires such "hidden" fees to be disclosed "clearly and conspicuously."

If extra fees aren't clearly stated in the reservation conditions when you book online or over the phone, you should inform the hotel they are violating the law and politely but firmly ask for the charges to be removed. Obviously you now need to read the fine print conditions when you book online, and should ask if any extra fees are billed when you book over the phone.

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"10 Annoying Hidden Hotel Fees"
(Photo: pixeljones)

As expected, the CSR didn't make canceling the card easy: "He spent roughly 30 minutes trying to convince me to keep my account open, offering me all these 'features.'" Finally the account was closed and Quenten was told to make sure all automatic withdrawals "such as AOL" were moved to another card or canceled. The CSR didn't mention any specific monthly charges, however.

Today in the mail I received a letter from Capital One stating that I have been sent to collections for owing $38.00. I figure this is a mistake because I closed my account, and have not received an email (I am on paperless billing), or a bill in the mail. I called the 1-800 number, as it turns out when I signed up for the card, I didn't opt out for "Total Protection", which is a very small fee that you pay each month, so that if you are unemployed and can not make a payment you are covered. So 20 days after I called to close my account "Total Protection" made a charge to my card for a whole 38 cents. Then they charged me another 38 cents for the month of January. This has ballooned to $38.00 now because of late fees. Speaking to the Capital One representative tonight, apparently when you "close" your account, it is not really closed. They leave it open for at least one billing cycle, to allow for any automatic withdrawals to continue. So several questions came to mind, and you won't believe the answers,

1. If "Total Protection" was added to my card through Capital One five years ago when I signed up for it, shouldn't it be closed when I closed my card? I assumed that since "Total Protection" was offered by Capital One that they where the same company.

Apparently not, "Total Protection" is a separate company, and Capital One will enroll you, but they will not inform the outside company you have closed your account.

2. Why was I not informed when I closed my account about "Total Protection" and given the number to call?

All Capital One is required to do (according to them) is read a generic discloser that states you should have all automatic withdraws stopped. They could not explain to me how I was to know that Total Protection service was not being offered by Capital One. When I asked how was I supposed to know the phone number to call this outside vendor, they told me I should have asked them when I closed my account. The Capital One rep. then gave me the phone number to call.

3. Why was I never sent a statement, paperless or otherwise, during the last two months I have been late?

Because my account was in a "closed status" they do not send out statements.

Something is wrong here, if they still allow charges to your account, and one is made shouldn't they send me a statement?

When I called the "Total Protection" company they informed me that it is Capital One's job to tell me I have this on my account and supply me with the phone number when I call to close my account, he then reversed the charges for the last two months. So now I am stuck with a collection on my credit report, and $38.00 worth of fees from Capital One, and a card still open. I really don't feel I should pay these fees when I was never sent a statement about them.

(Thanks to Quenten!)

Here's his email. [Note: since originally being posted, the dates have been corrected as per the OP's comments below.]

First, a little bit of a back story. I signed up with Adelphia for cable internet service back in June of 2006. I went out and bought my own modem and service was fine.

Comcast bought out Adelphia, and that's when the trouble began. On 10/02/07 I started getting charged for leasing a modem (remember I have always owned and used my own). I wasn't given any notice of this, and the charge was not itemized in my online bill, only the paper bill. Since I was expecting a rate increase at that point, the additional 5% went unnoticed.

On 01/05/08 I noticed that I was being charged this fee and called up to complain and have it removed from my bill. What I was told when I called is what disturbed me the most. I was told that Adelphia offered a free lease program to its customers, a service that Comcast didn't have. The records, however, weren't good enough to determine who had the free lease program and who had their own modem, so they decided to just charge everybody and let the customers figure it out for themselves. I was also told that I needed to prove that I purchased this modem by presenting a receipt (on an 18 month old modem I could just have easily purchased off of Craigslist or from a friend).

I got angry at this point and was told by the CSR that an e-mail would be sent to the Billing and Research Department and they would "see what they could do for me" and I could expect a reply within 10 business days. I promptly filed a complaint with the BBB and on Monday received a call from somebody at Comcast. The charges were removed immediately, but who knows how many other customers out there are slowly having $3 a month stolen from them. I know the amount seems trivial, but it's how they treated the situation that got me fired up.

From reader neobolts: "I'm not sure about TiVO, but disconnecting your phone line from your Dish Network satellite receiver can result in one of Dish Network's favorite hidden fees..."

Find out how after the jump...

The way it works is that your receiver dials out on a monthly basis, and keeps trying again if it fails. If the company's monitoring computers don't hear from your receiver for a full month, they pile on a $5 fee for certain models. These models are the ones where you can run two TVs off one box. Tired of people splitting the cost of satellite with their neighbor, the company began this aggressive monitoring/fee system.

"Additional Outlet Programming Access Fee: A $5.00 per month additional outlet programming access fee will be charged to your account for each dual tuner receiver (models 322, 522, 625, and ViP622 DVR) activated. This fee will be waived on a monthly basis for each such receiver that DISH Network confirms has been continuously connected to your same land-based phone line. DISH Network's confirmation process shall be the sole method utilized to determine if your additional outlet programming access fee(s) will be waived;"

Source: http://www.dishtv.com/terms_dha04.jsp

Who would have thought you could be charged for not using a company's service?

Previously: TiVo Box, Lacking Love, Jacks Up Huge Phone Bill

When he called to demand a refund, they told him to choose a different transfer option next time. Did he stop there? No, he threatened to take them to small claims court.

Read his tale of consumer vengeance gone right and an online scam to beware, after the jump.

"Neteller is used by many on line casinos and poker sites to fund a bankroll.

Last month, I was about to sign up to a poker site but I wanted to have money in a Neteller account before I signed up so I went directly to the neteller.com site to open up an account.

I went through the sign up process. It was pretty cool how they identified me. I gave them my name and address and they asked me a bunch of personal questions they must ve gleaned from Choicepoint-type databases they subscribe to. The questions were multiple choice, You once lived on a street shown below. Select the street. A) Imperial Highway B) Buttonwood Ave. C) San Remo Drive D) Sarah Circle You have a sister, is her name A) Karen B) Diane C) Christine or D) Mary They also called my phone to verify identity.

Once they verified my identity this way, they took my bank account information and offered to transfer money from my bank account to my Neteller account instantly, up to $750. I chose the full $750. I received an email a few minute later that said $816.75 was debited from your bank account. WTF?

I called Neteller and was surprised to reach a human being who spoke English. It was pretty late at night. He said that the method of transfer that I chose was called Instacash and it came with a fee. I asked that he cancel the Instacash transmission and refund the fee. He said he couldn t do that. He said next time, I should choose normal transfer which is free. I didn t remember choosing Instacash and I m sure I would never authorize a $66.75 fee to transfer money, but he insisted that I authorized the payment and the extra fee.

I asked for Neteller s Agent of Service in California. I told him I would not be touching the money tonight but that I would be filing a claim in my local Small Claims Court on Monday morning for the full $816.75 plus expenses and interest. He put me on hold while he spoke with his supervisor.

His supervisor said that if I left the $750 alone in my bank account until Friday, they would waive the service fee and my balance would be raised to the $815.75. I would have to call back in order to have this done. The following Monday, I called back and they put the fee back in my account.

So, the story ended well even though I had to spend too much time on the phone (twice) when all they had to do was make it very clear about the fee instead of burying the language in the small print. I m normally very careful about extra fees and I m sure I would ve seen mention of it, if it wasn t hidden in the click through screens.

Notice they don t mention fees here where you choose what kind of deposit you will make:

Or the next screen:

Even if you click on the View Info from the first page, you won t see them mention any fees:

Should I have known to use Electronic Funds Transfer because it received 5 stars from the Preference people?

-Dustin"

No Dustin, you should've known that internet gambling is immoral and gone to a scuzzy riverboat like a normal person.