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Cablevision is charging customers $40 to keep their old phone number when they switch over. When questioned, they lie and say they’re simply trying to recoup the number port fee charged by the previous provider. [Consumer Reports via Broadband Reports]
A DirecTV CSR claimed that reader Mark changed his installation by following troubleshooting instructions to unplug and reconnect his box, and now owed $79.95. Mark, who paid $6 per month for DirecTV’s protection plan, refused to pay the fee and asked to cancel to his service.
For products that don’t kill you, we usually pay 6.9%, but for some states have seen fit to tax cellphones at exorbitant rates, like Illinois’ 21.05% or New York’s 21.71%. Why? Probably because people don’t notice or complain very much and so the states get tidy chunk of extra revenue. One Forbes writer who moved from New York to L.A. was still stuck paying New York taxes, the highest in the country. When he complained, Verizon said they couldn’t do anything because they link area of primary usage to your area code. If he wanted to pay L.A. rates, he would have to get an L.A. number, and give up his New York number. Instead, he went and bought a phone in Idaho, provided an Idaho address, and switched to paperless billing. Now he enjoys the small potatoes rate of 7.71%. He admits that this “probably crosses the line.” One must also admit that cellphone taxes have crossed the line, as have cellphone companies that shortcut the Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act by determining the “area of primary usage” based on your area code or billing address, instead of detecting where you actually use the phone the most. Inside, a list of cellphone taxes by state.
Moriconi writes in to tell us how he was able to save $950 this week by uprooting the hidden fees and renegotiating the things in his life he was paying too much for. Awesome! Here’s his true story:
Another chapter in Bob Sullivan’s excellent book Gotcha Capitalism explores how Wall Street quietly devours your retirement plan through an array of hidden fees. Bob quotes a Wall Street money manager as saying, “If we had to disclose fees, half the people in this room wouldn’t have jobs.” [More]
Some small towns, pissed at having to use town resources on accidents mainly caused by out-of-towners, are now fining non-locals if they get in a smashup. Erlanger, Kentucky is one such town. Four major highways intersect there. They charge drivers $14 for the first 30 minutes a cop is there and $7 for every 15 minutes after that. Insurance companies aren’t always covering the cost of the fee, and so the bills get sent to the drivers. This could lead to a perverse situation where locals try to cause accidents in order to raise money for the town coffers.
A story in Bob Sullivan’s new book Gotcha Capitalism shows one of the first points when companies realized they could make more money by getting rid of their customers. The year was 1995, and First National Bank of Chicago decided to charge customers a $3 fee for talking to a teller. The move was lambasted in the press and by comedians, and analysts predicted a severe decline in profits as customers fled in protest. Instead, First National Bank’s percentage of customers producing an “adequate return” went from 33% to 45%, and profit went up 28%. How does this work? Bob writes:
…satisfying the right customers is the goal, but pissing off the wrong customers is equally important…[D]epositors with large accounts were exempt from such fees…Only irritating customers with tiny bank accounts who asked a lot of questions went elsewhere….Chasing away undesirable customers with outrageous fees has been an important element of the banking business ever since.
And every other service industry as well.
Did you know that if you request a repair under warranty for an appliance you bought at Best Buy, and the repair isn’t made, then Best Buy will charge you a fee?
JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America now charge $3 for non-customers to use their ATMs. Wachovia increased fees at a potion of its ATMs, and the average fee that your bank charges you to use another bank’s ATM has risen as well.
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Starting March 11, Comcast will begin charging a $3.99 “human interaction fee” if you want to pay your bill by talking to a live operator. [The Oregonian via DSL Reports]
Upgrade: Travel Better writes that hotels are using motion sensors and scales to charge you if you even move an item from your room’s minibar. Here is what one such device looks like at the Wynn hotel in Las Vegas. Say you want to check out the nutritional information on the package. Or look at it. Or you pick one up and change your mind. You could get charged an extra $100 for food you didn’t even eat. The safest bet is to just not touch the hotel minbar. Or even think about it. No doubt they’re working on sensors to detect that and charge you for it as well. [More]
Banks love graduation almost as much as parents. You’re finally on your own, able to afford food, rent, and beer, so why shouldn’t the banks—the kind, selfless banks that let you save while you slaved for knowledge—now sink their teeth into your anorexic accounts for a hearty bite of their own? FiLife compiled an excellent list of bank policies so students know how their institution plans to celebrate their impending graduation.
Seeing that a $50 fuel surcharge wouldn’t stick, airlines backed down from it, only for most of them to roll out a $40 surcharge. As of now, of the legacy carriers, only Northwest and US Airways have yet to match the increases. Based on how these things trend, airfare bloodhound Rick Seaney expects Northwest and US Airways to pricematch over the weekend. So, if you like flying either of those two airlines as opposed to the budget airlines, buy your tickets now.
In a move meant to promote reducing congestion, the DOT yesterday announced that airports can now charge airlines landing fees based on time and overall airplane volume, rather than simply their weight. Critics charge the previous policy allowed airlines to schedule flights on smaller and more regional jets during busy times, when what were needed were fewer and larger jets.The move would allow airports to schedule their flights throughout the day. Most likely the fees will be passed on to consumers, as they should. A good way to increase in a system is to make those who want to use its resources when they’re in short supply pay a premium. Airlines are expected to lobby fiercely against the measure.
All of the legacy airlines, with the exception of Northwest, have matched United Airlines $50 roundtrip fuel surcharge announced Friday. Airfare maven Rick Seaney says that Northwest is usually the last one in when it comes to price increases, but if they don’t follow suit by tomorrow, then the other airline could begin to wobble and drop the surcharge.
United Airlines will increase the fuel surcharge on roundtrip tickets to $50, a new industry high. “Every penny increase in a gallon of jet fuel costs our industry $195 million annually, and while we operate more efficiently, we must be able to pass commodity costs on to customers, as other industries do,” said UAL spokeswoman Robin Urbanski. The new surcharge is more than double the previous charge. Other airlines haven’t yet commented on whether they will match the move. Just another reason to not fly United.
The nation’s largest concert promoter, Live Nation, is ditching Ticketmaster to build its own ticketing system. Live Nation may not be as soul-crushingly evil as Ticketmaster—we hear they issue refunds!—but their goal in breaking away is to squeeze more profit from customers by hawking “additional merchandise.”
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