Why the sneaky surcharges? "Voice Regulatory Recovery Surcharge"

[digitalbitstream]

Why is Sonic adding sneaky fees to bills? When AT&T added a "Regulatory Cost Recovery Fee" it was clearly a large corporation taking advantage of its position. But why is Sonic following suit?

Complying with government regulations is part of doing business -- any business. Sneaking this fee (and the other similar ones) among the actual taxes (collected on behalf of government) is disingenuous.

Have you ever bought a meal at a restaurant, and seen a bill including a "Property Tax Allotment Surcharge"?
Will we soon be charged an "Electricity Leakage Charge"? Or an "Oil and Maintenance Fee for Dane's Car Fee"?

Note a similar fee can be purchased on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-revie ... B00020KCBK

[Guest]

Taken from
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone- ... tzip=96818

Regulatory Cost Recovery Charge

The Regulatory Cost Recovery Charge is a charge assessed by AT&T associated with payment of government imposed fees and to recover the costs of compliance with government imposed regulatory requirements. It may include costs incurred in prior years that are not yet fully recovered. It is not a tax or charge which the government requires AT&T to collect from its customers. This charge is subject to change from time to time as the cost of compliance changes.

Components of the Regulatory Cost Recovery Charge include, but are not limited to: Federal Regulatory Fee, Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS), Wireless Number Portability and Number Pooling, Enhanced 911 (E911), Wireless Tower Mandates Costs, State Area Code Relief Costs, Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) Notification Costs, Network Outage Reporting Costs, State Commission Annual Reporting Costs (Applies only in IN, KY, LA, NM, OH, SD, VA, VT, WI, WV WY), Gross Receipts Surcharge (Missouri Only), and Puerto Rico Regulatory Fee (Puerto Rico Only).

[baggins]

I thought the required but not included modem rental was a poor choice for a business whose primary attraction is that they are the “good guys”
This, if he has it correct, is right out of the Trump University Customer Service Graduate program in borderline fraud.

What is next? Will I have to put in tickler in my Calendar to remind me to cancel every year to keep a phoney “intro rate”?

I have been hanging on for more than a decade, believing vague promises of new technologies and faster speeds.

I’ve paid the Sonic premium year after year just to avoid this kind of vileness. I cancelled Comcast, though the cost per Mbps per month is much less, and I could probably find a cheaper place to host my web sites as well, even if I have to ignore the bouncing bikini popups/sexist superbowl ads.