I recently signed up for a new telephone service for my beach house in Michigan. MCI offered unlimited local calls for $25 a month. This sounded reasonable to me. Then they told me that there was a $35 connection fee. While I know it costs nothing to actually connect the phone service (ie, no one has to visit), I knew this was part of the way these service providers make money.
When I received my first phone bill, it wasn’t for $25. It was for $40. What was the extra fees?- tax and surcharges! This $15 accounted for an increase of 60% in the bill. When politicians go around trying to get additional sources of money, this is one of the places they go which goes largely unnoticed until now.
