Verizon.sneaky

Once again I find myself all purple over a corporate scam. I was annoyed enough when my Verizon Long Distance plan at $1.50 a month went up to $2.50 two months after we signed on. We don’t use their long distance anyway so it was just a matter of paying to have the long distance service available. Still, there was a slight taste of the old bait-and-switch in my mouth.

But then just this past week I received the following e-mail (edited by me):

Dear Valued Verizon Online Customer,

Effective August 14, 2006, Verizon Online will stop charging the FUSF (Federal Universal Ser vice Fund) recovery fee. We will stop being assessed the fee by our DSL network suppliers. Therefore, we will no longer be recovering this fee from our customers. The impact of the FUSF fee … eliminated is $1.25 a month….

Starting August 26, 2006, Verizon Online will begin charging a Supplier Surcharge set at $1.20 a month ….

We regret the need to add this Supplier Surcharge, but we thank you for choosing high speed Verizon Online DSL. We appreciate and value your business.

Sincerely,

Verizon Online
Broadband Customer Care Team

What I find so funny about this is the implicit stupidity assumed on the customer’s part; i.e., the tax is gone; you’re used to paying it; so we’ll just take it.

Frankly, I don’t think the Broadband Customer Care Team really cares about me all that much. If they did, they would have just said, “Hey, we need a little more money so here’s a rate increase.”

Rate increases you can stomach; being scammed is much harder to take.