In today’s digital world, business owners and managers are overwhelmed with marketing analysis data, lead tracking and advertising return on investment information but are dumbfounded when it comes to reading a Internet or phone bill. With businesses having to meet payroll, constantly upgrading hardware and software on computers, spending money on traditional and digital advertising materials, upgrading office furnishings and investing in image improvements most business owners can tell you the details of all these items. Do you know what you are paying for your Internet and phones and is that the right deal for your business?

Many businesses can tell me the amount they are paying without a problem. They will say “Sure, I pay Comcast or ATT $305 per month for service.” but they really never look at anything but the first page of the bill. You know the one that says Payment Summary Amount Due. Is that what you do?

FEES, TAXES, INFRASTRUCTURE FEES, FRANCHISE FEES, RECOVERY EXPENSES - WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

If you have a traditional phone bill from companies like ATT, CenturyLink, Verizon and Qwest then I am sure you have notices these types of terms. As I sit here looking at the clients old CenturyLink bill that we recently moved over to VOIP SIP Trunks and I am floored by the extra fees that they show as small amounts but add up to be a lot of extra pennies. Here are some items I am talking about:

• Facility Relocation Cost Recovery Fee

• Federal Subscriber Line & Access Recovery Fee

• Toll Free Admin Fee

• City Franchise Fee

• City Sales Tax

• Federal Excise Tax

• Federal Property Tax Recovery Fee

• Federal Regulatory Recovery Fee

• Federal Universal Service Fund Surcharge

• State Relay Surcharge

• State Sales Tax

• State Universal Service Fund Surcharge

• County 911 Surcharge

• County Sales Tax

Would you believe all the above expenses came from one phone bill? I may spend some time and write an blog post on just what each one of those means, why they are being charged and where that money goes but I bet no one would ever read it. Why would no one read it you ask? Answer, because its boring information, they use line items that make the charges look smaller (so you will have the same $2.99 charge on each line which is on 4 different pages) and most people throw up their hands and figure they just have to pay them. I would agree with the fact we all must pay taxes. In Illinois, the “Tax me for everything twice state”, you pay around 40% in taxes, charges and made up fees on your traditional phone bills. But here is a fact to consider: If your phone lines cost you less then your taxes will be less because most are based on percentages.

MADE UP CHARGES AND FESS YOU HAVE TO PAY

On another customers Comcast/Xfinity bill there is a charge that says “Regulatory Recovery Fee” in the amount of $4.05 (on a $300 bill for Business Internet and Phone). The funny thing is if you look at the bottom of the bill in small print it states: “The Regulatory Recovery Fee is neither government mandated nor a tax, but is assessed by Comcast to recover the costs of certain federal, state and location impositions related to voice service.” Let me interpret this for you: “We are fooling you by charging you this made-up amount in terms that sound like a official state or federal charge to pay for our impositions related to you using the phone service you are already paying us for.” So lets just say Comcast has 22.4 million subscribers (take from statista.com statistics for Comcast 2018) each pay this fee that means Comcast gets $89,600,00 per month from a made up fee that you have no choice but to pay on your bill. Did anyone mention that to you up front by chance? The VOIP providers we represent do not add in a bunch of made up fees on to the phone bill or try and confuse you with 8 pages of line items.

NOT UPGRADING OR GETTING THE LATEST PROMO IS COSTING YOU MONEY

Do you pay the same amount month to month? When did your service start? When is your contract up? Did you get a introductory promotion that has expires?

This week I have looked at two bundled Internet+Phone bills that were old and I could guarantee the customers had gotten caught in the “I pay $305 per month trap and each month I just write a check for it”. How did I know? These customers are paying a local cable provider $109 per month for 25 Meg of Internet. It sort of says it right on the bill although they call it the “Internet Premium Package Basic Internet” plan. This customer can now pay $109 for 75 Meg with the same company because they have upgrade their packages. Did the cable company call the customer and offer them the better plan? NO. Did they tell them they could get the same 25 Meg for less money? NO. Or did they know that people are so busy they will traditionally still keep paying the same amount for the same service. Or as the bill says at the bottom “the equipment fee for modems used with Comcast Business Internet and/or Voice services will increase from $14.95 to $16.95 per month”. Two dollars more - who will notice or complain? Why didn’t it say “You are eligible to save money for the same speed or triple your speed for the same price” because they know you don’t understand the billing and promotions they offer so you will keep paying more for less.

LOCAL AND LONG DISTANCE FEES ARE A THING OF THE PAST

Do you still pay Long-Distance fees on your phone bill? Some providers are even still charging local calling area fees (calling from one community to another in the area). I still see phone bills with hundreds of dollars in local and long distance fees being paid each month on a per minute basis. One of the big selling points of Voice Over IP is the fact that you get unlimited local and long distance calling. If you phone bill has any per minute local or long distance fees on it PLEASE look at getting a new phone provider immediately. It is easy to reduce your monthly phone expense when you just remove these per minute fees.

HOW CAN YOU SAVE MONEY BY SWITCHING TO VOIP?

• REDUCE YOUR PHONE BILL FEES FOR SERVICES

• REDUCE YOUR FEES AND TAXES BECAUSE OF LESS TAXABLE EXPENSES

• REDUCE THE MADE UP FEES AND CHARGES

• GET ON THE RIGHT PLAN OR TAKE ADVANTAGE OF A CURRENT PROMOTION

• STOP PAYING LOCAL AND LONG DISTANCE PER MINUTE FEES

• REDUCE PER MINUTE FEES ON ANY 800 NUMBERS

• STOP PAYING FOR NEW PHONES AND PBX HARDWARE