kurthiggins.com

The ancillary fees on my Vonage account have more than doubled in the last year. When I first signed up for service I paid $1.95 in State and government fees. Now it’s up to $4.61. What’s up with that? I sent a query to Vonage support in the hopes that some of them may not be justified but don’t have high hopes.

Last year

This year

For the full (and boring) dialog, click below.

Vonage’s reply

Dear Kurt Higgins,

Thank you for contacting Customer Care.

We understand from your email that you would like to clarify your billing charges.

We would like to inform you that The FCC recently mandated that VoIP providers, including Vonage, are required to contribute to the Federal Universal Service Fund (USF). Vonage is committed to complying with this mandate from the FCC. Accordingly, a 5.31% Federal Universal Service Fee will be added to your bill. Vonage does not profit nor benefit in any way from this contribution to the USF. This charge is passed directly to the United States government.

The goals of Universal Service, as mandated by the 1996 Telecommunications Act, are to promote the availability of quality services at just, reasonable, and affordable rates; increase access to advanced telecommunications services throughout the Nation and advance the availability of such services to all consumers.

For more information, please visit the following link:

http://www.fcc.gov.

If you have any questions now or in the future Vonage Customer Care is eager to
assist you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Please visit our help center at
http://www.vonage.com/help.php?lid=nav_help or send us an email from our Contact Us page at http://www.vonage.com/help_contactUs.php?lid=footer_contact. You can also call us Toll Free at: 1-VONAGE-HELP (1-866-243-4357).

Sincerely,

Vonage Customer Care

Not too bad a reply, but they left out some info. I sent this:

> - Mon Dec 18 17:38:17 2006]:
>
> I’m confused. 5.31% of $14.99 is 79 cents. That isn’t
> the same as the 90 cents listed for the Federal
> Universal Service Surcharge. Where’s the extra 11
> cents?
>
> And what about the other new charges? Last year I had
> the following:
> Residential Basic 500, $14.99
> Rgulatory Recovery Fee, $1.50
> FET Tax, $.45
>
> This year I have these additional charges:
> Emergency 911 Cost Recovery, $.99
> Sales Tax, $1.22
> State Excise Tax, $.44
> State Franchise Surcharge Sec. 184-Access, $.07
> (and the FET Tax from last year is now missing)
>
> While these are all very small and not worth a lot of
> discussion, I still feel it would have been nice to
> have been notified of the changes and not get
> surprised by them.
>
> Kurt Higgins
>

Here is their final reply. Pretty succinct, though they don’t answer the question of how 5.31% of $14.99 is 79 cents.

Dear Kurt Higgins,

Thank you for contacting Customer Care.

We understand from your email that you are concerned about the additional taxes in your recent bill.

We see from our records that you have been charged for the plan charges, Regulatory recovery fee, Emergency 911 Cost Recovery, State Excise Tax, Federal Universal Service Surcharge, State Franchise Surcharge Sec. 184-Access and Sales Tax.

State and/or local governments may assess fees on Vonage to pay for emergency services in your community. Vonage bills and collects 911 fees from its customers, and remits such fees to the appropriate authority. Depending on where you live, these fees can vary widely. Vonage is committed to supporting public safety services and resources in your State. For more information, and to learn more about the fees collected in your community for emergency services, contact your state or local elected official.

Emergency 911 Cost Recovery of $0.99 applies to each line of service. This fee is used to recover costs directly associated with developing, implementing and maintaining a nationwide E911 in compliance with FCC regulations, Vonage 911 dialing and the Vonage national 911 emergency call center. It is mandatory for all the vonage customers to pay for the state 911 fee from the month of March.

On or about June 1st, Vonage will begin charging taxes to Vonage customers in various states across the US. State and local governments may assess taxes, surcharges and/or fees on use of Vonage service. These charges may be a flat fee or a percentage of Vonage charges and may change from time to time without notice. These charges are based on the rates applicable to the address provided to us.

Vonage is obligated by law to charge this tax, however our goal has always been to provide you with the best value for your money. Because our monthly rates are a fraction of what most other companies charge, you are paying less each month
overall. Comparatively, the percentage of tax is the same as what you would pay for other services, but with Vonage you still save money and can take advantage
of our many free features.

The FCC recently mandated that VoIP providers, including Vonage, are required to contribute to the Federal Universal Service Fund (USF). Vonage is committed to complying with this mandate from the FCC. Accordingly, a 5.31% Federal Universal Service Fee will be added to your bill. Vonage does not profit nor benefit in any way from this contribution to the USF. This charge is passed directly to the United States government.

The goals of Universal Service, as mandated by the 1996 Telecommunications Act, are to promote the availability of quality services at just, reasonable, and affordable rates; increase access to advanced telecommunications services throughout the Nation and advance the availability of such services to all consumers. For more information please visit http://www.fcc.gov.

If you have any questions now or in the future Vonage Customer Care is eager to assist you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Please visit our help center at http://www.vonage.com/help.php?lid=nav_help or send us an email from our Contact Us page at http://www.vonage.com/help_contactUs.php?lid=footer_contact. You can also call us Toll Free at: 1-VONAGE-HELP (1-866-243-4357).

Sincerely,

Vonage Customer Care

I guess I have to admit that, while canned responses, they were fast and mostly complete responses. Obviously others have inquired about the same billing issues. Regardless of the extra nickels and dimes, Vonage is still a great deal and we’ve had very few issues with the quality of service.

This entry was posted Tuesday, December 19th, 2006 at 7:30 am and is filed under Random Thoughts. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.