This MUST end! Corporate Amerika must be reigned in now!

[Rick Myers]

Janet called QWest today to pay the bill on our antiqueted landline phone. There is now a $4.00 charge to PAY YOUR BILL by phone, even an automated system!!!

I have to PAY to pay my bills??? This is not right...

[SoftSosha]

1. Yes, this is what is happening now. It is LUDICROUS.

We are just going to sit still, I imagine????

What if we just stopped putting up with this? What would happen?

[my2sense]

2. You have to pay to pay your bills at AT&T

as well. If you go in the store to pay the bill, it's a $5 "Human Contact" fee. They are running all over us.

[Rick Myers]

3. Let's face it, we live in a nation controlled by corporations.

This nation was formed in a Revolution that was directly tied to a corporation (Dutch East India) raping the colonies...

[Donnachaidh]

4. you're just getting charged for that now?

We've been paying *human contact fees* of 5 bucks for over a year now.

[Rick Myers]

5. This is not human contact, this is an automated system!

That is not right...

[jberryhill]

6. Ah, then, you are paying for the convenience of not having to deal with a human /nt

[jberryhill]

7. Now see here...

If they didn't charge you the cost of paying your bill, then they'd have to raise their fees in order to recover that cost.

You are one of those freeloaders who expects them to process your bill payment for free.

[Rick Myers]

8. Yeah, I feel sorry that I can't give them $20.00 more!!!

Unreal... $4.00 to use the automated phone system, but free to do on the Interweb... But Janet is a bit of a Luddite...

[jberryhill]

12. I'm sure they appreciate tips

You ARE tipping, yes?

And what do you mean "free" on the Internet? Don't tell me you freeload off of their website in order to pay your bill, but you don't buy internet service from them...

[thunder rising]

14. Then I guess you better start paying the bills or get used to $4 charge. The real problem is one

time a few years ago I had to pay in cash ... now that is an ordeal.

[thunder rising]

9. I pay all monthly bills through the web and I don't get charged. Everything else I use the banks

bill pay service.

[cherokeeprogressive]

16. Sprint gives me a $5 discount for paying my bill online. I love it. n/t

[Berry Cool]

10. You mean "reined in." Our problem is that they are REIGNING

like kings and queens, and we are the subjects.

[ThomCat]

11. My bank charges $10 to pay the credit card bill by phone now.

:grr:

And they charge me $15 for receiving a transaction if someone transfers cash into my checking account.

The fees are getting out of hand. Everyone is jumping in and adding outrageous fees for every possible transaction.

[jberryhill]

13. Have you tried complaining?

It's only $35 to complain.

[starroute]

15. And the telcos seem to try to steer you into it

My Verizon bill didn't arrive last month, so I phoned to get the amount -- and instead, the automatic system routed me into the, "Pay your bill over the phone but it will cost you $3" menu. So I hung up and dialed again, and this time I was able to get the payment amount, but it still followed up by rerouting me into the pay-by-phone menu.

Since I hadn't been missing a bill before, I assumed it was just some kind of glitch. But now it sounds like this is something they've added deliberately.

[GReedDiamond]

17. For fifteen years, I had 21st Century auto insurance...

...and then one day they were bought out by the evil AIG, who then started charging, I think, $3.50 to pay my premium through the 21st web site (which the pre-AIG 21st had been doing through the web site for no charge for several years).

I called 21st/AIG, objected to them nickle-and-diming their clients to death, and pointed out that AIG had sucked up at least $85 billion in taxpayer dollars, and to now charge a fee to PAY THEM was not just wrong, it was unethical and inexcusable. I was told I could avoid the payment fee by mailing in a check. So, for the next few months I stayed with them, they waited longer to get their premium payment, but did not charge me $3.50 for the privilege of paying online. Very shortly after that, the 21st division of AIG was bought out by Farmer's, which jacked up my rates significantly, for no reason.

I obtained better car insurance coverage, plus renter's insurance (from State Farm), for less than what the Farmer's-owned 21st wanted, and enjoyed very much telling the "customer service" representative at 21st/Farmer's that I was done with them. They pleaded with me to stay, but when I asked them if they would give me a better rate, or at least match State Farm's, they gave up trying to keep me as a customer. Good riddance to them.

[thotzRthingz]

20. re: "For fifteen years, I had 21st Century auto insurance..." similar story

I was with GE-AUTO... great rates, full year policies (no 6 mos crap)... and when I reached age 50 *THEY* (no local agents) even CALLED ME to inform me that I could get a 10% discount for taking a safe driving class (I've always been a safe driver, but took the AAA-offered class anyway). Later, I found out that in VA auto insurers were REQUIRED to give us a 5% discount, if we took said class AND asked for the discount (but to my knowledge no other insurers were informing their clientèle of said requirement). Long story short:

AIG bought GE-auto (rates started increasing shortly thereafter) and AIG only gave me a 5% discount, AFTER I had to ask for it. Then FARMERS took over... again rates began increasing. I've a perfect driving record for DECADES... and decided I had enough of this crap! I used multiple ONLINE QUOTE services, and ended-up going with LIBERTY MUTUAL (LM) for about half what I was paying FARMERS... soon thereafter, I switched my homeowners ins. to LM as well.

Oh AIG & FARMERS only offered me 6 month policies; whereas, LM provided me with a ONE YEAR POLICY from the git-go! Every year now, I do RATE QUOTES using multiple online resources... so far NO ONE can touch the rates which LM provides.

[TreasonousBastard]

18. Will the whining never end? Verizon does that here, but...

you can send them a check if you don't wait until they cut you off. You can also register at their site and then pay online without the fee.

But, if you do as I do, wait until the day before they shut me off and don't bother registering, they shunt me off to an outside service that collects the payment for an additional fee.

It's my own damn fault that I end up paying that fee, so I don't complain about it.

[my2sense]

19. I'm talking about paying the bill on time

I happened to be in the store to buy another phone and wanted to take care of my bill. Giving legal tender to the corporation cost me another $5.00? I can't believe these bastids are getting away with this nonsense.

[salguine]

21. It doesn't need to be reined in. It needs to be

driven out to the desert, forced to dig its own grave at gunpoint, made to kneel and then shot in the back of the head.