Hidden fees

How do companies like Bell, Telus and Rogers continue to justify “System Access Fees”, “System Charges”, “Digital Access Fee”. These fees are purely a way to add gross profit to your services while circumventing any contract you may have that protects your price.

I challenge how you can have Satellite TV service and then suddenly (Jan 1st 2008) add a “Digital Access Fee”. How do you think satellite works, its digital. Always has been. There are actually several undisclosed mandatory fees for Expressvu. On my bill I have Show Magazine for $2.00, a total waste of paper, and the “Digital Service Fee” the latest sham. For some reason I also get a credit for the Show magazine, maybe because my contract or package includes it, not sure.

Then there is hydro and the “Debt retirement charge”. Not only are we paying for a debt that was not our doing, but we are hit with a regulatory charge and GST to boot.

In a world where our cost of living is rising and a unbelievable rate this year, these companies are trying to gain profits by gouging instead of by creating efficiencies, or better yet making their customer happy and gaining more customers.

This is a result of weak marketing skills and short term vision.