Aww … poor little ISPs.
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As a European I’ll never cease to find it mind blowing that it is normal for a Americans that the cost to them of damn near everything is more than the cost initially shown to them.
You’re completely right to feel that way. As an American, it’s mind blowing to me, too. I really don’t like the fact that “hidden fees” have become normal.
Traveling in the US it can often feel like everyone wants to scam you or take advantage of you if you don’t pay attention.
Heck, even store prices and restaurant prices aren’t the real price.
Store prices are without sales tax/VAT, and restaurants wants you to tip 20% so they can keep not paying their “employees”.
And that’s why I am a misanthrope… hard to love humanity when they’re penalized for not being out to get you
That’s still my favorite EU legislation. The price that is displayed must be equal (or higher, discounts are still allowed) to the price that you pay. Taxes, tips, fees, everything must be included in the price.
I get the “but different states sales taxes thing”, for national advert. However even then, just make them present example price
Get the new Moborola Bazer, only 549 dollars*
* price example for Buffalo new York, including taxes and feesSince if one is going with “well the final price you pay might not be what was advertised”, make it be more representative and real. Yeah the final price might be different sometimes even lower depending on your local taxes compared to the example prices calculation locations taxes.
Local advertising or on the shelf prices? There is no excuse, you are selling in that location. You know what the taxes and fees are just add them in. Any rare special discount and discrepancy cases, well the people eligible for those know to expect the difference.
It’s government mandated. We have variable sales taxes on every product. And it isn’t included in the ‘price’.
Stores can show out the door pricing of most products, they just won’t. It’s fairly common in the cannabis space because they don’t want to make change.
Depends on the state.
https://www.taxjar.com/blog/retail/can-retailer-include-sales-tax-in-the-price
Nice!
Variable taxes based on region. The rates don’t change within a single store, which is where all of the labels are printed. Just print the label with the tax added.
Right. Same excuse as the cable companies. They can clearly calculate the price easily when you get the bill. They can just as easily calculate it when showing you how much it costs.
That or they can just eat the very minor cost difference in each region
No it isn’t. But companies are certainly trying to make it so.
It’s actually only a few things. The vast majority of the goods we purchase are clearly priced. Most states (and some local jurisdictions like big cities) do have sales tax applied to purchases of non-essential goods, but those rates are generally much lower than the national sales taxes in most European countries.
Sales tax is the most obvious example of adding to the cost I’ve been shown, but it’s everything. Here if there is a price on something that is the price you pay. Period.
If I have €5 and the price on the shelf is €4.90 we are all good, and I don’t even need to know what country I’m in!But is is more than that, if I take my car in to be fixed, they have to agree every cost they want to charge me in advance at no point can anything cost me more than I expected and agreed to up front.
Airline tickets, theatre tickets, hospital bills, TV ads, you name it, the price they state or advertise is what I pay, no ifs-no buts.Bragging <.< Trying to make us all jelly.
Or jam, or marmite, or whatever bread-spread-stuff.
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I wish.
I’m seeing it more and more. Little “processing fees” here and there, some tied to COVID, some tied to credit cards. There needs to be a clap-back against this behavior.
The number of places trying to suddenly add or expect an 18% tip or something infuriates me.
Like, why the fuck are you making me suddenly opt out of an 18% tip, Subway? What the fuck would that be for? And after your prices have gone up like 50% in 3 years already??
And I’m sure a bunch of morons pay it, which is why more and more places are pushing it.
How about a “convenience fee” for making an online payment. Why should I pay a fee to make the transaction more convenient for the company who no longer has to pay an employee to take the payment in person?
It’s not about having a sales tax applied to some or all goods or about how much that’d be. It’s about not listing the final price including the tax right until you’re supposed to pay for it. How dumb is that?
I love oregon, no sales tax so the listed price is the price. Now all these idiots moved here and are making changes as to why this place was nice. Like trying to implement a sales tax and getting rid of the urban growth boundary
Now we have to pump our own gas, it was nice having someone do it for ya… if they add a sales tax and create urban sprawl like LA or Phoenix I’ll loose my mind…
Just responded above about the downside of all income being taxed at far higher rates than sales tax. That said, my god the amount of ink we spilled on the Ashland UGB.
That’s why you live in Vancouver and shop in Portland! No income tax or sales tax!
My college roommate was from Washougal. He taught me the even finer art of retaining all deposit items in Seattle for my next visit, at which time I’d pop over the 5 bridge first and then show up with an empty car.
It’s actually almost everything unless you live in one of the 4 States without sales tax.
Which, in the case of Oregon, means income tax rivaling federal, and you’re paying that on rent. The money always comes from somewhere, and I despised it far more than I worried about coming up with $1.07 for a 99-cent burger.
Yeah, I don’t have a problem with sales tax either (on non essential goods). I do have a problem with it not being included in the price shown on the product.
Aww it’s too hard… well make it simpler by not charging shitty little fees.
That’s what makes it hard. If they tell you how much bullshit they add on, you wouldn’t pay.
Lol as if people have a choice and there isn’t a monopoly on ISP coverage
If latency isn’t a top-tier issue, a 5G hotspot is a viable alternative in good coverage areas. I switched from Charter to T-Mobile by selling myself as a sole proprietor seeking a business account. Immediate $35/month savings to $50 for unlimited (I used 150GB in my first month without hearing a peep) and ready to go into my van in a few weeks. Speeds are generally 250-300Mbit, dropping to 80Mbit during brief congested periods.
Oh, and no bullshit fees. It’s actually $50 on the nose.
I’ve heard that there’s a hidden monthly data cap, and you get throttled real hard if you reach it, but now that it’s “unlimited” they aren’t telling you what it is.
On T-Mobile? If you get the top tier unlimited plan, it is specifically the one with no limits or slowdowns. All the other tiers give you unlimited usage, but explicitly state what the limit before slowdown is. I have the unlimited one and have used at most 2TB in a month without any slow down. My dad only gets like 15GB (or whatever the lowest tier is) for the month before it goes slow as fuck.
I used 800 GB on mine when I had it, so it’s more than that
True. Perhaps “people will be more emboldened to break up their monopoly” would be better.
If it’s too hard to list them, it must be even harder to charge and bill them.
It is, that’s why they probably overcharge you. They figure better to charge you for things and let you figure it out.
My ISP has no problem breaking out the fees.
And… I am indeed, in the US.
So, not seeing the issue here.
It’s not actually about listing the fees. They’re worried that if they have to list the fees, customers will realize they’re paying 19.99 a month to rent a router, or are getting charged for a land line they didn’t ask for.
And get a discount for letting the cable company claim they have cable TV to scam money from ESPN.
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ESPN is probably paying cable companies to air their shows over their cables to customers with a subscription to ESPN.
Yea… Comcast is really bad about that. When I had them a decade back, I made sure to being my own hardware.
Americans pay extra for the ability to call emergency line 911!?
911 and similar emergency numbers always cost money.
In many places individuals pays for it through taxes, but people may not realize it because there’s 1 tax and 1 big budget that pays for many different public services.
In the US I guess the cost is separated from other public services, and paid through ISP via a fee.
I’m just here wondering who out there wouldn’t want to be able to call the emergency line.
It shouldn’t be a separate fee, but rather incorporated into the tax that pays for all the emergency services anyway.
It’s a tax. You can’t refuse to pay it, it’s just itemized out like that. Only way to avoid paying it is to not pay for a phone.
It is a regressive tax which is bad (everyone who has a phone line pays the same instead of taxing the rich more) but there are bigger worries in America.
You do too. It just might not be reflected on your phone bill, and is just lumped in with your normal taxes / VAT/etc…
You’re paying $130 a month for your internet?? Where in the price gouging place do you live?
130 for 500gb fiber is an awesome deal in the US.
I used to pay $120/mo for business class 50mb asymmetrical coaxial with like 10 up. Had to get business class when Comcast started introducing data caps on the residential tier.
Now my ISP is bundled with my rent, so what I’m actually paying is totally opaque. No idea how much of my rent goes to Comcast. Oh, and it’s not optional. I can’t even get other service here because Comcast has a partnership with the building owners.
Telcos are fucked here.
Trust me. This is CHEAP compared to what I had a decade ago.
One Decade ago, I paid 95$ a month for “15 mbit” ADSL. Which- topped out around 8Mbit/s on a GOOD day. (Rain/moisture wrecked hell on the lines around here.)
Here’s a wild idea, simplify your pricing. Anyways, it’s cool to see the FCC stand for the citizens every now and then.
If they can charge for something then they can adequately explain what the thing is they’re charging for
Wasn’t too much effort to add them to the bills of millions of people…
Okay everybody - this is one of those good things that the Biden Administration and Democrats are doing to properly run government.
It is also something that most people will not know about. Why? Because it’s not a simple sound bite.
So my homework to all of us is to make sure our friends and Neighbors who are complaining about government not doing anything for us to point this and similar things out to them.
Real benefits, real work is almost never easily described in sound bites. So many people believe the Democrats don’t do what they say they’re going to do because getting s*** done is too complicated for most people.
Is this really the Biden Administration and the Democrats?
I think I have read it a few years ago that the FCC has a new head, who is actually there to fix things. I don’t remember where I read it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was an EFF article or a Louis Rossmann video.
Yes. The FCC is part of the Executive branch, which is lead by the President, who appoints the leadership of the institutions that carry out the executive branch’s assigned job: enforce and execute the law.
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So we finally got rid of Ajat eh?
Do we say “fuck a shit pie” anymore?
Was trying to hide that I didn’t know how to spell his last name
One of those weird, rare situations where Google seems to do something right. They said the cost was $100, and every month I pay $100. I’m assuming fees are built into that, but my bill never deviates from the price I was told, which is really all I care about.
Google is an ISP now?
Google has run a fiber ISP for a little over 10 years now. It was one of the first U.S. ISPs to offer gigabit speeds to residential customers, and has provided steady competitive pressure to other providers to provide faster speeds in those markets, as well.
Google also operates a mobile service called Google Fi as an MVNO. They handle the billing, but lease the capacity the way other MVNOs do.
Wtf is happening in the US? Here I get an advertised monthly price for my subscription, I set up a direct deposit for that exact amount, when I buy it, then forget about it.
Maybe there is a commencement fee one time for the equipment they give me or work they do, but that’s all.
How is it legal to advertise and agree on a price, then send random bills?
The companies make the rules since bribery is legal (see lobbying). They set whatever price they want, then use the money to buy the politicians that continue to create stronger pro-corporation laws continuing the lack of choice and change.
Yeah mine is fine in Canada the price is the price per month till a renewal (biyearly). And if you call them they can breakdown bundled price into what each service costs (for business tax expenses)
If you can’t list em, you shouldn’t be able to charge for em
Paying every fee is even harder.
So let’s stop doing that as well.
Comcast is sad that it can’t fuck us in hidden fees anymore. I feel terrible…just terrible for them.
I bought a plane ticket this week and it had all the fees listed. If airlines can do it, so can any multi-national corporation.
They had to be forced to properly show all the fees, only happened in Sept 2022
