Phone Bills

I'm just about ready to puke:

Business line: About $80 per month.
Line #2, fax: About $60 per month
Home line: About $75 per month
Cell: About $130 per month
Other cells*: About $110 per month
Business answering service: $70+ per month.

* Local cell phones for Melodie, her son and daughter.

I've got $525+ per month and it sucks! All of the phone are not used in a crazy manner. When I look at the bills, it seems that half the costs are 'garbage charges' like basic fee, taxes, charges for the hearing impared, George Washington farted on Sunday fee, etc, etc. etc!

I think the phone companies tout their low rates and nail you with all the garbage fees to bump the bills to a pathetic degree!

 

PETER


MY FAX LINE WITH VERIZON 15.00/ MONTH
NO ANSWERING SERVICE FOR ME....CALL FORWARDING PER MONTH TO MY CELLY IF OUT OF THE OFFICE.... 10.00


G/FS SON AND DAUGHTER USE....MAKE THEM PAY A PORTION


THAT SHOULD HELP...


BRUCEY

 

VOIP!!

VOIP!!

Went from $50 fax line charge + a $70 Verizon voice phone bill to $39 a month (for both) thru Vonage. Been good so far. I've had this setup since summer of '04.

RMX!!!

 

If you are operating a business, the phone company will kick your butt in as many ways as possible.

 

What he said. We switched to Vonage last February after getting tired of $70+ phone bills. $16/month gets us 500 long distance minutes, which is about 490 more than we actually need. I had been trying to get SBC to give us a better rate, which they refused. And once we switched they bugged us 10 times a day trying to get us back, offering different deals. Blow me.

 

Is a high-speed connectioned needed for VIOP? My only option at my office is dial-up.

 

VoIP is possible over dialup but you'll be more frustrated than not. Plus, if you're forced to use a landline the benefits might not be that great since you have to pay for a line as it is.

--Dan

 

I read it slow hoping there was going to be a funny comment and the end, saying Priceles!!

 

Haven't had a home phone in years.

Cellular w/ additional family member phones cost me about $130/month. I have 1400 minutes/month prime time, free nights and weekends. Any non-business calls received from 9~5, M~F better be a death notice or you calling me from another Verizon Wireless cellular so your call is a free "in network call".

I use www.efax.com for $13/month for fax purposes.

I am still trying to figure out how the phone companies managed to make you pay to receive calls, as in, using up your cellular minutes. On a land line you receive calls free, how did cellular service bypass this custom?

 

The US is the only country I've come across where this is the case. No other country / provider that I am aware of has this problem (don't recall for Canada, but I believe they follow US style setup).

--Dan

 

OK: Peter going postal and burning down the local phone company office, Priceless!

 

I was skeptical about the Vonage thing at first, but it works great. I regularly call friends in New Zealand for as little as $2 or so for 45 minutes.

$25 buys you unlimited LD in NA, CA and PR. It's sweet.

RMX

 

Is high-speed available in your area?

High-speed plus VOIP is still less than what you are paying by a bunch of money.

 

My cell phone bill has gone nuts since I "migrated" from at&t to cingular. I was forced to because of the take over. My bill was never over $110 when I was with at&t except for the odd month that I would go over a lot. I am now on a plan with many more minutes at roughly the same monthly fee and last months bill was about $200 and this months was $330.

And there is always a problem with the bill, of course they correct but you have to call them to get it fixed. It is almost worth paying whatever the mistake is not to have to talk to them.

 

Maybe you need to do some consolidation and price shopping? I have 2 home lines (with local & intl long distance low-price services) and 4 cell phones (family plan) and pay less than $150/month total.

 

lol..