If Verizon Fios is hiding fees in your bill, you may have legal options.
If you signed up for Verizon FiOS to help you with your telecom services, you might sign up for a base rate that is somewhere between $50 and $100 but when you start to get your monthly bills you see a lot of line items that might not make sense, things that you didn’t realize you had agreed to pay. So what can you do, and how can you understand your bill from Verizon FiOS better?
What am I paying for?
When you look at your Verizon FiOS bill, you might see a lot of information there, and a lot of line items. But what are you actually paying for?
First thing you will notice on your Verizon FiOS bill is whatever bundled price you are charged for the service to which you subscribe. If you choose to get all three of the services they offer that might include internet, home phone, and television. This for example is called the FiOS triple-play and it is advertised as a two-year contract at $79.99 per month with taxes, equipment charges, and other fees.
Additional Services, Equipment & Discounts
There are also sections on your monthly bill that have to do with additional services, equipment, and discounts.
This is a fee that you have to pay for an HD enabled, DVR enabled box. The amount will vary based on the bundle you have and the number of boxes, and number of devices, and services that you have whether it is HD only or DVR only, or both.
Verizon FiOS offers a lot of discounts when you sign up for a bundle package. This is a discount line that you will see on your bill and it’s going to vary based on what package you have and subsequently what discounts you received as part of your bundle.
Fees & Other Charges
Underneath section you will also find the fees and other charges that you have to pay on a monthly basis.
These will vary depending on where you live. They are taxes imposed on telecom companies and if you have more than one service with your package, you will have higher taxes, listed as one line item.
There are fees imposed on landlines for relay services and if you live in a state that imposes this, it will appear on your bill.
This is a state charge to help 911 services. The amount will vary based on where you live, and will apply if you have a phone service as part of your package.
This is a fund handled by the FCC and it helps provide service to areas that might otherwise not get it, like low income areas or rural areas, and it will appear in your bill each month even though the charge actually goes to Verizon FiOS, not consumers, but Verizon is allowed to pass it on to consumers each month.
This is a tax imposed by the state government based on the amount of money that Verizon FiOS generates from consumers in that state so it will vary based on how many consumers use the same services as you where you live, and what state you live in.
There are agreements between most states and counties that charge television companies to be able to operate in that area and it’s usually around 5% of the revenue. Verizon passes this on directly to its consumers and that changes in amount based on where you live.
In order for the FCC to operate, it charges companies regulatory fees on an annual basis but Verizon FiOS charges. To its subscribers on a monthly basis.
This is a fee charged to consumers on a monthly basis under the auspices that it offsets the cost of negotiating rights with local broadcast operators based on where you live. Again this is a cost that can fluctuate very easily and there’s no generic information on price because it is based on where you live.
This is a fee that you will see on your bill if you have channel bundles which include Regional Sports. It is charged to cable companies to offset the cost of these Regional Sports and gets passed on to use the consumer.
This is FiOS digital voice charge that you will see every month and it is allegedly to defray account servicing costs.
Can I refute the charges from Verizon FiOS?
If you see charges on your bill that you don’t think you deserve, these incorrect fees can be refuted. If you are charged for something incorrectly your first step is to go to customer service. There are plenty of situations where customers have complained with the Better Business Bureau because simple mistakes were made where promotions weren’t honored and in these cases, going to customer service is a good way to bring that error to their attention and have the issue fixed.
What can I do if I was incorrectly charged a fee?
If you were incorrectly charged a fee on your Verizon FiOS bill, the first step is to reach out to the customer service personnel to see if you can get the issue fixed. If that doesn’t work, you still have two legal options:
Ready to get started? Let FairShake lend a hand.