It’s Called Deceptive Price-Gouging [View all]

[marmar]

http://www.workinglife.org/2013/05/23/its-called-deceptive-price-gouging/


from the Working Life blog:


It’s Called Deceptive Price-Gouging
Posted on 23 May 2013.


Is there a website for corporate-speak slogans that are simply covers for robbery? Must be. If not, there should be — and AT&T’s “administrative fee” has got to take an honored place on the list.

C’mon, say this with a straight face:

AT&T Inc. has added a new monthly administrative fee of 61 cents to the bills of all of its contract wireless lines as of May 1, a move that could bring in more than a half-billion dollars in annual revenue to the telecom giant.

Other carriers also have so-called “below-the-line” fees, named that because they frequently appear at the bottom of the phone bill after the service charges. Such fees help boost revenue growth in a massive organization, but consumer groups criticize them because they are less likely to be noticed by users and allow carriers to advertise lower prices than they actually charge.

“Below-the-line fees are nothing more than a way for carriers to stealthily increase their prices,” said Derek Turner, research director at Free Press, a public interest group. “AT&T’s administrative fees are no different than the hundreds of other components that go into the cost of doing business,” he said.

“Administrative fee”? No, this is stealth robbery. Dishonest. But, of course, the company will get away with it.