Why are the Fees and Surcharges going up drastically with a contract renewal?
CaveatEmptor
Enthusiast - Level 1

I have a FIOS TV+Internet+Phone bundle, and had a 2 year agreement with a promotional price. I am trying to see if they will let me renew it, instead of increasing my monthly fee by $60.

The chat agent quoted me a price similar to what I have currently, but wasn't willing to give me a promotion for the DVR. But what got me was that the monthly fees after taxes that she quoted me in the "best possible offer" was $22 higher, including the Verizon surcharges being higher by $13!

So in effect, the Verizon surcharges & Fees (Regional Sports network fee, FIOS Broadcast fee, etc., which were all steeply higher) were going up from $18 to $31, while my bundle price was going up by $8 or so. Why? She wasn't able to explain, constantly repeating how she was giving me a great deal, and my surcharges would be higher for a higher monthly fee.

Can someone tell me why this is happening, if it's happening to others, and what I can do about it? Inclined to walk away and look at streaming only options.

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Re: Why are the Fees and Surcharges going up drastically with a contract renewal?
jonjones1
Legend

There are certain things with your service and cable providers as well that are unavoidable. Legitimate taxes and surcharges from state,county and municipal entities have to be paid by each customer that vary on location.

There are others which are below the line costs shuttered to the customers, the sports fees, tv fees, and lets put those huge phone fees and taxes which are on them raise your rates considerably. The solution is to drop tv and taxes and fees go away (you can get a streaming service and save huge money) the phone which is fraught with higher fees and surcharges can be remedied by dropping phone service and porting out to a voip provider. You save hundreds of dollars by doing that.

now your internet is not taxable at present, so a basic 75/75 or 100/100 will be pretty cheap as a stand alone service. If you go month to month and use your own router you save rental fees and and pay just one price for your internet. *you can do cable for service if need be. 

if you eliminate all these things (services) you will just use the broadband for the tv streaming and phone service with no need for rental fees or any other charges.