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@sangs wrote:... When lawmakers start telling us that it's illegal to not have these things and that we'll be subjected to fines or imprisonment for not doing so, then you can start marching on Washington ...
Stranger things have happened. As I'm sure you're aware, there are municipalities in the US where firearm ownership is mandatory (and I'm not making this up).
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@techguypgh wrote:For those who say that there certainly is no alternative to paying the Regional Sports Network Fee I say this: go to your local electronics store and get a receiver for local channels and then find another provider for your phone/internet. I pay $4 a day for 400 channels (as well as internet) when I have internet on my phone (that's another $3.23 a day) and I watch maybe 4 channels a month for about an hour a day, or 30 hours per month. In other words, I am paying $4 a day for 396 channels that I have no time to watch because I am too busy working to make money to then turn over to my phone provider and Verizon. What is wrong with this picture? The bottom line is that this fee is a conspiratorial attempt to deprive consumers of choice. The freedom of choice is a basic tenet in the American system of jurisprudence and our culture. Forcing Americans to pay for something they do not consume (or watch) is criminal. When I called Verizon to complain about this fee I was told "Call Congress" and I plan to do so, but in the meantime, I am shopping around for other services. No American would pay for food they didn’t eat, or allow a payroll tax to be collected and turned over to alcoholics to provide them free alcohol, and there's no excuse for us to tolerate this. CALL YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS TODAY - then cancel your service! That's the alternative to "paying up."
Sorry, but like I said I agree that regional sports charge is the absolute pits, but your rhetoric is completely off base. Nobody is forcing you to do anything and Cable TV is a luxury, not a staple required to survive (comparing Cable tv to food is silly as is the rest of that argument you made). You have freedom of choice, the choice not to pay it (i.e. not to watch/subscribe Cable/satellite tv).
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This sports network fee is new since April 2013, and is broken out from the main TV fee to keep its price at least looking like it is competitive. Who knows when a "cooking channel" fee, or a "DIY network" fee, or any other specialty fee will be imposed? This fee, unlike the PEG, regulatory recovery, and video franchise fee, is totally from Verizon to counter their cost of rising sports channel fees, and not from any external entity imposing a fee on Verizon. Anyone objecting to this might want to contact Verizon and let them know how you feel.
I do not agree with Bobbo527 that it is inescapable. You can also contact the "retention department" by calling the 800 verizon number and pressing #4, then #2 (according to a Verizon agent).
A Verizon agent let me know that if I had the "select HD" package, it wouldn't include this fee,and it doesn't look half bad. It is at http://www.verizon.com/home/select-hd/ but doesn't include the History Channel that I like.
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I'm just seeing this charge of $4.68 for the first time on my bill. The iornic part is that I just dropped my premium sports channel 😞
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This kind of sounds like what they are doing with healthcare. They are forcing us to buy it or pay a fine. I guess its time to march on Washington! Lets go all 1776 on their **bleep**!
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Verizon is optional, income tax is not. So Verizon aren't the crooks here, our gov't is for setting the standard of blanket-taxing the public and redistributing their wealth!
But I'm still really annoyed by this sports fee. And I agree that we should not be required to pay this fee if we don't want these channels anyway!
I agree that if these sports channels have become too expensive to be "free", they should be reated like HBO/Cinemax/Starz/etc. and consumers should pay for them, instead of charging all of us to have channels we don't even want to begin with!
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Verizon is one of the last providers to implement the RSN fee. Directv, Dish, etc... were already charging the fee.
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@jsm11482 wrote:
Verizon is optional, income tax is not. So Verizon aren't the crooks here, our gov't is
Sorry but that's **bleep**. The government is not the one imposing the sports fee, at least from the research I'm seeing, it's a **bleep** way to nickel-and-dime their way to advertise a different price than they actually charge. No different than lube places advertising price for an oil change then itemizing out inescapable recycling fees, or an airline advertising a ticket then charging extra for the luxury of taking off. Instead of saying "this is what this costs".
I would feel better if the whole bundle cost more and they didn't try and blame someone else for the charge which is inescapable in the first place.
I noticed it on my bill today when fighting with Verizon for allowing payperviews to be ordered despite purchase controls being turned on, was told they could take it off if they took off all sports channels. So after RedZone season is over we're downgrading anyway. Once a la carte cable becomes viable it will be a happy day on earth.
What MagicJack did to our phone bill I hope to someday do to our cable bill. Verizon is the devil.
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