I just received an email from AT&T/DirecTV that said:
Your February 2017 DIRECTV bill will include a Federal Cost Recovery Charge of $0.67. This charge is included on your bill to recover fees paid to the FCC in 2016 and 2017 for providing DIRECTV service (subscriber fee and earth station and satellite fees). The FCC does not require AT&T or DIRECTV to collect this fee or surcharge from its customers.
Hows that again‽‽
Not that $0.67 is a large amount, but why isn’t this included in the cost of doing business, just like the launch cost for the satellites, the ground leases for the tracking stations, the pay of the support engineers and technicians, the amortization of the service trucks. Those aren’t broken out in your bill. This isn’t a mandated FCC surcharge. So don’t pretend it is by saying “Federal Cost”. Eat the cost, until you do one of your regular rate increases that your love so much. Loads of little fake fees hides the real cost of your services, and just annoys the customers.
We return you to your regularly scheduled idiocy.
