The 411 on Gross Cingular Receipts

A while ago I wrote about how Cinguliar was ripping people off with their American Idol text voting crap. Well I just got my new bill and noticed something that annoyed me extra. Maybe it's cause I'm out of it but I always thought that wireless 4-1-1 came along free with the plan. After all they always say, 'We'll connect you at no additional fee'. Very nice. Except the fact that the pre-additional fee is $1.50! Every time you call 4-1-1 on your cinguliar wireless it's a dollar friggin fifty! I apparently really like using 4-1-1 and got the big smack of $18 on my bill for that crap! Doh! $1.50! F-U!

The thing that annoys me is the sweet robot woman who is oh-so-friggin-generous to take the trouble to connect me at no additional fee. It's in the same league as paying $5.00 for a coke and then having the cute waitress say 'Oh, but the ice is no additional charge!' I might be alone with my stupidness over actually reading my bills but once you get into it with this stuff there's just ripoff crap everywhere. I guess it's not a ripoff to charge for a service but don't throw in the 'no additional charge' bullshit like you're doing me a friggin favor while you're ripping me off!

Also I got curious about other charges. So  I called up Cingular to find out what the dilly is with the 'Gross Receipts Surcharges to Recover' section actually is. Like what is that? What are those charges? To recover? What?

I called Cingular customer service and asked them what they were and recorded the response to that question off my speaker phone. I messed with the person's voice because I don't want to get anyone in trouble or whatever.

But if you ever wanted to know what Gross Receipts Surcharges to Recover are about... here ya go!

ok bye!

tOdd

PS. I did customer service for Gannett newspapers one year so I know the whole dilly on the other end with having to scramble to make stuff up because nobody tells you anything.