Smacked by Ma Bell
As I have mentioned, I recently moved into a new place and as part of that got a new phone line. Personally I do not have much of a need for a landline, I use my cell phone for the majority of my calls and I think my parents are about the only people who have my actual landline number, everyone else has my cell number. I got the phone for the DSL connection, I know I could have gotten naked DSL, but I got the landline for the 911 coverage.
I picked the metered option which is $6.50 base plus another $5.50 in extra charges and profit fees. I also got charged $47 for connection charges, which makes me mad because I found out afterwards that I could have gotten that waived if I would have ordered it online instead of over the phone. I know it costs a little more to pay the operator to take my order, but not $47 worth. The nice thing though is they did split the charge over 3 months so it is $15 a month instead of one big chunk.
The big sticker shock part came from the DSL side. I got the charge for the modem which was $49.99, I could have brought it off eBay and saved a little chunk. Then they charged me $12.95 for the shipping and handling of the modem but thats not a biggie. I was impressed with how fast they got the modem to me, it was waiting for me when I got home from the work the day after I initally ordered the phone line, but the DSL was not even scheduled to be activated for another week and a half, so they could have sent it parcel post for all I care instead of charging the extra money. Plus I am sure it did not cost them nearly that much to ship the package given what I know about how much it costs my company to ship out packages. Now my company is a really big Fortune 500 type, but our volume probably is a drop compared to a fulfillment place like this one that will drive the price down.
I guess it was just the overall sticker shock of getting the bill for so much more than I was expecting caused me to just react so negatively. Once I really sat down and looked at it, I understood the various causes of it even if I still was not thrilled with it.