Surcharges on Bill

[jkilmer1]

Just started with Verizon a week ago...received my first bill and there was a "Surcharge" of $80.68 on the bill.  There was no real explaination of it except that Veizon is covering some of their expenses.  I thought the reason I took a certain plan it would make my bill the same each month.  Does anyone else have extra "Surcharges" on their plan???

[vzw_customer_support]

Hey jkilmer1 I can fully understand your concerns surrounding the $80.68 surcharge on your bill. Normally the taxes and surcharges are not that much. You will see larger amount when it includes an activation fee. The charge is $35.00 for the first line and $25.00 for each additional line. I would suggest taking a look at the bill detail for each line. You can go to vzw.com and sign into your account. You will be able to view a full breakdown of the charges. I hope this helps! Have a great evening.


ChaunceyM_VZWSupport

Follow us on twitter @VZWSupport

[rcschnoor]

You need to look at your "detailed" bill, not the summary which lumps ALL surcharges/fees into one bundle and only lists the total.

Log into your MyVerizon account. Click on "View Online Bill" or "View Printable Bill".

If you choose "View Printable Bill" a new window will open up and a PDF of your bill will appear. Scroll down to see what the is included in your "Surcharge". If you have more than 1 line(Family Plan), there will be surcharges on each line and the total will add up to your "Surcharge" of $80.68.

If you choose "View Online Bill" a new window will open up with your bill. Several tabs are listed above your bill and it is opened up to "Bill Summary". As I said before, this is just a summary of your bill with all of the charges under each category totaled up for convenience. Other available tabs are "Charges By Line", "Shared Usage" and "Calls, Messages & Data". If you are not on a Family or Shared plan, you may not have the "Shared Usage" tab.

Click on the "Charges By Line" tab. Click on a line(if multiple lines) and expand the selection. At the bottom of the detail will be your surcharges "Verizon Wireless Surcharges and Other Charges & Credits" and "Taxes, Governmental Surcharges & Fees". Expand each of these selections to get details of all of the amounts/descriptions under each heading.

If this is your first bill, a one time $35 activation fee will be listed as one of these surcharges.

[customer81]

I have two lines and we share our data.  The bill gives separate charges for the surcharges for each line.  Without any taxes/surcharges, i should be$150 which is $70 for data, and $40 per line.  Someone each line has $9.31 in surcharges.  How is that possible?!?!? Per month, I will pay an extra $18.62 in surcharges (before taxes)?!?!?  This is my first month.  The activation fees are also on the bill which I expected.  The prorated surcharges only include 1 extra day.  So this is the surcharge for one full month plus one extra day.  This sounds outrageous.  With taxes, I'll pay almost $40 in taxes/surcharges each month on $150 in services?!?!?

[rcschnoor]

I guess it would depend on what was listed in the details of those surcharges. I live in one of the most surcharge/tax happy states around, and my surcharges/taxes only run $6.89/line each month.

The items listed under my surcharges are:

"Verizon Wireless Surcharges and Other Charges & Credits"

Fed Universal Service Charge = $0.67

Regulatory Charge = $0.16

Administrative Charge = $0.90

Gross Receipts Surchg = $0.92

"Taxes, Governmental Surcharges & Fees"

NY Public Safety Comm Surchg = $1.20

Cnty 911 Surchg = $0.30

NY State Sales Tax = $1.37

Cnty Sales Tax = $1.37

Which totals to $6.89 and is on all lines. So depending on how these are broken out in your billing details, you should be able to determine if you will be paying these each month.

[customer81]

Can someone from Verizon help me?  I live in NYC.  Other than the city tax, I don't know why mine is so much more than rcschnoor's.  And yes, I'm already accounting for the activation fee I paid.

[rcschnoor]

What are the details for your "surcharges" line by line? If you want someone from Verizon to help you, you will most likely have to call in to CS *611 from your phone.

You may eventually get a response from a Verizon rep on here, but it may take a few weeks to a month, if ever, as this is a customer-to-customer forum.

If you want assistance on this forum, it would be helpful if you could list the "details" of these "surcharges". In your bill, there are details for each of the charges similar to the details I listed in my previous post.

[customer81]

Hi.  Thanks for the help.  I already previously called in and they were useless.

Here are the details for one line.  The same details are on the other line as well...

Verizon Wireless Surcharges and Other Charges & Credits * 

Verizon Wireless Surcharges - Includes charges to recover or help defray costs of taxes and of governmental charges and fees imposed on us by the government. Other Charges and Credits - includes charges for products and services, and credits owing. More Information    

Fed Universal Service Charge $2.44

Regulatory Charge $0.32

Administrative Charge $1.80

Gross Receipts Surchg $4.76

Cellular Service - Activation $35.00

Taxes, Governmental Surcharges & Fees * 

Includes sales, excise and other taxes and governmental surcharges and fees that we are required by law to bill customers. More Information    

NY Public Safety Comm Surchg $2.40

NYC 911 Surchg $0.60

NY State Sales Tax $3.56

New York City Sales Tax $4.02

NY Local McTd Sales Tax $0.33

Taxes, Governmental Surcharges & Fees $10.91

[rcschnoor]

From looking at your details, it appears as if Spiral(post below) is correct in assuming that some of these fees/surcharges do not get pro-rated as yours are exactly double what mine are. This leads me to believe you are being charged 2 of the monthly charges.

Another thing which may possibly be happening is that your taxes are higher this month(about double what you should expect) because you are being taxed for the $35 activation fee. So you are most likely being taxed on $75($40 smartphone access fee + $35 activation fee) instead of $40($40 smartphone access fee)

Some fees may also just be higher in NYC than in other parts of NY. Regardless, I would think your taxes/surcharges will be considerably lower next month after looking at your details and comparing them with my own. Let us know how it works out when you get your next bill.

[rcschnoor]

Another thought on why your "Verizon Wireless Surcharges and Other Charges & Credits" may be high is any insurance you may have on your phone(s). I personally don't have any insurance on any of my phones and therefore don't know where this charge would be listed in your bill, but you should be able to find it if you look at your detailed bill and not just the summary.

[customer81]

no insurance either!

[Spiral]

One good possibilty is that the surcharges/Admin Charges/Regulatory Charge/etc. for your partial month (even though only 1 day) are not prorated.  As these charges are "Flat fee" type charges they are charged the same no matter how long the duration of the month.

If this is correct, you should see those fees cut in half on your next bill.

Good luck

[lizzie1nc]

Yes I have had them every month and they have  been about $5. This past month it is $35!!!! Outrageous and with no explanation other than "taxes and fees that they incur by the govt." that they pass on to us....Well they need to make their money elsewhere because I am not paying that. Guess it will show that I have a balance each month until I LEAVE THEM after 15 years of being a loyal customer... As soon as my contract is up - I'm switching!

[rcschnoor]

I'm curious. Did you recently upgrade a phone at a 3rd party retailer? It appears as if you have an upgrade fee on your bill which is charged when you upgrade at a discount. If the purchase would have been made at a corporate store, it would have been assessed at the point of purchase. 3rd party retailers are not able to do this and the fee is added to your next bill.

Regardless, if you look at your detailed bill, it will be explained.

[lizzie1nc]

No we did not upgrade! Only thing that remotely might have caused it , was that my son added his Walgreens discount and took over as primary number. Did that cause it? That's still ridiculous. It's not like we changed plans... Not worth it...love hidden charges

Sent from my iPhone

[rcschnoor]

Another possibility, as it appears there are 2 lines on the account, is that there could be 2 reconnect fees due to a late payment.

However, these are simply guesses. IF you look at the detailed bill, it WILL tell you why the fees were charged! I could guess why they were charged all day long. If you want to know, have your son look at the detailed bill to determine why they are there. Since he is the account owner now in order to get the Walgreens discount, he should have access to the bill on his MyVerizon account.

[vzw_customer_support]

Hi lizzie1nc,

I understand you concerns regarding unrecognized charges, I would be concerned too. Billing accuracy is paramount to us, please visit this link for a detailed bill explanation and let us know if you still need assistance after reviewing the link.

AntonioC_VZW
Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/VZWSupport

[Morphineprn]

They are crooks. I argue with them monthly. My bill is different all the time and it drives me nuts.  I’m prob gonna switch services. 

[mama23dogs]

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@Morphineprn wrote:

They are crooks. I argue with them monthly. My bill is different all the time and it drives me nuts.  I’m prob gonna switch services. 

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Different HOW?  
The bills are itemized with a great deal of detail. Any charges are explained. So how is it the charges are explained and yet you do not understand that?

What are these differences that you are charged for? Long distance? Roaming charges? Data overage? Minute overage?

[vzw_customer_support]

Morphineprn, learning you may want to leave our VZW family makes us sad. We welcome the opportunity to assist with your billing inquiry. In general, the bill should always be consistent so long as there are no plan or equipment changes or use of services that incur charges outside of your plan. Changes to Administrative Fees or other surcharges or taxes are always communicated a minimum of 30-days in advance via the "Need To Know" Section of your bill and if you have insurance, Asurion will always send a letter advising of a price increase or decrease a couple of months before that pricing change occurs. Promotions or special discount offerings that are good for one or two-years are also shown on the bill with their expiration date so a customer knows when their bill cost will change due to that expiration. When viewing your itemized bill as shown in Question 5 here: https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/view-bill-online-faqs/#bill-pdf what exactly appears differently? You can view the last 18-months of invoices using the dated dropdown for a specific billing period.  

EbonyR_VZW

[MasterP007]

Is this something you can prevent or is it something you have to mandatory pay? How often is this going to occur? Is there a fix rate? Is this basically taxes?