Save Your Consolidated Bills to Report Tax for Cure

[HisGirl]

I was told about a possible solution to the high phone bills we are paying to consolidated. I thought it was worth checking in to. I was asked to keep my consolidated bill to prove the Illinois Public Utility tax being taken out, which is a minor amount. This tax would be presented to the Citizen's Utility Board, which has been successful in four others states to lower the rates of collect calls.

The part of the bill that needs to be saved is the part that has the Illinois Public Utility tax on it.

[nls74]

what about if you prepay?

[HisGirl]

Hi:

I will find out more and let you know. I think they need paper bills. I just learned about this yesterday. I thought it was worth a try since I just had to tell my LO we had to cut back on calls because of the high cost, which makes me feel horrible   

I was told that this worked in four other states most recently Michigan. Our rates are definitely unfair. I received calls to a cell phone. This month I will have to pay 3 connect fees just for dropped calls. When I talked to Consolidated about this they said too bad, that is the risk your take receiving calls to a cell phone. They said this even though they can see that the call was one minute or less at $2.75. They sure don't believe in keeping people connected.

[AJAP]

Did they imply it was your cell phone providers fault?

[HisGirl]

Hi:

They said they had no way of telling so they would not remove the charge. If we talk about six times a month the bill is about $72. My next bill will three connect fee charges that will cost almost $9 for about 3 minutes. The bills are really hard to afford anyway. The call is $8.90 for a half an hour. This is why I have to keep the bill down because if it gets too hard and I can't pay the bill the line will get blocked and my LO won't be able to reach me if he needs to   

I don't think this is fair, but there is not much I can do except try to get involved in what I can and sign petitions and wait. It hurt me real bad to tell him we had to slow it down on the calls. Of course I want to talk to him. Wish I could everyday.