Phones bills perplex some Reader Network members

Members of the Herald Reader Network recently were asked whether they understood their phone bill. Here are some comments:

“My home phone bill is designed by highly qualified professionals to be exactly what it is – an undecipherable mess, intended to intimidate me into paying it and blindly accepting all the changes that are made every time I dare to read it.”

– Danny Ventura, Everett

“I understand the costs associated with running a large infrastructure. However, I do not appreciate being told one cost, then being charged 20 to 50 percent more for the product.”

– Adam Farnham, Snohomish

“I consider my phone bill unnecessarily hard to read, very complicated and obscure. The split-up of long distance and local services provides opportunity to hide telephone costs in complex billing practices.”

– Curt Greer, Marysville

“I gave up long ago on understanding my phone bill. … I am sometimes tempted to cancel my land phone and go entirely to my cell phone.”

– Carol Wilburn, Lynnwood

“Now that they have naked DSL available, we have been seriously considering canceling the land line and using wireless exclusively to reduce our overall phone costs.”

– Del Leedy, Mukilteo

“Our home telephone bill is impossible to understand. … It used to be so much simpler and a heck of a lot easier on the budget!”

– Brenda Lovejoy, Everett

“Do I understand my phone bill? Hardly! Don’t try to understand it; I just pay it. Especially, I do not understand all the taxes and surcharges.”

– Alisan Kacoroski, Granite Falls

“I consider myself to be a self-proclaimed complainer of service providers, with Verizon fitting in that category, but as much as I hate to say it, other than the fact that I think it’s too high, I don’t have a problem with our telephone bill.”

– Alan Young, Arlington