Dutch wrote:The system activation fee is only paid once. You are mistaking it for the network access fee which is something completely different. Though you are telling me the only reason you aren't buying a cell phone is because you don't want to pay a monthly base fee of something as trivial as $6.95? Think of it this way, $6.95+$7.00+$15.00 and you have unlimited access to the Internet, unlimited longdistance calling and messaging to 5 people (expanded to 10 through certain special offers) 24/7; everywhere you go.
OK, OK, hold on a sec:
1) Bell calls the one-time fee the "One-time Connection Fee" and the monthly fee the "System Activation Fee". That's where the best deal I found was so I was using that terminology.
Regardless of semantics, it was quite clear I was referring to the monthly fee in my rant above. In no way could you deduce that I was referring to a one-time connection fee unless you just read the term "system activation fee", took it as the one-time charge, and ignored the entire post without reading it. So now at least I know you didn't read the post
2) Show me where I can pay $29 a month for:
- unlimited browsing
- unlimited long distance (I'm assuming local calls are unlimited as well)
- call answering for 10 people (I assume call display comes with it as well)
And I will get this deal immediately. Deals like that just don't exist otherwise I would have had a cellphone years ago. Like I stated above, the best deal I could find for $30 wasn't even close to that and from all the research and talking with basically everyone I've ever met about it. You can't even get what you're sayin' that for double the price. Please prove me wrong.
I don't just not get a cellphone because of it, I just include that in the price then take the price as a whole including that fee rather than ignoring it when making my decision. So, to me, it's not paying, say, $20 a month for 100 minutes and evenings and weekends starting at 9pm. It's $27, or an increase of about 35%.
3) It's not the $7, it's the principle of the matter. It confounds me how after all of my rants on so many different topics that you guys don't get that. I spend the money when I feel it's justified and trust me, I spend a lot of money on stuff that I want. I may be a cheap bastard but I don't deny myself things. I just try to find the best deal I can when I can (legal ones, Tess).
In this case, this was a blatant lie, period. Whether it's 1 cent or $10,000 a month it's still a bullshit fee that the cellphone companies gave a bold-faced lie about and continue to fleece the consumers on with no repercussions from either the public or our government. That's what irks me.
This whole argument started out because you were trying to justify the fee while I was trying to prove how it's bullshit. Everything else is off topic, so let's get back to the argument rather than going off on a thousand tangents.
I doubt you want to actually get back on topic, but if you do, scroll back up to that original post where I rant about the origins of what I call the "system activation fee" and respond. Then we can forget about all that stuff in your quote above and get back on topic.
