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Verizon Bases $5 Fee To Not Publish Your Phone Number On 'Systems and IT' Costs
coondoggie writes "Let's say that for whatever reason, you'd rather your telephone number not be published. If you are a Verizon customer, that privacy privilege will cost you $5 a month. And how does Verizon justify such a significant fee for such an insignificant service? 'The cost charged to offer unlisted phone numbers is chiefly systems and IT based,' a media relations spokesman for the company tells Network World. (Asking the same question of online customer service elicited a predictably unenlightening response.) Sixty dollars a year to keep an unpublished number unpublished? Does that seem plausible?"
$60 a year for doing what? Nothing? Surely marking a number as unlisted in the subscriber database is a once-off 30 activity of at most 5 minutes. So who's being paid $720 an hour for doing it?
Verizon has built a system where it is cost-effective to track every single $.10 text message and minute of call time; but it costs $5/month, forever, to keep a database field set to 'no' rather than 'yes'... Surely this is entirely plausible, no?
They charge you 5$ because you will pay it. Don't like it? Vote with your wallet and switch to another provider. Oh, too much of a hassle so you'll just pay the 5$? That's why they are charging 5$. Because you will pay it. "Cost" has nothing to do with "price." Willingness to pay sets price.
Because fuck you, that's why.
When you threaten to do something bad to someone, like give out their phone number, unless you are paid, you are engaging in extortion.
E Proelio Veritas.
True: It isn't even there to give away any more.
"Where did you learn this behavior, Verizon?"
"I learned it from you, Ma Bell! I learned it by watching you!"
But... guess what? There's nothing you can do.
- sure you can. You can get rid of the gov't regulations and licenses and taxes and stop inflation and then there will be actual businesses built in all industries, including the one Verizon is in.
Do you realise that throughout 19th century and in the beginning of the 20th century (before the Fed was set up) the prices for consumer goods and services CONSTANTLY WENT DOWN?
If you didn't know that, you should research this topic. Of-course there were no gov't regulations, income taxes, money printing, licenses to start and to run business, no gov't departments, no cabinets, etc.
You can't handle the truth.
The $5 isn't the cost to 'not publish' the number, it is most likely a reflection of the value of that telephone number to various DB and telemarketers. By in listing the number, Verizon can't sell the data to third-parties. The dollar amount is likely as high as it is to try an discourage anyone from wanting the service, giving Verizon more numbers to sell and fewer exceptions to look out for in their database.
Ken