# My (Former) Long Distance Company **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 20, 2004, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-former-long-distance-company/260756 "2004-08-20T18:21:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MizQuirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/94ad74/32.png) [@MizQuirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MizQuirk)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-former-long-distance-company/260756/21 "2004-08-22T15:13:51Z")
> [@Jadis](#): > > Call Verizon back and ask someone else to remove your LD carrier (as for “no PIC”, pronounced 'pick", on your line). If they give you a hassle, ask for a manager. Well, now that I know that difficult pronunciation, what does it stand for? Some kind of carrier, I suppose. As many initialed words as I know, it’s still not enough. :smack: Since I was being charged about $5/month for long distance (fees, charges, taxes, etc) when I made absolutely no (zero) long distance calls, it seemed no problem at all to just cancel LD–the woman on the phone understood perfectly. If it weren’t for my dial-up internet, I wouldn’t have a land line at all. My cable company folks “do not offer internet service” in my area. It’s easy to foresee the day when there won’t be any more “regular” telephones. ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-former-long-distance-company/260756/22 "2004-08-23T03:49:49Z")
We have a somewhat different telephone service environment here in Canada, but I dropped my long distance service (Bell default plan) when I found out that the “Network connect” fee on my phone bill was for the connection to the LD carrier (themselves :rolleyes: ) and was more than the average LD plan savings they listed for the once or twice per month long distance calls. My total phone bill is about $1 less per month now that I don’t “save” with their long distance plan. (I know it’s not very much money - it was the principle of the thing.) ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-former-long-distance-company/260756/23 "2004-08-23T04:34:31Z")
I just got my phone bill yesterday, and going through it (my SO usually does), I discovered that AT&T is charging us $2.50 for the privilege of issuing us a bill Yep, it says “Bill Statement Fee” Nice. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2004, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-former-long-distance-company/260756/24 "2004-08-24T01:04:36Z")
> [@Jadis](#): > > Well…I _have_ done it, as I said above. And I got absolutely no argument from the Verizon rep I spoke to. I’m sort of taken aback that you and **blowero** have met with such resistence, since it’s not that uncommon a request. Weird. My former phone company was more than happy to take off my long distance carrier, leaving me with none. Then, when I got the next month’s bill, it was actually _higher_. They were charging me _more_ for the privilege of _not_ having a long distance carrier selected. I switched from that company in a flash. ---
**Author:** ![Morelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Morelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morelin)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2004, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-former-long-distance-company/260756/25 "2004-08-24T01:57:31Z")
> [@Max Torque](#): > > My former phone company was more than happy to take off my long distance carrier, leaving me with none. Then, when I got the next month’s bill, it was actually _higher_. They were charging me _more_ for the privilege of _not_ having a long distance carrier selected. I switched from that company in a flash. That’s what set my Mom off. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-former-long-distance-company/260756.md?page=1)