'Internet cost recovery fee' soars 100 percent; and doesn't the monthly fee cover the cost of Internet, anyway?

This woman is far too happy about a $3.99 fee. (Click for CenturyLink website)

Frequent readers know that I often complain about the "death of the price tag." Companies say something will cost X, but it really costs X+Y. Or sometimes, X+Y+Z+1A+2B......etc.

Sometimes that means writing about tiny amounts of money that can create large amounts of bad feelings. Like surprise $1 surcharges.

A few years ago, I wrote a story called "Attack of the tiny tack-on fees," in which I described CenturyLink adopting a 99-cent "Internet Cost Recovery fee" on its Internet customers. That frustrated users, who thought they were already paying for Internet service. The name of the fee sort of suggests that Internet service costs extra -- it's an add-on -- when you sign up for CenturyLink Internet service. It's like a coffee shop charging a 'coffee acquisition fee' in addition to the price of a cup of coffee.

This week, I started getting a trickle, then a small flood of email, from CenturyLink customers. They were spitting bullets. The 99 cent fee had grown ...and grown.

"That Century Link recovery fee is now $3.99! ..., I told them I receive service from their business, I don’t own the business. Isn’t this why I pay a monthly fee anyways, to help them build and maintain their services? Ridiculous. I work from home so I have to have internet," wrote Peggy Karraker (Frustrated in Minneapolis).

Other writers offered similar frustration.

"I signed up for CenturyLink in December 2014 with the $.99 Internet Recovery Fee; and four months later, April 2015, the fee went to $1.99. I received my latest bill last week and was stunned to find the fee, as of April 2016, has gone to $3.99. Unbelievable," said Wayne Harris.

"They're at it again. We were never informed up-front about this charge and this is the only month we've seen it. Strange it wasn't added before. Needless to say, it's irritating," wrote Jason Shepard.

I asked CenturyLink about the change, and was told it took effect in April. The firm blames demand for higher bandwidth.

"This year alone, CenturyLink expects a 40 percent increase in costs to expand its backbone network to accommodate customers’ dramatic increases in broadband usage," said Mark Molzen, a CenturyLink spokesman. "This fee helps defray the costs associated with building and maintaining the CenturyLink high-speed broadband network, as well as the costs of expanding network capacity to support the continued increase in average customer broadband consumption."

Some consumers are complaining that the fee was going up as a tricky way to raise prices on consumers who are in the middle of a fixed-price contract.

"I'm about a year into a 2-year contract for $35 a month internet. Until now, I've been paying $37 total because of this nonsensical fee. Now they told me I have no choice but to pay $39 a month for the remainder of the contract because of the fee increase. The fee is now 10% of my bill," wrote Cory Zufelt, who lives in Idaho. "Since the rate before the fee is still $35 they pretend like they aren't increasing my rate. It more just upsets me when big companies feel like they can treat their customers like crap with no consequences. I'm tired of it."

Molzen said that some CenturyLink customers who have discount contracts will receive credits equal to the fee increase (only legacy Qwest consumers who have "Price for life" or "Price Lock.")

Zufelt, who is not a legacy Qwest consumer, said he called the firm asking for a credit and was denied.

Another consumer wrote to me to say a customer service agent had claimed the cost recovery fee was actually a tax; it's not. It's a fee. And it's another example of the death of the price tag.

Are you a customer of CenturyLink? What do you think of this Internet Cost Recovery fee? If CenturyLink does provide your internet then it might be worth checking out this list of the best dsl modem for centurylink to see how your current one compares.

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