Verizon's new "bend over" long distance fee - options?

 Just got my Verizon bill. I've had them for years as my long distance
carrier, just to have some carrier assigned. No monthly plan, just a
flat per minute charge - if I used it. But since I've had a cell phone I
couldn't tell you the last time I used the land line to place a long
distance call.

In this bill, Verizon is now sticking me with a "Shortfall Charge" of
$2.00 per month. Their explanation? "When long distance charges are less
than $2.00, the shortfall charge is the difference between those charges
and $2.00."

Ok, bullsh*t rhetoric aside, why don't they just call it a Minimum
Monthly Fee - more what it really is. Ok, I know, "Shortfall Charge" is
brought to us by the same folks who thought up the term "Pre Owned
Vehicle."

Sorry. Venting, venting...

Anyway, the questions to the group are:

Any long distance carriers left out there that don't charge a monthly
fee for the service? Or a "Shortfall Charge" for not using it?

Since I have the cell phone with nationwide coverage should I just drop
the land line long distance service and just be done with it? I have no
intention of dropping the land line altogether - please don't even go
there - I have my need for it.

Oh, Verizon wants to charge me $5.50 to drop them as the long distance
carrier. Do they have a "bend over" department to figure out how to
squeeze money out of you, even when you cancel a service? FWIW I'm
filing a complaint with the FCC because they provided no advance notice
of the change in the fees, and want to charge me for removing the
service on top of it to stop the fees.

Rick

  Rick wrote:

   If you never use it you do not need a long distance carrier. Cancel
it an use a phone card or a dial around service if the need arises.

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   To reply via e-mail please delete 1 c from paccbell

 
You're "lucky" it's so small!  Qwest gets me for $5!

 
Have you looked at any of the VOIP solutions (Vonage, for example)?
When we moved a few years ago, Verizon informed us that it might be
"2-3 weeks" for our service to be installed.  At the time, almost all
of our calls were long distance because we moved to another part of
the country, away from family.  While waiting on Verizon, I tried
Vonage and was happy enough with it to keep in.  At the time, it was
$34 or something for unlimited long distance with the taxes and
surcharges, versus the $59/mo plan from Verizon that was actually $75
after taxes and all their other charges.  I believe that Vonage's
rates have dropped since then (the reason we canceled service was
because we went to all cell phones), to around $14/mo for 500 long
distance and a little more for unlimited.  I believe they had an even
lower rate with a per-minute charge for long distance, which was
something like $.03/min if used.

 tom_sawyer70@yahoo.com wrote:

Can't do Vonage right now. They are under a Court ordered injunction
that prevents them from taking on new customers, while the law suit
against them about their use of "phone company" services to provide
phone company services gets sorted out. In case you didn't notice their
TeeVee ads dropped off the face of the earth because of the litigation.
And their stock price has plummeted.

Rick