I've just switched cell phone plans today from ATT to Virgin Mobile. A major plus in my mind when deciding to switch was the fact that Virgin's Beyond Talk plans advertise their rates as inclusive of all taxes and fees. This is from Virgin's website (it's also on the hard copy brochures, and I assume on all their literature about Beyond Talk plans) :

3G Nationwide Coverage You Can Count On
All Taxes & Fees Included, except those charged at the point of purchase
Pay with Credit, Debit or PayPal for worry free monthly service
Buy Top-Up cards to pay with cash

http://www.virginmobileusa.com/cell-phone-plans/beyond-talk-plans.jsp

Here's the issue - when I called Virgin to select a plan (tried to sign up online, but glitch on Virgin's end did not let me) the agent said that taxes and fees would be $3.20/month!! I must be missing something, because if this were really a case of false advertising, it would have been on the front page of the Wall St. Journal! And the kind of lawsuit that class action attorneys could only dream of ...

I spent over an HOUR on the phone with the Virgin people, including a supervisor, and both of them kept saying that they understood I didn't want to pay taxes and fees, but that taxes and fees are additional!! I kept saying, but your advertising says "All Taxes & Fees Included!!" I gave both of them the above link, but apparently at their end, they did not have the same info (about taxes/fees included) on the page using the very same web address! They also seemed to never have heard of "All taxes and fees included!" It seemed like they thought I just didn't want to pay taxes and fees!

The supervisor said that because I paid with a credit card, I was charged taxes & fees. I asked whether there are any options for payment that would be a flat $40 (I chose the $40/month plan) without taxes & fees on top. All they could do was say that the'd send an internal email "escalating" the issue, and that marketing would review within 24 hours or so ... but that I would not hear back from them!!! I'm pretty sure they'll review and conclude the same thing as the two (very nice) agents I spoke with today - that taxes and fees are NOT included, for some reason that I fail to grasp.

I'm guessing that I may be confused about what "All Taxes & Fees Included, except those charged at the point of purchase" really means, and that somehow it means, you'll be charged taxes and fees ...??

The supervisor, when asked, said that I was the ONLY person who's had an issue with being charged taxes/fees.

I am a smart person! An ivy league honors grad, a JD, and most important, someone with lots of common sense! I really can't believe that I'm the only one who feels this is false advertising. I just hope I'll like Virgin ... but I'm already a bit exhausted with it!