I got this e-mail from the big V today:

Dear Valued DSL Online Customer,

Effective August 14, 2006, V___ Online will stop charging the FUSF (Federal Universal Service Fund) recovery fee. For customers of V___ Online, the fee eliminated is $2.83 a month.

Starting August 26, 2006, V___ Online will begin charging a Supplier Surcharge for all DSL customers. This surcharge is not a government imposed fee or a tax; however, it is intended to help offset costs we incur from our network supplier in providing V___ Online DSL service. The Supplier Surcharge will be set at $2.70 per month for customers with DSL service.

I think I might have been better off not knowing this.

At some point I might have wondered where the thirteen cents had gone from my bill; but I wouldn’t have known the about the asinine things going on behind the scenes.

I might not have even questioned it if they just inexplicably showed up at my door one day and threw a dime and three pennies at my head. Sure, I would have been confused, but I wouldn’t have felt what I felt after I read this letter, which was, “OK, now they’re just fucking with me.”