I stick you, you stick me ...

.,,,with a great big check from me to you...."  - with apologies to Barney.

I ended my Sticking it to the Men post with the comment "Now I just have to brace for billing errors!"

My first Verizon bill after changes on one of the lines shows a Canada call at 75c a minute plus taxes. I thought it was included in my "all in one" plan.  I complain - and a nice gentleman Ruben at the Verizon store took care of me and reduced it to 5c a minute.

But why screw around with customers this way? 75c a minute to our neighbor in the north. Even before de-regulation in 1996 I cannot recall paying that high a rate.

Here are some other areas individual and business customers get, well, "sticked".

International calling card and mobile rates. Added features on phone lines (like three-way calling) .  Toll-free conference calling. Wi-Fi “Hotspot” charges (often as much as $10 a day – but used no more than an hour as people transit - at airports). Unused phone lines (when employees leave, for example) or T1 lines - the equivalent of “shelfware” in software - is another significant cost.

Here's how to stick it back. Plenty of telecom resellers offer calling card services at a fraction of those charged by the bigger vendors. If employees regularly travel to a particular country, buy a mobile phone plan for that country. Free or fixed-charge per month conference calling capabilities. And of course, growing VoIP plans.

Telecom audit services have been around for a while. They are now evolving in to BPO services where they proactively take over the complete bill review process, rather than retroactively try to recover overcharges.

As BusinessWeek points out we may have to brace for increases even in core telephone, broadband and wireless services as industry consolidation continues with ATT now trying to absorb BellSouth. On top of that the "fringe" services I mention above.

The icing on the cake - when you stick it to the men, you also save on some of the highest indirect taxes on any utility - about 20% on most telecom services.