Attorneys General from Iowa and 23 other states have forced M-C-I to change the fine print on its phone bills. About a year ago, M-C-I began listing a “National Access Fee” on its bill. M-C-I has agreed to quit labeling the fee as government-required and will fork over big checks to the states. Iowa gets 55-thousand dollars according to Bob Brammer, a spokesman for Iowa’s Attorney General. Brammer says the money is more like a penalty and customers will not be getting any money back.Brammer says M-C-I has the right to impose whatever tariffs or fees it wants, but was improperly telling consumers the fee was required by the government.Brammer says investigators have no way of checking how much money Iowans paid M-C-I under the guise of a government tax when it was really going into M-C-I profits. M-C-I officials deny any wrongdoing but will quit placing M-C-I fees in the “government taxes and surcharges” portion of its bills.
