what is a government recovery fee?

Koodo doesn't have that fee. In fact I don't think any of the carriers do anymore. They usually just include it in the price of your plan. Rogers used to charge that fee a few years ago.

Now if you're referring to a 911 fee, that is applicable to a few provinces and it would show on your customer service agreement. Where do you live?

Are you sure it's not the government 911 service fee? At one time, the recovery fee was called the system access fee. Telus removed the system access fee back in October 2009. http://help.koodomobile.com/plans-add-ons-data-and-other-services/e911/what-is-the-government-911-service-fee

There is no such charge on my bill (I'm in Ontario). I'd therefore assume that it's an Alberta thing. And if so, I don't think you'll find a carrier that won't have it.

Thanks Jonathan....I am in Alberta and have not moved recently. It just seems to me that if a new charge is being added to the existing customers bills, then perhaps an explanation of that charge should be included right on the bill itself? Why rile up a bunch of customers with a new fee, and not explain to them why they are suddenly being charged this tax, er fee, in the first place? For a company that prides itself on being upfront and caring of all it's customers, this is the exact opposite way of handling the situation.

I called customer service as you suggested Jonathan. They have no idea what the "fee" is for. They told me that my call was the first they have heard of it and that it's some sort of Federal tax. They basically had to google it to find out anything, and they still could not tell me why it was on my bill or what the purpose of the fee was for. Just my opinion here but if a company can quickly add a new fee to a bill, they need to find out what the fee is for and let their clients know as much as possible what's going on. They should certainly make sure that their customer service agents know what it is so that they can address the question properly when someone like me phones about it.

Hi Jorden, sorry about the duplicate post You were -a lot- faster than me on this one! Thank you for your help, it's greatly appreciated!

Hi there, as of April 1st 2014, Alberta customers are required to pay an additional monthly 911 fee of 44¢, called "911 Government (Cost Recovery) Fee". This is a fee legislated by the governments of AB, SK, PQ, NB, NS and PEI to help support the cost of providing 911 service. This government fee is separate from the 911 access fees that many wireless providers currently charge (we don't). The amount of the tax is regulated in each province and the funds collected are used to fund local 911 services. Our customers have been notified about this new fee on the first page of their March bill but you can also find our more info on this link: http://koo.do/OE17nc. @Larry C: We'll make sure to send a reminder to our reps so they can answer similar inquiries! Thank you for letting us know! ________________________ If you see a good answer, give it a star.

How about printed on your March bill? Look at the first page of the March bill. Usually, any notices will be there on the right side.

[i]unless my bill is an odd amount (like this month) I don't check it over And there lies the problem. You deliberately choose not to read the bill Koodo sends you every month, they can't force you to read it. It therefore becomes your choice to not be informed about changes to your bill.

They don't actually "send" me a bill. I have to log in and find it. If it actually was emailed to me, I would open the attachment and read it. If it came in the mail, I would read it. I'm just too busy to hunt down the link every time to look it over. I really don't think I'm alone in this. Do you read your bill from start to finish every month?

That's just the thing though, they already told everyone about it on the bill. But for the sake of sending out other notices... Lets say between printing and mail costs today a letter would cost somewhere around 0.75 cents to 1.00 per customer which doesn't make sense. While they could probably send an email, I'm sure their system isn't set up to filter emails by province (and this only effects Alberta at this specific point), also they likely don't have email addresses for all Albertians. They could probably send a text to everyone with a 403, 780, or 587 but again not everyone reads their texts, and this is assuming the system is able to send out blanket messages this way. Koodo could call, but lets be honest many people wouldn't answer, plus the costs to make these calls. In the end it's the government charging this fee, and they could have done a better job mentioning it, I read online somewhere around 6 months ago it was coming, but Koodo did make sure everyone was notified, even if some chose not to read the notification.

I'm not appreciating how you seem to be talking down to me, Zaphod and David. It is a bit of a hunt for the link, whether you think it or not. It's an extra step I don't always have time for (but of course, you clearly are not as busy as some of us...). Definitely not as simple as opening an attachment in an email. I do understand that I missed the notification and that is my fault - BUT I really do think Koodo could have done a better job making this more well known. That's all.

Type koodomobile.com into the address bar of your browser. Click self serve at the top of the page. Sign in. Click 'view bill' right on the first page you see. If that's a hunt then so is finding the new emails in your inbox.