| | There is economics and there is marketing. Here in America the masses seem to be under the sway of "It's Free!" - but we here at RoR know that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Even the glass of water that "comes" with a meal isn't free to the restaurant. Even if we assume that they get the water for free, someone has to fill the glass, bring it to the table, collect it after the meal and wash the glass.
Here is the deal for me. If it is a little thing, like the salt, I don't want to be bothered with it, and I don't want the provider to spend more effort (which is money) in attempting to bill for it than it would otherwise cost. Throw it in as if it were free. If a thing is billed for separately, like charging for a toll free call, they could claim that they are amortizing the cost of the telephone equipment and covering its maintenance - but for me, it will just generate ill will. Throw it in as if it were free.
But for those things that are optional and if it is structured as a real savings if I choose not to use it... then make it separate. For example, I notice many motels and hotels have a little sign encouraging you to not have your sheets changed after every day you stay. They claim that they are trying to help the environment. Seriously? They think I'm so stupid that I'm not seeing it as an attempt to save the costs of washing the sheets and thus helping their bottom line? Now, as a capitalist I'm okay with them making a profit, but I would prefer it if they were: A) Honest, B) Shared the savings by knocking, say, half of the savings off my bill. We'd both come out ahead if they did that, because I'd opt for only changing the sheets once every three or four days and get a lower bill.
As it often is, honesty, my self-interest, and increasing the options available to me (those that are of significance) are the issues I want to have controlling how we are billed for things. But the fly in the soup is that we live in an era of dumbed-down consumers, and that's too bad because intelligent consumers are a great aid to competition and better products and services.
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