Verizon Cancels $2 Fee
EmailJust one day after Verizon Wireless announced a $2 fee for online or by-phone single payments, the company announced it was canceling the charge.
On Thursday, the company announced it would charge customers a $2 “convenience fee” for single bill payments made online or by telephone starting Jan. 15. The decision led to an uproar online from customers, even prompting 50,000 people to sign an online petition on Change.org against the fee in just two hours.
The fee would have been waived for those who pay by electronic check or enroll in AutoPay.
Molly Katchpole, a Verizon customer and the petition’s author, successfully used a similar petition to pressure Bank of America to drop its proposed $5 debit card fee earlier this year.
Verizon said it made the decision in response to customer feedback about the plan, “which was designed to improve the efficiency of those transactions.”
“At Verizon, we take great care to listen to our customers,” said Dan Mead, president and chief executive officer of Verizon Wireless. ”Based on their input, we believe the best path forward is to encourage customers to take advantage of the best and most efficient options, eliminating the need to institute the fee at this time.”
Verizon Wireless, headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., is the largest U.S. cell phone carrier. The company is a joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone. It has 90.7 million retail customers and 17 million wholesale and other customers, according to the company.
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Go ahead, I’ll just do what I did with the house payment after an $18 convenience fee per month – I’ll write you a check and mail it for $.44. But I’m not giving you access to take the money yourself. If I don’t trust the kids, why the heck should I trust a corporation!
Posted by: Jausti | December 30, 2011, 4:00 pm 4:00 pm
Can you say Netflix?
Posted by: Mark | December 30, 2011, 4:25 pm 4:25 pm
Power to the People!
Posted by: Tim | December 30, 2011, 4:26 pm 4:26 pm
People should see now that their voices have power. Keep it up America, those money hungry companies who gouge consumers will have to pay attention. Now, let’s scream loud enough for those darned airlines to hear us…
Posted by: msyellarose | December 30, 2011, 4:45 pm 4:45 pm
Can you say Bank of America?
Posted by: Mark | December 30, 2011, 5:30 pm 5:30 pm
And so they should. Greedy people. WE’re havung a hard enough time paying off other bills. No one tells me how to pay a cell phone bill.
Posted by: dashdot | December 30, 2011, 6:13 pm 6:13 pm
The public has more power than they realize. When they band together things change. In Europe incoming cell phone calls were always free but not in the USA. When Metro PC did flat rate unlimited calling all the other cell phone companies followed
The Diabetes and Obesity drug makers took in 7 Billion in dollars in one year!! Then Twitter revealed the Spirit Happy diabetes diet reversed diabetes and weight gain in people fast than drugs and 20,000 people switched to the diet in 6 months .
just google SPIRIT HAPPY DIET
Posted by: Ann | December 30, 2011, 6:42 pm 6:42 pm
What a gutless “explanation” of the fee by Verizon. I can certainly go back to mailing a check.
Posted by: Boogie Man | December 30, 2011, 7:09 pm 7:09 pm
If this was soooo easy to fight, how come noone looked into the scam T-mobile pullled back in September where they decided to change “some” customers monthly due dates on their service without giving notice except to only “a few of their customers.” This means that T-mobile got 13 payments instead of 12 this year from those select few.
My due date was the 7th of each month and had been for years. When paying the bill due October 7th, I noticed it was due September 27th.
Some people even had to pay a reconnection fee because of this “little scam.”
No TV station even picked this one up.
Posted by: Jenifer | December 30, 2011, 7:20 pm 7:20 pm
Molly should start a blog about the ‘convenience’ fee that is charged when taxpayers renew their license tags. In Georgia, the fee is $4.95 to renew and pay the tag tax on-line. In 2009 it was $2.25. Prior to this year it could be paid using an eCheck for no additional fee. Some company named Official Payments Corporation is getting rich from these computerized transactions. It does make one wonder what connection this company has to those in the state legislature.
Posted by: doctordon6 | December 30, 2011, 7:54 pm 7:54 pm
Now just give us a fair contract!
Posted by: Tim | December 30, 2011, 8:05 pm 8:05 pm
Jennifer – My T-Mobile due date was changed from the 16th of each month to the 13th. I knew it because I read the bill / statement on-line each month. Did you contact customer service to determine WHY the date was changed and WHEN they would issue a refund due to your lack of attention to the details? T-Mobile is not a credit card that HAS to maintain the same due date each month.
Posted by: doctordon6 | December 30, 2011, 8:06 pm 8:06 pm
Consumers are finally noticing that AT&T and Verizon = The Most Expensive Wireless Plans in America. We know where Verizon and AT&T (both in the top 5 for corporate lobbying) get all that money to run commercials 24×7, pay out huge “fat cat” executive bonuses and hire armies of lawyers and lobbyists to try to push the U.S. market into a wireless industry duopoly — the American consumer. This is how AT&T and Verizon fashion themselves as brilliant … with their political use of money.
According to the report “Corporate Taxpayers & Corporate Tax Dodgers 2008-10,” two of the 25 companies with the largest total tax subsidies were AT&T at #2 ($14.5 billion) and Verizon at #3 ($12.3 billion). Also, there were 30 corporations that paid less than nothing in aggregate federal income taxes over the same period. These 30 companies, whose pretax U.S. profits totaled $160 billion over the three years, included Verizon. The report states the laws that allow this were not enacted in a vacuum, but rather were adopted in response to relentless corporate lobbying, threats and campaign support.
Posted by: Conrad | December 30, 2011, 8:26 pm 8:26 pm
The clown who came up with this idiotic idea should get fired.
THAT, I’ll leave to the stockholders for that mission.
Posted by: michael | December 30, 2011, 10:22 pm 10:22 pm
They should be able to impose this fee because the CEO needs more money. That’s Capitalism!
Posted by: bob | December 30, 2011, 11:04 pm 11:04 pm
I’m going to mail checks to Verizon and BOA for payments and let them deal with opening snail mail and processing checks since they seem to claim instant debit card payments are so much trouble. Let them get bombarded with paper checks through the mail.
Posted by: Linda | December 30, 2011, 11:21 pm 11:21 pm
The Verizon episode just proves that CAPITALISM WORKS. Alert customers pushed back and Verizon retreated. Corporations always push to the edge… that’s absolutely normal. They ain’t yo momma or yo daddy. You only lose if you don’t STAND UP and push back (instead of just whining). I’ll bet none of the whiney commenters here even contacted Verizon.
Posted by: Tex Geoas | December 31, 2011, 10:49 am 10:49 am
what about Comcast. They just added another 5.00 for 2012.. If you try to get rid of the Bundle, they increase the cost on what is left and we are stuck with channels we do not care about.
Posted by: Sue S | December 31, 2011, 11:30 am 11:30 am
@Sue S … As it is, better than 50% of a standard cable bill “subsidies” pro sports broadcasting rights (which cost billions per year) – it really don’t matter what “package” or channels we order … this will only get worse … When you hear about billion dollar NFL,NBA,MLB broadcasting contracts – guess who’s “really” paying …
Posted by: yeah.i.said.it | December 31, 2011, 4:38 pm 4:38 pm
They forgot a very important “1″ in the figure they quoted. 155,000 people signed this baby, not 55,000.
Posted by: Michelle | December 31, 2011, 6:21 pm 6:21 pm
What about the $10 per month that Comcast is now charging to rent a cable box? I’m turning mine in.
Posted by: gsjjs1 | January 1, 2012, 11:03 pm 11:03 pm