Verizon $2 fee Fuels a Customer Revolt

Forbes ^ | December 30, 2011 | Panos Mourdoukoutas

[BobNative]

"Of all strategic mistakes the leadership of large corporations makes, one stands out: Taking the customer for granted."

[goat granny]

The idiot couldn't do it alone, it took lots of congresscritters to give the OK and its amazing how many stupid people there are that fall for that crap...

Quick to tax, sloooow to give tax relief...Ilove the fact that the electric cars of the future are now starting houses on fire...serves the jerks right for being politically correct...and stupid

[bgill]

They’ll merely double it to $4 and hide it in their regular service fee.

[autumnraine]

The $2 fee is FOR using a credit card to pay your bill.

So your theory isn’t correct.

[RFEngineer]

“So your theory isn’t correct.”

It still may not be correct, but autopay with a credit card exempted you from the fee.

[RFEngineer]

“I do not believe in turning over control and allowing someone to have open access to my checking account.”

I agree with you, but I have no such reservations about autopay using a credit card.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

While this mind-set may have worked in the past when corporations were at the center of the economic universe, it doesn’t apply in today’s world, where customers occupy that position.

The customer is always in charge whether that is recognized or not. So are the taxpayer/voters. We just need to understand that.

[OldMissileer]

Well, I am not a Verizon customer but I do have some bills that reoccur monthly. I pay them when they come due and do not allow auto-deductions. This is not because of a checking account that is “not stable” and I am not “high maintenance” either. I do not believe in turning over control and allowing someone to have open access to my checking account.

Same with me. I always pay what few bills I have on time.

Just because someone does not sign up for auto pay does not mean they are slackers or slugs when paying bills. A pretty wide brush to use.

I am a Verizon customer and back in September 2009 I received my monthly bill and it was for over $800! The statement reflected my last payment was February.

I called Verizon, they made me fax copies of my payment confirmations (I pay on-line) and held the disputed amount in abeyance.

It took over a month for them to finally decide their computer had lost all my payments from March through August 2009.

If I had auto bill pay they would have removed the $800+ out of my account, and if it ever would have been resolved they would not have returned it but just gave me credit on my account.

First. I do not now about others but $800 is a nice hunk of change for me and I can't afford to just have that much removed from my account.

Second. If I had auto pay they would have had my money and would not have had any incentive to research my account to find THEIR problem.

Because I pay all my bills monthly with no auto pay I have the edge when I have a complaint or problem such as the one that happened as described above.

[ripley]

“...people have control over their own transactions...”

Government can also under their control, but they choose to vote it to someone else who will tax them one thousand times two dollars with nothing to show for it, with barely a whimper.

Amazing.

[goat granny]

Good old Al Gore has made a fortune by being stupid, cause there are lots of people more stupid than he is....and they vote and reproduce...yikes

[lonestar]

Too many people want somebody else’s congressman or senator gone...not their own!

[Alberta's Child]

My understanding is tha the $2 fee was supposed to offset the added fees Verizon must now pay to banks with the new Federal regulations for credit cards and debit cards. Banks are passing these new costs along to consumers and/or merchants who use these cards in the form of higher transaction fees, and Verizon doesn't intend to absorb the costs themselves.

They're going to get the $2/transaction in one form or another -- only now it's likely to be passed along to ALL of their customers, not just the ones who make online bill payments.