Posted on 12/30/2011 1:14:19 PM PST by Sub-Driver
Verizon Wireless backs off $2 fee after deluge of digital customer outrage Published: Friday, December 30, 2011, 2:21 PM Updated: Friday, December 30, 2011, 3:24 PM Eliot Caroom/The Star-Ledger By Eliot Caroom/The Star-Ledger
Verizon Wireless said today it would back off of a planned $2 fee for some online bill payments, only a day after the fee was first announced.
The concession came after customers vented online, petitions gathered virtual signatures and the Federal Communications Commission said it was concerned.
The company announced yesterday that the fee would go into effect on Jan. 15 for customers making one-time monthly bill payments online or over the phone with a credit card. It didn't apply to automatic bill pay, mailed checks or payments in person.
That angered customers like Christina Davidson, who signed an online petition to block the move.
"If this goes through I am leaving Verizon for good!!" Davidson wrote, sparing no exclamation points. "I pay almost $200 a month to Verizon and now you want to charge me for paying my bill online? IT'S DISGUSTING!!!!!!"
The petition on Change.org was one of two on the site set up to block Verizon's fee--taken together, more than 50,000 signatures were collected today at 3 p.m.
One of them was set up by Ohio firefighter, paramedic and self-described tech follower Bill Millard, who said he was surprised the company made the move, especially after Bank of America was slammed by customers for a new $5 fee and was forced to back down.
"The economy's bad at this time. A lot of people are hurting for money," Millard said in an interview today. "For them to charge a $2 fee for paying your bill is kind of ridiculous."
An FCC spokesman confirmed this afternoon that the government planned to investigate.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
The same guys who advised Netflix earlier this year.
That ended so quickly, I wonder if it was something they just floated to test people’s reaction.
Greed. Mankind’s huge sin.
A People’s victory. Verizon was wrong to charge for paying online when they claim that “paper” costs them money.
Did Verizon sleep through the Bank of America check-card fee fiasco?
Per FoxNews this morning, Verison tried a similar stunt a few months ago and got all kinds of flack from their customers.
Look at how Netflix’s stumbling and bumbling cost them $billions in value.
Sometimes one has to wonder how these companies every became viable only to have their management make such stupid, costly blunders later.
A customers victory. The free market in action.
“A People’s victory.”
It’s NOT the peoples victory unless Verizon suffers-—that means a lot of customers should leave Verizon just because the company tried to screw them—not because it didn’t get away with doing so.
Yeah and during a Holiday.........
Qwest ran a similar trial for $1.00 bill pay online, I called and switched back to paper bill rather than e-bills and sent them checks for several months, it was changd back fairly quickly, I think they just trying to pad the profit. Way cheaper to have online bill pay rather than processing checks.
And another in-over-his/her-head MBA heads back to mom’s basement in shame...
Who in hell approves these stupid ideas anyhow?
I used to work for a third party benefits administrator, not a big company but a fairly big player in the area and privately owned.
Shortly before I left, management announced to us account administrators that they would no longer print or mail copies of our premium bills but they would only be available via email but if a customer wanted a paper bill, they’d be charged something ridiculous like $20 a month.
Many of us who worked with the clients on a daily pointed out that some of our clients were small mom and pop businesses and some (believe it or not) didn’t even have computers or were not particularly computer savy. And what we heard most often from our bigger clients, was not the desire for electronic billing but for electronic bill paying – something that was not being offered. Someone pointed out the lunacy of telling customers that they had to have their bill delivered electronically but telling them they still had to pay by check. She was basically told to sit down and shut up and it wasn’t her job to question but just to inform the clients of the change.
Oh and of course the bills would be delivered via our secure encrypted email system that most of our clients hated and were constantly being locked out of.
Yea, stupid idea and it isn’t always big companies who have them.
Or a diversion.
Effective January 1, the Verizon administrative charge will increase by .16¢ on EVERYONE. Eliminating $2 on some versus getting .16¢ from all customers. Guess which fee didn’t get the headline???? Kabuki theatre and slight of hand is at work.
Too many people think about what makes life easier for them with little regard for how it impacts their customer.
Is the 16¢ fee a change in the contract which can allow customers to exit the contract without a fee? Anyone looking to leave Verizon should read their contracts to see if they can now leave.
Tee-hee. I think that MBA who came up with the white Coca-Cola can lives in the basement next door.
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