Verizon To Charge $2 To Pay Your Bill

Here we go again the government getting involved because the people can't help themselves. Let the flipping market decide what happens. If customers hate this so much then switch to another network...

Verizon does not have a monopoly, though the whole phone subsidizing thing is pretty anti-competitive. If we had the model most of the world uses then we'd buy the phone and then add the service which would make switching from one company to another quite easy and seamless. Given this I can see why some are a bit upset but for the most part it isn't that difficult to switch. Verizon has a right to charge whatever they want. If the market was feer then they'd really have to weigh the risks of these kinds of things...
 
vsboxerboy said:
Just have everyone pay in pennies at a VZW store
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This has been done before and I think is considered a misdemeanor or something.

My insurance charges a fee for me to cut my annual and semi-annual policy payments into monthly. That, I can understand. And it's not a huge fee.

But my mortgage charges me to pay them online. Yeah right! Instead, I use my bank's online bill pay. Psh.
 
ir0nw0lf said:
The County Tax Collector here charges a "convenience fee" if you use your plastic for ANYTHING there, no matter the amount. Renew your Florida ID, drivers license or vehicle registration through their website, bam, hit with a friggin' fee to use plastic. Taco Bell here charges like $0.75 fee to use plastic there, I believe no matter the amount. Some smaller places charge a similar fee for plastic transactions <$10 or so. Can't call it a "surcharge" but can call it a "convenience fee." Gotta love it.

Those who are old enough (sorry young grasshoppers) to remember the ginormous 1980-1990's editions of the Computer Shopper will remember that way before the internet, a lot of those mail order/phone order places would have in the fine print, "Prices reflect 3% cash discount" or the like, which was the early form of a "surcharge" or "convenience fee." They got away with that for years and years. Anyone else remember that?
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oh i do, and today i paid my electric bill over the phone using my card with their automated system, $3.50 fee was charged for the "convenience" and then called and paid the gas bill, which had it's own $4.25 "Western Union Fastpay" convenience fee for using my card to pay over the telephone. For a $13.85 bill that's ludicrous interest. I plan to set those up on my banks online bill pay, we just moved. I am being feed' to death.
 
014 said:
This has been done before and I think is considered a misdemeanor or something.

My insurance charges a fee for me to cut my annual and semi-annual policy payments into monthly. That, I can understand. And it's not a huge fee.

But my mortgage charges me to pay them online. Yeah right! Instead, I use my bank's online bill pay. Psh.
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not a misdemeanor

its legal tender, but the company can also legally refuse to accept it, so you would end up having to pay another way anyways
 
jnmunsey said:
Here we go again the government getting involved because the people can't help themselves. Let the flipping market decide what happens. If customers hate this so much then switch to another network...

Verizon does not have a monopoly, though the whole phone subsidizing thing is pretty anti-competitive. If we had the model most of the world uses then we'd buy the phone and then add the service which would make switching from one company to another quite easy and seamless. Given this I can see why some are a bit upset but for the most part it isn't that difficult to switch. Verizon has a right to charge whatever they want. If the market was feer then they'd really have to weigh the risks of these kinds of things...
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Sounds good in theory. However regulations are there for a reason. It's easy to say "let the market decide" but that just gets the consumer screwed (see the banking crisis and the reasons for it). Corporations see an idea that will make them a lot of money with little risk and will follow suit with that idea because the bottom line is the most important thing to them.

Letting the market self regulate worked when corporations were small. If a small convenience store raised their prices, one may open up across the street to take a competitive advantage. Now a days, the corporations are so massive they can afford to effectively block out any small competition or simply buy them up. As long as there's a few "big" players, then their will be no small players. They can collude to control a market without actually working together. This is especially true in the utility/telecommunications industry where cities can place monopolies on the infrastructure (ie: one cable company per town). If we deregulate those, they can do what they want without worrying about competition because they are a legalized monopoly.
 
014 said:
This has been done before and I think is considered a misdemeanor or something.

My insurance charges a fee for me to cut my annual and semi-annual policy payments into monthly. That, I can understand. And it's not a huge fee.

But my mortgage charges me to pay them online. Yeah right! Instead, I use my bank's online bill pay. Psh.
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The trick is to roll the fee into all bills and then offer a discount for using a preferred payment method.

This is what most insurance companies (the ones I've dealt with) do. They advertise a low rate, but only if paid up front (in full). If you don't pay in full, well, your rate is higher as it no longer includes a "discount" for paying in full (sometimes as much as $100).
 
jnmunsey said:
Here we go again the government getting involved because the people can't help themselves. Let the flipping market decide what happens. If customers hate this so much then switch to another network...
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Verizon can charge $1,000 for all I care but at least give the customer an option to cancel the service outright with no early termination fee.

What Verizon did was shady and tried to sneak this fee in during the xmas holidays thinking no one would really notice. Nice try suckers.
 
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011...2-convenience-charge-despite-network-outages/

Verizon Bows to Critics, Drops Plans for $2 'Convenience' Charge

Bowing to a storm of criticism, Verizon Wireless abandoned plans to charge a $2 "convenience fee" to consumers who pay their bills online or over the phone -- a change of course announced shortly after the FCC declared it would take a close look at the company's plans.

Verizon, the country's largest cellphone company, unveiled its plan to steer people to electronic check payments and automatic credit card payments and away from one-time telephone and online bill payments by adding the fee as early as January 15 -- despite three separate data network problems that dogged the wireless carrier in December.

"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,” said Dan Mead, president and chief executive officer of Verizon Wireless, in a statement posted late Friday to the company's website.

News of the $2 charge had been greeted by a storm of criticism, both by consumers and the FCC: A petition on Change.org against it had gathered more than 57,000 names on Friday afternoon. An official told Fox Business Friday afternoon that the agency planned to investigate the new fee.

"On behalf of American consumers, we're concerned about Verizon's actions and are looking into the matter," an FCC official said.

Verizon quickly backed down, saying it "continues to encourage customers to take advantage of the numerous simple and convenient payment methods it provides."
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Verizon stepped on a lot of toes with this one, People probably called their Congress critters(Oopsie can't, their not in town, just like a part time Congress would be, out to lunch) and maybe their local PUCs and maybe the FCC and somehow maybe Verizon...

Good to know that Verizon may be saying Uncle. :)
 
Verizon's mistake was not following Sprint's model.

They call theirs a "SERVICE FEE" and you still get it if you use automatic payments.
 
And this is why I switched to T-mobile years ago. Better customer service, cheaper phone bill and friendly staff. Why do people keep holding onto shit companies like Verizon and AT&T, and before you call foul, I've used all three networks for enough time to know T-mobile is by far the absolute best in providing me service anywhere I am in the USA. Even when I don't get signal they let me hop onto AT&T's network (Thank you GSM) for FREE! I don't pay any fees for tethering or paying my bill at the store or on-line or from my banks bill pay feature. Also I have no contract... So, what makes others stay on their networks???
 
ebduncan said:
10 years from now your going to walk into a restaurant go to use the bath room, only to find a credit card swipe and coin deposit to pay to use the sink/toliet/paper. For the places who have stand in bathroom helpers their tip will be added to your check.
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Heh, I remember way back when stores did put dime deposits on bathroom stalls, just glad it didn't last many years. At least I was small enough to crawl under the doors then, though I'd rather not have had to.
 
Good thing they are getting rid of it. They already charge WAY more fees than are necessary, so a $2 fee on top of that is like adding insult to injury.
 
This is actually interesting to me being from Canada. The only people who have ever charged me for paying any bill online would be our equivilent of the DMV. Everyone else never charges me for paying bills online whether with Visa or otherwise. Of course here in Ontario we pay 13% tax on everything so maybe it gets eaten up in those costs. :p
 
Glad to see they've backed down. Reminds me of the BofA backlash when they announced they were going to start charging $5/mo. to use your ATM card.

ir0nw0lf said:
Those who are old enough (sorry young grasshoppers) to remember the ginormous 1980-1990's editions of the Computer Shopper will remember that way before the internet, a lot of those mail order/phone order places would have in the fine print, "Prices reflect 3% cash discount" or the like, which was the early form of a "surcharge" or "convenience fee." They got away with that for years and years. Anyone else remember that?
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Was never a big catalog/phone shopper myself, but I do remember B&M stores doing that. Technically, they didn't charge extra for plastic, but it really amounts to the same thing.
 
Verizon already had this cost built in, even I do that and don't accept nearly the volume they would. It didn't increase dramatically to my knowledge either so I have to agree charging a lot more than what it even costs to profit off the transactions was a pretty greedy move .

Having big brother looking at you is what pushed them to back pedal I am afraid.
 
why not just raise everyone's rates by 2$, that would bring in more revenue than the selective fee. Alternatively, raise the rate and then offer a discount for those who pay in full at the beginning of the contract.
 
JosiahBradley said:
And this is why I switched to T-mobile years ago. Better customer service, cheaper phone bill and friendly staff. Why do people keep holding onto shit companies like Verizon and AT&T, and before you call foul, I've used all three networks for enough time to know T-mobile is by far the absolute best in providing me service anywhere I am in the USA. Even when I don't get signal they let me hop onto AT&T's network (Thank you GSM) for FREE! I don't pay any fees for tethering or paying my bill at the store or on-line or from my banks bill pay feature. Also I have no contract... So, what makes others stay on their networks???
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Maybe tmobile will buy out my verizon contract. I'm sick of them, and they're expensive. For me and my dad 700 minutes + unlimited text my bill comes to $96. That's with a 22% discount from where I work...
 
Superfly3176 said:
Maybe tmobile will buy out my verizon contract. I'm sick of them, and they're expensive. For me and my dad 700 minutes + unlimited text my bill comes to $96. That's with a 22% discount from where I work...
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I've heard that if you call into customer support very very frequently they will terminate the contract without you being forced to pay the termination fee, because they are the ones canceling.

Unfortunately T-Mobile is going out of business, so there is really no good reason to switch. Once the stores near me close I'm going back to a pay-as-you-go phones. I don't care enough for my smart-phone to use AT&T. Verizon and Sprint don't use GSM so I can't really use them. Basically cell phone companies are dead to me.
 
qbanb8582 said:
In the US prepay hasn't quite picked like it has other places in like europe or asia. Prepay service have gotten better over the years. But with exclusives and locked down phones, most prepay phones are garbage.

Especially in this day and age where everyone wants a smartphone. Most prepay smart phones that are available in the US usually suck.
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Ashbringer said:
I recently bought a busted T-Mobile G2 from Ebay. Had to replace the digitizer and earpiece speaker.

G2 = $50
Digitizer = $20
Earpiece speaker = $4

This phone keeps up very well with modern phones in Quadrant, and cost me less then most new Android phones. I'm under contract, but I see no reason to be if I can do this.
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I'm now on Boost Mobile which is on the Sprint network. They have a few Android phones but you can flash over new Android CDMA phones to their network also.
I flashed a HTC EVO that I bought of the forums here, rooted it and it works flawlessly. Never had to re-flash it. I get everything contract customers get for $35/month.
 
JosiahBradley said:
Unfortunately T-Mobile is going out of business, so there is really no good reason to switch. Once the stores near me close I'm going back to a pay-as-you-go phones. I don't care enough for my smart-phone to use AT&T. Verizon and Sprint don't use GSM so I can't really use them. Basically cell phone companies are dead to me.
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This is so sad and so true. We are in a fucking golden age of communication and technology, and all these monopolies are driving us back to the stone age.

People are getting increasingly sick of the ridiculous abuses we suffer with expensive data/voice/text plans and caps, and we're becoming disgusted with smart phones because of it. We're using our high-tech products less and less because the things we can do with them are constantly being more limited and more costly.

These monopolies are raking in huge profits from merely owning a network. Let the government own maintain the networks like they do the roads, and force companies to compete on them. The telecom market is anything but free; even the most hardened corporate lapdogs can see that.
 
Best believe that I would not mind to pay the early cancellation fee because of this. It's about the point of what they are doing that I will not support. Fucking greedy bastards.
 
Obviously this fee has been retracted, but the charge was/is just a way to gouge the customer. I work for a telecom and they charge some customers for paying at payment kiosks in the stores (and it's more than what Verizon charges). They do that and charge activation fees, because you, the customer, are willing to pay it. If you let them, Telecoms (and for that matter Airlines) will continue to shaft you. And why wouldn't they. Customers generally seem quite willing to take down their pants and bend over.
 
I guess this year's favorite government agency, if there is such as thing, goes to the FCC. They nixed the AT&T T-Mobile merger and seemed to have helped with this. Amazing though in an era with ALL of this hatred of big government how we STILL seem to pull for it when want it to do battle against big corporations.
 
I signed the petition yesterday, check out change.org

They successfully eliminated that lousy $5 BOA fee and perhaps, with enough support, they can force a turn around on this one too.
 
Superfly3176 said:
Maybe tmobile will buy out my verizon contract. I'm sick of them, and they're expensive. For me and my dad 700 minutes + unlimited text my bill comes to $96. That's with a 22% discount from where I work...
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The most anyone can do is along the lines of a mail in rebate or a phased in credit when switching. An out right buyout was banned when number porting went into effect, obviously to keep companies from poaching each others customers on every new deal that comes along.
 
complexx said:
I signed the petition yesterday, check out change.org

They successfully eliminated that lousy $5 BOA fee and perhaps, with enough support, they can force a turn around on this one too.
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Perhaps you should get your news from somewhere other than [H], like a real news site where you can see updates and such.

Verizon announced that they've cancelled the service charge yesterday afternoon.
 
complexx said:
I signed the petition yesterday, check out change.org

They successfully eliminated that lousy $5 BOA fee and perhaps, with enough support, they can force a turn around on this one too.
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complexx said:
http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-verizon-drop-the-fee-for-paying-bills-online
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I'm not giving some random strangers my complete name, address, phone number and all in order for them to pass on second handed information about how I feel......

I call VZW direct and told them no way no how that I would find a way to cost them at least $2 in some other way to make up for it. I have unlimited data on two lines that I rarely use over a few Gb total with. We can change that. I can start setting up a free wireless hotspot on my phone. I can change to paper billing and mail them a check and make them pay to process things that way. Lots of things I can do. One thing I won't do is give that change.org website what they are asking for because they don't deserve it.
 
WorldExclusive said:
I'm now on Boost Mobile which is on the Sprint network. They have a few Android phones but you can flash over new Android CDMA phones to their network also.
I flashed a HTC EVO that I bought of the forums here, rooted it and it works flawlessly. Never had to re-flash it. I get everything contract customers get for $35/month.
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Got news for ya. It may not happen all the time, but customers on those second tier networks usually get less priority on the towers. If things are not at capacity, it won't matter. The 4G secondary market has already been announced by some resellers but at very much gimped speeds compared to a contract customer. Existing networks will give contract paying customers the priority on the network if it gets taxed hard. Like if something huge happens and the nations cell networks are getting hammered, people on second tier network plans probably won't be able to use their phone at all.

That's speculation, mixed with some facts and some opinion so take it as such. But there is a reason second tier resellers cost less. Don't be naive enough to think you get exactly the same thing for $35/mo.
 
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