In the latest example of a corporation trying to nickel and dime its customers, the telecom giant has announced a new “$2 payment convenience fee” for people who, well, want to pay their bill.
Basically if you are the kind of person who can’t commit to auto-paying your phone bill and like to pay online or on your phone, well, your bill is going to be going up two bucks a month starting on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, January 15.
Yeah, there are ways to go month-to-month without incurring the fee—electronic check, a Verizon gift card, paper check in the mail, or paying in person at a Verizon store — but if you want to pay your bill online or on your phone, well, be ready to part with two hundred pennies.
So, why is Verizon doing this? According to Big Red, “The fee will help allow us to continue to support these single bill payment options in these channels [the still free options] and is designed to address costs incurred by us for only those customers who choose to make single bill payments in alternate payment channels (online, mobile, telephone).”
So…basically Verizon (which is not exactly in the poor house) found a place where they could wring out a few extra pennies and is doing just that. What comes after this? Fees for accessing more than 100 cell towers in a month?
Verizon needs no discussion or approval to add or increase fees?
UPDATE: Verizon caved.
The guy in the pix should know, he is a Mets fan…
sorry, couldn’t resist. Me neighbor is also a Mets fan and I feel bad for him every year.
Don’t MC and Visa have in there contract they can not charge extra for paying with credit/debit cards?
Yes
That’s why the airlines started calling it a “convenience” fee instead of a credit card use fee. You know, a rose by another name – only just the thorns.
But, isn’t paying on line LESS expensive than processing a paper check or handling a walk-in bill payer? I’d be curious to see what percentage of their customers pay on line.
I’m reminded of some airline companies who added a “convenience” fee for paying with a credit card when they know that something like 90% of their customers pay by credit card. On other words, it was not a convenience fee but a fare increase.
If this trend continues, I may have to start carrying my checkbook around, again.
I think a lot of the problem, what I am seeing these days, is a lot of people, (at least those who are awake) do not trust autopay, paying online, or giving their number out on the phone..and for good reason. In my small town a popular Italian restaurant just closed because of a compromise with a their computer and theft of credit card numbers. 150 people now have to deal with ID Theft and threatening to sue the business…they shut their doors.
Keep your friends close, your CC numbers closer.
What about a fee (reversal) for my time tracking down the overcharges and mistakes on a bill, or a tech problem. Be it Verizon, Dish Network, software and/ or hardware support…etc. My time means NOTHING to these people. If they make a mistake, I’m supposed to swallow the sincere apology:
“I’m sorry sir that you are experiencing these problems, let me transfer you over to our technical services moron, who will proceed to waste more of your valuable time, ask you the exact same questions I just did, and by the way, Engrish is his 5th language, so please be patient and thank you for being a valued blah blah blah customer, oh and by the way did you know that most of your stupid questions are addressed on our website yadda yadda yadda”
But I digress.
My least favorite phrase: Your call is important to us, please stay on the line…
My call is so important they send it overseas where they have two people manning 10 lines.
Time to occupy bullshit corporate tricks street.
They do this because they can. Do you think that they would continue if even 10% of their customers walked? But you would all rather complain than do anything (other than complain). Hey, at least they use the proceeds to pay for the tea party!
My father is on contract with verizon and I don’t think he can leave until the contract expires. He has already expressed that he wishes to no longer be on contract when this one is up so they may lose him entirely soon.
I don’t know if this will trip the payment changes clause in these contracts or not. If so, he may just be able to leave early without penalty. Let’s hope so.
You’d have to check but this may constitute a change in service which means he can end his contract without penalty.
But ATT is no better, and just as many will switch to Verizon this year.
This is the beauty of unregulated utilities. If you’re a CEO.
Please use your brain and stop humiliating yourself in public.
Verizon is one of the very few ultra wealthy organizations with the cash to bribe…um “lobby” both Congress and the White House; both parties of course. As such they are party neutral. In fact it is most likely fair to say that the partisan twaddle you push is totally beneath them. They don’t need to worry about which party is in power because they pay off, excuse me, “lobby” both.
Of course the Party in power gets the most as checking income for Democrats in Congress goes up when they are in power while that of Republicans goes down and of course income for Republicans feel sharply right after the last Presidential election then rose sharply after the Democrats lost all those seats.
Of course you did already know this didn’t you? If so why are you still loudly proclaiming your status as a door mat?
This will be dropped when people send in paper checks again just to say F U. People are getting sick of this kind of crap. It didn’t work with Bank of America or more recently when GoDaddy supported SOPA. This will fail and people will like Verizon less and less. Would be nice to see another player in the mobile field that can compete against ATT and Verizon.
Competition would be good but they already own all the bandwidth. Our extremely astute leaders sold it to them.
Actually, I think they leased it.
Write out the check, fold in in thirds along with the bill statement place it in an envelope, add any flyers or promotional material that was sent with the original bill. TAPE the envelope with satin finish Scotch tape taking care to cover the corners.
For extra fun, tape or staple the check to the bill statement.
This will greatly increase the processing time of your bill and will cost Verizon more then $2 in labor costs.
Better yet, pay your bill in change and mail it to them in their postage paid envelope. The weight will make the postage more than $2.
I’ve decided to charge Verizon $4.99 to cover my monthly cost of paying them.
send them a box of rocks C.O.D.
So they’re dropping the charge now, but was it because of the public outrage or the FCC threatening to investigate? I refuse to believe it was a “Oh Shit – somebody noticed” reaction.
I wage Verizon won’t proved any data on exactly what percentage of its costumers actually autopay, compared to single pay. I’m betting the vast majority don’t allow Verizon to tap their bank accounts, every month. So Verizon would be charging $2 for doing business as usual, for the largest percent of subscribers. While cutting a break for the rich, who don’t care what ride Verizon takes them on. They can’t be bothered to deal with paper bills, every month. They make far more money, a minute, than the phone bill amounts to. So their time is worth more than any billing mistake Verizon might make. So yeah, don’t squeeze Donald Trump for an extra $2. Just the average poor and middle class subscribers. Make sense?
Glenn, you are right. They will add on the nickle and dime charges at every opportunity. Things like a few extra overtime minutes billed, roaming charges when you were not roaming, $4.99 “premium” text messages that they are notorious for, equipment insurance that was not ordered, double bank drafts, etc. Always get a paper bill via US snail mail and pay via money order with these turkeys. Or pay cash at the local Verizon store and GET A RECEIPT. They have been known to run checks twice thru the billing system. I dumped Verizon shortly after Cingular got GSM service. I chose Verizon’s predecessor, Primeco, instead of Sprint when I got my first digital cell phone. Primeco was not very good.