Verizon Backtracks On $2 Convenience Fee

Velcroman1 writes with a followup to yesterday's news that Verizon would be implementing a $2 'convenience fee' for certain online and phone-based bill payments. In addition to dealing with outrage from customers, Verizon also felt resistance from the Federal Communications Commission, who decided they would investigate the matter. Today, in a brief press release, Verizon announced that they've canceled their plans for the new fee in response to customer feedback.

Comments

Don't you love asshats

[Anonymous Coward]

That charge you for the privilege of paying your damn bill! GAHHHH!!!!!

Re:Don't you love asshats

[Anonymous Coward]

Really it was just a thinly veiled attempt to force customers onto their auto-pay system because if you switched to auto-pay they waived the fee.

Re:Don't you love asshats

[mysidia]

you are permitted to charge a fee for a credit transaction

You can charge lots of fees, but you may not charge a fee for using a credit card, or you would be in violation of Visa and Mastercard guidelines, and subject to losing your privilege of processing MC/Visa, if your violation were reported by your customers:

From Mastercard credit card acceptance guidelines

Charges to cardholders. A merchant may not directly or indirectly require a cardholder to pay a surcharge or any part of the merchant processing fees charged in connection with a transaction. However, fees are allowable if they are charged regardless of the form of the payment, and merchants can provide a cash discount.

Minimum/maximum transaction amount prohibited. A merchant may not require, or indicate that it requires, a minimum or maximum transaction amount in order to accept a valid and properly presented MasterCard.

Re:Don't you love asshats

[speculatrix]

Dear Verizon,
From 1st January I will be charging you for $2 for reading the bills you send me and making the payments on time, this is a convenience fee to you as it means you will not have to chase me for late payment.

I am also charging you a fee of $10 for writing this letter to inform you of the change. If you wish to call me and discuss it, I will charge $50 per hour for the discussion, or $30 for reading any letters you send and replying to them.

love
a customer

Re:Don't you love asshats

[antifoidulus]

Yeah, which gives them plenty of opportunities to gouge you with either erroneous fees or overages that they hope you will not notice. That was the real motivation.

Re:Don't you love asshats

[Fnord666]

It seems you're correct. If that's the case, there are literally hundreds of convenience stores and gas stations around here that are violating their merchant agreements. Maybe I ought to make a weekend event out of reporting as many of them as I can to VISA...

I ask the merchant if they are allowed to charge a % fee for using a credit card. When they say that they can, get them to itemize it on the bill of sale. Once you have that, dispute the fee with your credit card company and get them to reverse that part of the transaction. Worked every time so far.

Re:Don't you love asshats

[Renraku]

Auto-pay is hilarious. All my friends have had trouble with it but continue to use it. "Oops, my mistake!" they say after they plunder your bank account for $500 because they billed it multiple times. "Here's your $500 back, less the bill you owed..and you're still in the red because your bank hit you with a couple of overdraft charges!"

Big Red Will Still Get Their 2 bucks

[greyline]

They may have backtracked on this "convenience fee", but Verizon will still get their $2 from their customers, just not as obviously.

great

[larry bagina]

I have not canceled my offer for them to lick my asshole.

And...

[Pharmboy]

...they will no doubt try to make themselves looks a hero for not screwing us over by adding that charge. Yes, us. I was already looking at other carriers, only for the principle of charging us more for costing them less.

This is as bad as when the phone company charged $4 a month for "touch tone service" when it actually costs them less to provide it than to deal with pulse dialing.

Re:And...

[Obfuscant]

This is as bad as when the phone company charged $4 a month for "touch tone service" when it actually costs them less to provide it than to deal with pulse dialing.

Back when this was a regular charge, it did cost more to provide touch tone dialing. They had to add the DTMF-to-pulse decoders to existing systems. About the time that the old step-by-step hardware was replaced by something more modern (crossbar) and the pulse decoding became the more expensive part, the special charge for DTMF was removed.

Saw This Coming

[kaellinn18]

When are these idiots going to realize that bullshit charges like this aren't going to fly anymore? First Bank of America with their ridiculous ATM card fee and now Verizon with this. Consumers are finally waking up, and they're tired of what basically amounts to theft.

Not the first time they've pulled this shit

[ArchieBunker]

Years ago when the FUSF telecom fee expired (to pay for the 1898 Spanish American War) Verizon decided to introduce a new fee that somehow just randomly was the same value as the old federal fee. They backed down pretty quick once the feds got involved but for christ sakes like John Stewart said "BE A PERSON".

Re:Why all the hostility against a la carte pricin

[dgatwood]

Yes. This fee screws the people who can least afford it. People who pay their bill online or by phone on a one-off basis are usually the people who are struggling to pay that bill at all. By charging those folks an extra fee, Verizon basically said, "Screw the poor." To which I say, "Screw Verizon."

Sure, those folks pose a higher risk of non-payment. That doesn't mean Verizon has the right to discriminate against them, and it certainly doesn't mean Verizon is justified in charging them extra fees that increase the risk of non-payment. They're basically starting to act like credit card companies, and need to be dealt with in the same way that we dealt with them—with harsh federal regulations that punish such behavior. It's really the only way to deal with companies that are so big that they feel unthreatened by competition.