Verizon To Charge Online Bill Payers $2 "Convenience Fee"
Verizon To Charge Online Bill Payers $2 "Convenience Fee"
Posted 12/29/2011 at 12:05pm
| by Brad Chacos
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December hasn’t been the best month for Verizon Wireless customers. First, the company’s 4G data networks have been acting up (and dropping out) seemingly every other day, and if that wasn’t enough of an inconvenience, now there’s this interesting tidbit: after years of encouraging customers to pay their cellular bills online, Verizon has pulled an abrupt 180-degree turn and now plans to charge customers a $2 “Convenience Fee” (doublespeak alert!) if they pay online or over the phone. Yep, starting January 15th, the priciest cellular option around is getting a wee bit pricier.
Users can sidestep the extra charges if they sign up for a monthly automatic withdrawal, or if they pay using a gift card or a paper/electronic check rather than a credit or debit card. It makes sense that Verizon wants to firm up its income by arranging automatic withdrawals for as many customers as possible, but charging users who don’t use the service an extra fee just seems utterly ridiculous, especially on top of the company’s expensive plans. Droid Life broke the news with a leaked memo that outlined the plans, and they’ve posted screenshots (like the one above) of the documents on their website, if you’re interested in reading fine print.
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DasHellMutt
December 30, 2011 at 3:36pm
Can someone please explain to my why anyone uses Verizon? They're overpriced, they cripple and modify their phones, they have all sorts of shady business practices, and everyone I have ever known who used them, at one point or another, got screwed by billing errors the company refused to fix.
As if all of that wasn't enough, their network isn't any better. I used to travel all over the southeastern US for work, often in quite remote areas. I had AT&T at the time. Generally whoever I was traveling with would have either Sprint or Verizon. We also had a Nextel company phone. In my experience, Nextel always dropped first but had the best call quality if it had any signal at all. Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T would almost always drop out at right around the same time as we got farther away from a major population center. AT&T had a nasty habit of dropping calls even with several bars of signal which was a large part of why I ditched them for sprint.
The customer service and pricing between AT&T and Sprint were basically the same. I have also had Nextel and their customer service was second to none before they were aquired by Sprint. It went down hill a bit after that. Everything I've heard from Verizon customers about their customer service has been universally bad. And who wants their crippled phones and high prices?
I just really don't get why so many people are hung up on Verizon when they don't seem to have any advantage over the other major carriers. They just keep screwing you. Why do you stay?
kixofmyg0t
December 30, 2011 at 5:08pm
Ummm it's pretty simple. They have an awesome selection of phones and I've never been in a place where I wasn't covered. Hell I still had service when I took my BB Storm2 back to Germany for a few months.
I work in the southeasten US and my co-workers with AT&T and Sprint always have crappy service whereas I always had good signal. Hell I live 40 MILES AWAY from a LTE city and I still get strong LTE.
Budman_NC
December 30, 2011 at 1:27pm
@CNNMoney reports Verizon Wireless said it will scrap proposed $2 fee for 1-time payments, citing 'customer feedback'
Biceps
December 30, 2011 at 3:02pm
Verizon's retraction should read something like this: "We have decided that, due to customer feedback, we probably shouldn't have been quite so honest and up front about how we planned to bend you over this holiday season. In the future, we will simply continue our practice of 'accidentally' overcharging you for random things that make no sense and just hope you don't catch it. This has worked well for us in the past. All of us at Verizon would like to thank you profusely for lubing up properly before receiving your next bill, and for understanding that the fact that it will be for exactly $2 more than your last bill has absolutely nothing to do with our failed 'convenience' tax."
firefox91
December 30, 2011 at 8:29am
Honestly, I thought they were already charging this fee. I always pay online via e-check anyway so this doesn't affect me. But this does suck for the people that pay their bills with a credit card for the purpose of getting more cashback points. One thing is for sure, if they require me to pay via auto-pay to avoid the fee, there will be hell to pay. I do not do auto-pay for anything. All it takes is 1 company automatically pulling the wrong amount at the wrong time for all your stuff to go down hill. I know someone this happened to. He cancelled a service but they still auto-pulled a payment which bounced everything down the line.
riopato
December 30, 2011 at 3:03am
This kind of bs is why people didn't want the at&t / tmobile merger to happen. We didn't stop a company like Verizon from being the lumbering giant it is but at least we can help prevent another lumbering giant is from forming!
Wingzero_x
December 30, 2011 at 2:19am
Well they have to get us to pay for those welfare phones. After all in this country even if you can't afford a luxury, you still need it, and somebody has to pay.
Hg Dragon
December 30, 2011 at 2:01am
Hey, can I get an "inconvenience fee" for having to use their website in the first place? I swear, I hate the My Verizon site so much. It's a battle every time I try to log in. Sometimes it won't let me, but I try again with the exact same credentials, and it lets me in. Then, sometimes my account logs in as a "sub account" and it won't let me do things like view/pay my bill, which is why I'm logging in to the damned site in the first place. Log out, log back in (again, the same credentials...) and all of a sudden everything is working just fine.
I usually fight my way through their website support team over this mess two or three times a year and it never, ever gets completely fixed.
I cannot express how much I hate the My Verizon site.
MaxPCreader123
December 30, 2011 at 10:33am
25% of the time the website just locked up for me, no matter the browser. The site was so annoying I eventually changed my password to something like "yourwebsite scks". A few months later, I got a personal email from a Verizon employee telling me that I needed to change my password, but didn't provide an explanation. Did they not like my password? If so, who has the time to read people's passwords? I ignored the request, and a few days later was blocked from logging in ('Contact customer service.').
That's okay, I'll just call them everytime I need to do one of my frequent ESN changes, eating up more of their reps'. time.
optionboy16
December 30, 2011 at 1:02am
E-tickets from airlines are free, but if you wanted a paper ticket, it was like an extra $75? If I book a trip on the phone, they charge me an additional $25, but if I do it online it's free? Remember when Ticketmaster let you print tickets for free? They said it "lowers overhead, is better for the enviroment, and takes away from paying people to be on the phones". Now, when I buy a $20 dollar ticket to a rock concert online, and USE MY OWN GOD DAMN INK AND PAPER, they charge ME for the "convenience"!!! That $20 ticket just became $25.00. A QUARTER OF THE ENTIRE TICKET. It's only a matter of time before other companys do this. God Bless Pearl Jam for playing free shows instead of going with Ticketmaster who charged up to 30% for "service fees". Unfortanatley, they would lose in the end to their monopoly. We have to take the power back.
warptek2010
December 29, 2011 at 10:26pm
They can go ahead and call a "convenience" fee or whatever they like... it's a surcharge, it's a tax... it's a fee.
Now, add that new fee and look at all the others at the bottom of your phone bill... FCC surcharge, Federal excise tax, etc... everybody has their hand out when you pay a utility. Verizon has both hands out.
Holly Golightly
December 29, 2011 at 10:32pm
January 26th, 2012 at 12 o'clock in the midnight is when my contract with them expires... I will see to it that I will never do business with them. My phone bill is always over $250 a month! I have a family plan, but still, none of us even use the phone that much to pay for such a premium price. I am looking at Skype right now. $6 a month, and unlimited calling? What an attractive deal!
I-miss-MaximumTech-like-alot...
win7fanboi
December 29, 2011 at 3:24pm
as per Wikipedia : The network has 107.7 million subscribers as of 2011.
even if 50% of the users pay 2$ a month, that's, a neat 107 mil in Verizon's pocket. Next up, 5$ charge for visiting their store and using their a/c during summer.
livebriand
December 29, 2011 at 3:01pm
OK, this AND how they snoop in on what sites you visit for advertising purposes, and Carrier IQ... I am really considering leaving. I've had it with them.
ApathyCurve
December 29, 2011 at 2:47pm
In other words, they need more cash on hand to make emergency repairs to their 4G network. You know, the one that goes up and down more often than a New Orleans streetwalker.
Seriously, though; this is a common tactic to offset credit card processing fees. All fees and taxes eventually sink down to the bottom of the shithouse -- that would be where you and I, the consumers, reside. I'll just pay the fee and continue using my credit card. There are two reasons for that: 1) because I take issue with giving any corporation a direct feeding tube into my bank account; 2) I pay for everything on Amex, because if I have an issue of any kind, they'll put a stop payment on any charge at my first request, no questions asked. That's saved me a lot of money over the years.
kixofmyg0t
December 29, 2011 at 2:59pm
New Orleans street walkers go down 5 times in a whole year? Even when used by millions of people? Wow they get crappy bussiness.
Ur complaining about a network thats been up for only a year....yet has had a collective downtime of 136 hours....for the entire year?
Trekker1091
December 29, 2011 at 2:12pm
For when they start losing customers because of the fee: Hey Verizon, CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW???? No? Well then thats good, because I just swittched to [insert carrier of choice here]!"
spoonard
December 29, 2011 at 12:58pm
The people banded together and stopped Bank of America from charging their extra fees on debit cards. Why don't we do the same for this? Oh yeah, because we are locked into a contract. We CAN'T just pull out and go to another carrier. But hey, at least you got your iPhone, right?
I Jedi
December 29, 2011 at 1:23pm
Actually, if the contract specifies that if an extra surcharge is created, members CAN opt out of their contracts if they want. At least, when I signed up for Sprint, it was in my contract details. Anyone with a Verizon contract, who is upset about this two dollar charge, might be able to opt out.
jnwoll
December 30, 2011 at 7:35am
There is a strong chance you won't be able to opt out as they are giving you another way of paying. Convienent, huh? Best we can hope for is massive backlash in the same vein as getting banks to fold on their fees.
someone87
December 29, 2011 at 2:20pm
Or just use the more expensive mail payment option, or the free auto payment.
If people don't like it they can go somewhere else. Just like every other service offered.
phroderick
December 29, 2011 at 12:46pm
Qwest did the same thing about a year before they were bought by CenturyLink. I responded by switching from electronic to paper billing and paying by check. This resulted in a net loss for Qwest since paper billing and payment processing are more expensive. If only I could have found a way to tell their stock holders (and other customers) the potential mess that Qwest management's action had opened up.
jesse_n_sf
December 29, 2011 at 12:40pm
Guys, it's not the $2 that is the issue, it is the thought behind it that we don't like. I would like to charge verizon $2 for being their customer.
kixofmyg0t
December 29, 2011 at 12:23pm
Jesus Christ people its $2 not $200.
But noone should be surprised by this. Verizon has been publicly quoted saying they want to be "the most profitable" wireless carrier.
HeartBurnKid
December 29, 2011 at 5:01pm
$2 here, $1 there... sooner or later, it adds up to real money.
Biceps
December 29, 2011 at 3:27pm
The fact that companies (especially large companies) are nickle-and-diming their customers in a time when most workers have seen either no growth or negative growth in their wages doesn't sit well with me or with most people. It shows that Verizon is out of touch with not only their customers, but that they are out of touch with what is going on in the world today.
I'm with T-Mobile right now, and if they pulled this, I would leave them the same day and let them know why. Vote with your dollar, it is the only vote that is even getting counted anymore.
Budman_NC
December 29, 2011 at 1:17pm
$2 might not be much to you, but for those of us counting our pennies, every dollar adds up quick. This is outrageous. I'm so glad my family hasn't gotten caught up in all this having to have the latest/greatest tech gadgets just to make a friggin' mobile phone call. Must be nice to just piss away $100 or $200 dollars a month on a friggin' cell phone.
kixofmyg0t
December 29, 2011 at 2:29pm
$2 isnt much period. Not just to me but in general. What can you buy with $2? Maybe a bottle of Mountain dew....or a pack of gum.....or a "value" cheeseburger thats about it. You are right it DOES add up.....but it takes a YEAR to make anything useful. Seriously if $24 a year is gonna break the bank stop having 37 kids or buying dumb stuff you dont need.
So MY Verizon bill is gonna go up from $225.98 to $227.98.....
ZOMG NOES!
Actually its not gonna go up at all since I use autopay anyway.
Kinetic
December 29, 2011 at 6:03pm
It isn't about the amount of money so much as the reasoning behind the charge. Mainly that there isn't any; like other have said, it costs them more to mail you a bill and process a check, so "convince" charges are bs.
Why argue in favor of it? Do you get anything out of it, or do you just not want your money? Sure it isn't much in small doses, but it's still $96 over a two year contract period.
kixofmyg0t
December 29, 2011 at 10:52pm
$96??
$2 a month.
12 months in a year.
2 years in a contract.
2 x 12= $24 per year
24 x 2 = $48 is the maximun possible they can charge you this fee in a given 2 year contract.
Where the hell did you learn math? West Virginia?
MrHasselblad
December 30, 2011 at 10:50am
Nothing quite like another judgemental american (purposely uncapped) comment...
Coming from the same country that invaded Iraq; a country that had literally nothing to do with 9/11. Let's march a few more thousand americans to their death (all for nothing), and bomb countless innocent women and children in Iraq.
How's that math adding up for you america?
kixofmyg0t
December 30, 2011 at 2:23pm
Am I supposed to be offended that you didnt cap "american"?
Been to Iraq twice, never got orders to fire on women and children. So since you were never actually there I dont see how you can claim to even begin to know what ur talking about. Go back to ur tree hugging hippy fag friends in antarctica and keep sucking whale dong. You malingering loafer.
Kinetic
December 30, 2011 at 7:26am
I may have botched my math by multiplying the $48 total charge by two again -which yeah, was pretty foolish of me- but at least I'm not the one arguing in favor of giving my phone company more of my money for literally no reason.
What does make me the bigger idiot though is even attempting to argue this with you in the first place; I don't even have Verizon and if people like you could be reasoned with companies wouldn't get away with this crap to begin with.
Justify the charge however you want, even if you get around it now with auto-deductions its only a matter of time before you start getting charged too.
kixofmyg0t
December 30, 2011 at 2:25pm
Oh. Hmmm where did I mention that I support Verizon charging this fee? Did I ever actually say I support it?
Nopes. You missed my point entirely. Good Job.
tekknyne
December 29, 2011 at 3:03pm
$2 doesnt seem like much, but verizon if verizon can rape ppl on like this, next thing you know they've made a few million off the venture. That's a few million sitting in the bank account of the 1% and a few million that isn't circulating in our economy helping out yourself and your fellow Americans.
So I guess what I'm getting at is, if you're ignorant, $2 is $2. If you excercise any part of your brain that's associated with critical thinking, you would realize that this is a terrible business practice and has much greater implications.
lostcause64
December 29, 2011 at 12:50pm
It's $2 this month for Verizon and the same $3.50 for paying my electric bill under the same "convenience" fee BS. And which company is going to be next? I know $2 isn't much, but where does it end? If it works for them now, why not $3 the following year? Or $4 for new subscribers or $5 for month to month customers? Again, where does it end? Crap service from AT&T or "fee'd" to death by Verizon = No win scenario...
std error
December 29, 2011 at 12:16pm
Next year's story will be $2 fee for automatic withdrawals. But you can sidestep the fee by handing over your first-born to Verizon as an indentured servant!
Seriously though, people should vote with their cash and not renew contracts. If you are in the middle of your contract you should be outraged. Theoretically they can raise the fee up to the point where the cancellation fee is $1 more than the present value sum of all "convenience fees" over the life of the contract so that it would still make sense to stick with them....
someone87
December 29, 2011 at 2:18pm
Amen.
If you don't like it, go somewhere else, and then the fee doesn’t matter to you at all.
I have thought about switching my phone (and my wife's phone) to Sprint from Verizon. 180$ a month is expensive for 2 Android phones....
But then again, the service is good (never had an outage of any kind), I have unlimited data, and I like their phone selection.
But we all have choices, and come renewal, I may switch.
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