Carriers
Verizon to fleece customers with $2 ‘convenience’ charge for paying their bills
December 29, 2011 | by Charles West
Verizon
Switching out of paper billing has quickly become the trendy thing to do, especially with companies pushing folks to opt out in favor of e-bills (electronic billing). This worked for a lot of people (including myself) who believed it was not only convenient, but good for the environment. Well, starting in 2012, Verizon will be charging a $2 convenience fee for customers who pay online or by phone, according to Droid-Life. This impending charge is set to go in effect January 15, so everyone who chooses to pay your monthly bill using either method will incur a $2 charge. Sounds ridiculous, right?
Big Red in the document also claims that the fee allows them, “to continue to support these bill payment options.” This is obviously a money grab by VZ, as if its service wasn’t expensive enough. When did paying either online or over the phone become such a huge a convenience to the point of charging for it? There are a few ways to bypass this fatuous $2 fee, including mailing an old-fashioned check, money order, paying by electronic check (ACH), automatic monthly payments (AutoPay), through your online bank, or in-store using My Verizon Express. You can also pester the store representatives, whipping out that gift card you got for the holidays.
People are growing tired of being hoodwinked by either their cell phone provider, cable company or bank for that matter (ahem, Bank of America). Lets all hope Verizon changes its mind before the new fee goes into effect.
UPDATE: Verizon in its News Center has confirmed that it’s adding the $2 convenience charge for paying your bill online or over the phone.
Source: Droid-Life, via Geek.com
[...] Comments [...]
I wonder if this could be grounds to cancel my contract.
the funny part is if you sign up for auto pay, you don't have to pay the $2 charge and you'll probably start avoiding a $5 late fee charge… As a former Verizon employee, it's funny to me that the people who will have to pay this $2 fee are also the ones who never pay their bill on time. They already give an extra $5 a month b/c they can't pay their bill on time… $2 more isn't going to matter to them.
As a Verizon user, and IT worker I find this ridiculous. By not having to send a statement and use the paper and supplies to print the statements they are already saving the money to use towards the web-interface. Also Kevin I think you are dead wrong. Alot of customers pay online because they want to, avoid dealing with the idiots at the Verizon Store, Deal with having to write a check or find another method of payment to send through the mail, Have gone a little tree huger and want to stop using paper. I am all 3. I pay my bill on time, as do most of the people I know who are on Verizon. Most pay their bill online. I had some friends who didn't pay their bills on time, they would pay by walking into the store. Thus I believe your second section of your post is misguided and just plain wrong. This is all however why in our company we refer to Verizon as "The Evil Doers".
Ummm, it’s been all over the news for the past 2 days that Verizon has changed their mind about charging this fee. You guys are pretty cutting edge, no?