Friday, December 30, 2011

Verizon Wireless to charge customers $2 when they pay bills online or by phone - The Washington Post

Verizon Wireless to charge customers $2 when they pay bills online or by phone - The Washington Post: "By Paul Miller | The Verge, Published: December 29

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/verizon-to-charge-customers-2-when-they-pay-bills-online-or-by-phone/2011/12/29/gIQAUaBqOP_story.html?wpisrc=nl_tech

Well, it's true. Verizon has confirmed to us that it's adding the $2 convenience fee for paying your bill online or over the phone, and has posted a blurb in its News Center detailing the options available to someone who wants to avoid it.

Obviously many customers use AutoPay, which avoids this hassle entirely, but we're sure there will be plenty of customers frustrated by the fee when it goes live on January 15th.

What's unclear right now is if this constitutes a change in contract terms, which could potentially allow unsatisfied customers to hop off Verizon without a spendy ETF penalty.

We've asked Verizon to clarify, and we also asked for some more details on exactly why online and robo-phone payments are more expensive to process than the "free" options they list — you know, the ones where you pay Verizon money, but don't pay for the privilege." http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/verizon-to-charge-customers-2-when-they-pay-bills-online-or-by-phone/2011/12/29/gIQAUaBqOP_story.html?wpisrc=nl_tech

'via Blog this'

http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/2011/12/verizon-wireless-to-charge-customers-2.html

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Verizon Preps New $2 Convenience Fee:

Verizon Faces Backlash Over Fees, Outages

http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2011/12/29/verizon_preps_new_2_convenience_fee.html?from=rss/&wpisrc=newsletter_slatest

Company blames network glitches on "growing pains," says more are possible.

By Josh Voorhees and Will Oremus | Posted Friday, Dec. 30, 2011

"UPDATE: The last week of the year has not been a good one for Verizon.

Not only is it dealing with an Internet backlash over its new convenience fees, but it vaunted 4G data network suffered its third outage of the month. In an interview with the tech blog GigaOm, a top company official blamed the spotty service on "growing pains."" http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2011/12/29/verizon_preps_new_2_convenience_fee.html?from=rss/&wpisrc=newsletter_slatest

'via Blog this'

More Update:

Verizon Drops Plan for $2 Fee on Some Bill Payments

By BRIAN X. CHEN and RON LIEBER

| December 30, 2011

In a remarkably swift reversal, Verizon Wireless has canceled plans to impose a $2 “convenience fee” on some bill payments, just a day after announcing thenew policy.

The company said in a statement that it was dropping the plan in light of customer feedback.

“Verizon Wireless has decided it will not institute the fee for online or telephone single payments that was announced earlier this week,” it said. “The company made the decision in response to customer feedback about the plan, which was designed to improve the efficiency of those transactions. The company continues to encourage customers to take advantage of the numerous simple and convenient payment methods it provides.”

Objections to the fee came fast and furious... http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/30/verizon-backtracks-on-plan-for-2-convenience-fee/

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