[Veltliner]

After Bank of America crashed with its debit card fee, Verizon is the next corporation to charge a rip-off fee.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/30/bu...y-verizon.html

You have to pay, even if you pay with your online bank account.

Check payments are still free. Now this makes sense: go back to outdated payment method.

Verizon will feel the heat!

[subego]

They're also changing their name to Qwikster.

[FireWire]

Yeah, enroll in an automatic payment and get your payment refused because you didn't have enough funds or get charged a NSF fee, really brillant Verizon! It's like the ticket payment system of the City of Montréal.. if you call an employee to pay your ticket, it's free. But if you pay it from their website, you get charged a "convenience fee".. I doubt a web server costs more than a physical employee!

[BadKosh]

With Verizon being such dicks, I think I'll be a prick right back and make them 'fix' any pixilation issues, swap my box, and re-do all the crap from their local distribution point to my house. I wonder how many times I can make them come out per month. Maybe 2 dollars worth?

[The Godfather]

That's worth a 2-year contract cancellation with no termination fee. Subsidized iPhone there I go.
You can start going to the Verizon brick and mortar office an pay with a sock of pennies.

[Eriamjh]

That's a good point. If they implement this fee, that is a change in your contract terms. Anyone with a Verizon phone can terminate without paying the fee.

It's like when Sprint raised the price of texting.

[andi*pandi]

If I hadn't already switched to autopay, I'd be pretty annoyed by this. I still think it's pretty stupid, I mean they want us to use paperless (saves them money) and autopay also must save them some money, what they should offer is an incentive to use it, not a penalty for not using it.

[ort888]

Originally Posted by The Godfather 

That's worth a 2-year contract cancellation with no termination fee. Subsidized iPhone there I go.
You can start going to the Verizon brick and mortar office an pay with a sock of pennies.

A coordinated effort to have lots of people go to the stores with sacks of loose pennies might get the message across.

[Big Mac]

Originally Posted by BadKosh 

With Verizon being suck dicks

I've sometimes wondered if using that sort of pejorative is offensive to people who actually do perform said sexual act. Way back when I was speaking to a coworker who I suspected could be homosexual, and I impulsively called a mutual nemesis a cock-sucker. I wondered if that could have been offensive to my friend though, and I try hard not to use such language anymore in general. Not trying to derail this thread.

[The Final Dakar]

I really don't understand a world where a person thinks you should pay a fee for the privilege of completing a transaction that benefits said person.

But I guess that's what makes me a dirty socialist.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by FireWire 

It's like the ticket payment system of the City of Montréal.. if you call an employee to pay your ticket, it's free. But if you pay it from their website, you get charged a "convenience fee".. I doubt a web server costs more than a physical employee!

Politically motivated jobs program?

[Big Mac]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

But I guess that's what makes me a dirty socialist.

Hey, don't be so hard on yourself Dakar. The slur dirty socialist is reserved for those who deserve it. From what I've seen you're center-left at worst.

Charging a convenience fee for online payments is scummy. But at least it's not as bad as AT&T willfully refusing to unlock iPhones as per their standard unlock policy.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

Hey, don't be so hard on yourself Dakar. The slur dirty socialist is reserved for those who deserve it. From what I've seen you're center-left at worst.

Charging a convenience fee for online payments is scummy. But at least it's not as bad as AT&T willfully refusing to unlock iPhones as per their standard unlock policy.

Being a little more honest with the subject, I imagine this is a ploy to to corral more people into using their autopay, which they have been aggressively pushing every time I log in to pay my bill for the last 6 months or so. I have two problems with this, however: Verizon is not trustworthy. These companies are known for their "accidental" overcharges and surreptitious rate increases, both of which would be conveniently flying under the radar with autopay. Second, these **********s use the absolute worst method by trying to strong-arm you into it by adding a fee, rather than going to opposite route and offering a discount for enrolling.

What's more interesting to me is paying by mail doesn't seem to be getting a fee (though I imagine it's even more inconvenient for them and us than online). They also pushed going paperless very aggressively the past few years and I wonder if there's a way to start getting a paper bill again to avoid this fee or if they've eliminated option/tagged it with a fee as well.

I have to say, the longer I'm an adult the more I find that all the companies that charge for their services on a monthly basis engage in the most vile anti-consumer practices and seem most indifferent to their customers, probably because they know most people will just take it. It's sickening.

Am I a socialist yet?

[Thorzdad]

The main issue I have with ALL autopay systems is that the payments don't always come out of your account on at a regular, fixed date. Many companies using autopay systems make the withdrawal within a time-window of several days. Sometimes it's as wide as 5 business days. This is, of course, fine if you're lucky enough to be able to keep scads of cash sitting in your account. It can cause great havoc (in the form of overdraft fees from the bank and, perhaps, suspension of service due to non-payment on the part of the provider) to people who don't have a nice, deep cash-flow.

[The Final Dakar]

Yes, that's the less hysterical, anti-corporate problem with autopay. I certainly could get away with auto-pay now compared to a few years ago, but I still like to monitor my expenses as they occur.

[Veltliner]

Bank of America and Verizon invented a new fee: the "INconvenience fee".

One way out of Verizon's autopay (which I'd never do) is to do autopay with your credit card.

If anything's wrong, you can question the charge.

And, instead getting your money almost fee free through online pay, they then have to pay American Express a.... convenience fee.

[Uncle Skeleton]

Originally Posted by Veltliner 

You have to pay, even if you pay with your online bank account.

Actually it says you can push the payment with your bank's bill-pay service and still avoid the fee. Unless you get exceptional rewards from your credit card, or you don't care to babysit the amount either way, this would probably be the easiest solution from the customer's perspective.

[andi*pandi]

Originally Posted by Veltliner 

One way out of Verizon's autopay (which I'd never do) is to do autopay with your credit card.

This is what I do. I only autopay those things which are a set amount per month, and it means a) I get the points, b) I don't have to remember another random payment date. I check my account periodically online to make sure it doesn't spike (my bill is pretty constant) and I get an email confirmation when it's paid.

[ort888]

Verizon has killed it due to customer backlash.

[The Final Dakar]

Faster than Bank of America. Of course, if any one had actually paid attention to that debacle last month, they never would have even tried.

[ort888]

I'm going to send them an extra $2 a month anyway. Just for being so awesome.

[Big Mac]

Someone should start a list of stupid corporate moves that get reversed quickly by customer backlashes.

[turtle777]

I can't believe they didn't know what was going to happen. IMO, there is more going on than meets the eye. After the BoA debacle, no big company would be so dumb to think they would just get away with it. There's something else that we dont know about (yet).

-t

[besson3c]

Looks like Verizon has scrapped these plans.

[Uncle Skeleton]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

Looks like Verizon has scrapped these plans.

I'm going to send them an extra $2 anyway

[Veltliner]

No more nuisance fee at Verizon: Verizon Drops Plan for New $2 Fee - WSJ.com