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Verizon drops plans for online payment fee(UPI Business News Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) U.S. telecommunications giant Verizon Wireless Friday abandoned plans for a $2 "convenience" payment fee that received a scathing response on the Internet. "Verizon Wireless has decided it will not institute the fee for online or telephone single payments that was announced earlier this week," the company said in a statement. "The company made the decision in response to customer feedback about the plan, which was designed to improve the efficiency of those transactions. … "At Verizon, we take great care to listen to our customers. Based on their input, we believe the best path forward is to encourage customers to take advantage of the best and most efficient options, eliminating the need to institute the fee at this time," said Dan Mead, president and chief executive officer of Verizon Wireless. Online messages concerning the proposed "convenience" fee roundly denounced the plan, which was to charge Verizon subscribers who use a credit card or a debit card to make a one-time payment either by phone or online, The New York Times reported Friday. The fee, which was to start Jan. 15, would not have applied to customers who pay with a debit or credit card month after month, nor for customers who use checks, have their payments deducted automatically from their banks, use a gift or rebate card, or make a one-time payment over the phone by allowing Verizon to tap directly into their bank accounts, the Times said. Despite the long list of exceptions, the fee was trounced on Twitter, a sign of the times in which customers are rebelling against fees or price hikes -- Bank of America and Netflix are two examples -- with an online grassroots reaction. "They are punishing people who need to wait until the last second" to pay a bill, David O'Neill said in a Twitter posting. Copyright 2011 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent. |