FCC Investigating Verizon’s New Fees

By Gilbert Falso :: 2:35 PM

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is looking into Verizon Wireless’s recent announcement of a $2 convenience fee for online and telephone credit card payments.

The commission told the Wall Street Journal that they are “concerned about Verizon’s actions” and will be “looking into the matter.”

A petition, started by Molly Katchpole from Washington D.C. on the online petition site Change.org, has garnered almost 35,000 supporters as of early Friday afternoon.

“It’s not just about the money,” Katchpole writes on the site, “it’s that Verizon thinks it can do anything to its customers, and that we’re powerless to stop it.”

The petition site also allows for signers to vent and comment, like this one from Verizon Wireless customer Alex Shoup:

“I am a Verizon customer but I have not been paying through the website for about a year. I have been using the bill pay feature through my bank. But this is absolutely ridiculous. First they get rid of unlimited data for smartphones, then they remove tethering apps from the Android Market because they want you to use their tethering service ($20/month for 2GB cap), and now THIS?? Sprint is looking real good to me at the moment when my contract is up next year.”