Verizon Wireless Gives Up, Drops $2 Fee

By Cynthia Herbert :: 5:06 PM

Verizon Wireless has heard the tweets, seen the petitions, and felt the wrath of an angry Internet in the wake of their announcement to levy a $2 surcharge on certain online and telephone payments. In less than a day, the cellular provider has done an about-face and has announced that they will be dropping plans to institute the fee.

The company released the following statement:

Verizon Wireless has decided it will not institute the fee for online or telephone single payments that was announced earlier this week.

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.

“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.

Verizon would still prefer that customers use payment methods other than one-time online or phone credit card transactions, including automatic payments that charge cards or debit bank accounts automatically each month, or payment via electronic check transfer. However, they have decided that a fee is not the best way to encourage such changes in bill payment.

The online outcry even captured the attention of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which issued a statement today saying that it would look into the new fee.

“On behalf of American consumers, we’re concerned about Verizon’s actions and are looking into the matter,” the FCC said in its statement.