This policy change might be sufficient to argue your way out of a contract. Anyone want to give it a try.

Because websites that process financial transactions are free, right?

fark you Verizon.

Hope they like my $4 check writing fee.

/Not a Verizon customer

Teen Wolf Blitzer: Because websites that process financial transactions are free, right?

Can you name any form of payment that companies take that doesn't cost them money?

Keep in mind that this only applies to unscheduled credit card transactions. It does not apply to electronic checks or automatic credit card payments.

They waive the fee if you sign up for automatic payments. I think the purpose of this fee is to try and get everyone on to auto pay. Good luck fighting any billing errors after they've automatically taken the money.

Teen Wolf Blitzer: Because websites that process financial transactions are free, right?

Their brick and mortar stores cost money to run too, guess they should suddenly add a surcharge when a customer buys a phone there.

Teen Wolf Blitzer: Because websites that process financial transactions are free, right?

Well aren't you a good little butt sniffer?

Instant payment is convenient for the vendor, not for me. I'm happy to write a check and they can pay someone to process it.

I use electronic checking with them so...meh

UGOTPZD: Teen Wolf Blitzer: Because websites that process financial transactions are free, right?

Can you name any form of payment that companies take that doesn't cost them money?

Touche

This is a prod. They're trying to get everyone on an automatic payment system, with the bonus of maybe clearing out the deadbeats.

Still kind of a shiatty move given the economy.

itsfullofstars: This policy change might be sufficient to argue your way out of a contract. Anyone want to give it a try.

Should be. The Verizon contract says:

"We may change prices or any other term of your Service or this agreement at any time,but we'll provide notice first, including written notice if you have Postpay Service. If you use your Service after the change takes effect, that means you're accepting the change. If you're a Postpay customer and a change to your Plan or this agreement has a material adverse effect on you, you can cancel the line of Service that has been affected within 60 days of receiving the notice with no Early Termination Fee."

bdub77
As a Verizon customer, I'm OK with this.

/because I'm switching to AT&T or Sprint next month.

Don't worry they will adopt it also, or something similar.

Automatic payment sucks. The reason is that everything is hunky dory and smooth until something happens to your payment method, such as you have to cancel your CC some day due to fraud. Then the crap hits the fan and you are overdue/late/bad credit/you suck/you're a criminal/feel our wrath even if you go on line and try to fix it all. In the end it is easier to just mail out some primitive checks.

Can you pay me now?

Anyone else's apartment complex use AUM, Inc. to handle bill paying on things like water/sewage costs? $7 convenience fee to pay your bill online and when you mail it in they go by the date they were able to receive and cash the check so if you forget to send it in like 10 days before it's due you're late. :P

This is how things work now. Why is anyone shocked? Socialize losses, or now overhead, and privatize profits. Why should Verizon, or any other business, bear the brunt costs of being in business just to provide all us lazy, shiftless people the opportunity to give them our money. They should have to pay to support the infracstructure that allows them to get our money, too? I don't think so.

They have good cell service, but there was no end to crooked billing with them. Late fee's I'd have to consistently get reversed, charges for services I didn't have or ask for, charges for things that should have been covered under my plan. I think I had to call every other bill. If I remember right there was big class action lawsuit

They want you to use their autopay system that gives them the ability to directly withdraw from your bank account. This way they already have your money while your trying to dispute when they jack up random charges on your bill.

Never let anyone you cant personally beat about the head with a hammer have direct access to your bank account with the ability to withdraw money directly. Specifically not any corporation in any industry known for shady billing practices.

At the very least if they already have your money they dont have any motivation to prorate your account for their system going down.

Time to get a new phone company.

Random Anonymous Blackmail: Don't worry they will adopt it also, or something similar.

That's what worries me. If AT&T and Sprint were smart, they'd put out commercials saying "Hey Verizon customers, Verizon just started charging a fee to pay your bill so you can get out of your contract free of charge. Use this as an opportunity to come over to us where we don't charge this fee!"

Unfortunately, they will probably just be jackasses and start charging the same.

Autopay is to nobody's advantage except the company's.

Oh and I can attest to the pain in the ass it is getting money back from them after repeated auto billing errors. I had DSL with Verizon. I think it was a a ten hour job total, if I wasn't on the clock it wouldn't have been worth my time.

TommyAtomic: They want you to use their autopay system that gives them the ability to directly withdraw from your bank account. This way they already have your money while your trying to dispute when they jack up random charges on your bill.

Never let anyone you cant personally beat about the head with a hammer have direct access to your bank account with the ability to withdraw money directly. Specifically not any corporation in any industry known for shady billing practices.

At the very least if they already have your money they dont have any motivation to prorate your account for their system going down.

Time to get a new phone company.

That is exactly right. Letting some evil company withdraw anything they want from your account without showing you the bill first, combined with their power to add "fees" and infinite "overages" that you have agreed to not fight in court, is just asking for them to clean you out and then come for more. I'm on pre-paid cell only because of this.

Grables'Daughter: Wait, I'm confused... and I am being totally serious here.

Doesn't taking payments online via their website save Verizon money over processing checks, etc?

Can someone please educate me here?

Yes it does. Auto pay with them is a bit dangerous since they take the money even if you have a billing dispute (happened to me). I swear I'm getting closer to telling all of these places that charge "convenience fees" to fark off. Verizon isn't the only company that does this.

TommyAtomic: Specifically not any corporation in any industry known for shady billing practices.

Is Verizon shady?

I've been using them for years and I've only had one incorrect charge on my bill. i called them and they reversed it right away.

Not that I'm some super Verizon fan but I've never had a problem with them.

Grables'Daughter: Wait, I'm confused... and I am being totally serious here.

Doesn't taking payments online via their website save Verizon money over processing checks, etc?

Can someone please educate me here?

They're running the same play that Bank of America attempted with charging people to use their money. Years ago, they pushed it all as "cost saving". Fast forward a bit and suddenly these cost saving services cost too darn much and you're gonna have to pay now.

vodka: They waive the fee if you sign up for automatic payments. I think the purpose of this fee is to try and get everyone on to auto pay. Good luck fighting any billing errors after they've automatically taken the money.

It's more than that though. I am sure the banks know that autopay increases the chance of an overdraw and therefore can rake in those overdraft fees. My bank actually called and offered to show me in person how to set up online bill pay. fark that shiat.

almandot: Anyone else's apartment complex use AUM, Inc. to handle bill paying on things like water/sewage costs? $7 convenience fee to pay your bill online and when you mail it in they go by the date they were able to receive and cash the check so if you forget to send it in like 10 days before it's due you're late. :P

AUM here! I loved when we had to sign up and they didn't update us on when they had set up the bill pay. We ended up being late and calling them is worthless. I think one should never have to pay a fee to pay their bill.

They should follow the ticketmaster business plan and charge a convenience fee that costs half the amount of your bill.

<rant>
Here's the thing though, yes, it costs money to process transactions. That has always been true though, and acting like somehow processing a credit card online is a "convenience" to the customer is wholeheartedly disingenuous. Online bill paying is not a convenience any more, it is the norm. It is expected. This is how we do business now. It should be treated as such. As a matter of fact, they probably spend more on people getting checks at their PO Box, sorting them, and processing those for deposit. Ultimately, online bill pay is as much a benefit to the service provider as the customer. This is like when BOA was going to charge people for debit card usage. Even with loopholes to the fee, the basic message was clear: customers are assholes and the service provider wants to punish them ahead of time so that they are too beat down to protest later.

Do you want to know why the economy is in the tanks? I can give you one core reason: service providers and companies in this country treat their customers and employees like toilet paper. "Maximizing profits" is not actually a sustainable business model. You have to invest in people to remain successful, and investing in people, long term, will have a substantially higher gain. Insurance companies are starting to get this, offering rewards and deductible refunds the longer a customer stays with them claim free. If Verizon wants to get its users on auto pay, maybe they should consider offering a benefit to the users to actually encourage them to do so instead. That's a crazy marketing idea, right? Knock 5% off their bill, give them an extra GB of free data bandwidth. Offer an extra $50 credit towards their next phone. I call this the "Don't Be a Dick" school of customer service and marketing.

Here's my closing thought. They want a convenience fee? Start paying your bill in their store. With rolls of pennies. That you wiped between your butt cheeks.
</rant>

/not a Verizon customer
//was thinking about it, now I'll stay with AT&T

Jocundry:
Is Verizon shady?

I've been using them for years and I've only had one incorrect charge on my bill. i called them and they reversed it right away.

Not that I'm some super Verizon fan but I've never had a problem with them.

When the day comes that you do have a larger problem (and it will), you'll probably be on the phone with them for hours trying to get it resolved, and in the end they're still unlikely to completely correct it. Verizon is well-known for this.

It's almost like running a business and providing services costs money....

So here is the deal. Today my contract with Verizon is finished, I decided month ago that I was done with them and today is that day. I cant tell you how excited I am. I have been with Verizon for just about 7 years and recentley the customer service has gone to shiat. We blocked the internet on the kids phones and my daughter bought a new phone they un blocked it and she ran up $400 in charges when I tried to work with Verizon to bring the amount down since it was their error I was told pay up or service will be discontinued. Yeah this rambling post is going nowhere but the point is its going to be fun after work to tell them to stuff it!

TheQuicksilver: Start paying your bill in their store. With rolls of pennies. That you wiped between your butt cheeks.

Then they'll just start charging a "currency cleansing fee" to all their customers.

Tracfone and Straight Talk use Verizon's network, you can pay in cash if you want and you can get an android phone. It'll run an iphone, too. Just saying.

Jocundry: TommyAtomic: Specifically not any corporation in any industry known for shady billing practices.

Is Verizon shady?

I've been using them for years and I've only had one incorrect charge on my bill. i called them and they reversed it right away.

Not that I'm some super Verizon fan but I've never had a problem with them.

My last job was doing Debt Collection at a law firm, Verizon Corporate (business) accounts were my thing. In a nutshell, yes Verizon is very shady.

How shady?
If you had a VRZ Corporate account and cancelled while under contract you'd get charged for all discounts you would have been privileged to while under the terms of that contract (a contract which auto-renews by the way). If you wanted a copy of that contract sent out to you, well too bad. The terms and conditions are sent along with the first bill and are NEVER provided again. Paying your first bill is automatically agreeing to the T&C. There is no way of fighting that either (doesn't matter if you never signed anything).
Does this work? It works very well. So well that I successfully sued (well, I didn't personally sue them, but referred their file out to trial) a hospital for over 100K owed to VRZ due to their breaking contract.

LemonYellowSun: It's more than that though. I am sure the banks know that autopay increases the chance of an overdraw and therefore can rake in those overdraft fees. My bank actually called and offered to show me in person how to set up online bill pay. fark that shiat.

The bill pay with your bank (non auto) is usually very good (assuming you don't have a shiatty bank like BOA, but a good credit union or decent bank). Utility payments are usually direct transfer. Or they will cut and mail a check if it's for a service that isn't a direct transfer (say paying rent, or maybe a small insurance co). It saves them and you money/time/remembering accounts and passwords for a bunch of sites. Only one I wouldn't do is your CC, pay that directly on the website like you probably already do.

Walker: WhackingDay: This is a prod. They're trying to get everyone on an automatic payment system, with the bonus of maybe clearing out the deadbeats so people won't check their bills before they pay them manually. That way Verizon can auto-overcharge them every month and make millions.

FTFY

I pay absolutely nothing by autopay or bill pay of any sort anymore. In my use of them over the years, fees and taxes like to creep up if you don't do anything about it, and I used to get phone calls about signing up again, or some invented penalty if I didn't. Not to mention double or triple billings when their systems decide to take a shiat on them and transactions get reprocessed.

pxlboy: I learned the hard way about auto-billing when Progressive f*cking triple-billed me one month.

Ouch. I usually have no worries about auto-paying bills like insurance that don't change every month. It's the variable bills like cell phones that I would never pay automatically without looking at it first.

time for the people to rise up and topple our corporate overlords..

i know its only 2 dollars but its the principal that they expect me to just open up my account and let them take out as much as they want and raise the fees whenever they want.. basically hold you down and fark you in ass and spit in your face and tell you were doing you a favor while they are doing it..

THIS IS FARKING BULLSHAIT.. THE PEOPLE DO NOT EXIST TO PAY YOU.. FARK YOU VERIZON