The biggest US wireless operator retracted its decision
on Friday, just a day after it announced the fee for one-time payments, which
was to have begun Jan. 15.
The consumer victory comes after Bank of America recently
decided against a new $5 monthly fee for debit card users after consumers and
lawmakers protested the charge.
"There is power in numbers and in the end, the
customer is always right," one person said on the Verizon Wireless online
forum. "How can any corporation expect to keep business by doing that?
It's pure greed just like with Bank of America."
Verizon said it listened to its customers and made the
decision based on customer input after many complained and some threatened to
leave the service if the fee was instituted.
A spokesman said that the company had just wanted to
encourage consumers to pay their bills via different methods such as autopay,
where they give Verizon permission to charge their credit card or bank account
automatically each month.
Verizon Wireless is a venture of Verizon Communications
Inc. and Vodafone Group Plc.
The quick turn-around came after little more than a day
of complaints, but not before the US Federal Communications Commission said it
was "concerned" about the fee and that it was looking into it.
"On behalf of American consumers, we're concerned
about Verizon's actions and are looking into the matter," an official for
the FCC said earlier on Friday.
The prospect of a $2 fee created a flurry of online
activity and one consumer organization, Change.org, said 95,000 people joined a
campaign on its website urging Verizon to drop the fee.
"The era of corporations walking roughshod over
consumers without consequence is officially over," Ben Rattray, chief
executive of Change.org, said in a statement.
Verizon Wireless customers told the company, often in
colorful language, that they would not put up with the fee.
"If this fee goes through, I will be taking my
business elsewhere!!!" one person said on the Verizon Wireless
website.
Another said "Victory is ours!" after the
about-face.
The turnaround comes after another high-profile reversal
of course earlier this year by video rental service Netflix Inc. in the face of
customer disgust.
In October it canceled plans to split its DVD rental
service from its online streaming service. The move would have forced customers
of both streaming and DVD options to visit different websites and maintain
different accounts for each subscription.
The Verizon Wireless incident served to highlight fee
practices elsewhere in the communications industry. Rivals AT&T Inc. and
Sprint Nextel said on Friday that they charge some customers $5 for bill
payments, revising their comments from the day before.
AT&T and Comcast Corp. say that they charge some
customers who look for personal assistance in paying their bills but that they
do not charge for online payments. Sprint said it charges customers with bad
credit if they refuse to enroll for auto pay.
The Sprint and AT&T fees are even higher than
Verizon's proposed levy at $5 per transaction. Comcast's payment fee, which is
only levied in some states, is $5.99.
The FCC did not comment on whether it would look into other
companies' fee policies for bill payment.
