Power to the People: why Verizon rescinded the $2 fee

How did Verizon go from wanting to tack on a $2 convenience fee on certain forms of payment (including online and paying by phone) to backing down and rescinding the fee? It appears that the power of the little guy, the "you can fight city hall" spirit is alive. Once Big Red announced that it would impose the $2 free, thus forcing its loyal customers to switch to a monthly auto-pay to avoid the fee, Big Red's customers got angry. Very angry.

One customer in particular, Molly Katchpole, started a petition on change.org and as of Saturday morning, collected 154,000 signatures with each one calling for Verizon to drop the $2 convenience fee. While that might have had a lot to do with Verizon's subsequent actions, nothing carries more weight amongst the carriers than the FCC. So when the FCC told Big Red that it was going to look into the matter, Verizon executives started to think about doing a 180 degree change.

Had Verizon's fee stuck, you probably would have seen the other three major stateside carriers side with Verizon and tack on the same $2 fee. But thanks to the combined power of the people and a government agency that did what it is charged with doing, Verizon customers will be $24 richer than they might have been. by this time next year.

source: change via NYTimes