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Kyrosiris posted:That doesn't make it not dogshit, and yes, it is a big deal. If a 2 dollar fee on some forms of payment is a big deal to you I can't imagine how you handle things that are actually a big deal.
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Dec 29, 2011 18:09
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Codiusprime posted:If a 2 dollar fee on some forms of payment is a big deal to you I can't imagine how you handle things that are actually a big deal. Yes, let's focus only on the value and not what the action represents and all that. 
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Dec 29, 2011 18:15
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Kyrosiris posted:Yes, let's focus only on the value and not what the action represents and all that. It's stupid, I said it was, but what's the point of flipping poo poo and getting upset. Is it going to change anything? If you really are so upset start a petition or something, or just change the way you pay the bill. Maybe I've already accepted it because all of my utility bills charge a convenience fee. I've always been surprised that Verizon didn't honestly. Also what does it represent, can you tell me where it goes from here? Or are you just raging to rage?
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Dec 29, 2011 18:17
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I'm sure I speak for everyone here when I say that I am just utterly god damned shocked that a telecom is doing something unscrupulous here in these great United States of America.
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Dec 29, 2011 18:20
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60% of Americans pay their bill online, a number that's continuing to rise as the tech-comfortable middle-aged population gets older and replaces the current technophobic senior citizen bracket. While this is pretty bullshit, on the level of Ticketmaster's fee for letting you print your own tickets on your own printer, they'll be able to get away with this with little blowback from the general public because a literal majority of their customers won't be affected by it. Seriously, other than the dude who said he's on a family plan and they all pay separately or something like that, are there swaths of you who don't use your bank/credit union's billpay for all eligible bills?
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Dec 29, 2011 18:21
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Codiusprime posted:If a 2 dollar fee on some forms of payment is a big deal to you I can't imagine how you handle things that are actually a big deal. "Excuse me while I go pat myself on the back by adding a few extra millions at the expense of screwing my customers. Oh and to our customers, gently caress you".  - verizon.
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Dec 29, 2011 18:40
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They shouldn't be patting poo poo with the way their network has been acting lately.
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Dec 29, 2011 18:46
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I know there was a 4G outage last night into this morning, but has anybody heard anything about any other service outages? Since this morning I've lost the ability to make or receive calls, or send or receive texts. The thing is, I'm on an old dumbphone (Samsung Alias 2), so a 3G/4G issue shouldn't affect me, should it? I can't even get *228 or 611 going, even if the call goes through, it gets dropped almost immediately. It's not the phone, since I have another Alias 2 and an older LG model that I've tried calling 611 on, and it's not working with those phones either. I'm in the Boston area if that makes a difference.
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Dec 29, 2011 19:19
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The $2 is roughly on order with the credit card transaction fee, so all this change is really doing is equitizing the costs associated with the various payment options Verizon offers. And as others have pointed out, many other utilities do this very same thing. It's easy to rage against Verizon and all, but this is really Visa/MC's deal. Those annual cash-back rewards on your credit card don't come out of nowhere.
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Dec 29, 2011 19:31
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ExcessBLarg! posted:The $2 is roughly on order with the credit card transaction fee, so all this change is really doing is equitizing the costs associated with the various payment options Verizon offers. And as others have pointed out, many other utilities do this very same thing. Bu...bu...but nickle and diming and sign of things to come and I'm so angry!!!!
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Dec 29, 2011 19:33
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ExcessBLarg! posted:this is really Visa/MC's deal. Those annual cash-back rewards on your credit card don't come out of nowhere. Shut up. That is too rational of a thought.
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Dec 29, 2011 19:34
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All the people who dont like the $2 fee should leave verizon.
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Dec 29, 2011 19:49
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Something else too. Verizon was going to do this with FIOS last year and then relented at the 11th hour. ExcessBlarg! is correct though, this stems from increasing credit card fees for one time transactions from the credit card companies. I won't be suprised if B&M stores start charging a fee for paying with a credit card soon, the CC companies are nickel and dimeing everyone to death.
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Dec 29, 2011 19:51
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bull3964 posted:I won't be suprised if B&M stores start charging a fee for paying with a credit card soon They...do? It's built in to most retailers' prices. Hence why the hole in the wall mexican food joint down the street from me that's cash only is cheaper than most other places in my area, for example. Technically, if you want to more effectively patronize your local store, pay in cash.
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Dec 29, 2011 20:11
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drunk asian neighbor posted:I know there was a 4G outage last night into this morning, but has anybody heard anything about any other service outages? Since this morning I've lost the ability to make or receive calls, or send or receive texts. If you're able to, have you tried using your phone in another location? It sounds like you're connecting to a tower that's having issues (ie: showing a signal, but dropping voice/data connections) and trying from another location would be a quick way to eliminate your phone as the cause of the issue.
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Dec 29, 2011 20:31
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wattershed posted:They...do? It's built in to most retailers' prices. Hence why the hole in the wall mexican food joint down the street from me that's cash only is cheaper than most other places in my area, for example. Technically, if you want to more effectively patronize your local store, pay in cash. I think he's talking about B&M stores that aren't shady gas stations and Mexican restraunts, like Best Buy and Walmart. You don't pay higher prices at those if you use credit versus cash.
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Dec 29, 2011 20:36
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I guess having consistent, predictable cashflow is worth enough to Verizon that they are willing to eat the processing fee from the bank for running the cards so long as you use autopay.
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Dec 29, 2011 20:57
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bull3964 posted:I won't be suprised if B&M stores start charging a fee for paying with a credit card soon, the CC companies are nickel and dimeing everyone to death. It's actually not allowed for a merchant to charge an extra fee for paying by credit card, Visa/Mastercard/etc make merchants agree to this. I'm sure this change is all carefully worded to get around that though by Verizon's army of lawyers. Amazing what you can afford when you're making 10+ billion a year in profits and paying no taxes  Maybe we should all report Verizon? https://usa.visa.com/checkoutfees/contact.jsp http://www.mastercard.us/support/merchant-violations.html
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Dec 29, 2011 21:20
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chocolateTHUNDER posted:I think he's talking about B&M stores that aren't shady gas stations and Mexican restraunts, like Best Buy and Walmart. You don't pay higher prices at those if you use credit versus cash. ...and what I'm saying, Best Buy, mexican food, whatever the case may be, is the retailers build their credit card fees into the product prices, passing them along to us, so they don't need to explicitly tack on a fee. People get pissypantsed when having to confirm the $0.45 card fee at a gas station; Walmart says 'we don't care how you're going to pay us, we're going to make sure you pay our CC fees for us' and makes your family size bag of Doritos $4.69 instead of $4.24. It's more subtle, and with the hidden costs customers are less likely to gripe about it.
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Dec 29, 2011 21:26
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kitten smoothie posted:I guess having consistent, predictable cashflow is worth enough to Verizon that they are willing to eat the processing fee from the bank for running the cards so long as you use autopay. Perhaps there's a non-trivial number of five line "family plan" accounts that see five CC transactions every month for 1/5th of the bill, and autopay is a mechanism to force it down to a single transaction. sadus posted:It's actually not allowed for a merchant to charge an extra fee for paying by credit card, Visa/Mastercard/etc make merchants agree to this.
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Dec 29, 2011 21:33
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wattershed posted:60% of Americans pay their bill online, a number that's continuing to rise as the tech-comfortable middle-aged population gets older and replaces the current technophobic senior citizen bracket. Yeah, paying your bill online doesn't exempt you from the $2 fee. wattershed posted:Seriously, other than the dude who said he's on a family plan and they all pay separately or something like that, are there swaths of you who don't use your bank/credit union's billpay for all eligible bills? I don't. Why should I? I can manage my own bills and I don't even think long-term bill pay can be free for most banks - why should they lick the stamp and mail the envelope for free for you long term when they can just get you hooked on the convenience and then start charging?
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Dec 29, 2011 21:44
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Mark Larson posted:I don't. Why should I? I can manage my own bills and I don't even think long-term bill pay can be free for most banks - why should they lick the stamp and mail the envelope for free for you long term when they can just get you hooked on the convenience and then start charging? Uh, most of your bills are directly moved from your account to the account of the company you're paying by the bank. They just send a list of account #s and payment amounts to the company along with the transaction. Only the occasional smaller operation gets a physically mailed check and those are done at corporate mail rates (not 42 or whatever cents a mailer). And all of that is automated. I cannot comprehend why someone would NOT use their banks online bill pay system. It is much easier and basically foolproof. Hell, if BofA messes up a payment (2x in the last 8 years) they COVER THE COST of the issue. Plus, the Bank is earning interest on the float from the time of payment issue and the time of payment delivery. The vast banking conspiracy wouldn't be up to this unless it was a profit center. Hell, they floated $5 debit card fees before they floated bill-payment charges. Verizon charging $2 to do a one-time payment in store or online covers their credit card fees and pushes people into the automatic payment system to avoid late payments. I'm sure the reduction in late payments, and the reductions in support staff conversations about late payments and about line shut-off and reactivation makes some serious fiscal sense.
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Dec 29, 2011 22:00
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Mark Larson posted:Yeah, paying your bill online doesn't exempt you from the $2 fee. Sorry, I should have clarified that a bit. Actually, the number of people paying their cellphone bill via their financial institution's website (which will still be free) is 53%. quote:I don't. Why should I? I can manage my own bills and I don't even think long-term bill pay can be free for most banks - why should they lick the stamp and mail the envelope for free for you long term when they can just get you hooked on the convenience and then start charging? You should, because in the coming years it's more likely external companies like VZN will charge you to pay via non-bank bill pay methods. The lowest-cost transaction for both you and the company you're trying to give money to is paying via your bank's bill pay, so both the bank and the companies have incentive to have you pay via ACH. If your bank is going to charge you for bill pay, frankly, you have a very lovely bank. I was thinking of changing banks just last month, and in that process I never came across a bank or credit union that had monthly e-bill fees. The one bank that starts to charge for that will lose business, especially these days when customers are hypersensitive to charges and fees many people would consider 'bullshit.' Remember that $5 charge Bank of America tried to institute recently? People went nuts over that, and a charge to use e-billing is on that same level. Also, what does 'I can manage my own bills' have to do with anything? Do you sit down and slap stamps on checks every month? When you can pay for free (minus the cost of the stamp, even) through your bank, why? I have some things set to auto-bill, whereas others I pay manually. I, too, manage my own bills successfully; there's a disconnect in your logic regarding your correlation between method of payment and assumption of responsible financial behavior. wattershed fucked around with this message at 22:21 on Dec 29, 2011 |
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Dec 29, 2011 22:18
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ugh, I had to get an iPhone when the Verizon activation servers are on the fritz. After like an hour on the phone with Verizon they tell my my phone is in "limbo" between AT&T and Verizon. After like five hours, the drat thing finally activates after doing some backwards reset procedure with the previous phone off and what not. Apparently they accidentally shipped dutch iphones or something and it was stuck on Vodafone.
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Dec 29, 2011 23:03
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wattershed posted:You should, because in the coming years it's more likely external companies like VZN will charge you to pay via non-bank bill pay methods. The lowest-cost transaction for both you and the company you're trying to give money to is paying via your bank's bill pay, so both the bank and the companies have incentive to have you pay via ACH. Utilities will never stop accepting checks and money orders by mail. They just will not be allowed to do so by local and state regulators. This is mostly because those payment options can be the only options for certain protected demographics. quote:If your bank is going to charge you for bill pay, frankly, you have a very lovely bank. I was thinking of changing banks just last month, and in that process I never came across a bank or credit union that had monthly e-bill fees. The one bank that starts to charge for that will lose business, especially these days when customers are hypersensitive to charges and fees many people would consider 'bullshit.' Remember that $5 charge Bank of America tried to institute recently? People went nuts over that, and a charge to use e-billing is on that same level. Just because bill pay saves banks money doesn't mean they won't try to gouge people with fees eventually. Look at out of network ATM fees: when you use a competitor's ATM it is still much cheaper for the bank than if you were to use a teller, yet fees for that are nearly universal now. I wouldn't expect a simple everyone pays $5 pricing model though, more likely something like if your daily balance is below $X then payments to certain less preferred payees will cost a fee. Verizon may be free, but your local water bill may run a 3% surcharge. We'll get a bunch of talk again along the lines of "maybe they should try not being poor" with the added bonus of "why should someone with below $X have internet?" when people complain. quote:Also, what does 'I can manage my own bills' have to do with anything? Do you sit down and slap stamps on checks every month? When you can pay for free (minus the cost of the stamp, even) through your bank, why? I have some things set to auto-bill, whereas others I pay manually. I, too, manage my own bills successfully; there's a disconnect in your logic regarding your correlation between method of payment and assumption of responsible financial behavior. I don't know about Larson but I pay for nearly everything except for my Chase credit cards via mailed check. The only late fee I've ever had was when I used electronic payment five years ago to pay a bill while I was out of town and it didn't go through despite everything showing as confirmed (including a confirmation email). Also it may sound strange but I like for it to take a bit of effort to pay a bill because it forces me to look at where my money is going, and that helps me budget.
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Dec 30, 2011 00:29
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If they really wanted to get paid the correct way, Verizon just should have raised their payment rates by $2 across the board, and started issuing 'electronic payment discounts' of $2 on bills for customers who pay the ACH/etc. way. That would have keep everything fine.
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Dec 30, 2011 01:25
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CaptBubba posted:old man https://www.mint.com E: Seems he needs some help. There are tools that make keeping track of your finances easier. You can get text alerts based upon spending. You can track exactly where you money is going and when using your bank's website, and a money management tool like mint.com. There really is no argument that paying for stamps and going the trouble of cashiers checks and visiting banks and buying stamps makes you any better at managing your money, in fact, it would be impossible for you to be nearly as efficient. ModestMuse fucked around with this message at 03:02 on Dec 30, 2011 |
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Dec 30, 2011 01:27
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ModestMuse posted:https://www.mint.com Apropos of nothing, I'm honestly shocked people who use the internet regularly mail bills via usps. My 88 year old grandmother in law knows how to use exactly 2 websites on her laptop...if she has a problem she literally hard resets the thing so we don't have to troubleshoot problems 1500 miles away. One of those sites is her bank. That's all I'm saying. On a completely different note, is there a way to report spam texts to Verizon? I never got these with Sprint so I figure I'd ask.
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Dec 30, 2011 02:43
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Nostalgia4Infinity posted:Thanks for assuming that I didn't read the entire article. I am aware that autopay (which I don't like to use because I've been burned too many times and I like to control when I pay my bills) and ACH (which I guess I will begrudgingly use) are exempt but that still doesn't stop it from being nickel and diming bullshit. I feel that same way about my electric company charging a fee to use a debit card (I pay with a check - loved your condescending attitude by the way) and my old bank charging ATM fees (switched to a bank that refunds fees each month). There is no reason to charge a fee for this other than greed. Most if not all companies get charged or have overhead fee's for taking credit card payments. If you have a method of paying your bill that doesn't cost the company or the consumer any more money, why the gently caress wouldn't the company try to promote utilization of that bill payment method? Sure, it's another way for the company to make money, but money is what motivates people and the company's just trying to motivate you to use a payment method that doesn't cost them. Yeah, I work for verizon, but I'm constantly pissing in the kool-aid. As others have stated above, these fee's aren't anything new. Just new to Verizon Wireless.
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Dec 30, 2011 04:34
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Cheesemaster200 posted:ugh, I had to get an iPhone when the Verizon activation servers are on the fritz. After like an hour on the phone with Verizon they tell my my phone is in "limbo" between AT&T and Verizon. Could you give me a little detail on how you activated your phone? I too have been sitting on my iPhone for two days now with the servers on the fritz. I found it wierd that I had Vodafone info preprogrammed, if this is an issue could you let me know what you did?
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Dec 30, 2011 07:59
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So, no data at all for the last several hours. This is pissing me off because I wanted to send a picture message four hours ago.
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Dec 30, 2011 08:13
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bull3964 posted:Something else too. Verizon was going to do this with FIOS last year and then relented at the 11th hour. All Verizon Communications pay-by-phone transactions are outsourced to a company called BillMatrix which charges a $3.50 fee. This is not new and has been the case for at least a few years.
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Dec 30, 2011 10:01
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PorkFat posted:Any idea why I would keep getting the error "Please try again later" when trying to add a number to be blocked on my account? I can do it on the other phone on my account with no problem. From the My Verizon Website, try removing the feature entirely or deleting all the numbers from your block list, then re-add the feature and add the numbers back in. If that doesn't work call customer service, have them remove the feature and then re-add it and put your blocked numbers back in.
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Dec 30, 2011 10:08
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Is there a way to get my 25% company discount on accessories through Verizon's website, or do I have to go to a physical retail location? My bill has the discount on it, but I don't see the discount when I'm logged in and add stuff to my cart on the website.
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Dec 30, 2011 15:04
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Most stores (including Walmart and Best Buy) include the credit card transaction fee into the price of all of their products. I think it is around .24 for each credit/debit card transactions. So these large stores go ahead and drop that fee into the cost of their items. Everyone pays these fees (even if you use cash) and the store banks it. When the credit card companies come asking for that transaction fee for the entire year, the store has more than enough. They pay the fee total to the credit card company and then the rest is classified as profit. If someone complains to the store about the cost of items, the store can then pass the buck to the credit card companies. This came out when Bank of America wanted to charge $5 a month to its customers to use debit cards. The reason being was that the government was reducing the amount that the transaction fee was, so many banks were looking for a way to keep that profit. (All the banks relented under public pressure) The interesting part was that no large store came out saying that they would be able to reduce prices due to this reduction of fee. Why? Because it was a hidden fee all along we do not know any better.
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Dec 30, 2011 16:04
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Tigertron posted:Could you give me a little detail on how you activated your phone? I too have been sitting on my iPhone for two days now with the servers on the fritz. I found it wierd that I had Vodafone info preprogrammed, if this is an issue could you let me know what you did? Its on Apple's end this time. They are sending the wrong Sim Policy to a bunch of Verizon bound 4S's, they are being loaded with the "Unlocked GSM" SIM policy, instead of the Verizon one. If Apple has fixed the issue with your specific phones serial number, a complete wipe and restore from iTunes is supposed to fix the problem, but if they haven't fixed the Sim Policy the Apple servers send your phone upon activation, it will still think its an Unlocked GSM phone. This fiasco and learning how a SIM unlock happens has confimed my suspicions that all the phones are identical until Apple tells the phone what it is supposed to be when it hits the activation server. So a simple flip from an AT&T 4s to a Verizon 4s should be a change on Apple's servers just like it is when you unlock for international SIM cards, but I doubt Apple and the carriers will let you do that. Mighty Horse fucked around with this message at 17:13 on Dec 30, 2011 |
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Dec 30, 2011 17:09
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Mighty Horse posted:Its on Apple's end this time. They are sending the wrong Sim Policy to a bunch of Verizon bound 4S's, they are being loaded with the "Unlocked GSM" SIM policy, instead of the Verizon one. Is there even any technological reason for Apple to have set things up so they have to be so involved in the activation process? Or is this just another area where they have to be a special snowflake?
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Dec 30, 2011 17:40
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Penguissimo posted:Is there even any technological reason for Apple to have set things up so they have to be so involved in the activation process? Or is this just another area where they have to be a special snowflake? This allows them to send inventory to where they need it, so for example if Sprint's sales are crappy on the White 64GB, they don't need to have a warehouse full of Sprint flashed ones sitting somewhere and they can send them to AT&T or Verizon without having to crack the shrink wrap to re-flash them. Plus, it wouldn't be Apple if they didn't make poo poo more complicated for us than they have too.
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Dec 30, 2011 17:58
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Does Verizon have an international plan? I'm going to Mexico and want access to data, texts, phone calls if possible. This is all I can find: http://b2b.vzw.com/international/Roaming/North_America/Mexico.html The phone is an iPhone 4 if that matters at all.
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Dec 30, 2011 19:13
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Mighty Horse posted:This allows them to send inventory to where they need it, so for example if Sprint's sales are crappy on the White 64GB, they don't need to have a warehouse full of Sprint flashed ones sitting somewhere and they can send them to AT&T or Verizon without having to crack the shrink wrap to re-flash them. That's actually a semi-legit reason, but I still don't see why they don't let the carriers handle it as part of their normal activation process... quote:Plus, it wouldn't be Apple if they didn't make poo poo more complicated for us than they have too. ...except for this.
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Dec 30, 2011 19:31
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