Paperless Billing 2 month trial forced on landline customers

[pcdokta]

I fully understand the beneficial cost factors involved in companies getting customers to accept paperless transactions over paper, as well as the environmental beneifit economics. I worked for "the phone company" ( 5 different ones due to mergers spanning 33 years (now happily retired)  resulting from divestiture) as a service rep, auditor and premium customer care VP Staff  manager (top Fortune 50 Company's) and fully understand the extremely high costs to "phone companies" for having to maintain land-line telephone service, due to FCC mandates.  I also fully understand the economics involved in today's competitive market.  However, I resent it whenever ANY company,  phone or otherwise, that I choose to do business with  try's to remove my free choices from being made.  I've used the internet to pay my phone bills, residential landlines, Internet and wireless, for a very long period of time. Today when I attempted to pay my landline bill over the internet  I'm informed that if I do pay the bill online then  I'm also agreeing to a two month trial period of Verizon's paperless billing!  I had just finished paying my wireless bill online and there was no similar attempt to coerce me in this manner.  The sole choice for my landline  was to either pay the bill and accept the trial...or not!  I elected NOT to pay the bill online and thereby to continue receiving my Verizon bills via US Mail (there are reasons for this which I choose not to make pulic). Instead I made out a check and mailed it to Verizon at the additional cost to me of a 1st class postage stamp. Verizon will also incurr additional costs to process my paper transaction and their cash-flow will be negatively impacted by the delay in processing my check.  Additionally they have also incurred my chagrin for their high-handed attempt to force me to do their bidding!  They no longer have a satisfied customer, and indeed, if further similar attempts are made going forward they may also lose a customer!  That's how important Customer Service is to some customers!  While I continue to remain a customer of theirs I will continue to pay my paper bill via a paper check mailed in a paper envelope, alas to the detriment of the enviroment. Of course, some "executive" lacky will attempt to explain that they have no choice in this as their competitors are all doing it (same excuse used since 1982's divestiture permitted competition into the marketplace)... and benefitting by reduced expenses.  Customer service used to mean servicing the customer...als, no more is this the case as the S in service is replaced by the $.

[oldfashioned]

I have never been forced into paying my Verizon bill on line, only encouraged and I very much like the convenience of paying all my bills on line but I agree completely with you're saying.  The principle behind coercing customers into paying bills on line and agreeing to not receive paper bills in the mail is very wrong.  The key for any corporation is to encourage customers to go for these alternative options of paying their bills, not force them, and to respect whatever choices customers are comfortable with.    Verizon Wireless just rescinded its original intention to charge customers a convenience fee for the luxury of paying their bills on line to encourage customers to use other alternatives and to me, that is just as wrong for the same reasons.

One thing you may want to do is to look through the front pages of your Verizon phone book and contact Verizon Customer Relations.  My phone book has that listed and it's there if you're still having an issue that you can't resolve by calling 1-800-VERIZON.  I'm thinking of mailing a written complaint to that department regarding my issue with only giving customers all day appointments for tech repair service instead of a 2-4 hour time frame.  You could also contact your state's Board of Public Utlities.

It seems like customer service among a lot of these corporate giants stinks, not just with Verizon, and I think that's unfortunate.