Comments on: Verizon Wireless to levy new fee for sending text messages to VZW customers

By: new fish

new fish — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 05:52:22 +0000

they should make it verizon to verizon texting free

By: crashoverride

crashoverride — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 10:24:26 +0000

Ok-VZ has this huge base of customers and a good network-not argument here. All these new little charges, like texting people on other carriers (not everyone else you know has VZ-Duh) are starting to take their toll. Their network is NOT that much better than some others where I live. I get the idea of trying to save bandwidth and lower their costs rather than admit they need a ton of customers to come in new every since they employ like ten times the people you think (their call centers are all around where I live). I am starting to lose money on my bill that adds up and it is not cool, so I am probably going to leave. It is really lame to add on these crazy charges that customers have not way to avoid unless they block texting, which is liking going amish in wireless. Way to go VZ by sticking the customer yet again. I am about done with that, no matter how good you think the rest is-that is too far.

By: DavidB

DavidB — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 11:59:42 +0000

Yay! Finally! Charge the sender, not the recipient. About time.
And no BG, I don’t want SMS alerts for BG posts (or comments). RSS and email are just fine thank you very much and there is NOTHING posted on ANY blog that is so time critical that anyone needs to know right away.

By: djohns505

djohns505 — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:09:30 +0000

Damn, why do I need to explain myself so throughly? Plain and simple I said get rid of the unlimited texting FOR THE KIDS, you all know that the little brats text instead of talking 100% of the time, so why not instead of letting them get messages for a flat fee, charge per message instead; what a way to pay for the overhead… Nowhere did I say anything about getting rid of unlimited texting option completely or that it was ONLY kids that send text messages, you JustME need to read better, man.

By: Gus

Gus — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 22:21:08 +0000

Verizon sucks, the service is good but they just suck trying to get money everywhere they can like VZ navigator on your bb where they charge you $10 for a shitty software that enables your GPS, a free technology. VERIZON SUCKS

By: Jackson Miller

Jackson Miller — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 05:10:31 +0000

@TRUTH In no way was I saying this is a ploy against Obama. I think they see an opportunity with texting around the election and that opportunity is impacting their timing. The Obama camp will still send the messages.

I wouldn’t be surprised though if it is the largest coordinated SMS campaign the US has seen.

By: Damian

Damian — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 04:30:38 +0000

Is this how Verizon is avoiding the recent senate inquiry into SMS charges? So instead of charging the customer more money they are charging someone else? http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/09/10/senators-smackdown-us-carriers-over-soaring-text-messaging-rates/

By: Matt S

Matt S — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 01:54:36 +0000

Well one Positive out of this will be a great decrease in spam and premium sms to customers. Want to spam a crap load of our customers? PAY UP! Want to trap people into premium sms, PAY UP!

By: TRV$

TRV$ — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 01:49:06 +0000

Can’t fault a company for trying to generate new revenue in times like these. However I agree that at some point the affected companies will eventually bust the consumer for the cost.

ATT PLEASE DON”T FOLLOW SUIT!!

@BGR I say yes to SMS

By: Sam J

Sam J — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:00:29 +0000

Just use sites like jygy.com where you can text anyone in the US for free? not to mention the other cool texting features you cant do anywhere… just a thought.. fight the fees!

By: David

David — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:43:26 +0000

“Verizon claims the new fee is necessary to cover their overhead in delivering these MT messages.”

Um, I thought that’s why they charged subscribers to receive text messages. Apparently I was mistaken.

@djohns505
“how about getting rid of unlimited texting for those damn little kids that instead of using a phone to TALK, they fucking text”

It costs the carriers a mere fraction of bandwidth to deliver a text as it does voice. So they should be rejoicing in the fact that texting has taken off and is so popular. It actually brings their overhead down and frees up valuable bandwidth for better voice and more data flow!

By: JustMe

JustMe — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:30:32 +0000

@djohns505

“how about getting rid of unlimited texting for those damn little kids that instead of using a phone to TALK, they fucking text”

Are you kidding me? I suggest you crawl back into the hole you crawled out of this morning. If you think it is just the “damn little kids” that use the unlimited txt msging to their advantage you are sadly mistaken and out of touch with reality.

By: TRUTH

TRUTH — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:16:38 +0000

@Jackson Miller:

OMG!!! This is simply a RIGHT-WING, RACIST ATTACK on the O’Biden campaign!!!!

What FASCISTS!!!!!!

/sarc

Actually, as others have said, the costs will simply be passed on to us, the customers/recipients. But, why does this not make sense, when any out-of-network messages are individually charged, coming AND going??

By: Jackson Miller

Jackson Miller — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:01:25 +0000

The timing is particularly suspect. The Obama campaign used SMS in the primaries to remind newly-registered voters to go the the polls and vote. They are expected to do the same thing on a massive scale on election day (November 4th).

It almost seems as if Verizon is rolling this out just in time to capitalize on election day and then roll it back after if there is an uproar.

Of course, that is assuming that the Obama Campaign (and other campaigns) would be subject to the fee.

By: cwcanty

cwcanty — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:33:12 +0000

Once again, you guys hate on verizon for everything. All this is, is a creative new revenue stream, which may actually allow verizon to keep YOUR costs lower. Stop whining and realize how business runs. Trust me, Att will follow suit within a month.

Get over it. Verizon is a business. and there is a reason why they are the most profitable wireless company and Sprint is going bankrupt.

By: JaggedXJ

JaggedXJ — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:26:07 +0000

Any article that opens with “Verizon Wireless to levy new fee…” doesn’t really qualify as news.
“This just in. The sun came up this morning & revealed a blue sky!”
More @ 11.

By: Likeabite

Likeabite — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:08:00 +0000

EPS you might be right. I’m glad that it is not being levied against the customers but this is still dumb. I love Verizon but they charge for every single thing. Like come on!!!

By: Blackberry Bold

Blackberry Bold — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:05:57 +0000

This is so stupid.

By: djohns505

djohns505 — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:55:26 +0000

Even though it is just the companies that send texts through verizon that are going to be doing the paying, in the end we’re all going to get screwed. Now when I want check my checking account balance, my bank is going to say to me, “have account balance sent to your phone for only 3 cents a message, or $5 a month!” just like others have mentioned.

If verizon wants to reduce overhead, how about getting rid of unlimited texting for those damn little kids that instead of using a phone to TALK, they fucking text. There’s several million dollars in text fees right there!

By: EPS

EPS — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:19:34 +0000

I think Verizon is having congestion issues on their SMS network… consider that they were attempting to get rid of notifications earlier, and now this… pricing can serve to reduce demand.

By: Eric Atkins

Eric Atkins — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:13:09 +0000

So long Twitter. You were a good service.

By: gquaglia

gquaglia — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:02:43 +0000

VZW is just a bunch of money hungry whores! Scumbags.

Couldn’t have said it better myself. But hey, its the network!

By: Jay

Jay — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:45:01 +0000

VZW is just a bunch of money hungry whores! Scumbags.

By: Jdslim

Jdslim — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:06:06 +0000

This cost will be past down to all phone users not just to Verizon customers.

By: Jdslim

Jdslim — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:00:42 +0000

To indelus.

If you are looking for away out of a Verizon contract this won’t be it. Verizon changing what they charge MT companies for incoming sms alerts is not really subscriber inpacting, as it not going to increase what Verizon charges it subscribers for text and isn’t any type of breach of contract.

I use the words “not really” in the above sentence because most likly a spike like this effect anyone who has subscibed to free alerts. How I see it if verizon increases what they charge the MT companies, those companies will most likly be forced to increase what they charge or stop offering free alerts all to gether.

By: Kelly Hodgkins

Kelly Hodgkins — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:57:42 +0000

@Indelus
Jeremiah is correct they will be levied against the companies sending the messages…so if you want to get the latest news sent to your phone, then CNN is going to have to VZW 3cents for every message they send to you.

What will happen is that these big companies will either stop offering text messaging updates to VZW subscribers because it costs too much or they will pass the cost onto you…want to get news updates from CNN then that will be $5/month please.

By: Jeremiah

Jeremiah — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:41:49 +0000

No because the charges don’t directly affect you–they affect the companies that send you SMS messages updates and such.

BTW, I think text updates would be great. Do it now while the other three carriers don’t do the same as Verizon!! LOL.

By: SomeGuyInMiami

SomeGuyInMiami — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:41:11 +0000

The carrier that already sticks it to their customers with fees for ALL their services now wants to stick it to all the other companies for delivering messages requested by their customers.

Another reason for me to dislike Verizon.

Their service may be good, but they want to shove their fist up everyone’s behind that does business with them.

By: Indelus

Indelus — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 07:10:48 +0000

So, just putting my 2 cents in. Doesnt this somehow go against Verizon subscriber contract and give customers a 30-day window for exiting Verizon with nno ETF charges??!!..

By: Anonymous loser

Anonymous loser — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 07:00:35 +0000

The VZW network is great. But these micro charges make it so I can’t say VZW is the best. This is BS.