Sure, Verizon Wireless customers could have brought their beef about the coming $2 fee on payments by phone or through the website to the FCC. They might have even put together a lawsuit.
Instead, they harnessed the power of public opinion. Within 24 hours of proposing the fee, Verizon Wireless caved. There will be no fee.
Here the lesson can't be missed. Public opinion, especially when it can be captured and transmitted via digital technology, trumps traditional regulatory and litigation tools. First of all, it's speedy. Secondly, it's cheap. Third, it can operate collectively or on an individual level.
Shame on Verizon Wireless for not anticipating this. It should have learned plenty from Bank of America's disaster of a public relations experience in its proposed $5 fee on debit cards. BofA did also cave. But that took a while. Why in the world Verizon Wireless even considered going this same route will go down in history as one of the unsolved mysteries of the second half of the 21st century.
Here is my post on financial-information powerhouse Motley Fool about this hit to a premier brandname.
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