#bill-pay

Of course, we knew this would happen.

An un-warranted fee for subscribers who make single payments online -- and that also, a steep $2 fee per payment, was flawed from the start. Why is a one-off payment more expensive to support than an auto-payment? Isn't the back-end technology and processing exactly the same?

Not exactly -- there is some underlying truth to Verizon's need for this charge - but like Netflix, they didn't do themselves any favors by not explaining it well. Auto-pay customers have a somewhat finite headcount - at any given time, Verizon can assert how many they have. Same goes for e-check customers. Single-payment, however, is like a dart board -- some months you may have 5M payments, and other months, 1M. This variability creates hard to predict processing needs + incremental costs, and ravages even the best company's balance sheet. The $2 charge is a less-than-customer-friendly way to create a cost buffer to handle these fluctuations.

Of course, the root of the problem is insufficient investment in whatever back-end technology Verizon is using. If built right, the single-payment fluctuation should be neglible to the system.

Ultimately, Verizon will find some other way to embed $.20-$.30 cents in EVERY customers bill to make up the difference, so none of us are any better off.

Verizon, I really hope you think this through.