Uh, you WILL see more of this in the coming year, regardless of the AT&T deal.

Step 1: Get your R cronies to murder the Post Office.
Step 3: Profit! (There is no need for a Step 2).

AT&T doesn’t give a discount for paperless billing. And while I do like the idea of preserving trees and all that green stuff, I got mad at AT&T for all their extra charges and some other dick moves they made so I went back to paper billing – like a big f-you to them. Okay, a small f-you to them. Okay, they don’t care all that much, so I’m really f-ing the planet and my kids’ future.

Oh, hell, now I have to go back to paperless billing.

I quit ATT even though I had to pay ridiculous fees to cancel some of the contracts people in my family had. They're awful. ATT's corporate shittiness aside, though, Paul, while I take yr point about them trying to force folks into an autopay agreement, I also think more people should be aware that a significant percentage of every debit transaction goes to Mastercard (less of an issue when yr giving money to ATT versus a small, local business) so we should try to use debit cards as infrequently as possible anyway. Checks and electronic checks = the way to do it, if you can.

They got this idea from Comcast who have been charging for "assisted payment" on the phone for many years, and for a while were not disclosing this to customers. The fee would just show up on your next bill.

Well, welcome to the 21st century. The whole thing is fucked. Government is corrupt. Power is held buy the corpocracy, and nothing will stand in their way. When they tell us to 'eat cake', then we can start burning the m/fucker down.

No question it is stupid but here are all the ways you can get around it (thanks to consumerist.com for actually doing some homework before just vomiting out a whiny post about it):

If you want out of the convenience fee, here are the options:
*Electronic check online (My Verizon Online, My Verizon Mobile/Handset). Fee waived.
*Electronic check via telephone. Fee waived.
*Enrollment in AutoPay using credit/debit/ATM card or electronic check; fee does not apply
*Online from the customer's home-banking service provider website; fee does not apply.
*Credit/debit/ATM card, electronic check or cash at a Bill Payment Kiosk, Panel or with a representative at a Verizon Wireless Communications Store; fee does not apply.
*Use of a Verizon Wireless Gift Card or Verizon Wireless device Rebate Card to pay a bill in-store, online or by telephone; fee does not apply
*Paper check or money order mailed to the VZW remit address on customer's bill; fee does not apply.

I read something about analyzing personal habits for time & cost optimization, the focus was The Pareto principle: (also known as the 80–20 rule, the law of the vital few, and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

examples from day to day life are: 80% of your grocery bill is from 20% of your items, you spend 80% of your time at home 20% of the area of your house.

After I had to drop my cell phone contract for financial reason I realized that my smart phone still worked on wifi in most of the places I spent a lot of time in. Wifi at home, wifi at work, wifi at a few bus stops, wifi at bars, wifi at cafes. I didn't realize just how surrounded by wifi I was.

If you have the luxury of kicking the phone contract to the curb, I recommend tracfone prepaid. If you talk for less then 100 minutes per month, it's the best price point out there. I use google voice to do a lot of texting. I'd say 80% of my texting is with my boyfriend, it's easy enough for him to keep the two phone numbers straight.

@8,

I've been very tempted to get a data-enabled iPad and use that for almost all of my communication, while maybe keeping a cheap, "disposable" cellphone for dire emergencies.

With all the bullshit fees mobile companies keep adding on, they still refuse to get with the program and let people pay for data and texting only. I currently pay $75/month for 200 MB of data and maybe 20 texts, because that's all I actually use my cellphone for.

Qwest tried this a while back for $1 a pop. I immediately began sending checks which I know cost them more to process and took longer for them to get their money. I think it may have lasted 2 billing periods before they decided to drop it.

Yeah, Paul, without that ATT-TMobile merger we have SO many choices in all of this.

Pick your poison. You're going to get screwed one way or another by all of them.

As long as Sprint still offers their unthrottled unlimited plans, I will be loyal to them. Fuck the rest.

Is this even legal? What the hell, I already pay those assholes enough, now we have a $2 fee for paying our bills?

How is, Sprint, by the way? I imagine this new fee will constitute a change in terms, allowing me out of my contract early. I've been thinking about switching over to Sprint for a while now.

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG...they WHAT THE AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! TWO DOLLARS...Lets see 200.00 a month of 4 lines, unlimited internet...two dollars thats ah...ONE PERCENT...TWO DOLLARS IS THE ONE PERCENT...WE'RE DOOMED!!!!!

I believe a paper statement is also sent out as late as legally possible, so that you have as small a window as they can get away with to return the bill with your payment before they can slap you with a late fee.

Verizon (aka old Ma Bell) is an evil company just like it's forebears. The only edge Verizon holds is if you absolutely must have a decent network they're the only ones. AT&T could have had just as good a network, but they decided to spend their profits on themselves and stockholders rather than invest in their own network. In some areas it's the only network you can choose to get _any_ service. Try making a call on T-Mobile, Sprint or AT&T in Elma, Washington.

And thank you to the Internets for making Verizon recant this nonsense in less than a day.