A Sneaky New Verizon Price Hike Has Got Texans Angry

At this point, there aren't many companies that people trust. Between terrible customer service, hidden fees, and undisclosed price hikes we've all got good reason to be wary of big businesses.

Verizon is the largest mobile provider in the U.S., the company services over 156 million customers nationwide. And business is booming for the communication behemoth. In the third quarter this year, Verizon earned $19.8 billion in revenue from its wireless service, which is nearly a 3% year-over-year increase.

New Verizon Price Hike Upsets Customers

But it wasn't enough. In a Reddit post that is garnering a lot of attention, one Verizon customer brought up something new that hit their latest phone bill.

“I just looked at the online PDF of my current bill, and was met with a note that the Verizon fee is going up again,” wrote the customer in the post. “It'll now be $3.50 per voice line and $1.60 per data line.”

And the new bigger charge seems to check out, in an emailed statement to TheStreet, a Verizon spokesperson confirmed the price hike, stating that the change will take effect in a week and a half.

“Starting December 18, the monthly Verizon wireless Administrative and Telco Recovery Charge will increase by $0.20 per line for mobile voice (basic phones, Second Number, smartphones, etc.) and data-only (hotspots, tablets, etc.) products,” said the spokesperson. “Verizon Home Internet services are not affected.”

Sure it's not a lot of money, but people are just tired of being nickeled and dimed to death, and so this $0.20 fee increase is not sitting well with many Verizon customers. Here are a few comments from the Reddit thread:

"I should’ve left Verizon instead of getting a new phone with them. I’m gonna save up and pay my phone off and leave Verizon. Might go back to straight talk or something."

 

"I think it's time for everyone to write the FCC. This is nothing but an increase in price across the board even for current customers on their most current plan."

What are your thoughts about the increase?