Verizon has backed off a plan to charge customers a $2 convenience fee after the newly announced policy was met by customer outrage. The fee would have only applied to some bill payments, including one-time payments via phone or Verizon's website.

The fee also drew the ire of the Federal Communications Commission, which said it planned to question the company over the new fee.

Fox News reported:

News of the $2 charge had been greeted by a storm of criticism, both by consumers and the FCC: A petition on Change.org against it had gathered more than 57,000 names on Friday afternoon. An official told Fox Business Friday afternoon that the agency planned to investigate the new fee.

"On behalf of American consumers, we're concerned about Verizon's actions and are looking into the matter," an FCC official said.

More from The Washington Post:

The pressure from Verizon’s own customers began building well before the FCC jumped in. Verizon had planned to charge the fee to customers who made one-time payments to online or over the phone starting next year. The company listed several ways to avoid the charge, including enrolling in automatic bill pay or mailing a check.

Consumer advocacy groups derided the fee as “pay-to-pay.” In fact, recent federal legislation abolished similar charges by the credit card industry.

Verizon released a written statement explaining that they dropped the new fee based on the feedback they got from their customers.

According to the statement: “Verizon Wireless has decided it will not institute the fee for online or telephone single payments that was announced earlier this week...The company made the decision in response to customer feedback about the plan, which was designed to improve the efficiency of those transactions. The company continues to encourage customers to take advantage of the numerous simple and convenient payment methods it provides.”

Verizon is hardly the first company to bow to consumer pressure this year; just last month, Bank of America dropped a planned monthly $5 debit card fee following negative customer feedback.

"The era of corporations walking roughshod over consumers without consequence is officially over," Ben Rattray, founder of Change.org, said in a statement.

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