We Won! As I access my email in my inbox something tells me that this is different and not the usual you won a lottery spam since it says we instead of you won. Still I hesitated to open it because I have no recollection of entering any lottery of sorts so what is it that I did to deserve a winning email? Perhaps this is about Mr. Winning of the Two and a half men fame, but why will I get an email from Charlie Sheen? I am not celebrity or someone who is famous not even infamous so scratch that one out.
The sender is Molly Katchpole, a name that is so familiar but can't recall where and how until it dawned on me that she is not just my idol hero but our hero. She is the
dragon slayer, the one who slew Bank of America’s $5 ATM fee that she successfully thwarted through her petition. So what did we win this time, a new car? Nah, but another sweet victory for the 99%, to quote the email message:
Molly again, with huge news:
Verizon just announced that it's not going to charge customers a fee to pay our bills online.
Two nights ago, I started a petition on Change.org telling Verizon that it can't nickel and dime customers like me with new fees. Within hours, more than 130,000 of us signed the petition. (Thanks, by the way -- you're amazing!)
It took months of hard work to get Bank of America to drop its $5 debit card fee, but Verizon backed down in less than 24 hours. Turns out people like you and me are getting more powerful by the day.
Congrats, and happy New Year!
- Molly
Well how about that, what refreshing news as the New Year approaches. Corporate America seems to be listening to people’s sentiments or was it more of a
backlash? Times are hard and difficult and consumers are so hard up nowadays that any unwarranted fee gets the consumers ire. Who wouldn’t be upset when you feel you are being unduly taken advantage of? It might not be much since it was just a $2 fee but it adds up when you pay the fee every month when you pay your bill online using your credit or debit card.
What prompted Verizon Wireless to change gears and reverse itself was a day after they announced the planned fee the petition started by Molly Katchpole at move.org already gathered 95,000 signatures.
Now that is something that people in the Philippines will be amazed at the swiftness of the response and how fast Verizon Wireless reverses their plan. Verizon Wireless serves a total of 91 million subscribers, had that been in the Philippines they would have argued that 95K is a miniscule number compared to the total number of subscribers so why will they reverse their plan? Well for one corporate America seems to be transforming and not just like the cheap errrr chief justice Renato Corona who uses every loophole available to him in order to stay in a position that he never deserve in the first place. An honorable position that he has no qualm in soiling and destroying whatever credibility and integrity it has if there is any left after he has dishonored it beyond recognition.
With 69% of the people who thinks Gloria Arroyo is treated fairly and 13% thinking she is given a special treatment by the Aquino administration, a number so encouraging that maybe there is still hope for change. Perhaps 2012 will be the start of a new beginning where we can once again bring back delicadeza in our leaders’ vocabulary and corruption treated as a fluke instead of the norm.
Happy New Year!
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