Well that was fast. Only hours after publicly stating it wouldn’t back off from charging a $2/month fee to customers who paid online or by phone with a debit/credit card, Verizon Wireless has pulled a complete 180 and decided to nix the fee completely.

In a statement, Big Red writes:

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.

“At Verizon, we take great care to listen to our customers. Based on their input, we believe the best path forward is to encourage customers to take advantage of the best and most efficient options, eliminating the need to institute the fee at this time,” said Dan Mead, president and chief executive officer of Verizon Wireless.

We’re impressed. It took Bank of America weeks of being burned in effigy to scrap its plan to charge a $5/month fee to debit card users.

Earlier today, Verizon said it would not cave to public pressure because the company felt that the way the fee was set up left customers a sufficient number of options to pay their bills without being hit by the fee.

Perhaps it was the news that the FCC, still drunk with power over its part in slaying the AT&T/T-Mobile merger, announced it would be looking into the matter. After all, as a number of readers who tipped us to this news pointed out, VZW is currently in the process of buying all sorts of spectrum from cable providers and needs to play nice with the FCC if it wants the review process to go smoothly.

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