Billing Issues and Questions

[TheZodiac]

I have done a search and cannot find the answer before I call BELL, I thought I would ask here. I was paying my Mothers BELL bill and noticed she got dinged for$5.99 usage fee on her Expressvu ..what's that for?? Thanks

[Pinza]

Can you be more specific.? Is that all it says.?

Is she on an old package and pays for extra receivers.? (if she has more than one).

Could it be a PPV Purchase.?

[TheZodiac]

Hi Pinza

No she owns her receivers and wouldn't know how to order PPV unless it was in Italian LOL

Guess I'll have to give BELL a call Monday

[Fed-up consumer]

Hello there! It is in some ways incredibly comforting to know that I am not on glue nor alone in our latest Battle with bell! I would like to explain our situation and then also invite other customers who have had similar issues to contact me as soon as possible in hopes to compile enough complaints to take this to the BBB, consumer report, and anyone that is able to ruffle enough feathers to fource bell to change their compliance and billing regulations geared toward customer protection.

In march of 2010 I contacted technical support to help me hook up my bell receiver 6100. The machine which we had purchased from good friends of ours that had moved. After hours of updates and walking me through the entire process it was determined that our receiver had an internal communication error and was under warranty. It was explained to me that I was entitled to a new machine and when it arrived I was to place the old machine in the new box and send it back. weeks went by and I received a smart card in the mail. Assuming that this was what was meant I contacted bell and proceeded to pair up the smart card with my current machine. The process worked and we carried on as usual.
In April my family discussed if the dish was needed. We were planning to be away much of the summer and for how many shows we actually got that we liked we all came to the desision that we would not need the dish and instead use Netflix off our wii at an extreme fraction of the cost. I paid our bill up to date and at the end of April canceled our service. I was given a disconnection date of June 3 it was not explained to me that I was respond able for another month of billing however I know now that is policy and am willing to pay that out.
As arranged on June 3 our service was canceled and life carried on.
In November I recieved a bill from bell for $679.19!!!
As assumed I contacted belland to shorten 11 phone calls all made to bell by myself, 37 operators at various departments, and a whopping 53 hours in total on the phone this is what they had to say:
A) there is no record of my cancelation
B) our services were actually suspended on June 3 for non return of equipment.
C) when asked what equipment it was determined that my warranty recieved was sent to box 195 wrong town, wrong province!
D) the reciever was delivered and recieved by occupants of that address therefore it is determined that I still owe my old receiver!
E) my bill breakdown is as follows according to bell we owe payment for may, June, July and August, non return of machine that they mailed to wrong address and have hooked up with another customer in April!
F) I have asked during all of my past 11 discussions that my Conversations be recorded. I have began with my appologies at my frustration level and with each rep I speak with explain the scenario. I was told two weeks ago that supervisor Steven employee #6035360 would contact me back directly within the next 48 hours after doing a review of our "claim" to determine if we are elegable for aterations to our billing agreement. Today we recieved a letter from an outside collections group stating that we now owe $699.10!

Bells defense is that there is no record of my cancelation... Then why do I have dates marked down for when I called and would be canceled?
Their defense is also that it is not their issue that my reciever went to tge wrong town and province at their mistake once it leaves their shipping it is tge customers responsibility!!! It was even Sudgested that I myself try to contact the person who got it and try to get it back to sell it privately and put the money
Towards my bill!!! We are at our complete whit's end with the bullying and one sided billing protocol from bell tv and I have after doing much homework on complaint boards made tge desision to personally fight this untill the entire bill is corrected.
If you or someone you know has an issue like this that you feel will support this case and or will support your own please let me know ASAP as in the new year I will be taking this much much further past supervisor Steven and customer service agents.

[Pinza]

I was entitled to a new machine and when it arrived I was to place the old machine in the new box and send it back. weeks went by and I received a smart card in the mail. Assuming that this was what was meant I contacted bell and proceeded to pair up the smart card with my current machine.

Lots of assuming going on here on your part.

If Bell told you they were shipping a replacement Receiver and you did NOT get one, why on earth would you 'assume' that a replacement Smart Card would be the same thing.? How were you intending to ship back the old Receiver.? OH wait you 'assumed' that now you did not need to. Didn't you call Bell when this happened.?

Also I have never known Bell to 'disconnect' a TV Service with just 2 months of none payments. Sounds to me like you just put your account on 'suspension', not for none return of equipment, what should you have returned.? You never got a replacement Receiver. Your account was 'suspended on the date you requested', June 3rd.

non return of machine that they mailed to wrong address and have hooked up with another customer in April!

You would NOT have returned this Receiver, this was your replacement Receiver. The one they should be billing you for is the original defective one.

I think this post just shows that when dealing with Bell, you should NEVER ASSUME ANYTHING.

[Fed-up consumer]

Hi there thanks for replying.

First off the smart card that was mailed to me was for my old reciever as the 6131's the new replacement machine have internal smart cards so yes when I called bell nothing was said about my machine I was asked to send back my old smart card.

Regarding the suspension according to bell I was suspended for non return of my old machine as they had Incorrectly mailed my replacement reciever of which after recieving the smart card I didn't know was still coming.

Why would I check into any further billing when I understood that we were finished with bell and all was paid?

I hasn't learned about bells complaints untill after I started having issues. When I stated "assuming" in my initial post it was a non partial way of stating what I was led to believe following discussions with bell representatives.

You are correct they are charging me and suspended my account for non payment of my old machine because they sent me a new one as well as a smart card. Now if the new smart card worked and no mention was made regarding a machine being sent when I paired up my smart card through a rep would you yourself look into additional billing issues if you had no past issues after dealing with them for 10 years?

I have worked very hard to get to the bottom of this writing all details down and requesting for my conversations to be recorded to cover all bases. I have seen very similar issues posted on this site with other customers and had hoped someone is either able to steer me in the appropriate direvtion to actually resolve this with bell or dig for the truth which I have nothing to hide to solve situations such as this from happening to other consumers.

[Fordman]

On December 11th I removed the premium movie package from my account via online. Today I received my e-bill dated dec 16th and see that I am still being charged for the movie channels from dec 25 to jan 24 when really I should have had a credit from dec 12 to dec 25. In the past I have always received any credits I have been owed quite promptly. Do I have an issue or should I wait to see if my credit will be applied next month. Is it normal to wait alittle while for credits to be applied.

[Pinza]

It was not that long ago that it was impossible to 'downgrade' your programming on-line, has that changed.?

[Fordman]

Yes its now possible to remove programming online. Well it worked for me.

[Pinza]

Thanks I did not know that. Now all it has to do is remove it from your Bill apparently.....lol

[Headrush69]

Fordman, If you call they'll likely say that your bill was sent to the "printer" before you cancelled and why the change isn't on there.

Whether you receive a paper bill or not, when they say printer it's basically just the bill creation department.

The next bill you should see the appropriate credits applied.

[Fordman]

Got it figured out. My One Bill is dated the 16th. The actual Bell TV service bill is made up on the 10th hence I cancelled the movies the day after the decembers bill was ready. CSR said credit will be applied to next bill.

[kovalev]

Sorry !

[fortissimo]

I am finally cancelling Bell, after a few years, w/ a $140.+tax sub. My billing period is 15th to 14th (next month). I phoned on Feb 14 to cancel. The rep said because Feb (in 2013) only has 28 days, my account won't get cancelled until 30 days later, which would be March 16.

Just 2 hours ago, my sub has finally dropped out (i.e. all channels gone except Free Previews), that is March 16. I am not sure if they will bill me for that 1 hour of service on March 16, they shouldn't. So they should just bill me for March 15 to March 15, for one day. (last month already paid).

However, I also received a bill (online billing already printed Mar 10), which billed me for the full month (plus the $5. that I received each month has been removed, not sure if it has fulfilled its course, or they pulled it b/c I cancelled), and the account page said Please pay by Apr 2, 2013.

Because I don't want to overpay for March to April, since I should only be billed for 1 day, I removed my pre-authorized payment info (i.e. my credit card info) on the account. I will phone in to inquire when I will receive an update / final bill, and hopefully the credit will cancel out 30 out of 31 days, and pro-rated it.

It seems that Feb is the worst month to cancel!

I asked the rep (I waited a very long time for them to pick up) if he could simply cut it off at the end of the billing date, and he said he couldn't. They are demanding that a 30 day notification policy applies, yet they ignore that since Feb only has 28 days (he told me that himself!), they are basically making more money on Feb month b/c (i.e. my Feb bill) because they are only providing 28 days worth of service! No, that doesn't count.

And unlike other telecom billing I have experienced with, which would already wrap up the billing w/ pro-rated billing charges and credits, they sent me a bill which charged me for the whole month, as if it is business as usual. If I didn't pull my credit card info on the PAP, they would have withdrawn it automatically too, I think, and that would create another problem b/c I won't know how long it takes to get a refund from them. But from my past experience, getting a refund usually takes 3 - 4 months! (and only if you chase them each month).

Not only that, I attempted to phone in to drop my programming to bare basic, but I could never get through to them so I gave up. I tried a few times but that line didn't go through at all. The announcement said "Due to unexpected problem, this (department?? I forgot the word) is closed".

Oh, one last thing, the rep did not attempt to offer any retention deals. My plan was $130.+, and I only had a $5. credit for 12 months.

I read on cellphone forums (Howardforums) that bell mobile has very bad customer service, and my experience from the satellite dept wasn't that great to begin with but because I had never need to phone them except one time, after the beginning (which was a lot of work), so it wasn't bothering me (not until now).

Until I hear from them, the official word is that I owe them $150. for March 15 to Apr 14, which I only had one day of service. Great!

[fortissimo]

I just phoned and was transferred to billing.

The rep (general customer service) said my account was cancelled on Mar 17. That was incorrect (why do they all have different answers?). After transferred over to Billing, the lady said it was cancelled on Mar 16 (15 was my last usage day).

She said I can ignore the current bill, said it was automatically printed. She said they still haven't printed the update as that takes a few days since the last day of service. Said I could try to phone in to request a reversal after I receive the updated bill.

She also confirmed that my credit card (which I pulled off PAP on the web admin) has not been processed (whew!).

They insisted on billing me for that one day, and would not work out something. Completely silly not only because it was money but I have to worry about one last bill.