ExpressVu overbilling for free Olympic PPV channels - check your bills

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thewils

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Hi all,

I wondered if anyone else has had this problem. I saw that the PPV channels for Beijing Olympic viewing were priced at $0.00. Being skeptical in nature I checked on the web first, and found some confirmation that they were actually no charge as I thought. So I happily clicked away and ordered $0.00 a few times. Sometimes the stupid software prevented me from watching the channel because the program was nearly over, but if it was free then who cares? ExpressVu really are knuckleheads.

Now my bill arrives and I have been charged $12.99 twice for "Vu! Movie Pack". I think what happened is that their crummy software detected me subscribing to multiple PPVs and instead of billing me individually ($0.00 each) it went ahead and applied a $12.99 bundle fee instead.

I wonder if this fee has shown up on anyone else's bill? I bitched about it to the CSRs - actually I sent two emails to them and both times they blew me off with gibberish - so I finally called them today and got them to credit me with 2x12.99 plus taxes.

If a lot of people have been overbilled for this - what is the possibility of starting a class action lawsuit against Bell for this and all their other overbilling? The big problem I have, is that they expect you to pay their bill and get credit later, if you don't pay the bill, they will likely charge interest on the unpaid portion of the bill - meaning that they are probably charging me interest on cash that I don't even owe them.

Thoughts, anyone?
 
You want to start a class action lawsuit over $12.99? thats kind of silly. If you want to get the credit right away ask them to put it directly onto your One Bill. They can do it, don't let them tell you they can't, they're just lazy about it.
 
No, he said:



If I got half on my work salary for the time I have spent on the phone with them regarding billing errors, I don't think I would have had to pay for TV.

And a few times I have just paid it; as the amount wasn't worth my time and effort.
 
I'm sick and tired of paying up front for their mistakes. I've been a customer for 8 months now, and in that time they haven't sent me one correct bill. I am refusing to pay this one on principle. I just wonder how much other people have been overbilled for watching the supposedly "free" Olympic PPV channels.
 
That, for one reason, is why I never use pre-authorized payments for TV, phone, power, or anything else that may change from month to month.

Everyone makes mistakes, and systems do as well, but you need to give Bell a chance to correct their mistake. When you see your bill and it's not correct, call them and tell them so. I have no problem getting things corrected, and if they actually end up overcharging me on my bill for some reason, who cares? As long as they post the credit on my account, I just short pay and then next month things are back to normal.

There's no need to get hostile about how any company charges their customers.. if they can't or don't correct it, leave. I'm sure there's always somebody else ready to "rip you off".
 
I'd love to leave, but they will ding me for cancellation fees. Rest assured, the second I can leave without them charging me for it, I will. Meanwhile it's difficult not to get hostile with the meatheads in their billing dept. It took 2 emails and a phone call to sort this simple item out.

Here is an example of what they were telling me over email after I pointed out _their_ mistake:

================================================
I understand that you would like to inform that you had never subscribed
for the "Vu! Movie Pack? however; you had been charged $12.99 on your
Bell TV account and a total of $25.98 for the "Vu! Movie Pack credit?. I
will definitely help you in this regard.

I have checked your records once again and found that we had charged the
amount of $0.00 on 07/09/08 due to the "Vu! Movie Pack? on your Bell TV
account and "Vu! Movie Pack? had been charged only once. I am sorry to
inform you that you will not receive a credit of $25.98 due to the PPV
movies because you had not been charged for any PPV movies in that
period.
================================================

As I say, I'm sick and tired of paying for their mistakes, month after month.
 
I'm sorry but their records show that you weren't charged for those movie packs, how could you expect them to credit you $26 if they weren't able to see those charges?

I understand that there was an error, and they should have been able to see the charge but you can't call the person a meathead for not being able to throw credits at you that they couldn't see you deserved.
 
If this thread is still open about the 20th of September I'll let you all know if I have the same problem. I won't be getting my next bill until then.
 
The problem was, I don't watch any PPV shows ever, except for the Olympic channels (for which I had to specifically hook up the phone so I could order them and I always ensured that the cost was $0.00 before proceeding).

The Vu! Movie Pack _was_ on my bill, twice, but the meatheads were telling me in their emails that it wasn't. It was only after I called that they agreed the charges _were_ on my account. This was obvious to me as I could see my bill.

I'm certain this item will appear on other subscribers bills too - especially if you opted for the Olympic PPVs a few times over.
 
Not sure that I am understanding this problem correctly but would be interested in how you would be billed before the normal 30 day period expired. The "order" channels only appeared early in August. Also never heard of the Vu Movie Pack before now.
 
Didn't they used to offer 2 or 3 movies back to back, and call it "Vu Movie Pack"?
Is it possible that some old purchases were on the smart card, and accordingly got phoned in when you plugged in the phone line?
Either that or Bell really has gone to hell. (Possible new slogan?)
 
I've no idea what a Vu! Movie Pack is either. They have the affrontery to call it a "credit" when they are, in fact, debiting my account with it.

I have _never_ ever taken a PPV movie (except for the Olympic PPV channels at $0.00).

Just watch your bill for sneaky charges like I had.
 
Bell and their billing nightmare, I am still paying for a 9200 rental I returned in march, I got lots of free credits due to their mistake, But the $ 20.00 rental is still there.
 
This thread is for discussing if you have been charged incorrectly for the free $0.00 PPV for the olympic channels only.

If you have a complaint, there is a rant thread at the top of the forum. Further inappropriate posts will be deleted without notice and may result in infractions.

Thanks
 
I received my bill yesterday and it shows accordingly more than 25 olimpic PPV events (yes i was hooked) ALL OF THEM 0.00. they did not charged me anything for those 2 Olimpic HD channels. BTW kudos to BEV and CBC for offering those 2 direct feeds from BOB without comercials and comentators. sometimes I wanted to watch the performance of an specific athlete from another country that did not got a medal specially in the track and field events.
 
Just for the record. I received my bill today. It shows $0.00 for all the special Olympic channels. Hopefully that's true for all of you. Case closed and thank you Bell for a super innovative programming decision. Hope you do it again in 2010.
 
Ditto with reidw - I too received my bill with a TON of Olympic PPVs listed... as well as a FreeView Barenaked Ladies concert - all charged at $0.00.

I think we can all agree that one person's misfortune does not mean that there is an inherent flaw in Bell's billing system. Hard to say - system errors happen.
 
He likely had some PPV event left in the memory of the receiver like someone else said and it got transmitted when the phone line was plugged in. Perhaps the rant should be about allowing old PPV events to be billed or about how little details there were regarding the date and time of the PPV event that was being charged. Those could be years old and perhaps a family member, friend, babysitter, whatever ordered the original programming without his knowledge.

I watched those same feeds and did not get charged for them.

I think the whole reason they made them a PPV event is there was likely some kind of accounting they had to do of how many viewers viewed them that they may have required to send to the Olympic committee or some bureaucratic nonsense like that. Without commercials and network association I could see them requiring some kind of loophole to get around some kind of strange exclusivity agreement which making it a PPV channel may have solved.
 
Or maybe to get people to try a PPV for the first time and perhaps start renting movies in the future.
 
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