The one month's notice...how does it "work"

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acru

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Around April 17th, we gave our notice to Bell at this point for the one month's notification that we no longer wanted Satellite Services. Our contract had ended last year and have been going on a month to month basis since then.

Now our monthly bill is $74.58 and our billing cycle is the first of every month. Our last Bill on May 1st was again $74.58. Since Bell charges one month in advance (April to May), it covered about half of that one month's notice (April 17th-May 1st) and the last bill should have covered the rest (May 1st to May 17th) Shouldn't our last bill have been around $42.32 since we were disconnected on May 17th?

I'm asking this on behalf of my father, as he has no idea what they're doing :S
 
acru, Is the 1st of the month your "Bill from" date or statement date? If it is your "Bill from" date then this statement covers May 1-31. This bill was generated on or about April 16, as the statement date is about 14 days before the "Bill From" date. On this date your account was still active. Your next statement on May 16 with still bill you for 1 more month (June 1-30) as your disconnection work order has still not been completed. A third bill will be generated soon after your disconnection work order is completed at Midnight ET on the moring of May 17th. This third statement will refund your account the amount from May 17 to June 30.

[This assumes you are receiving Legacy billing from Bell TV's CSG billing system, rather that a Bell Canada OneBill.]

If you are a rental customer make sure you return your rental receivers within 30 days of disconnection, otherwise non return fees will be assessed.


I hope that this has given you more insight.
 
For instance in March, I received a bill, with the bill Date of March 22nd, 2009, it is a bill for Monthly Services from March 30th to April 29th. Same for April, Bill date of April 22nd, 2009 for April 30th to May 29th, and Bell cut our services off on the 17th of May, 2 days later we received the boxes, and sent the receivers back.

Going by the above, our Bill date is the 22nd of each month. So we canceled on April 17th of May, and service termination was May 17th. So the bill for April 30th to May 29th was already processed on April 8th, before I gave them notification. So that bill should be the full $74.58. The next one that is for Billing Date of May 22nd, 14 days before this bill date would be May 8th which is 3 weeks after I gave notification of cancellation. So shouldn't the bill that is coming up, be the final statement, refunding me for May 17th to May 29th?
 
Bell can take up to 2 months to generate the final bill. In the mean time, they sometimes keep sending out bills asking you to pay. If the money is not owed (service already canceled for the time on the bill) don't pay it. Be sure to call and make sure the service cancellation is in their system. I've had cancellations fail to register. If money is owed to Bell, the final bill should arrive in a few days. If a refund is expected, it will take several weeks. :rolleyes:
 
Acru thanks for the update,

You must have Bell One Bill. This complicates matters. Based on your Bill-From date of the 30th of the month, I can determine that your Bell TV billing date is as of the 16th of every month, and as of that date Bell TV sends Bell One Bill your account information. Several days later Bell One Bill prints you a statement that is sent out on the 22nd of every month.

Unfortunately the Bell TV billing system doesn't recognize your request to cancel your Bell TV service until after your service is disconnected. After your service is disconnected, your Bell One Bill statement dated June 22nd will refund your previously billed amount from May 17 to June 29th.

After May 17th call Bell TV to find out the exact amount you owe to avoid Late Payment Charges if you ignore your May 22nd bill.
I hope this explains everything more clearly.
 
Now that the 1.5% tax has showed up on my bill, I have decided to cancel my Bell satellite service. I notice a few horror stories here about people continuing to get billed, and even having collection agencies after them.

It seems like some of you are bell insiders or even CSRs. What is the proper procedure to follow to ensure that my cancellation goes properly? I purchased my two HD-PVRs outright when I first started, and my contract ran out about 2 years ago.

One thing I will do is tape all conversations, but what else would you suggest to make sure that things go smoothly?
 
Call and cancel. You are required to provide 30 days notice, so you will be billed for that. Of course they will pass you to retentions and offer you significant discounts to stay, but you can decline if you like.

-Mike
 
It appears the collections department gets involved very quickly if there's an outstanding amount on a closed account.

Here's my suggestion, when you call to cancel get the agent's name and their agent #. Keep everything written down so you can quickly access the info if you're called. Every phone call after that should also follow the same procedure. Write it down, the more information you get, the more collections will be willing to help you.

You will be charged for the month following your disconnection. Pay that if you'd like (to avoid collections) and then wait for a refund cheque to be issued.

When you return the equipment, make sure you keep an itemized list of everything you put in the box, including serial numbers (if possible). This includes the actual receiver, remote control and down-converting box.

I also printed out the tracking report from Purolator when the box was received, just in case the box went missing inside Bell's processing facility.

If you get a bill that has additional charges on it, call during regular weekday business hours (9a-5p) to avoid getting a CSR that isn't as well trained as the regular 9a-5p crew. Again, write down the CSR's ID # and their name. If they can't reverse the charges, ask to speak to a supervisor.

If you get a collections notice, call them again during business hours and explain your story, quoting all of the details. The collections department can't reverse charges but they can put you back to customer service to have the charges reversed. They can also flag the file as being disputed and you are less likely to get bothered again.

The better you arm yourself with all this information, the more unlikely they are to think you are trying to pull a fast one on them, and they will help you more.

IMHO Bell's Customer Service completely sucks when you try to leave them. It's a fairly simple thing, but they make it a long drawn out procedure and their system seems too eager to bump your account into collections, when really there's no balance owing at all. It certainly would make me think twice about coming back to them when they treat you so badly.
 
I think the major problem is Bell TV rental receiver return process. It takes too long.

I wish that Bell World stores and Bell Canada owned "the Source by Circuit City" stores could accept equipment returns and remove the equipment directly from the billing system (CSG) when you drop off the equipment.

When I used to work a Bell TV external partner employee everyday I handled calls regarding rental equipment returns that were not handled properly.

BTW, there are no penalties for forgetting to inlcude the remote. All you need to include is the receiver and the removeable smart card if you have one.
 
Be careful telling people that they do not need to return the remotes. When the box arrives at NESA, in Markham, the operative is supposed to check that the Receiver has a Smart Card, then verify that the Remote is in the box. The remote os then tossed into a large bin, the receiver gets moved along a conveyor to be proccessed.

If the Remote is missing, this information should be recorded, so that Bell can if they wish, invoice the Customer for failing to return the Remote. In reality, they do not care about the Remote as they can proccess more boxes if they Remotes are missing.

I think the way the Returns work is fine, it only takes 2 or 3 days for the receiver to make it back to NESA, and lets face it, Purolator will Pick Up at your house if you call them.
 
It should be that as soon as the agent opens a disconnection work order a box is issued to the rentl customer to rturn the unit...but Bell doesn't do that! Why? Cause in the meantime, during that month notice you have to give they will hope you change your mind and call back to cancel the open work order. In the past they used to call to try to win you back, but nowadays I think that they no longer have the rights to do it.



Not sure how that procedure is done, but I saw clients where it tooks months before they had any charge for the non returned remote, then finally 5-6 months after they returned it they get billed



All agents receive the same training...the ones that are working night shift just sounds as confident in their answers cause they are usally the "newbie". When you start working in a call center you get the evening shift and night shift, then, when you start having seniority, could choose a little more the shifts you want



Sucks in general, not only when you try to leave them!
 
Bad idea to do this as a default, the Customer still has a further 30 days of programming that they have paid for, now if the customer is so upset and demands a box be sent immediately, fine.

There should be a built in delay of 24 days, that way the box arrives just as service stops.
 
When the service is cancelled it could take as long as 10 weeks before boxes are sent (and that, even when the agent did all he had to). If the system was to automatically order the boxes when the diconnection work order is opened this would save the customer waiting weeks
 
Oh come on Ex Agent, 10 weeks is NOT the norm, that is just scare mongering. I will not dispute that the odd one tales that long but I would wager that 95% arrive in a very timely manner.

lets face it, when the Customer looses his/her programming, it just takes another call to ask for the box's again, no big deal.
 
Ah perhaps I picked the wrong word... The evening/overnight agents aren't generally as "seasoned" as the 9a-5p ones.



I would agree that on the scale of large communications companies, Bell's Customer Service Department is on the very low end. Rarely does one call ever resolve your problem fully. Perhaps that's why Bell has an F rating with the Better Business Bureau. Mostly for utter failure to respond to customer complaints.
 
The regular turnaround time for a box to be sent out is 7 to 10 business days, or approximately two weeks, NOT 10 weeks.

If the receiver is not flagged on the system as a rental, the customer may have to call back to have a request made.
 
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