BellSouth Answers - Finally

[Chado]

Okay,

This is a useless post of the struggles I have had with BS and tying in my D* account into their "Answers" program. So feel free to back out now.

For those of you not familiar with "Answers" it is like any of the other all-in-one bill programs for local phone, long distance, DSL , Mobile phone & Satellite Tv. The more you sign up for, the more you save. I already had D* so I figured, why not go with the BS option. Extra money off a month never hurts.

I signed up for this last Oct. With the plan that I chose, my D* account was to be credited $10 every month. Notice that eventhough this is an all-in-one bill package, I was still to pay my bill via D*. No big deal, with the exception that I never received a credit. My first call, BS CSR said it takes 2 months to get set up and to be applied onto my D* statement. No big deal. Second call, 2 months later, BS CSR states my D* acct number was never entered in, please wait 2 months. 2 months later (4 total) called again, BS CSR read the call history and doesn't understand why they didn't enter in my acct number, but rest assured you will start to see the credits in another 2 months. You get the idea.

Well it is now August and the issue was finally resolved, kind of. I see that I have about $70 in credits on my D* acct for BS Answers. It appears that someone at BS finally talked with someone at D*. Imagine what a little communication does for a problem. I just hope once the dust settles, I get my monthly credit. It pays for the Soccer Channel.

 

[billbillw]

Sorry you had so much trouble, but that's not the norm. I signed up with Bellsouth Answers back in November. I added D* in January and started receiving a monthly $10 credit starting on the 2nd billing cycle. It has been perfect since. I still have to pay the D* bill separate, but I've never had a problem getting the credit. Glad you are getting the back credits though. At least they didn't screw you out of them.

 

[Chado]

Yeah, the last BS CSR stated that it has happened a few times before. I was just glad to get out that vicious cycle that I was in. It all worked out just fine!!

 

[rajincajun]

what did they tell you

if you were already an existing D* customer what did they tell you? according to what we installers have been told, existing D* customers were'nt eligible for this, has there been yet another addendum that was not passed to the only face to face contacts customers ever have?

 

[Chado]

if you were already an existing D* customer what did they tell you? according to what we installers have been told, existing D* customers were'nt eligible for this, has there been yet another addendum that was not passed to the only face to face contacts customers ever have?

They said it was not a problem and from what it sounded to me, they already had a process in place. They knew to ask for my D* acct number, they knew that it would take a few billing cycles as well and I was never told by a BS CSR that I was not eligible. But from my experience in other areas, your point makes a lot of sense.

 

[shugo77]

I have to say thanks for this post, I had always thought I had to sign up for D* through Bellsouth to receive a discount.

After reading this thread I signed into my Bellsouth account online, I went to the Bellsouth Answers section and clicked on the area to add D* service. The next window that opened said since I already had D* and Bellsouth answers, all I had to do was type in my D* account #. I did it and today I got an email saying my Bellsouth discount will show up on my D* bill in 2 billing cycles. How cool is that?

So apparently it is no problem to get the discount even if you are an existing D* customer. The only thing that strikes me, is that somehow, Bellsouth already knew I had D* service, but didn't automatically apply the discount. I wonder how they knew? I never told Bellsouth I had D* and I did not sign up through Bellsouth, and why didn't they automatically apply the discount? I missed out on 7-9 months of discounts. Oh well

But thanks again for the info, I would have never thought about this before reading this thread, thanks a lot!

 

[Chado]

The only thing that strikes me, is that somehow, Bellsouth already knew I had D* service, but didn't automatically apply the discount. I wonder how they knew? I never told Bellsouth I had D* and I did not sign up through Bellsouth, and why didn't they automatically apply the discount? I missed out on 7-9 months of discounts. Oh well

Glad I could help.... One could only guess how they knew, so here's my guess. During my adventures, the BS CSR constantly made me aware that my name had to be on both accounts with the same address. I am assuming the system made the same correlation when you attempted to sign up. It is really stupid that it didn't automatically kick in, but it sounds like a lot of the gremlins have been removed for you to get such an easy activation of the credit. VERY COOL!!!

 

[lou_do]

Here is the address of the information for existing customers: http://bellsouth.com/consumer/directv/existing_customer.html