Billing

[Jimbo]

Hi All !!!

I hate monthly bills ....

If I decided to pay D* a year at a time, would they discount the price ? 5-10 % maybe ???

Who would I talk to, I doubt the basic billing dept would be able to do anything like that.

Any suggestions ???

Jimbo

 

[Digital Dude]

You can't pay ahead on your account more than $99.99

I agree with you.

 

[urnote96]

God, I remember when I first got Directv in the 90's you had to pay the whole year and than they sent you a rebate check for some amount.....

Wish you could go back to that

 

[dragon002]

when i first started in 2000 , directv at that time had (i think) 3% for paying ahead quarterly. and again if i remember correctly, it was 7% for paying ahead for the whole year. like projector said they stopped that. have no clue why. sneaking suspicion.....when you paid by the year, the price increase didnt affect you.

 

[Jimbo]

You can't pay ahead on your account more than $99.99

I agree with you.

Yes you can ....
I did this when I started, I paid like $ 400, and it showed a -ballance on the bill each week.

I am sure if I send them $ 800 for the year, or whatever it comes to, thier not going to turn it down.

Personally , it's stupid to do, because D* just makes interest on my money , that I don't.

But like I said , I hate monthly bills.

Jimbo

 

[Jimbo]

when i first started in 2000 , directv at that time had (i think) 3% for paying ahead quarterly. and again if i remember correctly, it was 7% for paying ahead for the whole year. like projector said they stopped that. have no clue why. sneaking suspicion.....when you paid by the year, the price increase didnt affect you.

I wish I could find someone to talk to about this, maybe a supervisor, I don't know.
You would think they would like this option.

any percent wopuld be helpful, the more the better obviously.

If I figure it out, I pay them about $800, 5% is only $ 40. won't even pay for the HD package, or 1 month sub , actually, it would be nice, but might not be worth the hassle.

The old C Band use to be nice like that...
You could do al acarte as well

I use to pay a years worth of TV with some of my Income tax refund, that is where I am leading too.

Jimbo

 

[cheebs]

I recently (last week) set up a new sub for my stepdad. Asked about the yearly payment option and CSR said no way. Oh well I just set up recurring payments w/his debit card... in the end I guess it's better cause as jimbos said, they don't get to make interest on that money for a year.

 

[Digital Dude]

Yes you can ....
I did this when I started, I paid like $ 400, and it showed a -ballance on the bill each week.

I am sure if I send them $ 800 for the year, or whatever it comes to, thier not going to turn it down.

Personally , it's stupid to do, because D* just makes interest on my money , that I don't.

But like I said , I hate monthly bills.

Jimbo

Go to your account on the web and submit payment for $100 over your balance. You will get a message thet you can only pay $99.99 ahead. It happened to me 3 weeks ago. When I get an extra infusion of money I like to pay bills ahead but Direc stops you at $99.99

 

[Digital Dude]

I imagine they stopped this to keep PPV enabled, hoping you or your kids will order some PPV. Another possible reason is if you fall behind and get shut off they will whack you for early termination fee AND charge back the retailer that sold you as an account, and if you don't return the access cards they'll whack you $300 per card.

It's all about the money but this is my conjecture and not any inside info.

 

[Jimbo]

Go to your account on the web and submit payment for $100 over your balance. You will get a message thet you can only pay $99.99 ahead. It happened to me 3 weeks ago. When I get an extra infusion of money I like to pay bills ahead but Direc stops you at $99.99

If you send them a check, they will apply it to you account, this way you don't have to deal with the computer telling you otherwise.

I will call them in March, after the price changes and everything settles down.
Also I am going on vacation and won't need to deal with bills till after I get back.

Jimbo

 

[sheepishlion]

I just recently started working for D*, and was told that if someone wanted to pay for year, we could do it. We would just calculate how much you pay each month, and then times it by 12. If someone does that I generally will waive the $5 phone transaction fee, because you are paying at least $500, and that's if you have the Total Choice package.

If asked for a discount I will also give $5, 10 or 20 off for 6 months, depending on what package you subscribe to, and how much you are paying. Unfortunately D* has no policy on this, so it depends on which CSR you talk to. I look at it like you have just paid us for a year, so you are not going to be late for that year and chances are you are going to stay with us for the whole year now. That makes you a good customer in my eyes, and worth an extra $5-20 off for 6 months.

 

[cheebs]

I just recently started working for D*, and was told that if someone wanted to pay for year, we could do it. We would just calculate how much you pay each month, and then times it by 12. If someone does that I generally will waive the $5 phone transaction fee, because you are paying at least $500, and that's if you have the Total Choice package.

If asked for a discount I will also give $5, 10 or 20 off for 6 months, depending on what package you subscribe to, and how much you are paying. Unfortunately D* has no policy on this, so it depends on which CSR you talk to. I look at it like you have just paid us for a year, so you are not going to be late for that year and chances are you are going to stay with us for the whole year now. That makes you a good customer in my eyes, and worth an extra $5-20 off for 6 months.

This just goes to show how hard it is to get a correct answer from any CSR, since actual, usable information hardly ever reaches the entire CSR pool.

I guess information is doled out by the managers at every different call center as each one sees fit, not according to a clearly defined policy.

 

[DRSForLife]

This just goes to show how hard it is to get a correct answer from any CSR, since actual, usable information hardly ever reaches the entire CSR pool.

I guess information is doled out by the managers at every different call center as each one sees fit, not according to a clearly defined policy.

I'm a Specialist in our Sales and Billing dept, and ALL of our Reps across the board have access to the same information, just unfortunately, not all of them are as CustomerService Oriented as we would like for them to be.

Regarding the larger payments, I'd have to research it, because it's been several months since I've taken a payment, since I mostly issue credits and take sup calls, but, I believe our consultants are not able to take payments over a certain amount, and infact you would have to mail in your payment if you would like to pay in advance. Again, I'd be more than willing to research that, but when I was a Consultant, we were only able to take check payments up to I believe $300.

I do agree with the prev poster. If I was handling the call and was asked to provide some sort of discount or compensation, I would probably offer the discount, which comes with a new service commitment, or I would offer comp'ed programming such as 3 mos HD or something, just to say thank you for paying in advance.

 

[VIPERS-PIT]

drsforlife said
"which comes with a new service commitment"

Pay your bill in advance and they make you extend your contract?

What kind of customer service is this?

 

[Tonedeaf]

drsforlife said
"which comes with a new service commitment"

Pay your bill in advance and they make you extend your contract?

What kind of customer service is this?

You need to re-read what DRS said was he would offer a discount with a new commitment.

 

[lou_do]

For many years I had C-Band subscriptions. They would always give nice discounts to people who elected to pay for their subscriptions by the year. It was good for both the customer and the programing providers. The programing providers saved on bookwork and monthly billing and the customer got his programing at a lower rate. C-Band programing providers still offer these discounts.

All the time D* is trying to get you to go to auto monthly billing, via credit card, to make things easier for them, but at no savings to the customer. I take that back, they offered, I think it was, a one time $10.00 off your bill to do it, last month.

They should have some incentive programs to help the subscribers save cost, by offering discounts for auto pay by credit card or yearly billing in advance. Like someone said above, it would benefit D* as well with year in advance. They know that subscriber will be around for another year, and won't be leaving next month. But until they do, they can continue sending me my bill every month.

 

[DRSForLife]

The service commitment is a calander-year commitment, so if I (D*) added the discount and the service commitment on the same day that you paid your year in advance, you're essentally paid through the length of your commitment. To me, its a win/win situation.

 

[dragon002]

hey guys,

sat75 works at the oklahoma call center!!



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