Thread: Programming Changes and BEV "policy"

About two weeks ago, a BEV agent called our house and somehow talked my wife into a trial of the Premium channels. After several attempts to tell the agent that we weren't interested, she finally gave in when the agent told her that we could try it out for a few days and then cancel if we wanted too. He said that it would only cost $0.60 per day and it could be pro-rated to a daily charge.

So I called yesterday to remove the channels. Guess what??? We have to keep the channels for 30 days. But the part that made me angry is that I cannot put in a request to have the channels cancelled. I must call in and wait again on the 30 day mark to cancel them. IF I miss that day, I will be charged for the next billing cycle.

What kind of stupid policy is this? First they blatantly lied about the daily charge, then you can't cancel the service when you want, even by paying for the full month? WHy is it that when you order the addition of the channel it can be done within a few minutes, but it takes upwards of a month to remove them?

Sorry, but it seems like a very poor policy to me.

Not only do you have to keep it for a minimum of 30 days, but they can only "downgrade" on the first day of your billing cycle...

If for example your billing cycle is from the 13th of July to the 12 of August and you add something on the 14th of July. You have to keep it for a minimum of 30 days (until the 14th of August) and you can only remove the item on the first day of your billing cycle which will be September 13th.

Since the agent lied saying you could try it out for a few days then cancel I would call back and request a credit for all the charges (you might have to escalate it to a supervisor)

The second agent lied to you too...he can enter an open "downgrade order" at any point. He probably just didn't want to take a downgrade affecting his stats, and therefore his bonus

Thanks for the info. I will call tomorrow and immediately ask for a supervisor. There is no point in talking to the CSR's if they won't do their job.

I am continuously surprised by the "Excellent customer service" of this company.

Thanks again!

I am continually NOT SURPRISED. Like I always say in such cases, Welcome to Canada! lol lol lol

I think every provider requires that TMN/MC/SC must be taken for 30 days, however many of the other providers do not have that requirement for regular channels.
It is very unfortunate that your wife was lied to, but rest assured, she's not the first.

BTW, I doubt you'll get a supervisor before explaining everything to at least 6 CSR's in 4 different departments in 2 different countries. (Slight exaggeration)

I tried explaining to the CSR that I will be in Florida on July 20th - the day I have to call and downgrade my service.

Somehow, it just doesn't seem right that I have to take time from my vacation, call long distance, and probably wait for 30 minutes, in order to do something that they can do at any time.

Maybe I'm just being unrealistic?? Does it seem like an outrageous request?

Absolutely not. Don't wait to call back. Call ASAP and hopefully you'll get an agent that will open the downgrade request.
You won't be able to call the regular customer service number from the US anyway.

To avoid that just select the options to get a French rep...all calls where French is selected are transferred to one of the Quebec call center where all reps have to be bilingual. Only the English ones are transferred to India



The rule is that agent has to take down the important info (tel number to account, nature of the problem) and went to the verification process (verify the PIN), and ideally attempted to do something about the issue BEFORE they proceed transferring. If it's a issue that couls be fixed be the CSR (which is the case here, bit which I predict will be hard to achieve throught a CSR) some supervisors will even refuse to take the call



The rules is the same for all channels with EV. That rules is stated in the service agreement that client signed upon installation



If no one is gonna be home you can also put it on TEMPORARY PROGRAMMING SUSPENSION (TPS). TPS will cost you 15$/month if you requested it with an agent, and 10$ if you requested it throught bell.ca or throught channel 198 on your receiver (receiver nust be connected to a telephone line to do so). Sys tem will tell you it needs to be for a period of 6 weeks to a maximum of 6 months...if you go for a shorther period just put a restart date that would be in 6 weeks from the date you start it, then, the day before you return call EV and ask them to reactivate



Agents are not supposed to refuse to open a downgrade request...they could get a warning if they do so! They are supposed rto try to save the downgrade by trying to figure out why the client wants to cancel it, and tryu to offer them a products that could replace what they are cancelling

DOWNGRADES ARE ALWAYS DONE ON THE FIRST DAY OF YOUR BILLING CYCLE, so it is very possible that it won't fall on the 20th, the date you choose

If agents are truly refusing to do something, as suggested by willise, are they not worried about the disclaimer everybody hears prior to connection; something to the effect of "Your call may be monitored to improve customer service".

Unless there are extenuating circumstances, I totally agree to no changes for 30 days. However, I believe there should be an exclusion if the change was made greater than 30 days in the past. I can see people ordering up packages for a weekend and canceling on Monday.

Something to keep in mind: If an offer is made, make sure it's typed in the ticket and and for the ticket and have it read back to you. Ask for the ticket number when completed.

Maybe I've been lucky but every time I've called in the last little while, I've received an agent who speaks perfect English and has also been quite helpful.

Congo

I ran into a similar situation this week. After a first botched attempt to change my programing (wrong themes, they were way off of what I asked for) I called back a day later to fix it and the CSR said I could not until the next billing cycle! I had to go through the whole story, and finally convinced him that this was not a new request, just fixing an error on their part. I had everything organized and set and I understood what I was asking for, repeated saying "I want the 4 HD themes for $10.00". Right at the end of the call, he said "Are you sure you do not want the extra HD theme for the same price?" This got me kinda of confused and thought there was a some sort of special new group of HD themes, so I said if it wasn't going go cost extra. He said no, "you will still be paying the $83.00 per month" which was a little higher than the $78.00 I calculated. But confused, I said "Okay". After a while it kinda dawned on me that he talked me into another HD theme, and that it was going to be $5.00 more! I feel I've been the victim of a con job.

Grrr... I don't know if I should call back again (3rd time), or just swallow the $5.00 charge this month and change it next billing cycle.