UPC want my next bill paid before its even issued!

Technocentral

Anyone came across this before from this shower? I contacted them over the weekend to say I would be paying my last bill today and got an email that said that in fact my account balance was twice that amount (they gave the amount), so now apparently they want us to pay our bills before we get them, seriously considering moving to Sky.

MitchKoobski

How about you wait until the bill comes in then and pay it?

The amount is added to the account's balance as the bill is generated, not as you get it in the door.

Technocentral

MitchKoobski wrote: »

How about you wait until the bill comes in then and pay it?

The amount is added to the account's balance as the bill is generated, not as you get it in the door.

Thats fine but the next bill is not even online at the moment, during a recession where its really difficult to pay my bills as someone who is freelance I don't want rich multinationals sending me this S**t.

Melendez

This post has been deleted.

Technocentral

Melendez wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

I know I don't have to pay it now but I don't want to hear about my next bill until it is issued, no other company does this, people are under severe economic pressure without been reminded about future bills is my point.

Melendez

This post has been deleted.

Dodge

Technocentral wrote: »

I know I don't have to pay it now but I don't want to hear about my next bill until it is issued, no other company does this, people are under severe economic pressure without been reminded about future bills is my point.

They didn't remind you about a future bill. You rang them

Technocentral

Dodge wrote: »

They didn't remind you about a future bill. You rang them

I emailed them to say I would be paying it today not rang them actually, a simple ok from them is what I expected not you actually owe us x amount including your next bill that we haven't even issued yet, ESB and 3 mobile don't email me what my next bill is in advance when I ask them a question, who wants to here that shiite?

Skuxx

Technocentral wrote: »

I emailed them to say I would be paying it today not rang them actually, a simple ok from them is what I expected

Not having a go, but why bother emailing them to tell them if all your looking for is a simple ok back, did you really need to be told "ok"?? I'm sure their support team have enough to be dealing with!

Dodge

Technocentral wrote: »

I emailed them to say I would be paying it today not rang them actually, a simple ok from them is what I expected not you actually owe us x amount including your next bill that we haven't even issued yet, ESB and 3 mobile don't email me what my next bill is in advance when I ask them a question, who wants to here that shiite?

You e-mailed them to say you were paying your final bill. They replied to say it wasn't your final bill, and you'll get another one. They couldn't reply OK, as your assumption was wrong.

I'd imagine you'd have complained if they said nothing and you got a bill in 2 months time too...

Technocentral

alan1990 wrote: »

Not having a go, but why bother emailing them to tell them if all your looking for is a simple ok back, did you really need to be told "ok"?? I'm sure their support team have enough to be dealing with!

Emailed them because got letter on Sat. saying my service would be suspended. If you all are loaded and not under pressure to pay bills fine, I'll leave it there.

Technocentral

Dodge wrote: »

You e-mailed them to say you were paying your final bill. They replied to say it wasn't your final bill, and you'll get another one. They couldn't reply OK, as your assumption was wrong.

I'd imagine you'd have complained if they said nothing and you got a bill in 2 months time too...

I didn't say final bill and wouldn't have complained, if I thought I would have got these sort of idiotic, immature responses here I wouldn't have bothered posting.

Dodge

Technocentral wrote: »

I didn't say final bill and wouldn't have complained, if I thought I would have got these sort of idiotic, immature responses here I wouldn't have bothered posting.

So you're not getting the responses you want from posters here, and you're not getting the responses you want from UPC. You might want to see if that pattern exists elsewhere

Skuxx

Technocentral wrote: »

I didn't say final bill and wouldn't have complained, if I thought I would have got these sort of idiotic, immature responses here I wouldn't have bothered posting.

I havn't seen any "idiotic, immature responses here", did UPC say "actually you owe us double what you thought you did, so either pay that or we're cutting you off?" I doubt it. I'm sure if you look at your statement it will have a billing date. That is the date your bill for the month is added to your accont, you may not recieve a paper statement for a few days after that. UPC were simply looking at your account and telling you that your balance is actually now X and not Y. They weren't making threats for you to pay it so relax!!

bobmalooka

It sounds like you may be over reacting a little bit. Re-read the e-mail and try to think about the senders process of thinking.

You say your paying the bill but he can see a new bill is in the process of being issued, would it be fair for him to ignore the info he has in front of him that could help you budgeting through the most expensive time of year?

The only people in UPC who care about getting you to pay your bills are the arrears dept (and they'd be making contact with you not the other way round)

I'd imagine the customer service rep wanted it to be as clear as possible to avoid confusion down the line. Probably was delighted with himself thinking you'd appreciate the heads up on the next bill.

Technocentral

bobmalooka wrote: »

It sounds like you may be over reacting a little bit. Re-read the e-mail and try to think about the senders process of thinking.

You say your paying the bill but he can see a new bill is in the process of being issued, would it be fair for him to ignore the info he has in front of him that could help you budgeting through the most expensive time of year?

The only people in UPC who care about getting you to pay your bills are the arrears dept (and they'd be making contact with you not the other way round)

I'd imagine the customer service rep wanted it to be as clear as possible to avoid confusion down the line. Probably was delighted with himself thinking you'd appreciate the heads up on the next bill.

Your response is fine apart from the last sentence, I'm freelance and finding things very tough at the moment, everyone I know dreads getting and opening their bills I never met anyone who wants to know the total of the next before its issue date, (21st of each month in this case) I wrongly thought people here might feel the same.

Dodge

Technocentral wrote: »

Your response is fine apart from the last sentence, I'm freelance and finding things very tough at the moment, everyone I know dreads getting and opening their bills I never met anyone who wants to know the total of the next before its issue date, (21st of each month in this case) I wrongly thought people here might feel the same.

No one likes getting bills, but being a baby about it doesn't help your situation. UPC did nothing wrong here. Grow up and stop getting upset about people doing their job

Technocentral

Dodge wrote: »

Technocentral wrote: »

Your response is fine apart from the last sentence, I'm freelance and finding things very tough at the moment, everyone I know dreads getting and opening their bills I never met anyone who wants to know the total of the next before its issue date, (21st of each month in this case) I wrongly thought people here might feel the same.

No one likes getting bills, but being a baby about it doesn't help your situation. UPC did nothing wrong here. Grow up and stop getting upset about people doing their job

If you bothered to read my posts you would see that I object to getting them before their due you arrogant idiot.

UDP

Technocentral wrote: »

I know I don't have to pay it now but I don't want to hear about my next bill until it is issued, no other company does this, people are under severe economic pressure without been reminded about future bills is my point.

Those b'astards!! How dare they tell you the amount that is showing in your account. The cheek of them. Who the tell do they think they are - the accounts department? :rolleyes: Oh wait...

This is ridiculus. All they did here was tell you how much you owe at the moment. In fact if you were to argue the "severe economic pressure" then you should be thanking them for reminding you the total amount so that you can ensure it is included in your financial plan for next month or whenever it is due.

UDP

Technocentral wrote: »

If you bothered to read my posts you would see that I object to getting them before their due you arrogant idiot.

Why, because you don't like to here the reality that there is currently x showing in your account? Thats not the CS rep's fault that you cannot deal with it - they were just trying to be helpful so that you can make informed financial plans.

mickdw

If this bill is for pay TV service, its a bit rich coming on here complaining about how hard it is to pay bills. I don't believe they were being unreasonable so if you don't like the setup, just get rid of it.
Also, you might want to keep away from sky if billing problems annoy you.

bobmalooka

Technocentral wrote: »

Your response is fine apart from the last sentence, I'm freelance and finding things very tough at the moment, everyone I know dreads getting and opening their bills I never met anyone who wants to know the total of the next before its issue date, (21st of each month in this case) I wrongly thought people here might feel the same.

I know all about things being tough man, but I dont get why your outraged by UPC here. I get that you didn't want to know about it yet but is it any reason to be up in arms?

I understand bills can be stressfull and ****ty but UPC have done nothing wrong mate.

Merch

In response, UPC are arses to deal with, either that is their intention to frustrate customers, the only end which seems to be they know an alternative service cannot be availed of in the customers area, and/or they simply dont give a damn or it is to deflect customer inquiries? Unless other posters replying here have dealt with UPC when it comes to a problem, then you simply cannot understand how frustrating and unbelievable it actually gets.
OP if there is a problem and you are aware they are wrong or if they simply cant answer simple questions regarding your account and you can move, then move,
I intend to do that myself, but as UPC have dicked me around I am waiting until after Xmas as I have to give them a month notice anyway and I dont want them messing up my service until after then.
Its a shame really as the service itself is ok when there are no problems, its just their customer service/follow up for problems is abysmal, they actually make things worse.

Dodge

Merch wrote: »

Unless other posters replying here have dealt with UPC when it comes to a problem, then you simply cannot understand how frustrating and unbelievable it actually gets.

I have dealt with them a couple of times. once was awful, 2nd time was perfect.

Its a shame really as the service itself is ok when there are no problems, its just their customer service/follow up for problems is abysmal, they actually make things worse.

In this instance (as described by the OP) they did nothing wrong. He mailed them about a bill, and they replied telling him how much was due.

While their reputation might be awful, thats not an excuse to criticise them if they did nothing wrong, and it certainly isn't a 'consumer issue'

Technocentral

Merch wrote: »

In response, UPC are arses to deal with, either that is their intention to frustrate customers, the only end which seems to be they know an alternative service cannot be availed of in the customers area, and/or they simply dont give a damn or it is to deflect customer inquiries? Unless other posters replying here have dealt with UPC when it comes to a problem, then you simply cannot understand how frustrating and unbelievable it actually gets.
OP if there is a problem and you are aware they are wrong or if they simply cant answer simple questions regarding your account and you can move, then move,
I intend to do that myself, but as UPC have dicked me around I am waiting until after Xmas as I have to give them a month notice anyway and I dont want them messing up my service until after then.
Its a shame really as the service itself is ok when there are no problems, its just their customer service/follow up for problems is abysmal, they actually make things worse.

Cheers for reply, I didn't come on here complaining about having to pay my bills as other people seem to think I just got a shock when I emailed them to say I was paying my most recent bill today and they sent me the following (I have used 100 to represent amount I owe on last bill, as printed on bill and online as of today.)

"Thank you for your recent email.

I can see from your account that there is a total balance of €200. Out of which there is an outstanding balance of €100. Please note that you will have to clear the balance before 03/12/2011 to avoid suspension of services."

I panicked and thought that I had missed a payment in the past, I rang and was waiting ages so looked it up online and it said "100" all I am saying is it is irresponsible of them to reply in this way.

Dodge

it is NOT irresponsible of them to tell you how much you have on your account

In fact it is the complete opposit

UDP

Technocentral wrote: »

I panicked and thought that I had missed a payment in the past, I rang and was waiting ages so looked it up online and it said "100" all I am saying is it is irresponsible of them to reply in this way.

Which is what they said in the email - that there is an outstanding balance of 100 euro but there is 200 euro balance in the account. UPC are 100% accurate here thus making you 100% wrong.

I must say with all the bitchin that goes on with UPC I have only had great experiences with them this includes moving house twice and outages getting refunded to my account automatically.

Technocentral

Dodge wrote: »

it is NOT irresponsible of them to tell you how much you have on your account

In fact it is the complete opposit

Firstly if they really feel the need to tell me about future bills they should have clearly stated that the "200" included my future bill not leave me thinking I was in arrears of "100". Secondly as I have stated numerous times they should wait until the date of issue to inform me of my bill like every other company I deal with. I have nothing else to say on the matter. (Apart from Happy Christmas and thanks for all the helpful comments).

Merch

Dodge wrote: »

I have dealt with them a couple of times. once was awful, 2nd time was perfect.



In this instance (as described by the OP) they did nothing wrong. He mailed them about a bill, and they replied telling him how much was due.

While their reputation might be awful, thats not an excuse to criticise them if they did nothing wrong, and it certainly isn't a 'consumer issue'

There has been no occasion where I dealt with them that they did not make an arse of a problem, I have had about 3 or 4 problems over the years, which doesnt seem bad as haven't had an issue in a while, till this one and have been with them for years, last issue this year where I had to keep calling them back for failing to fix a problem with billing and service, somewhere between 40 and 50 times before they eventually fixed the problem and apologised. (I didnt ask for an apology).
If the issue is regarding billing then it seems it is good enough reason to criticise them, its only that or the actual service which \i mostly cannot fault, I find it hard to believe they deal with anyone else any differently to how they dealt with me, so I have sympathy for anyone that goes through dealing with their customer service for anything.
If the OP feels they have been poorly dealt with or incorrectly billed then that seems to me to be a consumer issue.

The way I read the OPs post is that they feel they have been billed incorrectly and a few people have replied saying being billed is normal! in a sarcastic manner when the OP was saying (and its seems clear to me, they felt they were being billed incorrectly/early, only the OP and maybe UPC know this). From my experience, UPC not billing correctly and then not fixing the problem or fixing it in a roundabout way seems very plausible.
I find it a bit odd when posters come on and defend a company quite ardently.

Dodge

1) they would not have e-mailed you if you hadn't have e-mailed them first
2) their figures are correct

That you were "left thinking" it was somethign else is down to yourself, not them

Merch wrote: »

I find it a bit odd when posters come on and defend a company quite ardently.

I'm not defending them. I'm saying the OP is incorrect to complain about this issue. If UPC were wrong, I'd post likewise. I've no loyalty to any company

Riesen_Meal

I used to work in billing for UPC many moons ago when they were NTL, people could never get their heads around why they bill 2 months in advance for their services!

They do, they are not trying to overload you with a bill, its a PRO RATA bill, if you over pay your bill and your terminating your account, you will get a cheque back for what you payed, its pretty simple really....