I pay the bills, I have control over somebody else's account!

[MoonChild2007]

I don't get where people get this logic that if you pay another person's bill that gives them the right to do anything they want with it like add on demand movies,
set up pin numbers on boxes, add PPV events, add stuff like HBO, Starz, etc.
Some people must understand that this crap adds up and what if the person calls in stating that they did not order this? We, the reps, get bitched at all the time because some unknowing rep would add stuff without knowing who they are speaking to. Believe me, some customers even have pin numbers on their accounts because of people ordering shit without their permission.

Today, I had a woman who called bitching about all the adult titles being ordered and wanted to put pin numbers on the boxes. The account wasn't even hers and her excuse is "i pay the bill", well, why isn't it under your name?

Also, some people would complain about us not being able to go over the bill with anybody but the account holder. First of all, outside of work and practical common sense, i would not want people talking about MY personal info, my accounts, how much money i make, what I order, etc with another person without my knowledge. Some people have no common sense. Its no different than gossiping.

Thank god I live alone so I wouldn't have to put up with people opening my bill, calling the company, complaining about crap that it is none of their business anyways.

Call center reps, especially cable company, anyone else feel this way?

[PepperElf]

sounds like they need to stop paying the bill if the person using the account is ordering stuff that's unacceptable like that.

but that's not something to take up with the company... that's something to hash out with the account user.

[monolayth]

i get that all the time, only the member can use their roadside assistance, when the person paying has used all their free services for the year they want to use the other people's on the accounts. but they can't because its not their's no matter who pays the bills.

[Golden Phoenix]

*waves* Ooh! Ooh! Me!

We often get people calling to say "I opened this letter that says wer'e in debt, what's all that about?" I do data protection on them and they fail, i explain tha ti ahve to speak to the account holder and they'll go berzerk. "But i'm theone who pays the bills!" Right, then wy isbn';t it in your name. Also, why are you openeing other people's mail?

Also get this for people trying to book prepayment meters and stuff.

[powerboy]

The way our contracts are set up. We have a section, for someone to add someones elses name, incase we have to send out certified letters or they want the other person to be able know the pen if needed. You can pay the storage bill if you want. But unless your name is not on the lease, then you cannot know the pencode.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

This is why I don't allow anyone else to access any of my accounts, not even my wife. She's welcome to look over the bills and such and we negotiate changes, but I'm the one whose name is on it.

Likewise, I NEVER pay someone else's bills or offer to set up an account in my name and allow someone else to pay the bills. That's just asking for trouble.

[MoonChild2007]

I am all up for helping to pay somebody's bill if they don't have the money or whatever but I would not call to complain about why the bill is high whatever.
That's none of my business.

However, I will tell a customer if they have a past due balance and doesn't want to be interrupted but I will not go into any detail.

Also, the best part about not able to tell non-accounter holders info is that that definitely avoids any 30 minute calls that eventually will have to to go to a supervisor. Although its not thier account!

[marty]

Sometimes people were supposed to be put on the account but someone messed up. Like when I requested my mom be put on my cable and internet account and instead they put my ex on it. WTF?

[NateTheChops]

I don't know if this is similar to what you're talking about, but I often get calls that were meant to go to the Pharmacy. Unfortunately there are far too many doctors out there who readily give me perscription information whether it's legal for me to hear it or not.

[otakuneko]

I did tech support, so essentially all I needed was the account holder's name and address. It didn't matter who in particular I was talking to, just that they knew the name and address. Working over weekends as I did, I often got calls meant for billing (closed on weekends) and yeah, it sucked, but I really couldn't do anything for them if billing was closed and they generally got off the phone fairly quick, sparing me the tirade for the most part.

On FIOS it kinda sucked, as there were things that our tools could technically do, but we were not allowed to, such as adding features to voice service. If we added something, billing would turn it right back off as soon as they noticed. We also were not supposed to remove features, except to attempt to fix them by removing and re-adding. However, we were allowed to, if the caller insisted and we advised them to contact billing ASAP to get the feature off of their bill. Otherwise, they'd keep paying for it. FIOS was pretty awesome in terms of things we not only could do, but were allowed to.

Supposedly there were certain things we weren't supposed to do unless speaking to the account holder, but I don't remember. It's been a while, heck, over a year now. Woohoo!

[WageSlaveofDoom]

I share a cell phone bill with my roommate because, while my payment history is good, my credit sucks. So I pay him, he pays them, and occasionally I get some weird text from the phone company telling me I need to update my information...

When we first setup the plan, he put me down as a secondary contact-i.e. not primary, don't bother her with details, etc...
Every few weeks, our account info gets scrambled, and I get calls & text messages from the company reminding me when our bill is due...
But when I answer, they tell me they can't change the info because I'm not primary...
but we never changed it in the first place...so there's no reason for them to contact me... and if I can't get in touch with him until after business hours are over, then we can't get it sorted for another day... and then a few weeks later they do it again...

[Drakstern]

Related to that...

I take insurance auto glass claims. We're a third party, so we have a lot of rules about what we can and can't do, set by the law and by the insurance company.

One of the biggies is that there are several accounts where we are not allowed to take the information from the agent. At all. We can get a name, a policy number, and a phone number, but nothing else. The agent isn't allowed to give us a shop they want the insured to go to either.

We constantly get calls from agents bitching about it. They then tell the insured and they bitch at us about it.

Sorry, we're not allowed to give your information to anyone, even your agent. Hell, the agent should HAVE your information, they're the ones that wrote your freaking policy.

But no, clearly it's our fault.

[Nakajo]

I get this a lot with changing info on accounts, like addresses and stuff.

How it works is that there are only 2 people allowed to an account. We say they need to live in the same household. Most are, but some people bring in their cousin that lives out-of-state and they lie and say "Yes, we've lived together for YEARSSSSS." They do this to split the cost of the account and save money.

Then they get pissy when they don't get the coupons in the mail because the account set up under the other person's address. We tell them they are not allowed to change the account because they are not the primary, and I get, "But I PAY for it EVERY YEARRRRR!"

Then stop being cheap and get your own damn account.

[friendofjimmyk]

Today, I had a woman who called bitching about all the adult titles being ordered and wanted to put pin numbers on the boxes. The account wasn't even hers and her excuse is "i pay the bill", well, why isn't it under your name?

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that her husband/boyfriend/sex buddy orders porn when she's not there and this makes her angry. She probably does pay the bill because its part of her deal for living there or she's a sugar momma and he's a kept man. She is threatened by the porn and wants him to stop watching it ...so she tries to put a pin on the account to control it.

By-the-way...ppv porn sucks. It's way to expensive!

[tollbaby]

Groan. This is every third or fourth call I take. "Why can't I have access to the account? I pay the bills!!!!" Well, ma'am, the account isn't in your name, it's in Mr. Smith's... "But I'm his wife!!!!" yeah, and I know that how, exactly? *sigh*