@barca wrote:
just curious.
are you still a Directv customer?
Since this is not a final bill that was missed - so no possibility of collection issue
I understand if you meant internal credit history with Directv, but was curious if you meant credit as in EX, EQ,TU
Oh, yes, definitely still have DirecTV.
It's been so long since I was late on any kind of bill, I wanted to be SURE that this late payment wouldn't negatively affect me in any way. I was thinking of CBs, because I think companies like DirecTV can report negative marks even though they don't report positive history. But internal, external, whatever, I just needed to be sure. I've worked too hard to risk ANY baddie, especially over a bill that I received late.
On that last point, I believe that it was my responsibility to be on top of it, and I failed. As noted upthread, I consciously scan all my payees at BofA to make sure nothing's fallen through the cracks--and I can't explain how I missed this. But I called because I know I've been an excellent customer, for a very long time, and figured it was worth giving it a shot. It was! 
@dragontears wrote:I am a little confused about how your experience with direct TV has to do with your current credit. I am sure that the CSR didn't check your credit while you were talking to them so they had no way of knowing that your credit is good or poor and treat you differently because of it.
It is entirely possible to have poor credit scores but always pay your cable bill on time and the reverse is also true, you can have 800+ scores but habitual pay the cable bill late because it is not on your reports unless it goes into default.
I thought I made that clear. 
She knew my INTERNAL history by reviewing my 30-year-old account. From it, she knew that I had a perfect payment history with DirecTV--which is all I cared about. Then, based on that information, she kindly and graciously removed the late fee.
@Anonymous wrote:
@FinStar wrote:
@SoCalGardener wrote:
@FinStar wrote:
@SoCalGardener wrote:In the past, I had some terrible financial problems, due to [catastrophic] illness and the medical bills and loss of pay that went along. I remember back then, calling a company, such as the electric company, and asking for help (like paying a reduced amount temporarily, or having more time to pay the bill) was a degrading, humiliating experience. They'd act like "yeah, yeah, yeah, I've heard it all before..." and I just knew they were thinking LOSER. I'd end up feeling like a worthless piece of you-know-what.
Fast forward to yesterday. I received my DirecTV bill the day before and--to my absolute shock--saw a 'late payment fee' on it! The fee was 6-something dollars. I called DirecTV and told the CSR that there must have been a delay in last month's bill arriving, because I always pay my bills the same day I receive them. By then she knew [by reviewing my account] that I'm a LONG-time customer (early 1990s), with a perfect payment history. She couldn't have been nicer and more gracious! I told her I didn't care about paying the fee, but I DID care about this having a negative effect on my credit. She very nicely said that she was removing the fee and she guaranteed there would be no negative reporting done. She treated me like gold. She thanked me for being such a long-time customer with an outstanding payment history, asked if there was anything else she could do, asked if I'd like to hear about special offers available to me, etc. What a difference!
I know that way back when, back in the days when we literally didn't have any money and could not pay our bills, the exact same type of phone call would've ended very differently. The CSR would've known that in fact I didn't pay the bill on time because I didn't have the money, and that I was an excuse-making loser. I strongly prefer the way I'm treated now.
BTW, I really did receive the bill late. No, I don't do paperless billing, at all. I tried it when it was new and strongly disliked it. I've had numerous bills arrive late during the past year or so, but this was the first one that I somehow overlooked. My routine is to log in to Bank of America daily, or at least every other day, and review my accounts. I make sure there are no incorrect transactions, and I go to its 'bill pay' and scroll down my list of payees, checking when each one was last paid, and whether I have a payment scheduled for them. I don't know how I missed DirecTV, but I did. *shrug*
Just a quick observation on your anecdotal experience (bolded statements). I think it's great that they were able to resolve your issue in a positive outcome, but I would also like to point out the generalizations made from your op.
While customer service experiences can vary for a lot of individuals, it is important to recognize that not all agents, supervisors or managers are trained to treat you that way or have such perceived notions about your situation. Sure, there are bad apples everywhere, not just CSRs. And, your post appears to generalize the mindset that you would be treated in an inferior fashion because you did not have the capacity to make those payments on time during the time you experienced your illness. Certainly, there are empathetic agents, no? And, we are all human at the end of the day, no? And, certainly you were not treated inferiorly I would hope? FWIW, in my previous life (eons and eons ago) managing a variety of GSO's and global customer contact centers, no employees were ever trained to treat customers with such disdain. Granted, you cannot take the inherent or perceived notions from agents who dealt with customers who abused the system, but by and large, escalations are the norm whenever a front-line CSR does not provide acceptable service or leverage meaningful results with your call/inquiry.
The take away, not all agents think the way you generalize in your op.
I respect your opinion, but I thought I was pretty clear that I was referring to *my* past experiences. I repeatedly said *I* did this and *I* experienced that and *my* feelings were...
Also, I have to add that those negative experiences happened a long time ago. In a much less PC world! Today, I hear all the time about creditors working with customers who are having financial issues, all kinds of deferments and forgiveness and help that's available. Back when I'm talking about, no, it was very much the way I described, and it was particularly painful having been a great customer and treated that way, and then, through absolutely no fault of my own, turned into a late-paying, missed payment customer--and got treated like dirt. The only thing that changed about me was my income, well, the lack thereof, and the resulting inability to pay bills.
I understood your post, and I was also referring to past experiences (not just recent ones). Of course, maybe your circumstances were different during the period in question and maybe that's the disconnect. I was mainly referring to experiences during the early 90s (yes, even before the AOL, Windows 95 and Gateway days). I still stand by my comment that not all CSRs are unempathetic, and while your situation may have turned out negative, I also witnessed the opposite for hundreds of clients who were trying to work with different lenders or providers to help them out. This isn't to dismiss your experience, but generalizations really do not provide a true picture for all customer service interactions. That is, unless you were dealing with someone in a collections department or if any accounts were referred to recovery then I cannot speak to that because the level of service (or lack thereof) is obviously night and day when compared to front-line CSRs
I'm confused as to why you're so defensive about this topic. You don't need to reiterate your positions again, since they - through a lot of words - are just discrediting the OPs opinions. The generalizations that you make (that most CSRs are empathetic) are no more valid than the OPs (that those that they ran into were not empathetic).
But, anyhow - OP, I get what you're saying and regardless of the reason, a "good" customer will always be treated differently than a "bad" customer. In the word of lending, good often = pays bills on time; bad often = is delinquent (for any number of reasons). I think it could be reasonably agreed that the OP wouldn't have had the same luck getting a late charge removed (and in this case without directly asking for it) if they had been regularly late on the bill in the past (even if directly asked for the late charge reversal). Congrats on your progress and congrats that you're back into a position of comfort.
Thanks for your support!
What I wrote is what I experienced. *I*. *ME*. *MY*. I remember feeling like trash after talking to an unsympathetic, "we've heard every story before, ma'am" CSR, and would hang up in tears. Not just because of how they'd treated me and thought about me, but because it wasn't my fault I'd ended up in that situation, and I hated it, since I'm actually a super-conscientious, financially responsible person. I don't recall saying *all* CSRs are or ever were like that, just that in my experience, it was awful--humiliating, embarrassing, painful, and no empathy or sympathy in sight...
@Anonymous wrote:
@FinStar wrote:
@SoCalGardener wrote:
@FinStar wrote:
@SoCalGardener wrote:In the past, I had some terrible financial problems, due to [catastrophic] illness and the medical bills and loss of pay that went along. I remember back then, calling a company, such as the electric company, and asking for help (like paying a reduced amount temporarily, or having more time to pay the bill) was a degrading, humiliating experience. They'd act like "yeah, yeah, yeah, I've heard it all before..." and I just knew they were thinking LOSER. I'd end up feeling like a worthless piece of you-know-what.
Fast forward to yesterday. I received my DirecTV bill the day before and--to my absolute shock--saw a 'late payment fee' on it! The fee was 6-something dollars. I called DirecTV and told the CSR that there must have been a delay in last month's bill arriving, because I always pay my bills the same day I receive them. By then she knew [by reviewing my account] that I'm a LONG-time customer (early 1990s), with a perfect payment history. She couldn't have been nicer and more gracious! I told her I didn't care about paying the fee, but I DID care about this having a negative effect on my credit. She very nicely said that she was removing the fee and she guaranteed there would be no negative reporting done. She treated me like gold. She thanked me for being such a long-time customer with an outstanding payment history, asked if there was anything else she could do, asked if I'd like to hear about special offers available to me, etc. What a difference!
I know that way back when, back in the days when we literally didn't have any money and could not pay our bills, the exact same type of phone call would've ended very differently. The CSR would've known that in fact I didn't pay the bill on time because I didn't have the money, and that I was an excuse-making loser. I strongly prefer the way I'm treated now.
BTW, I really did receive the bill late. No, I don't do paperless billing, at all. I tried it when it was new and strongly disliked it. I've had numerous bills arrive late during the past year or so, but this was the first one that I somehow overlooked. My routine is to log in to Bank of America daily, or at least every other day, and review my accounts. I make sure there are no incorrect transactions, and I go to its 'bill pay' and scroll down my list of payees, checking when each one was last paid, and whether I have a payment scheduled for them. I don't know how I missed DirecTV, but I did. *shrug*
Just a quick observation on your anecdotal experience (bolded statements). I think it's great that they were able to resolve your issue in a positive outcome, but I would also like to point out the generalizations made from your op.
While customer service experiences can vary for a lot of individuals, it is important to recognize that not all agents, supervisors or managers are trained to treat you that way or have such perceived notions about your situation. Sure, there are bad apples everywhere, not just CSRs. And, your post appears to generalize the mindset that you would be treated in an inferior fashion because you did not have the capacity to make those payments on time during the time you experienced your illness. Certainly, there are empathetic agents, no? And, we are all human at the end of the day, no? And, certainly you were not treated inferiorly I would hope? FWIW, in my previous life (eons and eons ago) managing a variety of GSO's and global customer contact centers, no employees were ever trained to treat customers with such disdain. Granted, you cannot take the inherent or perceived notions from agents who dealt with customers who abused the system, but by and large, escalations are the norm whenever a front-line CSR does not provide acceptable service or leverage meaningful results with your call/inquiry.
The take away, not all agents think the way you generalize in your op.
I respect your opinion, but I thought I was pretty clear that I was referring to *my* past experiences. I repeatedly said *I* did this and *I* experienced that and *my* feelings were...
Also, I have to add that those negative experiences happened a long time ago. In a much less PC world! Today, I hear all the time about creditors working with customers who are having financial issues, all kinds of deferments and forgiveness and help that's available. Back when I'm talking about, no, it was very much the way I described, and it was particularly painful having been a great customer and treated that way, and then, through absolutely no fault of my own, turned into a late-paying, missed payment customer--and got treated like dirt. The only thing that changed about me was my income, well, the lack thereof, and the resulting inability to pay bills.
I understood your post, and I was also referring to past experiences (not just recent ones). Of course, maybe your circumstances were different during the period in question and maybe that's the disconnect. I was mainly referring to experiences during the early 90s (yes, even before the AOL, Windows 95 and Gateway days). I still stand by my comment that not all CSRs are unempathetic, and while your situation may have turned out negative, I also witnessed the opposite for hundreds of clients who were trying to work with different lenders or providers to help them out. This isn't to dismiss your experience, but generalizations really do not provide a true picture for all customer service interactions. That is, unless you were dealing with someone in a collections department or if any accounts were referred to recovery then I cannot speak to that because the level of service (or lack thereof) is obviously night and day when compared to front-line CSRs
I'm confused as to why you're so defensive about this topic. You don't need to reiterate your positions again, since they - through a lot of words - are just discrediting the OPs opinions. The generalizations that you make (that most CSRs are empathetic) are no more valid than the OPs (that those that they ran into were not empathetic).
But, anyhow - OP, I get what you're saying and regardless of the reason, a "good" customer will always be treated differently than a "bad" customer. In the word of lending, good often = pays bills on time; bad often = is delinquent (for any number of reasons). I think it could be reasonably agreed that the OP wouldn't have had the same luck getting a late charge removed (and in this case without directly asking for it) if they had been regularly late on the bill in the past (even if directly asked for the late charge reversal). Congrats on your progress and congrats that you're back into a position of comfort.
Lol welcome to my world @Anonymous 
. @SoCalGardener interesting read and thanks for sharing your view. I would only add to be sure to maybe try and not wait on bills to arrive and know the exact date its due so you can plan on it. The mail nowadays cant be trusted to arrive on time even when you pay for it haha. Just my opinion of course
@AverageJoesCredit wrote:Lol welcome to my world @Anonymous
Thanks, but I'm good now!
The missed bill I started this thread about was an anomaly. I just overlooked it while scrutinizing my BofA payees. I mean, what I do is check BofA daily or so, look at all my payees, and note when the last payment was made. Let's say that Discover was last paid almost a month ago, and I KNOW I have a balance but haven't received a statement yet, then I'm on alert, and if I don't receive it soon, I just log on to my Discover account, get the information from there, and pay the bill back at BofA. I'm still not sure how I overlooked the DirecTV bill, especially since I check BofA so frequently, but I'm human and I guess I just screwed up! This was a one-off thing, so I'm not worried about it. If it starts happening more often...well, let's not go there! I'm hoping it's not senility firmly settling in....