Charged for movies I have not watched, PVR recordings are showing up that I have not programmed...

[ExasperatedCustomer]

HELP!

I am here as a last resort.  I signed up with Telus for Optik TV and Internet. The internet has been great, and I actually really like the Optik TV - it is the first time I have ever had a PVR and I love being able to record movies from TCM, as well as some of the sitcoms I like.   I also like the TV on Demand.  I do not use the movies on demand as I also have Apple TV and I prefer to order my movies through Apple as then I can download them on my MacBook when I travel.  That aside, I am having major repeated issues with being charged for items I have not ordered.

I have been with Telus for 10 billing periods now and 5 of those 10 months I have had to call to have charges removed from my bill.  Some of the incidents include:

• Movie rentals I did not order.  These include movies I have no interest in such as the Carebears, Hustler, and the one that showed up today that prompted my post here - The Croods.
• Movie purchases that not only I have not ordered, but I am unable to access even if I did want to watch them!!
• The addition of theme packs to my account that not only did I not order, but again cannot access!   An example this was the addition of a sports theme pack - I have zero interest in this!
• TV shows showing up in my PVR that I did not record, and sometimes from theme packs I don't have (like the mandarin news channel)
• TV shows and movies showing up in my OnDemand history that I have not watched.  

I am a single woman in my 40s and I live on my own.  I have zero interest in the CareBears or the Croods, however, I would have REALLY liked to have watched the Kathrine Hepburn movie I recorded on my PVR that was somehow deleted today?  I was really looking forward to watching it tonight and now I am kind of disappointed.

These additional charges are quite substantial each month and I have had to spend hours on the phone with Telus trying to get it sorted.  The first step is always trying to convince them that I did not order these items, and then go through the same troubleshooting steps each time:

• Changing my purchase pin
• Updating my account password
• Changing my wifi password

I will say that Telus has been really responsive - they also sent a technician out to change out my PVR in case it was still linked to another customer.  They changed the PVR on December 4, and it seemed to work for a few days and then I went into my ondemand only to see a bunch more movies ordered!  These, of course, showed up on my mid-December bill so I HAD TO CALL AGAIN 😡

Some logistics - I live on my own in a basement suite, it is a newer house and has only had one tenant in it before.  She also had telus optik and was here for about a year.  I asked the upstairs tenants if they had telus in case things were crossing wires, and they have shaw.  I also asked the next door neighbours, one does not have cable and the other one does have telus but has had no issues.  I have purchase pins setup appropriately (the technician double checked all that when he was here).

So - anyone have any ideas?  I am just so exasperated and done with it all, but I have another 14 months on my contract.  Further that, other than these overcharges I quite like the optik tv setup.   I will say it is really weird to go into your on demand and see a bunch of tv shows and movies in there as 'watched' when you have not watched them.

Thanks,

Exasperated customer in Nanaimo 😑

[NFtoBC · Accepted solution]

It sounds like somehow your account and another are crossed up on the back end. Changing your password, etc., will make no difference, as it needs to be addressed at a deeper level. I suggest contacting Telus, and demanding to speak to their Technical Services team, as the frontline staff will not be able to address this issue.

It may be that a previous PVR is still associated with the location, even though the account & account holder has changed.

[ExasperatedCustomer]

Thanks for your thoughts and response, I agree - I think it is something out of my hands, I will try calling again on Monday 😕

[RayBixon]

I had this same issue.  Over the past month i contacted telus 5 times about strange charges and channels being added. I was told to set up purchase PINs and changed passwords but it kept happening.  They even suggested that my 3 year old son had been ordering VOD or adding channels which is ridiculous.  Finally after a 3 hour chat session on Friday they transferred me to technical support and they admitted it was KNOWN ISSUE and was related to my PVR that had recently been swapped out.  Apparently its possible that the backend could be connected to another account and what i was seeing was another account’s changes and those had been charged to me.   They sent someone the next day to swap out my PVR and the issue hasn't come back since.  

What really bothered me was that although the issue seems to be resolved for now, it took countless calls and having the agents on the other end blame me for the problem and then finally tell me that this is a known issue.  If it was a known issue, why did it take 5 times for me to call about this before someone believed me…

Anyway, watch out for this.  I didn’t get the impression they had any plans to tell the public or escalate this situation.