I don't have directv, but I have both Uverse and wireless accounts with at&t for years now. I never combined the bills even though they offered through the years because there was no compelling reason/discount offered and like you I didn't want to deal with something messing up my account/promos/plans. I learned about the $10 discount when at&t and directv merged and was offered while on a call to at&t to something unrelated. I agreed to it being combined and hoped for the best. The next month I didn't get my bill email reminder when it normally comes and I logged into my at&t account and I saw a $0 balance. I assumed that maybe they changed the billing cycle date and they will bill me some other time. A few weeks pass and I still haven't received a bill and I start getting worried so I call billing at at&t and to my alarm they informed me that my bill was due in 2 days. I asked why I never received notification of the bill and why my account balance was $0 and the lady has no clue. I always like to make sure everything on the bill is correct before paying so I ask if they can send me a pdf of the bill through email since the previous bill is still on my online account. The lady says at&t doesn't do that and they will send me a "reprint" of the bill in the mail. I say that i will become past due by the time i get the bill in the mail so she transfers me to someone else and the person basically makes me verbally agree to pay the bill 7 days later and this would be a one time courtesy. I felt as if i was being treated as a customer who doesn't pay their bills on time an has payment issues. I let it slide. The paper bill eventually comes and it only includes a bill for the line access fees/data/uverse but not any of the iPhone next payment plans. The next day I get a separate bill with just the Next line payments. I total everything up and it comes to what was quoted over the phone so I go online to try and pay the bill (at this point still showing a $0 balance) and it won't let me pay because I have no balance on my account. So I call at&t and the automated phone bill payment system accepts my payment. End of story right? NO. About two weeks later I get an email from at&t saying my account is past due and I must pay immediately the amount that was quoted. Angry, I call at&t and ask why tf is my account past due when I paid it on time. The person sees that my payment was disbursed into my old account instead of the "new" combined account. they credit that and fix any late payment charges. The next month comes and the same exact problem with $0 balance shows up and no bill. I call and inquire again and let them know of my frustrations but they are not helpful and send me the paper reprint in the mail again. At least this time my payment got disbursed into the proper account. Finally on month 3, I get a proper email notification that my bill is available online and I check online and the full bill is there in pdf instead of separated into two separate bills for no reason. All is well now and I see the $10/mo discount has been applied.
With 3-4hours on the phone with at&t, stress caused by combining bills, and being talked to as if you are a child that won't pay his bills, I don't recommend combining your bills unless you want to go through all this ****. But I did this **** in September, so maybe they fixed their billing bugs. I just wish it worked like monopoly where the billing bug would've just forgot that I exist and get the "billing error in your favor - collect $200"
I'm just glad everything is perfect again.
