Change account ownership / Transfer of responsibility

[Alberto]

Hey guys, if I want to change the owner account, what's the procedure?

[BellPatricia · Accepted solution]

Hey @Alberto. Welcome to the Community. That's a great question.

You can transfer the responsibility of your Bell residential service to someone in the same residence without service being interrupted. For more information check out our support article about How to transfer my Bell Home phone number to someone else

If your inquiry is related to our mobility services, check out How to change ownership of my mobile phone

- Patricia

[Barb Eden]

My bell bill is attached to my late husband. 

I guess I need a new account number or I won't be able to view my bell bill or make payments

[WelshTerrier]

Good Day.

@Barb Eden Please accept our deepest personal condolences on your recent loss. I wish there was something more we could do for you at this time.

Legal matters in terms of account ownership transfer cannot be handled on the Bell Community Forum. We do not have access to your account & billing details. It is best for you to seek legal advice in this matter.

Many spouses act as executor for the will & estate when a spouse dies. May I assume that you are the executor for your husband's will & estate? I can provide you with the following as a point of reference.

TV, Internet or Home phone:

• Accounts can be cancelled upon request. 
• The estate can transfer the ownership of the account to you if you wish to keep it active.
• The estate is responsible for paying all outstanding charges, as well as monthly and/or usage charges until the transfer of responsibility has been completed or the service has been cancelled.

Note: early termination fees will be waived at the time of cancellation.

Bell may ask you for the following:

• The account number and name of the account holder
• Your relationship to the deceased.
• A copy of the death certificate.

What to do after a death

To do any of the above, please contact Bell at: 1 866 310-BELL (2355) or dial #611 from any Bell mobile device.

Thank you for posting your question. Let us know if we can provide you with any additional help.

Take care.

[Rini]

My dad passed away recently and the Bell account was under his name with home Internet and home phone landline. I called customer service to simply do a name change to me but it got extremely messed up. I ended up signing up a 2 years new contract since the agent offered a new plan with lower monthly fee. The new contact isn't the problem since my surviving mother still needs both land line and Internet. 

The agent offered a bundle which has services my mom doesn't need, like FibeTV,  Crave/Disney subscription (although it's a trial) and a Flip phone. Yes, you heard it right, a Flip phone???!!!!  It's part of the bundle.

Now here is the most annoying part is... they couldn't simply change the name. They had to submit to their back-office to create brand a  new billing account under my name, then MOVE the home phone and Internet service to that billing account.  Is that a normal practice?

Next. after new billing profile was created. I couldn't register MyBell web account with the new billing profile because at the back, somehow it was tied to my dad's old account. Even worse, they couldnt delete the old profile either. So, what what they did was to MERGE the two billing profiles into my dad's old MyBell web portal which luckily I had access.

This is the most messed up part - Now, I have 2 billing accounts.

One is still under my dad's name and the other one under my name!!

Billing account #1: FibeTV + Disney/crave

Billing account #2: Internet + Home Phone

Even worse, they sent me the new modem and it is supposed to be plug and play. nope. Called tech support for 1 hour, they couldn't figured it out after re-config and reboot. No internet and no home phone until technican shows up a day later. 

The whole ordeal, I was with Bell customer service + tech support for totally 4 hours over 2 days. 

If you have family member passed away, PLEASE, YOU MUST CANCEL everything with the Death Certificate (Btw, they didn't even ask me for death certificate). Then, Order again as a brand new customer, or with other providers. This is so so so so messed up. Unbelievable.

This is really horrible. Guys, lesson learned, just here to share my experience. This is such a waste of time. 

Further research, I think Bell actually violated the compliance of account handling of a deceased person. They didn't even ask me for death certificate. I think I will need to file a CCTS complaint. 

[WelshTerrier · Accepted solution]

Good Day & Welcome.

We are sorry for your loss. It is very unfortunate that you experienced these issues at this time. I wish there was something further I could do for you on this website, but there is nothing I can do to make this any better for you.

This is a peer-to-peer community website. As such, we do not have access to your account & billing records.

I encourage you to reach out to Bell's dedicated Customer Support team to discuss any concerns you may still have.

FYI only: If you need to change the name of an account holder or cancel services, please refer to this weblink.

• What to do after a death

For further assistance please call: Bell Customer Service: 1 866 310-BELL (2355) or dial #611 from any Bell mobile device.

Once again, my condolences and sincerest apology.

Take care.

[Rini]

Seriously, does Bell has a formal process and standard procedure handling bereavement?  Someone from the team can prove me wrong. Bell doesn't seem to have an estate management department at all. This is horrible, I will tell you why, please read. First of all, the customer service agents are NOT trained properly. On top of my original post, yesterday and today I spent another couple hours with the customers service (2 different agents) to solve the billing issues on my Dad's account. I mentioned many times about my father's passing, they acknowledged it but they didn't need the death certificate. After resolving some of the issues (cancelling the newly added services on a deseased person's account), they even said my father's account wouldn't be closed because they needed it for billing history purpose?? Is this a violation of Canadian compliance? Now talking about the change, any Bell changes have to WAIT at least until next day to show up on the MyBell profile, not real time. So I couldn't verify on the spot. 

I had to deal with Rogers too, let me share my experience. Rogers web site has a bereavement form, I uploaded the death certificate and filled out all necessary info. Couple days later, the estate management team gave me a call but I missed the call. When I logged on to the account, surprisingly all the services were under my father's name have been added a prefix "Estate of (Name)". When I called customer service, they noticed that the accounts is marked as estate, they could only do a full cancellation or a full transfer or responsibility. After they did the  credit check, the customer service agent worked with their back office team and transferred successfully. Most importantly, I refreshed my online profile right away, all my dad's services were under my name on my account. No singing up new plans, no new contracts, pure transfer of responsibility. Then I recieved an email right after about all the details. Next,  refreshed my dad's account, it said the account has been cancelled.  That is the way to do it, Bell.

At this time of writing, my Bell issues haven't been solved completely, the customer agent has to call me back couple days later because they have to wait for back office. Can you believe this? I will definitely have to file a complaint to upper management. I have been spending 8+ hours totally on this over a week (including 2 hours with the technican in the basement due to customer service forced me to upgrade, not a direct transfer). Meanwhile, Rogers only did it in 45min with zero stress. Just to share my experience, I am extremely frustrated. 

If you have family passed away with account with Bell. DO NOT TRANSFER, use the death certificate to cancel everything to save you from having nightmare.

[WelshTerrier]

Good Day @Rini 

Thank you for your feedback & gracious reply. As I previously mentioned, I wish there was something further I could do for you on this website, but there is nothing I can do to make this any better for you.

Legal matters in terms of account ownership transfer cannot be handled on the Bell Community Forum. We do not have access to your account & billing details.

I do not work for Bell. I am just one member of many members on this website who was trying to assist you during these difficult times.

Take care.

[Rini]

Honestly I don't expect to solve anything in the community forum at all. My point is to shared my experience with other users in the community about the extremely broken process with Bell and poor training of the customer service, so others don't have to go through what I went through. Sounds fair?