centurylink bundle billing screwup

If you already cancelled your service, there’s nothing we can do to help. We are customers just like you on a public forum. All I can recommend for you is to return all leased equipment to a participating FedEx or UPS location with your account number. This won’t include things like cables (with the exception of the receiver’s power cord), the Wireless Video Bridge, satellite dish splitter, the dish itself, etc.

Be sure to KEEP the shipping receipt so you have proof of return if DIRECTV mistakenly bills you for non-returned equipment. 

IF you happen to still have service (sounds like you don’t from what you said) then you can call DIRECTV (number in my greeting below) and say ‘cancel’ to the robot to be sent to the loyalty/retention department. A more ‘professional’ agent will be able to assist you. Tell them everything you told us including proof that they were paid for DIRECTV service. Be sure to threaten that you will cancel if the billing issue isn’t fixed. 
If after many calls and/or complaints a resolution isn’t reached, it’s time for a BBB complaint.

I wonder if this is a case of timing of the two different company's billing.

DirecTV sends bill to CenturyLink. They in turn put that on your next bill. When a bill uncombined, by request or canceling one of the providers, CenturyLink tends to return the most recent bill for DirecTV to bill directly. This results in getting a DirecTV bill for 2 months of service in one (last month and the current month).

Situations like that, as well as the bill partner (CenturyLink in this case) only gets basic billing info without full details (unlike the bill from DirecTV itself), is why I avoid having a combined/joint bill. That plus CenturyLink/Qwest put their own religious restrictions on your DirecTV account (I'm against this on principal as it is not their right to tell someone what they may or may not watch).

However, $635 for most people is higher than 2 months worth. Is this what the DirecTV bill says or the CenturyLink bill? And what "proof" do you have that CenturyLink paid DirecTV?

Now if that $635 is the CenturyLink bill, and you did not pay their bill in full previously, then another possibility. Anytime there is only partial payment, CenturyLink puts that towards their amount only, not counting any of it as reimbursing them for the DirecTV portion until theirs is caught up. Another reason I am against a joint bill.

You will need to call whomever's bill shows the $635. If that is CenturyLink, then DirecTV can do nothing as they only send the bill over and can do nothing with it after that. Last resort, a BBB complaint sends this to the corporate level for review.

I paid Centurylink on 08/08/22 and I have proof that Centurylink paid $198.90 to DirecTV on 08/08/22 for DirecTV billing period 6/21-7/20.  After that they discontinued the bundled service.  My DirecTV was shut off on 9/4 for non payment.  When I logged into my DirecTV account it said I must pay $344.99 to restore service.  I paid it on 9/4.  I logged in on 9/6 to get the issue corrected and it says I owe another $93.05 by 9/10.  When looking at my account billing history, there is nothing in there previous to 08/22/22.  According to that billing history, an invoice was added on 8/22/22 for $427.40.  The last supervisor I called said the amount due for 7/21-8/20 was $212 ish and the amount due for 8/21-9/20 is $214 ish.  This would add up to $427.40.  That bill is not due until 9/22.  They cannot explain the $427.40 bill.  All I can guess is that they are billing me for 2 months service right after I paid one month of service in August.  My final question to the gentleman was "do you think this is ok?"  He said no.  They lost a $2400 a year customer over this and there are too many good, cheap options for TV out there now for me to keep paying $200 a month.

No one here cares you cancelled (no offense). We are just customers. As stated before, a BBB complaint would be the way to go. Getting involved with DIRECTV after canceling your account is not always a great endeavor. 

Our internet was shut off, this happened last year. Dish won't help because they say it's a Century Link issue, Century Link says they need an account # from Dish (which they can't or won't provide) to locate our account. For 4 days my husband has been sent from person to person and not one of them can help. He's been pretty patient through the whole ordeal. One rep actually told him to look for service elsewhere...?!? We too pay our bill ontime. Both of these companies know what's going on and how to restore our service. Please have some feeling and treat your faithful customers with some dignity and restore their contracted service.

@LIN2018 

Dish???  This is a DirecTV forum, not Dish Network. 

If you do have DirecTV you should start a new post. This one is two years old. 

@LIN2018 

This is a public forum for DirecTV (mainly customers), not official support or Dish. So you are not our customer either way.

However, perhaps some information will help provide some guidance as DirecTV has bundled with CenturyLink/Qwest.

TV provider bills the telco.

Telco bills you to reimburse them.

Telco becomes past due, and you only pay part of bill, then payments tend to go towards telco's interests first (including current month). 

You cannot pay TV provider directly with a combined/joint bill.

You need to contact the company the combined/joint bill is received from, which should be CenturyLink. You will have to verify paying balance in full to restore all services. If your TV is off as well, be aware it may take some time to communicate from one company to the other of you being fully caught up.

Personally, I recommend avoiding joint bills. It is one thing to have multiple services from one company on a single bill, but when one bills another that joint bill is too summarized and I've heard too many situations where it causes problems for the consumer. Just do not separate the bills unless you are prepared for an overlapping bill.

If you do have DirecTV and need further guidance, please start a fresh thread. This is from 2022 and is requested to be closed to avoid confusion or possibly outdated info.