Who and What is TELCO?

This doesn't make sense. Even after AT&T bought DirecTV they still kept the DirecTV phone support number for DirecTV questions. That "TELCO" number is the AT&T support number. I suppose for issues when your DirecTV and AT&T bills are combined, it might make more sense to call the AT&T support numbers. See the phone numbers in my signature below.

@litzdog911 Wasn’t there an effort to move everyone to paperless billing? I know there was on the wireless side. Customers were notified they would be switched to paperless unless they specifically opted not to. I forget how that notice went out but I think it was via the bill. That notice may have been 2 or 3 bills prior for the OP, not the previous one. @Rhon54 Presuming you have online access, very easy to log into your account and change back to paper billing. You can also download or print any bill they didn’t mail.

I have wasted hours, even days with at&t, dir tv & telco, separate bills & different payment locations. They’re a nightmare to deal with between the transfers, not finding account by phone number even when you give it to them, & being disconnected. I spent a great deal of time sorting this out & getting the correct payment address. AT&T had been cashing the checks but Telco wasn’t getting their share. Anyway, I paid the Telco bill in full & was told how much my monthly bill would be so I could do an automatic transfer monthly from my bank.  I Had several family tragedies & ignored my bills without concern as they were being paid, but when I did look into it, there was a late charge that must have been missed by the rep because they have been charging a late charge on that late charge ever since & are now trying to turn off the phone. I’ve tried repeatedly to get thru & when transferred I’m told a 10 min hold time that has exceeded 1 1/2 hrs & still have yet to talk to a person. I dealt with identity theft thru them, I’ve had them mix up accounts with my mothers. Names are different & we live 3 hrs apart??? Now my mom has passed & they won’t turn off her service when I have her trust & I'm executor, without a death certificate! These monopolies are the worst, all the years of paying them so much & they treat you like garbage!!! I can’t even begin to express my frustrations!

@Yankeedeez 

When you say "telco", are you referring to AT&T or another provider? I ask as DirecTV has done combined billing with other phone/internet providers over the years so are you dealing with only 2 entities (DirecTV and AT&T) or a 3rd one as well (CenturyLink, Mediacom, Verizon, Frontier, etc.)?

Personally I prefer to avoid combined billing (be it with AT&T or a completely separate provider) as it causes confusion and issues for too many people. Plus the provider's own bill tends to have more info that doesn't transfer to a combined bill.

Yes they require a death certificate. That would be a State issued accepted document for the current status of your mother. Having a trust or being an executor is not State issued and so is not accepted as proof of death. This is because of the risk that someone has enacted the benefits and power of Trust and/or Executor without the person actually being deceased. Just like when you go into the DMV or other such places to issue ID, they have a specific list of accepted documents. They might refer to an AT&T owned store to fax in the document.

So accepted documentation (Death Certificate) has nothing to do with any monopoly (which AT&T is not a Monopoly, though they do cover a wide spectrum of different markets with all their separate services). Has to do with what officially is accepted as legal proof of death.

As for the long holds, that is an unfortunate fallout from Covid. They are very short staffed, even having to close temporarily many call centers with the recent restrictions.