I'm going to be SO pissed if I have to pay for this!

[MadMike]

OK, this isn't really a sucky customer story, but more of a sucky company story.

I recently upgraded my cell phone, and my wife's as well. While we were there, my son talked me into getting one for him as well. I told him OK, but he had to take care of it, and couldn't run up the bill.

Well, he's been doing fine with the second part, but not so great with the first part. He somehow got the phone wet (we think it happened when he took it with him sledding), which killed it. And I didn't think to get the insurance, so we had to get him a new phone and pay the full cost. I can't be too hard on him, though. He acknowledged that he messed up, and offered to pay for it himself. Since he accepted fault for it, I paid for half and he paid for half. And this time, I got the insurance, just for his phone, which I should have done from the beginning since it was for a kid.

Well, the new phone started having problems recently. The connector for the charger came loose, and the display has a mark on it that's been getting larger as the days go by. So I took it in during my lunch, explained what was going on, gave my info, and the guy brought up my info. Then he said something that made my heart stop for a moment: "It doesn't look like you have insurance on this."

I asked for insurance, and it's been showing up on my bill. So they he checked the other two lines, and saw that the insurance had been applied to the main phone (mine), and not the new phone I had bought for my son. I tried to remain calm and refrain from "shooting the messenger", but pointed out that that was not what I asked them to do, and that if I ended up having to pay because of someone else's screwup, I was not going to be happy.

Unfortunately, the manager was out to lunch, so he said he'd talk to the manager and "see what can be done." So I have to stop by later, and hope for the best.

I guess I'm out of luck if they decide to screw me on this, since I'm only a few months into a 2-year contract, and would have to pay the Early Termination Fee if I decided to take my business elsewhere. I don't know what kind of idiots they have working there, but why the HELL would I buy a phone to replace one that got broken, and then proceed to have insurance put on a completely different phone?

I don't forgive or forget easily, and if I get stuck paying, I will drop them in a year and a half when the contract is up.

[MrSunshineState]

I'd sit tight and see what they do for you. Hopefully they will find a way to help you out.

[wagegoth]

MadMike,

When my husband's phone was broken a few months ago, I got an unlocked one for him on eBay for about one-third the full price. It can't go online and can't receive picture mail because it's not provided by our network, but otherwise it works great.

If you're interested, I'll give you the seller info.

[BlaqueKatt]

ok call customer service-and ask what the time limit is to put insurance on a phone-more than likely the main phone was out of this timeframe when the new phone was purchased-which would in a way prove that the insurance was supposed to be on the new phone(especially if it was added the same day as the new phone was purchased)-my company has 30 days to add insurance, and if the customer can prove with a reciept or contract that it was supposed to be on-with an escalation to a manager/supervisor we will usually waive the cost of a new phone down to what the insurance deductable is(normally around $50)-I know because this is part of my job as a supervisor/tier 2 customer support-customer service usually has a bit more leeway with things like this because a store has to worry about profit margins/quarterly sales goals-plus the store doesn't like to loose money/give stuff away-heck I gave away over $5000 yesterday split between around 25 customers-could a store afford to do that?

[CrazedClerk]

The problem is the phone insurance and related claims are handled by a 3rd party company who in my experience are not fun dealing with. Even if customer service says you're ok on the the insurance, you'll still have to duke it out with the other company who'll likely try to nail you on the fact that it wasn't placed on the account (and as much as you say it was supposed to be therer and even if the code is placed on by a CSR, it may still be a tough battle). Your best bet is to try and get whatever CSR you talk to bring a rep from the insurance company in on a 3-way and see if you can't get the plan fixed and claim made all in one shot. I've done this several time for customers with this very same issue.

And why do I get the feeling your provider is the same one I work for??

[MadMike]

Thanks for your replies, everyone. It's been resolved. I came back, and they said they'd treat it like it was insured, as I had originally requested. What I did not know was that the insurance has a $50 deductible. That kind of sucks, but that's better than being out anothe $140 for another model of that particular phone.

We were about to go that route, when the guy told me that the renewal price for that phone was only about $30, and if I wanted to extend it another 2 years, I could do it that way.

He then sent me to another employee, a woman, to set up the new phone. I checked with her to make sure the insurance was on the correct phone, and pointed out that that got screwed up the last time. She told me that "she heard", and assured me that it was on the correct one this time.

About halfway thru the transaction, I kind of got the feeling that she was actually the one that had screwed it up the last time. It's hard to say for sure, because I can't remember names or faces, but I think it might have been her. If it was, I'm sure she got reamed for it.