“We took pride in shredding all information of the customers and being as mindful as possible to their security. Something that always blew my mind was that right on the computer screen, available for anyone to see (depending on the store layout), was the customer’s social security number, date of birth, license number and more. Incredible! I never understood that. My store had two registers in the front and two in the back. A customer could stand behind us at the front register and get a full peak at everything we were doing. Where is the protection?”

This especially gets me fuming because today I was trying to do a port-in for my father who had run credit already with Sprint and when they accessed the account, I was told that my father’s social security number already had service on an existing account. We pulled it up and it was some random person. Now I have to fix the whole issue. Something that will take time because the fraud department moves like snails when it comes to identity theft. I have dealt with 12 identity theft cases, two involving minors, and each time it has taken between 2-4 weeks minimum to clear up the issues.

….Three times in the last 5 months I have ordered a phone for a family member and when they received it, it already had service on it, but for someone else located across the country. When I called in about it I was given the third degree about everything. Like it was my fault. One turned into a fraud case where the guy who’s name and social was used without him even knowing about it.

Indirect dealers really chapped my hide. There was a Hispanic dealer nearby. They were just awful to customers. They took advantage of everyone that walked into their shop. The thing with indirect dealers is that they can tell you whatever they want, but if you buy from them and you have an issue, they will refer you to a corporate store. I dealt with countless issues like these because for some time I was the only Spanish speaker in my store. These poor people were taken advantage of and nobody was holding this store accountable. On one occasion I went down and spoke with the manager and then the owner about them activating a phone for a minor…which is illegal. What did they say to me? She should have known not to activate a phone. Now how does this make any sense? They try to enter into an illegal contract with the girl and then put the blame on her. I sent numerous emails to the high-ups, but never received any response and as far as I know, nothing was ever done. In fact, after another incident with this particular store, I sent an email to the guy over the indirect dealers and I later found out that he was got upset because I even contacted him about it. Pathetic!

This is what happens when you have poor leadership. …these issues exist and for Sprint to move ahead, maybe Mr. CEO Gary Forsee should take a look into it.

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard about Sprint stores contributing to and abetting identity theft. They definitely need to do more to crack down on that. This story also shows the importance of regularily examining your credit report to make sure that no one has opened up any accounts or lines of service in your name. You can get a free credit report once a year from all the three major credit bureaus (TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax) by visiting annualcreditreport.com.

(Photo: The Consumerist)

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