R. decided to be scrupulously honest. He had a 15% discount on his Sprint bill because of his employer. When he switched jobs and moved to a different state, he kept his Sprint plan but dutifully reported that he wasn’t eligible for the discount anymore. Unfortunately, he reported this to a Sprint kiosk worker, who failed to actually remove the discount. Moral of the story: no matter who helps you, make sure the changes went through.

I’ve been a long-time customer of Sprint, because over the ten-ish years I’ve had cell coverage, they’ve actually done right by me in terms of consistent and fair treatment. Plus, having a data “cap” that I have yet to find (not for lack of trying) is a shiny thing. Even though I moved from Texas to New England, I saw no reason to switch to Verizon or AT&T and deal with either of their customer disservice departments. However, I did decide to use my phone upgrade and while I was at the Sprint franchise, I needed to update my account information.

I had been receiving, due to a previous job’s agreement with Sprint, a 15% employer discount on my monthly bill. Well, as I figured that I’d be blatantly ineligible what with the new address, I did the honest thing and asked when upgrading the phone if the franchise’s employee would take the discount off. She said she did, and I took her word and thought nothing more of it.

Fast-forward about a month, and I get a voice mail (and a text, and an email, all on the same day) from Sprint Corporate about “proving my eligibility for the discount.” This being the discount I thought had been removed. So I pulled up my account on the computer while waiting on hold with the customer service number. (A habit I recommend for dealing with any CSR situation.) Turns out, the discount had never been removed. A short and easy conversation later, we were able to get the discount removed and the account balance set correctly.

Moral of this story: any time someone says “oh, I’ve fixed that on your account”? Check their work.

We didn’t mean to turn today into “Pile On Kiosk Workers” Day. There are many fine, upstanding retail workers who work in kiosks and perform their jobs well. It’s still a good idea for consumers to make sure the changes that we’ve requested go through.

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