What happens when you do the responsible thing and buy insurance for your shiny and expensive new smartphone, but the insurance gets canceled because of an error that wasn’t yours? Well…Bill and his girlfriend aren’t sure. When the employee at a Radio Shack kiosk at their local Target billed a Mastercard gift card instead of their credit card or phone bill, the insurance got canceled early on. Three months in. Then, of course, his girlfriend dropped the phone.

Bill writes:

Long time reader, but I never imagined I’d be submitting a tip. A few months back, I went to a Radioshack cell phone kiosk located inside a Target store. They had a ‘Trade and Save’ program available at the time, and my girlfriend traded in her iphone 4 towards the purchase of a new Samsung Galaxy SIII.

We completed the paperwork, walked out with a shiny new phone and didn’t think much else of it until she dropped the phone yesterday, cracking the screen. Accidents happen– that’s why we bought the insurance plan and paid the first and last month up front. What we didn’t know was this: the employee running the stand issued a gift card for the value of the iphone 4 to be used to purchase the new Galaxy phone. She went ahead and used the gift card number (administered by MasterCard) as the reoccuring payment for the insurance. We thought nothing of it because our bill didn’t look unusual– we had paid the first and last month up front afterall. Turns out, or insurance was cancelled in its third month, and we can’t get it reinstated!

We called the customer service number, and they gave us the runaround, telling us that after a plan has been cancelled, it cannot be reinstated. Understandable, but the plan was cancelled at no fault of us– afterall, it was the kiosk employee that decided to bill the gift card instead of the actual credit card we used to sign up for monthly payments. The kiosk tried to help us too by admitting fault, but Radioshack still refused to help us. In the end, we feel wronged. When it came time to collect payment for the phone services, there was no problem at all getting our credit card information set up– but when it came time to sign up for insurance in the same transaction, we came up short.

Mistakes happen, but this wasn’t our mistake. Further, everyone each step of the way has told us we are out of luck. Help us, Consumerist!

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