Phone Plans Foiled His Plans

I do e-commerce orders for our cell phone dealer. One morning, I log on to find three phone orders from the same client, all of which are for $0 phones on new two-year contracts. I pull up his file and see that he is currently on a two-year contract that he’s only been on for a few months.

I figure this is possibly just him looking to add a few lines to his account (though in my experience, those chances were small). For privacy and security reasons, we call the customers on a recorded line to verify account information in order to get the orders done. I phoned him to go over his orders, and this is how that conversation went:

Me: “Hi, [Customer]! I’m just calling about the phone orders you made early this morning. I just need to confirm something really quick. I noticed in your file that you already bought a phone from us two months ago. I take it you’re wanting to put new phone numbers on these phones?”

Customer: “Nope! I’m just taking advantage of the benefits of my contract.”

Me: *Confused.* “What benefits are you referring to?”

Customer: “Well, I have one contract signed, so I’m getting all these $0 phones from this one contract.”

Me: “…sir. I’m afraid that’s not how phone contracts work. Each phone you want to purchase must be on a separate two-year contract with its own phone numbers and plans attached to it.”

Customer: “So… I can’t just buy them outright for $0 with the contract I am already paying right now?”

It took a few minutes for him to finally get it. When he did, to put it lightly, he wasn’t exactly happy and the orders were cancelled.