For the past couple of years, I've been working as a retail salesperson and installer for a local company. We do directv, dish, verizon, office supplies, and whatever else. I was gone on Active Duty military for the last year or so, and during that time, my manager developed a gray practice of creating email accounts in the customer's name and then proceeding to register them online for rebates and directv online and all of that jazz. More often than not, this is beneficial to both us and the customer, as most of our customers don't even own computers, and if they did, they'd be unable to figure out the directv process. At the same time, though, I think that if directv ever found out, we'd probably lose our ability to sell their product. And occasionally, we get a savvy customer that wants to manage their account online, and we have to give them their "email address" and password.
Honestly, I really didn't think there was too much wrong with this until we had an inicident, which got to really ponder on the issue. We had a customer come in angry a few weeks back because he didn't get his rebate, even though he was holding the rebate slip that came with the bill in fat hands. No problem, I just resolved the issue, set him up online (again, with a fake email address), submitted the rebate, and sent him on his way.
But not three weeks later, a guy calls up irate as can be because he hasn't gotten his rebate and its been three months. What's worse, they've been billing his credit card every month for his tv! So my manager finds the registration form, and wouldn't you believe that he checked the "Automatic Billing" box. Problem was that my name was on this paper as the sales rep. I think it was a slow sales month and my commissions were a little low, so someone else put my name down to make the numbers even, usually happens. So my manager checks online, and an account had been made from here, but we didn't submit the rebate, the idiot that called in sent in the form, and it was processing; it will be in in 4-6 weeks.
So now it is automatically my fault for not submitting these two customer's rebates, and my manager is pissed at me. He poses the question "Do you think it is our responsibility to make sure the customers get their rebates?" And instantly, I realize that it isn't, and it never was. Its a "you can lead a horse to water" kind of situation. The funny thing is that I answered "no", and he decided to tell me that he's making it our responsibility now. I'm not sure, but I think what we're doing could be illegal.
My question, I guess, is what should I do? Should I ignore it and just make sure we don't have any more "incidents". Should I talk to my manager further? Should I inform directv? I get a feeling that if I bring the issue up to management, I might be risking losing my job. If I tell directv, I know I'll lose my job. But honestly, I don't feel too well about the situation anymore.
Honestly, I really didn't think there was too much wrong with this until we had an inicident, which got to really ponder on the issue. We had a customer come in angry a few weeks back because he didn't get his rebate, even though he was holding the rebate slip that came with the bill in fat hands. No problem, I just resolved the issue, set him up online (again, with a fake email address), submitted the rebate, and sent him on his way.
But not three weeks later, a guy calls up irate as can be because he hasn't gotten his rebate and its been three months. What's worse, they've been billing his credit card every month for his tv! So my manager finds the registration form, and wouldn't you believe that he checked the "Automatic Billing" box. Problem was that my name was on this paper as the sales rep. I think it was a slow sales month and my commissions were a little low, so someone else put my name down to make the numbers even, usually happens. So my manager checks online, and an account had been made from here, but we didn't submit the rebate, the idiot that called in sent in the form, and it was processing; it will be in in 4-6 weeks.
So now it is automatically my fault for not submitting these two customer's rebates, and my manager is pissed at me. He poses the question "Do you think it is our responsibility to make sure the customers get their rebates?" And instantly, I realize that it isn't, and it never was. Its a "you can lead a horse to water" kind of situation. The funny thing is that I answered "no", and he decided to tell me that he's making it our responsibility now. I'm not sure, but I think what we're doing could be illegal.
My question, I guess, is what should I do? Should I ignore it and just make sure we don't have any more "incidents". Should I talk to my manager further? Should I inform directv? I get a feeling that if I bring the issue up to management, I might be risking losing my job. If I tell directv, I know I'll lose my job. But honestly, I don't feel too well about the situation anymore.
