I just had a spontaneous conversation with an IT manager, who shall remain anonymous, but provided with me with good blogging fodder nonetheless.

He asked me about the BlackBerry 10, what my thoughts were on it, when it was slated to arrive, what features it would have, what it looks like, etc. I said I was looking forward to using it, and he had the same enthusiasm. Then he paused and just let it all out…

“I’m getting more and more people coming up to me saying they want to buy their own phone and expense it. So I say, ‘Go ahead, company policy says you can bring your own device. Just bring it in to me when you get it and I’ll connect you.’

“Then they bring it in, and what’s the first thing they ask me? ‘How do I work this?’”

He adds, “And each time I say, ‘I don’t really know, it’s your phone, you’re on your own for that.’ (Although I secretly think he does know, he just has bigger fish to fry.)

He proceeded to tell me he doesn’t understand what all the fuss is on some of these must-have phones. “I get it,” he said, “If it’s an iPhone, yes, it works with your Mac and it works with your iPad. That’s fine. But come to find out, they use a PC at work and don’t know how to use a Mac or the iOS apps. Same with the Android. They don’t have to be the same OS, but the fact is, they don’t know why they want these devices.”

And finally he adds (I’m not making this up) –“Then they come back to me a week later and tell me they want a refund! It’s their phone! They bought it!”  

With 86% of organizations that allow employees to use personal devices for work-related tasks, clearly this must happen a lot. Sure enough, he adds, “I can’t tell you how many people come back and tell me they want a refund or want to go back to their BlackBerry.”

That got me thinking about how -- on the simplest level of a BYOD policy – what happens if an employee buys a phone, gets reimbursed from company policy, and then decides to return the phone? Do they then give the money back to the company? Does the company have to take the new phone that they no longer want? Does the employee just get issued a new (or their old) company phone?  Is this detailed in the company policy? Do you only get reimbursed for the phone charges, not the phone? Is it different for execs than it is for the other employees?

Sometimes the simplest scenario can be the most complex if the fine details aren’t defined – or enforced.

What’s your policy?