Dealing with this company is a NIGHTMARE!!! They are the worst kind of insurance company. One who charges you premiums and then avoids paying claims and righting the situation at all costs. Unfortunately I have had two dealings with them, this recent one even worse than the first which was completely unacceptable to begin with! On the first occasion, (2 years ago) I had a blackberry damaged when it fell out of my purse as I was getting out of a cab and was subsequently run over by the cab driver. At that time I had been a customer of the same wireless company for a decade and had been paying insurance premiums the entire time without a single, solitary claim. I filed my claim with Asurion for a replacement and paid $50 for the deductible to replace my BlackBerry.in return for my hundreds of dollars in premiums and deductible, I received a "refurbished" blackberry in a plain white box. No accessories, not even a battery or battery cover. The phone was clearly used, and had a couple of damage marks, one scratch on the paint and one nick on the screen. They were small, and the phone worked with my existing battery, but I was somewhat perturbed to get a "used" replacement. Then, I looked on ebay and saw that I could have bought a replacement blackberry there from several reputable wireless phone dealers for the SAME PRICE AS THE DEDUCTIBLE!!! So I basically paid Asurion to get the phone for me with my $50 and the premiums I paid were basically just chump payments I made trusting that I was protected!
Fast Forward two years later and my new Droid X was stolen while shopping for some last minute Halloween costume items on the 28th. I report it stolen to Verizon and file a claim with Asurion only to be held up by several requests for "more information." They said my claim required review to "protect ME from fraud" which I found ridiculous. At least have the integrity and ethics to admit who you are trying to protect from fraud and take your patronizing statements out of the equation. I stand to gain NOTHING from their overly critical eyes, especially when I am now paying DOUBLE the monthly premium I was before. Eventually, I was required to send several copies of my ID because they "couldn't read" what I sent. I was sending photo quality photos and using the PHOTO RESOLUTION fax setting to send the highest quality possible. They were clearly just giving me the run-around because these copies were BEYOND CLEAR! They also held me up by 2 days (Because I work 40 hours per week in a sterile laboratory environment and go to graduate school full-time so I am not in a traditional setting where I can fax, make copies and email throughout the day.)
In the end, they finally accepted my claim, but GUESS WHAT?! My order for a replacement phone is on BACKORDER!!! They don't have my phone in stock so I am going to be without it until they can receive more. Even better, there has been NO indication when that will be! Oh, and NO offer whatsoever for any other options either! Great service, huh?! What a joke!
I leave for NYC on Thursday morning to run the NYC marathon, an honor I received after raising more than $5000 for a sick children's charity and I won't even have a phone to take with me. Since my Droid was stolen, I had been using my old blackberry but it was already dying on when I ordered my upgrade back in July. Unfortunately, it took it's final breath this morning and I am literally stuck phoneless and will likely have to go buy one from a "pay as you go" carrier to get by until I receive the new phone.
Bottom line: IF you have a cell phone and Asurion is the insurance carrier, don't pay a single solitary premium to this untrustworthy and unethical company. Find alternatives or shop online for a replacement, and you'll likely come out better than I have been able to.
I am going to take action against them when I return from NY.in addition to filing with the BBB and Houston's NBC, ABC, CBS & FOX media outlets, I plan to blog this for my 1000 subscribers to read. It will be therapeutic using my sense of humor to relieve me of my frustration, plus it will let MANY more people know what a complete sham this company is!
0 comments