I get up this morning and rush out of the house, only to drop my phone in a mud puddle. Still works, great!
Two hours later... The LCD screen stops working. No worries, I have faithfully paid T-Mobile $5.99 a month for the past 12 months for Equipment Protection.
Four hours later... Visit T-Mobile website where I find an 800 number and a web address for online claims, www.phoneclaims.com. I thought I'd try the website. I was prompted through a few screens of basic information, asked if the claim was about water damage and told I would need to call the 800 numer to continue, ugh!
Ten minutes later... An Asurion claims representative tells me that my claim has been voided, because the phone has "no billable airtime at the time of damage". I proceed to tell her I am still talking on the phone with her, therefore it must have air time. She asks me, are you sure that you reported the correct model... Yes. Then she asks me if I am sure it is really black? Imagine asking a grown adult if they know their colors. She suggests I call T-Mobile as she cannot help me, my claim has already been voided.
Thirty minutes later... A very cordial T-Mobile rep makes small talk with me, but says my Equipment Protection is valid and verifies I have had uninterupted service for a year and I should talk to the Insurance dept. He transfers my call to... Asurion.
Twenty minutes later... A new Asurion representative proceeds to tell me that she will open a new claim, but cannot process it because my paticular model of phone never came in black. Back to me not knowing the color of my phone. This lady obvously has access to some information from my T-Mobile account, can't she look up the silly phone model/color. Well she puts me on hold and then informs me she can magically proceed with my claim. Next step she tells me, I must download a claim affidavit from their website to fill out (let's assume everyone has a computer, internet, and printer, I do I won't complain to much) then I must fax (like I have a fax machine) or mail (like I have three days to wait) the claim form back.
Two hours later... They decided not to use any of three call back numbers they asked for and I receive an email that my claim cannot be processed because my claim affidavit is lacking proof of purchase. The claim affidavit clearly stated that this was not necessary if the phone was purchased from a T-mobile store or T-Mobile website, which mine was. She says if I cannot produce an original sales receipt, upc code from box, or service agreement (hello, I threw those away a year ago) that I would need to fax her a legible photocopy of the back of my phone (good thing I wasn't claiming a lost or stolen phone.)
One hours later... After wasting an hour and a whole lot of paper generating umpteen illegible copies of the back of my phone, I broke out the digital camera. I downloaded the picture from my camera, printed it to PDF, and faxed it to Asurion.
Two hours later... I call Asurion to find out if they have received my proof of purchase and can process my claim, only to find out that the kind folks who receive those faxes have all gone home for the day and only the phone reps who can't do anything are employed around the clock. You can expect a call tomorrow between 11 am and 12 pm. I won't hold my breath.
Bottom line... I have paid $5.99 a month for 12 months ($72), I will pay a insurance deductible ($70, they don't tell you that when you sign up), I will lose at lease two days of cell service ($3-5 dollars, but extremely inconvenient) and alot of wasted time doing needless paper work. I will pay a grand total of $145 for, most likely, a refurbished copy of my phone which only retails for $199 full price to begin with.
My advice, do the math. Unless you are buying a really expensive phone, forego the insurance and throw $5.99/month in to savings and earmark it for phone replacements. You can buy a refurbished phone on ebay and have money left over, or you can apply the phones to a new and reliable phone.
The insurance is worthless PASS IT UP!!!
I had less paperwork to file to make a claim on my auto insurance!!!
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