We've recently run into problems with the insurance company with whom most of the cell phone companies contract for coverage. My husband's bad luck with cell phones and my stupidity meant that when we bought our new phones, I arranged to get insurance for my husband's phone on the recommendation of the Verizon employee who handled our new contract. The Verizon Wireless employee assured me that this was a really helpful plan for people who tend to drop or otherwise damage their phones and would save us $500-$600 in replacement costs.
What we found was quite different.
First of all there was a $60 deductible -- something that I would have known had I been more careful. But that's not the real problem and I don't fault anyone but myself for that.
My husband managed to drop his phone in water. He's a technophobe and had no idea what to do -- tried to make it work (you're not supposed to do that) and when it didn't work, contacted Verizon and found out how to get a replacement phone from Asurion and started that process.
Then he called me and I told him where I kept the rice I have specifically for this purpose and he stuck his phone in the rice.
About 2 days later, he got his "new" phone, a pretty beat up version of what he already had, with instructions for activating it. First thing we noticed was the sheet in the package from the company which told us that Asurion could send us any kind of replacement phone at their discretion. Apparently we were lucky this time to get even a beat up version of an iPhone 5s. (This was not what the Verizon guy had told me, but since I don't have his words recorded, I can't prove that).
We were supposed to remove their phone from the packaging and insert the SIM card that Asurion had sent with the replacement phone. Only problem -- the SIM card was the wrong size and wouldn't fit in the phone. Apparently Asurion can not only send you a phone that doesn't actually replace the one you have, but can also send it with the wrong SIM card. Without the right SIM card, my husband couldn't use the replacement phone.
So he drove to the Verizon store to see if they could provide the correct SIM card. No go -- they suggested taking the one out of his watery phone and using that.
We pulled out his drowned phone which had spent about 48 hours in rice and lo and behold! it worked, it worked just fine! (Rice, the magic ingredient). Since his own phone worked, we saw no reason to to remove the SIM card from his relatively new and now totally functioning phone and put it in the battered replacement that might not be any good at all. So my husband contacted Asurion and told them they'd be getting their replacement back, unused. We hoped we'd get back the $60 deductible since we didn't use the phone (and we would have been fine with paying the shipping & handling).
Nope, Asurion refused to do that. They told my husband (and he went up to the supervisory level) that if he didn't return his phone to them, they'd charge him over $300. He kept telling them that they had sent the wrong SIM card, that he hadn't used their phone, would return it immediately in exactly the condition (poor) he received it, would pay shipping, etc. But they wouldn't hear of it -- they had to have his perfectly nice new phone and he had to use their crappy replacement or he'd pay over $300 (and this in addition to the $60 deductible they'd already charged him and the almost $100 they had collected in premiums).
We decided no way we were doing that. He returned their phone (certified, delivery receipt required). Meanwhile I went online and did what I should have done before giving into the hard sell we got on this insurance from the Verizon guy.
I googled "Asurion reviews," and here's what I found.
Top listing when I googled:
Top 631 Complaints and Reviews About Asurion
here are a few quotes from the complaints on this site:
Asurion is a company of crooks, with the worst possible customer service, who will charge you money, send you defective phones, and take no responsibility for it. Avoid dealing with them whenever possible!!! You will not get help!
They are BEYOND unprofessional and inefficient, I highly suspect they are corrupt and conducting fraudulent activities themselves.
It's a fine line between scam and extortion. Consumers are being duped into plans with Asurion by their phone carrier.
Needless to say there were other sites with equally bad reviews. There were a few positive review sites... Asurion's own website had
lots of positive reviews. And apparently at least some Asurion employees like it there according to reviews of what it's like to work there. The Better Business Bureau, known for its high regard for business over customers, gave it fairly positive reviews. But the other sites that appeared in the first 10 listings had very little positive to say.
Customer Services Scoreboard
had 90 negative to 5 positive comments
Asurion insurance complaints and reviews
had 290 complaints, only 1 resolved
Yelp
gave it almost the lowest possible rating (although the first review there was very positive -- I've seen it before elsewhere. I suspect an Asurion plant).
All this is not just to sound off -- though it feels nice to do so, but to ask if other people have had similar problems and if so, encouraging them to call their Congressperson. Do it even if your Congressperson is a Republican -- in fact, be even more sure to do it if your Congressperson is a Republican. We've called our Congressman and we are suggesting that this might be an investigation more useful to Americans than Benghazi. But our Congressman is a liberal Democrat, so we don't have high hopes that anyone will listen.