Complaint Review: Asurion

Asurion has terrible customer service and the insurance product is not worth the money.  AT&T should not endorse this company or allow them to do business with their customers.  The insurance regulation authorities should investigate this company with a fine toothed comb and consumer protection groups should flag them as companies to avoid.  Class action lawyers who specialize in consumer advocacy should also investigate the possibility of a class action suit, since Asurion represents nearly all of the major cell phone companies including Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Time Warner Cable.  We are talking about tens of millions of customers getting ripped off for many years.  The potential settlement could bring this abusive company to its knees and perhaps break what appears to be a monopoly on cell phone insurance.

This company, endorsed by AT&T wireless, charges approximately $7.00 per month for "insurance" for cellular telephones.  When my son's phone was stolen. I filed a claim by fax as instructed.  The claim requires a copy of my bill,  a copy of my driver's  license, and detailed information about the phone.  After I initiated the claim, I could not obtain any acknowledgement that the requested documents had be received.  Although faxed to the number Asurion provided, they did not confirm receipt.  The automated telephone system would not provide me with a representative to speak to.   It simply stated that I would be contacted in 48 hours.  After 48 hours,  I called to check on the claim.  The only way to get a customer service representative is to work through the menus and indicate that you cannot download the required form.  This will get a live person.  The lady who answered told me they had no record of my paperwork being submitted.

Asurion deliberately operates an understaffed organization with poorly designed automated telephone systems and a difficult claim process in order to discourage claims and frustrate customers.  Parents beware -- if you think this is good insurance for "the kids", think again.  You'll end up wasting hours of your time attempting to process your claim and do the follow-up paperwork. 

After my call ended, I attempted to take their automated survey which was also not user friendly.  It required a alpha-numeric keypad (not found on most cell phones) and a requirement to push # (also not easy on cell phones - go figure).

I'd recommend that parents and families find phones that they can afford to purchase cash in the event a replacement is necessary.  I've got 4 phones insured at $7.00 a month... that's $336 per year out-the-window for a company with terrible customer service.

Asurion is either a very poorly managed company or they have deliberately designed their business model to be difficult in order to keep succesful claims to a minimum.  I look forward to this company being investigated by insurance industry regulators and attorneys who specialized in class action law suits.