Complaint Review: Samsung / Verizon Wireless

I can understand how you look at it. It does seem like cell phone insurance deductibles are pretty high, but that's because of two factors: 1) the number of cell phones in use and 2) the cost of replacing the phones.

With cell phone insurance remember that the insurance is a FLAT rate, whether your phone is $100 or $500. If everyone was replacing $200-$400 phones all the time, then the insurance would be even more expensive.

Realize that it's only around $5.00 per month for the premium, and only $50 to replace the phone if it EVER gets broken. They used to allow as many claims as you need, and they used to only charge around $25-$35 for a replacement. But as it turned out, people were abusing the claim process and were replacing their phone 4 times in a 6 month period. Remember, each of the phones cost *at least* $100 or more at RETAIL prices, and the average cost of a cell phone is around $200 now since camera phones are so popular. If you have a whole bunch of people replacing their phone about once every 2 months at $150 per phone, you can see how expensive the whole thing can get. So you can see, the insurance companies were starting to get shafted by allowing customers to make as many claims as they want. Now they typically only allow 2 claims in a 12-month period.

Always remember this: it is insurance. Just like car insurance, it COULD be worse. What if you didn't have car insurance AT ALL? If you total a brand new Escalade, you're out at LEAST $40,000!!

Think about it for a minute....would you like to pay FULL PRICE for your phone if it should EVER break (it shouldn't be happening that often anyways)?

How about those visits to the doctor? Yeah, health insurance is going up, but they cost at least $150 per visit, and we only pay a co-pay of about $25. So what's to complain about? It COULD be worse, couldn't it?

I'm not trying to say that I think you're stupid or inconsiderate, but just to say that it COULD be worse...

I agree, the price does seem high, but not when you see the whole picture. For instance, I pay about $250/month for car insurance. The reason why is because I had 3 major accidents within 3 years, and we're insuring 2 almost brand new cars with FULL coverage at the $1000 deductible rate. My accidents alone cost over $27,000 (the first one was a total wreck - $14,000, the second was $5000 for repair and property damage, the third was $8000 of repair to our new minivan - driver's side impact). Yeah, I paid the $1000 deductible 3 times, but that's only $3000 compared to $27,000!!

I certainly understand that the wireless companies do not make the phones, but they are the ones receiving information from their customers on problems with the phones and should be the ones submitting that information to the cell phone makers.

In regards to whether I feel the insurance is a rip-off, as I stated, I think the cost and deductibles are a little high. The phone I have is around $150. The insurance has a deductible of $50 which is a full 1/3 of the cost of the phone. The yearly insurance cost is around $60. This is 40% of the total phone cost. So after 1 year, I have already paid 73% on the cost of a new phone that is similar.

Look at any of your other insurances and see how this compares, including auto, home, etc.

By the way, this phone was fairly modest. We were looking for a flip phone so we didn't have to keep locking the key pad and analog/digital since we often travel to areas that are mainly analog signals.

I dont usually make a comment unless its somthing that really ticks me but this one I found interesting with it's responses about water damage and so forth. If these phones are so sensitive then why should they cost so much. I have had a total of 4 cell phones in the past. Each about 50 bucks for some prepaid plan. Ive left them outside (camping) on cold nights, I used them in the rain, they have fallen, I get made somtimes so they have even been throw.. well one of them atleast.. all 4 still work. (and before you ask why I keep getting another one its because I keep finding a better prepaid plan but to get on it I got to get a new phone. or have someone reprogram my original.. but I take the quicker way) So if those 100 to 400 dollar phones (which include features we dont really need, such as voice regonition and cameras.. good greif) will break on account of a little bit of condensation then I dont think they are worth the money. Just go buy a cheap one that is nothing but a cell phone... it doesnt have to be prepaid, you can still find cheap ones aroudn 45 to 70 dollars on a monthly plan if thats your bag, and in my experience they seem to be pretty durable. A good thing to remember when buying things like computers, cell phones, and generalelectronics.. The more it cost, the more it likely has to offer, the more it has to offer the more it takes to build it, the more it takes to build, the more there is to go wrong. Keep it simple and keep it for life.

Just a thought.

I use to work for cell phone company. Customers many times do not realize how important it is to get the phone insurance on their cell phone....that is until something goes wrong with the phone.

Customers tend not to realize also that the cell phone service carriers do NOT make the phones, they simply provide service to them. There is so much that goes into the quality of reception for any cell phone, and so many variables that it's hard to tell if it's the phone or the service. More times than not, it tends to be the phone rather than the service.

Like Rebecca said before, "liquid" damage can be ANY liquid or even condensation.

As for "misuse", that would inlucde things like: 1) tossing the phone around, 2) dropping the phone from ANY height, 3) and hitting the phone.

You may not be aware of this but there are stickers in the back of your phone under the battery that will change color if they get wet. As far as 'sensors' this I am unsure of. I work for a cell phone company and also know re-pair techs who work on phones. As far as liquid damage... was your phone sitting on a counter with a glass near-by? Did you leave the phone outside on a cold night?

Were you outside with your phone when it was raining? Any of those could have caused liquid (water)damage. BTW I use the word liquid because it doesnt HAVE to be water. Any liquid can get into your phone and cause problems even a cold phone warming up the next day causes condinsation (water) and it just takes a little bit to do a lot of damage.

Also you mentioned insurance in a way that makes me think you beleive it to be a rip-off. The purpose of insurance is so that if anything happens to your phone you wont have to pay retail to replace it.

I dont know if you've priced phones yet but they range anywhere from $100 - $400 depending on the model that you choose. You didnt pay that much when you got the phone because you were signing a contract and the company knew they would make money for X amount of time. Therefore you got a discount. You wont if you are replaceing they phone.

If you truely beleive that it doesnt have liquid damage then send it into Version or Samsung directly instead of takeing the word of the people at the local store. If it wasnt liquid damage or something caused by "mis-use" (there word not mine) then they will fix it and ship it back.

However if you dont want them to fix it if they are going to charge you then you need to put a letter in there explaining that. Motorola has a standard fee of $150 for fixing damage caused by "mis-use". Again insurance would have saved you some money here.
Good luck with your phone.