We have had Asurion protection on our phones for several years and only recently had to file a couple of claims. This is what we thought we had it for... a phone gets damaged, file a claim, pay a deductible, get another phone of equal value to what we originally had. This had gone rather well until today when I started a claim on an iPhone 4 (8gb). When we got the service, we were advised that the iPhone carried the $99 deductible for smartphones and we are ok with that - they cost more. During the claim process, I was prompted to pay $169 deductible for that phone.
I rechecked my plan and it states smartphones are $99, tablets and special devices are $169 so I called them to make sure things were accurate. When I asked the lady who answered about this, she explained that an iPhone 4, with 8 gb of memory still had a retail value of $499 and that the deductible represented a "fair percentage" of the replacement retail value. I commented that for a little more than that, I could get a brand new 5 with twice the memory, and that even on Amazon the phone sells for a whopping
$340 - but regardless of the numbers - the iPhone is sold as a "smartphone" and not a "tablet or special device".
She stated that we could either put the claim on hold, or complete the claim and that if I did not want to complete the claim or have any other questions, to have a nice day. I don't mind paying another $99 (plus $120/year) for a REFURBISHED phone to keep this going - but feel it is extremely deceptive to sell "smartphone" protection and rates, then use "tablet" replacement costs. If there were an iPad, no complaints.