Complaint Review: Asurion - Select State/Province

 If you think that getting insurance for you cell phone and paying $6.99 a month is worth it...you better think twice!  Having had insurane on several phones on my plan for many years and paying between $14 - $21 + tax a month for insurance through Asurion Insurance (AT&T's insurance provider) I would have thought that I could rely on the insurance to cover a phone in the event of an accident.  NOT!!  My son purchased a LG 2G phone through Best Buy as his upgrade and signed a new contract with AT&T for 2 years.  The phone costs $200.  Two days after he bought it, it fell off the ottoman and fell 12" to the tile floor.  The LG 2G screen SHATTERED to beyond recognition which I believe is ridiculous for LG to put that kind of screen on in the first place!  We immediately called Asurion and were informed that the deductible would be $200....yes, the price that we paid for the phone and that they wouldn't guarantee it would be a new one, for it may be a refurbished one.  Hmm...a refurbished one to replace a new one that we just bought, doesn't make sense huh?  Nor does the $200!  My son also went back to Best Buy and tried to see if they would claim that the screen was made of defective material to have shattered the way it did with such little impact.  LG should be ashamed of it's product to not be able to endure a little impact, what kind of testing have they done of this product?  Needless to say, Best Buy wouldn't do anything so my son started using "ole' faithful" again and the LG G2 has sat with a shattered screen for over 2 months.

Another attempt was made today with Asurion after making several calls to local repair shops in Austin area for price comparisons.  They all said the same thing, "$200 to repair for the screen alone costs $150 from LG"  What a rip off LG!!!!!!  For a piece of glass!!  Why don't you make it tempered (not that I'm an engineer, but makes a little sense)?

So I made another attempt at Asurion to see what they would do.  First person I talked to didn't have any record of our initial call back in November, 2013 so that goes to show you that they don't want to take the effort to document the fact that you called for the record.  The second person I talked to (Jennifer) once again quoted me $199 ($200 what's the difference a buck?) to replace the phone.  Duh!!  I explained to her that I had been paying insurance at the rate of $84 + tax just for this phone line alone (not counting the others) for the past year and not to mention the number of years prior.  So in essence the phone would have costs $284 minimum or more for previous premium years to replace, right and there was no guarantee that the replacement would be a new phone!  Asurion claims that the phone has a retail value of between $600 and $800.  What??  I paid $200.  You know that they don't pay $600 - $800 to LG for a replacement!!  So in essence the deductible was 1/3 the costs of the retail replacement value of the phone.  No thank you Asurion, this doesn't fly with me and I'm sure it doesn't fly with other consumers as well.  It's a RIP OFF for me to pay Asurion $14-$21 + tax a month with them not willing to cover the replacement.    So while I had them on the phone, the Iphone 4 replacement is $125, the Iphone 4S is $125, the Iphone 5 is $199, and the One HTC is $199.  Be sure to check around for other insurance companies that cover cell phone replacement!  I'm cancelling my insurance with them and now filing a complaint with the Attorney General's Office. 

Yes, lesson learned.....don't turn on a new cell phone without buying a Otterbox or LifeProof Case!  All other cases aren't worth a crap and don't protect your phone.  I've dropped my Iphone 4 with LifeProof case 4' to the concrete and nothing happened, and even dropped it into a sink full of water!  LG is also getting a complaint for crappy workmanship on not testing glass.  Just imagine if it had dropped 4' and glass shattered into an eye?