Complaint Review: Protect Cell - Novi Michigan

Protect Cell did the right thing by me at the time of my initial report and has obviously changed  their business practices.  At my time of purchase, I did not have any fancy display or obvious literature to look at or review, I had to go on the salesperson's word.  That could of been the Go Wireless Store's fault or a growing companies fault for not enforcing it, either way at this time I have no problem with Protect Cell.  I think Protect Cell provides a great service and clearly by your photo, they have made changes to market and sell their service correctly.  I only initially wrote this report due to the complete misleading by Go Wireless (the store) whom sold me this service completely incorrectly.  I would definitely do business with Protect Cell again now knowing how their service works.  I hope anyone that reads this understands what they are purchasing.  Look at my original post date, I can see Protect Cell has tightened their practices and makes sure their Business Partners are selling their service correctly at this time.  My original post was clearly to expose a misleading in sales practices by Go Wireless (Protect Cell's Business Partner) and I should hope anyone that responds to this further understands that.

You're idiotic.

Read a little better next time.

#hodgetwins

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    I purchased a 2 year year protection plan in July 2011 for $89.99 from Protect Cell based upon their collateral material in the Verizon store.  It stated a fee would be charged in the event of a claim requiring a replacement phone.  The coverage included every event I could think of that would result in the phone failing.  The sales representative described the plan well but he hadn't memorized all of the Protect Cell details.  It's always important to read the material.  It was a reasonable price, compared to Verizon's monthly fee plan, to replace an expensive phone.  Also, I believe there were limitations to the Verizon coverage if the phone was damaged by water.

    Previously I had a warranty with an AT&T phone.  It was similar to Verizon's plan.  Monthly fee, limited coverage, e.g. no coverage for water damage, and a much higher replacement fee than Protect Cell's $50 mentioned by Mike.

    Even if the sales representative made a mistake by not mentioning everything in the collateral material, Mike couldn't possibly be as uninformed as he claims.  Even if he is, no reasonable person can expect to pay half the cost of Verizon's plan and then have a phone replaced (in his case, almost a year later) for no charge!

    Unfortunately companies have to put up with this nonsense and waste their time and money defending themselves.  Instead of focusing on their customer service for you and I.

As the Customer Support Manager at Protect Cell, I will take this opportunity to provide information on how our customers are provided information on our membership benefits. Protect Cell provides all of our authorized dealers throughout the country with literature and displays for them to use in their stores.  This material describes all that is included with a Protect Cell membership including the Administrative fees associated with requesting a phone.
 
Our fees (or what other companies call a deductible) are similar, and in many cases less than other providers in the cell phone protection plan industry. 

We make every effort to be sure that our members are aware of the fees by supplying detailed information via email, the same day the plan is purchased. Protect Cell also offers a no questions asked 30 day refund policy for those who are unhappy with anything about their purchase.  Finally, Protect Cell makes it very easy for our members to reach us with questions
by offering a toll free number to the industrys only JD Power and Associates award winning call center. 

We take pride in the excellent service provided to all Protect Cell members and we strive for 100% satisfaction. If this member will call into our Customer Support Center at the ProtectCell corporate office, we would like to speak with them to try to resolve this issue.

Five days ago I purchased a Motorola Razr Maxx from GoWireless in Montrose, Colorado.  Exactly as stated above, I was told that I was purchasing insurance and not a membership.  The "deductible" was never mentioned.  I was told that if anything happened to my phone, it would be immediately replaced.   Charges were never mentioned, but I can't be certain he said it would be free.  It was strongly implied.  No charge wouldbe true if you consider a "shipping fee" of $50 no charge.

I agree with other comments that a $50 deductible is not unreasonable, but it would have been nice to know about it up front.  I think that Protect Cell would have a hard time proving that this practice is not an "approved" sales technique.

When I purchased the phone, they said I would receive the insurance information in an email, probably before I reached home.  I didn't.  I went in the next day to ask some questions about the phone and mentioned I hadn't received the information.  They contacted Protect Cell again and requested the email.  I never received that one.  Today I asked again, and they gave me Protect Cell's number.  After talking to a service rep, I was able to get the email and find out what I had really purchased.

While nothing appears to be illegal about what they told me - other than the fact the the information was incorrect - the methods certainly make me suspect.  I am debating whether or not I should cancel the service since I am still in the 30 day "no questions asked" period.

So I just read through this report and find it funny. You probably  paid around $120 for your prepaid insurance and are complaining about a $50 Deductible that pretty much is a given with any type of insurance wether car, home, or even cell phone. Now your new phone probably retails anyware from $500 to $700. You get a awesome discount when you sign a contract, so you probably paid like $100 to $200 to get the original phone when you paid for the Insurance.

Heres the funny part.

Senerio 1: No Insurance
You paid lets say $200 for the phone then broke it and didn't have insurance, so you are forced to buy a phone at full retail which is lets say $700. So you now have paid $900 for phones with without insurance.

Senerio 2: With Insurance

You paid lets say $200 for the phone then broke it and have insurance, which cost $130, so you only have to pay the $50 deductible and they give you a brand new phone. Now you have only paid $380 for new phones. $700 - $380 = ??? $320 in savings.

So I still think that the insurance is still worth the money.

Number 1:

For you to say that all insurance companies require you to pay a deductible is ridiculous in itself and is totally untue.  I was sold a product by a scumberg salesperson who completely lied to me and told me that this insurance does not require you to pay any deductible since I was pre-paying the insurance.



Number 2:

I did go to the original store and they would not take responsibilty for their salesperson's actions.



Number 3:

I also went directly to the insurance company and they would not take responsibilty for the incident either.



I do not change my position as to filing this report for all the other people out there that do get lied to by salespeople when selling insurance from this insurance company and they know exactly what they are buying before they purchase it.  My intentions were to let my story be heard and if they lost business because of it, I would say that is due to a scumbag salesperson trying to get one over on a sale and everything to do with my post.  Otherwise, I would say this insurance company has a much more educated member after reading this post and will most likely have a lot less complaints against them for it.  You obviously do not get the point of posting on this site.

The above letter is completely ludacris and unreasonable. Whenever purchasing insurance you always have a form of a Deductible. Whether it be health insurance, home owners insurance orcar insurance you always pay an upfront premium or monthly premium which leaves you with just the deductible to pay when the damage occurs. So for you to say that this company is a rip off for making you pay $50 for a phone that at the time retailed at $450 you are making a completelty uneducated statement. Verizon's own insurace requires a $6.99/monthly re-occuring charge from Asurion and the deductible for you phone is $110 so how do you figure Protect Cell is a scam? I understand your upset that the representative in the store mislead you and did not properly explin the insuracnce package but did you think to maybe return to the store and take this up with the manager, regional manager or director of sales for set company? No, instead you figured that by being an uneducated buyer you would go on the internet and voice your opinion on how this company was a scam when in fact it actually costs less than Verizon's insurance package with Asurion. So you had an issue with paying $50 instead of $110 (at the time) and decided to Tarnish a great companies name! Next time go directly to the place where you purchased the package and make your claim there. Your absurd and silly blog here has probably spoiled some business along the lines for this company because you felt it necessary to tell everyone how you got screwed? This is a great company you pay a premium which is less than Asurion's plan over the course of two years and a deductible that is less as well. How would you consider this a scam? Maybe think of the people that work at Protect Cell next time before you right a blog and BTW Protect Cell will not allow their product to be sold unless each rep has attended trainings on their product and how to sell it. This type of activity also happys everyday and everywhere in the world, concepts and companies are always misrepresented. If you think you live in a perfect bubble and people dont make mistakes or say the wrong thing you might want to wake up. So again this is why you go back to the source of your purchase to get some clarification on the matter and see how it can be resolved. You do not right a blog that thousands will see. I carry Protect Cell in all my stores and we have not once seen issues with insurance claims or upset customers however if we did, we would be more than will to help the customer in whatever way. Our customers are our most valued assets so the last thing we want is to read a blog about how they are upset. Did you even try going to the store?

As the Customer Support Manager at Protect Cell, I will take this opportunity to provide information on how our customers are provided information on our membership benefits. Protect Cell provides all of our authorized dealers throughout the country with literature and displays for them to use in their stores.  This material describes all that is included with a Protect Cell membership including the Administrative fees associated with requesting a phone.
 
Our fees (or what other companies call a deductible) are similar, and in many cases less than other providers in the cell phone protection plan industry. 

We make every effort to be sure that our members are aware of the fees by supplying detailed information via email, the same day the plan is purchased. Protect Cell also offers a no questions asked 30 day refund policy for those who are unhappy with anything about their purchase.  Finally, Protect Cell makes it very easy for our members to reach us with questions
by offering a toll free number to the industrys only JD Power and Associates award winning call center. 

We take pride in the excellent service provided to all Protect Cell members and we strive for 100% satisfaction. In this instance, we made an exception for this customer and approved a full refund of the plan purchase price (even after the 30 day period) prior to this customer writing his review.

I purchase an Android Incredible at: Go Wireless, Inc Premium Retailer * 160 Walt Whitman Road, Suite 1085 Huntington Station, NY 11746 (866) 487-1222 in May of 2010.  I was told by the representative there they only had one phone left since it was the first, second or third day it was being released to the public.  Though they had one phone left, they could not sell it because they did not have the 16GB Micro SD Card that goes with the phone.  I said no problem because I had already purchased the 16GB Micro SD Card for about $35 to $40 in advance not knowing it came with the phone. Low and behold as I'm making this purchase, the representative at the store offers a Pre-Paid Insurance Policy through: Protect Cell AKA Digital Leash 39500 Highpointe Boulevard Suite 250 Novi, MI 48375 (877) 775-3274 Now what was told to me by the representative at Go Wireless a Business Partner of Protect Cell, with this Pre-Paid Insurance Plan, there are no restrictions on the damage to the phone and it would be replaced for free and I have the option of a 1 year or 2 year plan.  I thought that is great since it was such an expensive phone, if something were to happen, I would get a replacement at no charge as opposed to paying the monthly insurance through Verizon and then having to pay a deductible with certain restrictions on the type of phone damage.

Ok, so now less than a year later my screen cracks.  I call Verizon, they give me the number for their insurance company.  I call their insurance company and they give me the number for Protect Cell after explaining the type of insurance purchased.  I call Protect Cell, I need to take a breath for this.  Yes I did pre-pay for my Membership, however I also need to pay an additional $50 to have my phone replaced.  The steam is bellowing from my head at this point.  I was told I was buying an unrestricted Insurance Policy that would replace my phone for free no matter what the damage.  No sir, you pre-paid into our "Membership."  Well what does this, so called, Membership entail? I ask.   Do I get to go to a gym, do I get free air fare to go on vacation once a year or do I get stock options with this Membership?  No, sir, you get a whole lot of blah, blah, blah, nothing I was interested in hearing at this point, but nothing I would have ever purchased to begin with had it been explained in that fashion from the representative.  Low and behold I pre-paid for a product that was not sold correctly to me and Protect Cell will not take responsibility for their Business Partner's inadequacies of selling a product correctly.  Had I known there was going to be a fee if something would have gone wrong with my phone, I would have never bought into this scam.  The whole selling point was that there were no fees regardless of the damage and that was why I was pre-paying for the insurance. So, now I have a broken screen on my phone that as a "Member" it will cost another $50 to get replaced. This company Protect Cell is a huge scam and they do not monitor their Business Partners in any way nor do they take responsibility for their Business Partners unlawful selling of their product.  I would imagine I pre-paid for a "Membership" because one would have to be licensed to sell Insurance.  Be very aware of Protect Sell, they are committing rip-off activities in the hopes that no one will ever make a claim or if someone does, they believe the individual will just fold and pay the $50 and if not they just pawn it off on the representative without taking responsibilities for their Business Partners actions.  I am not that individual, I want what I was sold and paid for. I was completely misled and extremely disappointed with the manner at which Protect Cell handles its consumers and the fact their customer service is atrocious is beyond my belief at how this company is even still conducting business.

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