Verizon and Asurion insurance scam.
Update: t-Mobile hates Asurion too!
So, I bought this Kyocera 7135 phone at Verizon Wireless. The guy sells me on this great insurance from Asurion where you can simply call Asurion if there is a problem and they send you a new phone in the mail and give you a new one.
I call Asurion today because my phone is crashing constantly despite the fact that I’ve reinstalled the software and because the battery keeps shutting off randomly.
So, I get Asurion on the phone and they start out by saying there is a $50 deductable. I tell them I wasn’t told that and the agent says that they get that all the time from Verizon customers!
I get escalated to a manager who says that the phone is not broken and that it is a software issue, that I need to go to Kyocera. I explain about the battery problem and he says that I didn’t say there was a battery problem from the start so that they can’t process the claim. I say, well maybe your person didn’t put it in. He says I’m out of luck.
The irony of all of this is that they replaced my friends 7135 last week with another model from another company because the 7135s are so much of a problem. Verizon has dropped the Kyocera 7135 because of all the problems.
I’ve never been treated worse in customer service in my life. I highly recommend you stay away from Asurion, a highly unethical company with horribly rude representatives.
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Summation provided by this customer. I too have had a go with this company (Asurion) a couple of months ago. My phone a Motorola “motorazr” had gotten wet and I needed to have it replaced. It took two months to get this resolved. Asurion wanted the old phone returned to them (no problem, right?) they sent a postage paid envelope to return the damaged phone in, there is no way to track the whereabouts of this package while in route back to Asurion. The package ultimately went missing so they come back to me wanting me to pay for the “missing” phone. I sent an E-mail to the CEO of “Asurion” and told him I had no proof that the phone as missing, I attempted to send the package with return receipt (found that because it was postage pre-paid I could not send it that way), so I basically told him I have no proof that he has not received the phone, and for all I know you have the phone. I have not heard from them since. But yes, a very shady outfit to deal with, the people are extremely rude and incompetent!
Comment by Randall — September 12, 2008 @ 2:19 am
this is the worst customer care i’ve ever experienced in my life.
they are the rudest people i’ve ever encountered. good luck with dealing with those bxtches!
Comment by mackenzie — September 12, 2008 @ 5:52 pm
Bought an LG phone VX8300 thought it was stolen, but I found it, and told asurion I did after paying the 50.00 dedctable.I asked them if I send you the phone back can I get my 50.00 back
they said no. I said well you are just going to give the phone to someone else right, they didn’t answer me on that, which ment yes.
Comment by Dude — September 15, 2008 @ 1:51 pm
Hello, I bought a T-Moble over 2-years ago, they signed me up to the insurance with Asurion, I’ve been paying $3.99 a month for this insurance for over two years and finally yesterday my phone stops working, I went to T-Mobile and they had me call this place, when they told me I had to pay anywhere between $25.00 to $140 for the deductable I hit the roof and was screaming at the lady over the phone, the customers in the store just stopped and listened. I told her that I would be contacting the Better Business Bureau, I got a new phone through T-Mobile for $20.00 and told them that if I saw Asurion charges on my phone I would call an attorney, why should I pay that much money to replace my phone when it was only $20.00 to begin with? Needless to say their 20-customers in the store walked out without that insurance LOL! T-Mobile never said a word to me about any deductible, I never got a thing in the mail and they never told me anything about going online to check out the insurance, they just signed me up for it said it was automatic to protect my phone, this was in Covington, WA. That’s $119.00 I am out of now because of this scam they pull. You are completely right it is just a scam. I am letting everybody know about it too!
Comment by JoDee — September 25, 2008 @ 3:24 am
Same here with Verizon and Asurion. No wonder no one like’s insurance agents and I am one!!!!
Comment by Jeanie Hayes — October 12, 2008 @ 10:35 pm
I have never had such poor customer service as I had from Assurion. They charged me 85.00 deductible for a 199.00 new phone and sent me a reconditioned phone. When I told them that I do not want a phone that been used before as Metro has so many nefarious characters on their system that I did not want ap prior used ESN number they just laughed at me and said it is in the contract to get a refurbished or new phone at their option. So I paid the monthly fee and had to pay the hugh deductible for them to send me someone else’s phone.
Do as I am doing, purchase a new one and do a pro se small claims court suit against them. As they are a corporation they will have to have an attorney represent them and charge them the hourly fee and they will lose so much money on these claims that they will have to strighten their act out.
I am now meeting with a class action firm to see if we can get class action status on my claim.
good luck
Comment by doc — October 26, 2008 @ 6:54 pm
I have being trying to settle a claim with asurion from October 23rd one person said thay did not recieve my fax but after talking supervisor within 5mins she said the photo ID was to dark, i went ahead and faxed another ID i then called back another worker said she can’t tell me anything before 3hrs.I then called back on October 30th thay are saying i need to fax my info again.Can someone help me.
Comment by Anthony — October 31, 2008 @ 3:30 am
THIS IS THE WORST OF INSURANCE SCAMS EVER THEY R RUDE AND INCOMPETENT THEY DONT LIVE UP TO THIER STANDARDS.EVEN THE SUPERVISORS ARE RUDE. DO THEY NOT KNOW THEY ARE REPLACABLE? THEY COST ME $28.00 IN FAXES. IAM CANCELLING MY INSURANCE AFTER ALL THIS BULL BY THE TIME YOUR DONE FAXING YOU COULD BUY A NEW PHONE. WHAT SCAM ARTISTS. THEY SHOULD BE REPORTED TO THE BETTER BUSSINESS BUREAU. MAYBE ILL DO THAT TODAY.
Comment by DONNA — November 19, 2008 @ 6:01 pm
Ok I feel you so much they did the same thing to me. i had to get a replacement phone cause my phone had water damge i didnt mind paying the 50 dollars then cause it was my fault but then the phone they sent me was in worse condition than the phone that had water damage but the battery was doing the same thing the other mans was its crazy i would rather have my other phone back.
Comment by Andrea — November 20, 2008 @ 3:17 pm
I just had a horrible experience with Asurion. Customer service stinks and they would not let me speak with a manager. I would like to be part of the class action lawsuit.
Comment by Dennis — November 22, 2008 @ 2:13 pm
I agree with the others who have had a phone insured under
Asurion and found out that excuses and non-service is all you
get. We have six phones, three of which we have had the
Asurion insurance. The $50 fee per phone, plus the monthly
charge is more than you would spend when buying new phone each
time they crash. We received a phone from Asurion, $50 charge
and it was bad when received. Long story short, we had a
hastle with them on the phone and ended up cancelling the
insurance. Bad Deal with this company.
Comment by Harvey Brewer — December 18, 2008 @ 2:10 am
I have experienced the same problems with Asurion. The representatives are extremely rude and consistently blame the carrier’s policies. I have a Motorola razor 9vm which has had contstant problems, I am on my third phone now. The last two dropped calls instantly, the second dropped calls when placing the call. Now the phone will not stay charged. I have spent hours on the phone with tech support and Asurion. In additon, Asurion transferred me back to teach support after speaking with them 1 minute earlier. They are a horrible company in all respects. I am trying to avoid speaking with them, I do not seem to have any choice. A letter to the the CEO’s of the carrier and Asurion may make a slight difference.
Comment by J C Raynor — February 11, 2009 @ 3:38 pm
I to have a lot of trouble with Assuron. After a few years of paying I lost my phone and called for a replacement. First the company was giving me a hard time about calling the police to report it as lost and sending them a police report. After I told them that I ant doing that the the police cant find my phone at the bottom of the bay. Then they hit me with a $50.00 copay witch I was unaware I had to pay I guess I should have read that contract. Thats my falt. ( I called my phone and told them if they dont give me a credit I’m going eleseware. They did.) A day or two latter a used and broken phone came. Then another used one came I asked them why they keep sending used and different modle phone. I called again ant told them I want the same phone. No good it was like talking to driftwood. Well about 11 months latter I droped the phone in the drink again called and guess what they told me that I could only use the insurence once a year. It gets better then they tell me to hit the road and cancle my insurece. Assuron Sucks and read the contract frist
Comment by Chris — February 13, 2009 @ 11:57 am
ASURION SUCKS, I HOPE THEY GET SHUT DOWN, LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
Comment by j.c — June 9, 2009 @ 6:58 pm
I purchased my 2 yr upgrade verizon LG phone and 10 days
later it fell and was stepped on by a horse. The phone worked
but the screen was blank. I was told to call Asurion and was
charged the $50 for replacement (didn’t know that!. They
didn’t have my phone because it was too new and THEY ONLY
REPLACE PHONES WITH USED, REFURBISHED PHONES !!!! They
couldn’t find my 911 address in their system to send UPS to
(but I receive packages all the time), then they looked
somewhere else, found it, and I received a phone. I didn’t
like it as much, no book, no car charger as promised, no return
envelope for old phone, and a Sprint return instruction sheet
(so it didn’t recognize my phone # when I called the Asurion’s
number on the sheet. I called customer service and they
couldn’t find my order that indicated a car charger. I talked
To a supervisor who found that and said it was on b/o. She
then called me & left message she couldn’t find my 911 address
to call her, but did not leave a number. The call came from
615-111-1111, which is a non-working number. All in all
I’m disgusted with the replacement service and the quality of
the company. and still no car charger.
Comment by Connie Howard — June 16, 2009 @ 1:43 pm
Asurion carried the insurance on my BlackBerry. When the phone got wet for $50 deductible Asurion sent me a new phone which worked for 2 weeks. The port to charge and connect to the computer began to have issues by the second week. I called from the phone, however I needed to be on a landline for service. I don’t have a landline except in the office which I am rarely in the office or same city. Today less than a month of having this BB I talked with Asurion. Since this seems to be a port issue, they voided the insurance policy. Mechanical issues void the policy, if I ran over the phone for another $50 they would have replaced it. The logic that this was the phone they sent me seemed to escape them. Save your money to purchase a new phone if you destroy your phone. Between the $50 deductible and the monthly fee I could have paid for the new BB I just had to buy to replace the replacement.
Comment by Iris — June 29, 2009 @ 3:10 pm
Purchased a Palm Pre from Sprint, was NOT sold the insurance, but it was added to my account without me being aware, which I though was my lucky day because I placed the phone on the dashboard as I left the store, turning out of the parking lot and onto the highway, the phone slid accross the dashboard, out the window and onto the highway, you should have seen my face, I could not believe it! I picked it up in pieces, ran back to the store and they told me not to worry, I had assurion, yeah right, assurion declined the claim because I did not log any airtime minutes, I only had the phone for about 45 seconds! I have not chance to make a call!!! what a lame excuse to deny a claim, I did check their terms of service and it is stated that time must be logged, don’t know what my next step will be, this happened yesterday. Mad at sprint for selling me something without my knowledge and then when when I tried using the service they use this lamest of excuses to avoid holding up their end of the bargain.
Comment by R.G. — July 9, 2009 @ 2:54 am
I recently broke the LCD on my LG Voyager which has since been discontinued. I logged onto Asurion’s website, http://www.phoneclaim.com and started my claim, at the end of which the website stated that the phone was not available and that I would have to call Asurion and I thought here we go. But quite the contrary. When I called they advised me that the phone was discontinued and that I would have to accept the newer model LG enV Touch when they receive them back in stock. Not a big deal since my phone still worked just not the front screen. As for the complaining about the $50 copay. I have known about that copay for years ever since I first started using the insurance so I would say to be your own advocate and ask some questions. If you think it is too good to be true then it probably is, so ask some follow ups and they will tell you.
Comment by Dan — July 13, 2009 @ 4:22 pm
I am very unsatisfied with Assurion as well, I would write my s story but its way to o long
story but it way too long. Help me out, who the is federal
agency that take cares of scamming companies like Assurion?
WE should start complaining with the government about these
lieges blood suckers…
Please, give me a number or website to complaint about them?
Comment by Antonio — July 18, 2009 @ 12:41 am
Yeah, that’s really bad, But working for that company is just as bad. They try to kill you.
Comment by d. j. — July 29, 2009 @ 2:23 am
With a 16 year old son, believe me I have filed numerous claims wtih Asurion and have had very pleasant experiences with them everytime I call. The people in Customer Service couldn’t ahve been nnicer.
Comment by Anne — August 11, 2009 @ 7:03 pm
Assurion is a scam. Paid every month; needed the insurance;
they charged for a for a refurbished phone which stopped taking
a charges within a couple of weeks and they wanted me to buy
another refurbished phone from them! They are in the business of selling broken refurbished phones that they getr to temporarily work – just long enough
to stick it to you. Time to go iphone.
Comment by jessie scott — August 11, 2009 @ 9:59 pm
i had a bad experience with asurion much like the others several years ago, but in the last year my wife left her 2 month old Glyde in the rain and asurion sent a brand new one the next day. this weekend her bag and phone got wet on the beach, and the glyde was acting up again. next day they have a glyde sent to us. this time it looks fine, but im sure is a refurb. hope it works but otherwise the seem to be much better than in years past. im glad i have the service on her account otherwise id be out $$$ for 2 new phones
Comment by danny — August 19, 2009 @ 6:54 pm
I’ve used them three times and they’ve always been fast and reliable. I’ve never had a problem with them, ever.
Comment by Jake — September 1, 2009 @ 1:27 am
I agree with Dan. Just because you’re too lazy to do the work doesn’t put them in the wrong. If you go to their website everything is in black and white. You guys should take a little more responsibility for yourselves.
Comment by Jake — September 1, 2009 @ 1:29 am
I filed a claim last week for my LG Dare that got wet and had a replacement LG Dare the very next day. Everyone I talked to said they could hear echoeing so I called Aurion and they tried to trouble shoot it… when that didn’t work, they offered to send me a brand new LG Dare or I could get a brand new LG EnV touch. I’m such a conspiracy theorist, I didn’t have time to research the EnV touch and thought they were scamming me into a crappier phone so I stuck w/the Dare and then after doing research realized they were trying to help and get me a better phone. Oh well. Point of the story is I am happy with them so far. I spoke with 2 different cust svc reps and used the online claims and all were great. Reps were very friendly and helpful and I have a 3 year old that was screaming in the background the whole time.
Comment by Melissa — September 9, 2009 @ 12:32 pm
I am having all the problems that I read above, I called
Asurion last week, do to my phone not work properly, with
the insurance that I have been paying for over a year with
my phone company, why pay insurance if it goes for nothing.
Asurion said they would replace my phone, with a $85.00
charge, why would I pay anything, I am supposedly paying
insurance every month for this purpose.
After paying this $85.00 charge and getting my new phone what a joke this phone
is nothing as they said it would be, the phone is already
having problems with charging and the features.
This company is a joke, they are rude to every customer that
call, and oh look no manager to talk to, when your having
an issue. I am contacting the BBB, and my lawyer.
Comment by amber — September 16, 2009 @ 5:54 pm
I have had Verizon for 7 years and I have know from the start
that there was a fee to replace a phone. I have used them 3
times and have had very good, quick results. One time they
didn’t even charge me the fee. I found their customer service
reps to be very friendly and helpful.
Comment by Dennis — September 21, 2009 @ 5:45 pm
I have cell telephone service through AT&T and decided to take their insurance on my son’s phone. The company that contracts to them is Asurion. Since my son’s phone had not been holding a charge well(12-24 hours/charge) over the last month I went to the local AT&T store and was given a card with no company name but a phone number to contact for insurance. My husband made the call, explained to the representative the problem and was told that the phone would be replaced, but the company did not have the same phone available (an LG Shine) and that we would be sent another model that might be a new or refurbished model. The model number was given, but I’m afraid that meant nothing to us since we were given no choice or time to research what we were being sent. My husband was then told that a $50.00 deductable would be charged to our phone bill.
We were given no chance to find out what model we were to receive, we had never clearly been informed about the deductible and were taken totally off guard by Asurion. I was listening as my husband spoke with the representative and was horrified by the expense and immediately searched for prices for a replacement battery. After I found the battery for $15.99, my husband immediately called Asurion back. This occurred within approximately five minutes after hanging up from the first call (definitely in less than ten minutes). He was told that he could not cancel and that the charge was nonrefundable.
I went on to call AT&T to complain about their service provider. The customer service representative from AT&T tried to assist me, going so far as to contact the company and carry on a three way call, to no avail. The same stance was maintained. Although AT&T offered to credit my account the charge I feel that Asurion gave extremely poor customer service. When I complained to the AT&T customer service representative about the poor quality of the company that they use to service their accounts she started the process for me to lodge a complaint. She came back on the line saying that she had located a number for a complaint service with Asurion. She put me through to talk to that representative who very kindly condescended to make an allowance and credit the money back to my account after I returned “without activating” the phone I would receive.
I at that time expressed my dissatisfaction with their company policies and explained my intent to log complaints against them.
I feel that since their site advertises “next day” shipment (I checked the site after the contact) and my call came within ten minutes of the order they could have assisted me without putting me through so much. They absolutely refused to provide assistance until I threatened to file complaints and blog about their company. This takes advantage of all other customers who are rushed into an expensive decision with no recourse who are either not willing or unable to complain bitterly. People should not have to waste time and energy and become distraught due to questionable company policies.
I would like to see a change in the way customers are informed of what they are getting for the money they spend on insurance. They should be clearly informed that the phones they have insured will not necessarily be replaced with the same model, that the phone they receive may or may not be new, and that there is a $50.00 nonrefundable deductable. I also found out in the course of my conversations today that if some poor soul had two claims on this insurance within twelve months they would be dropped immediately. Asurion needs to make sure that all of their customers are clearly informed of these policies.
Comment by Donna — October 2, 2009 @ 6:59 pm
I am also having problems with this company.
They have sent me 2 phones that are in worse
condition than the one that I am having replaced.
Comment by Brandon — October 7, 2009 @ 1:17 pm
I am having problems getting my phone bill credited due to them saying the phone that I returned was not received. However it was sent out regular mail according to what was advised on the marked eeveleope. I would like to have this done as soon as possible.
thank you kara j. kick
Comment by KARA J. KICK — October 15, 2009 @ 4:20 pm
I bought a G1 Android phone from T-Mobile 6 months ago. It was
the first pricey phone that I’ve owned. So I went with the
insurance offered to me by the sales rep from T-Mobile. I did
not know that Asurion was the Insurer. I thought T-Mobile was
the Insurer. I wasn’t told any different. I just looked at my
service agreement and insurance charge, and nowhere does it
say that a third party (Asurion) is involved. No mention was
made of a co-pay or deductible. T-Mobile rep told me that if
my phone was lost or damaged, that it would be replaced if I
insurance. I lost my phone a couple of days ago, and found out
that Asurion is my Insurer. They charged me a $130 deductible
and sent me a used phone which is defective. Now they have to
send me another replacement. Like someone said, at $130 deduct
for a used phone, Asurion is making a profit on my losing my
phone–plus the replacement was missing the SD card. There is
something to be done in my case–and I’m going to do it:
T-Mobile is acting as an unlicensed Insurance Agent for Asurionn
If T-Mobile offered insurance as part of their warranty, they
would be legal. But, instead they’re acting as agents for a 3d
party (Asurion). In California you can’t sell insurance unless
you have a license. It’s against the law. I intend to file
against T-Mobile and Asurion with the State Commissioner of
Insurance and pursue other legal action.
Comment by Dale Jennings — November 8, 2009 @ 12:39 am
My experience with Asurion via Verizon mirrors others.
I really like my Palm Treo Smartphone and depend on it
for work. I paid $50 dollars twice to replace defective
phones that Asurion kept sending me. I was dropped for making
the maximum claims this past year. Present phone is
operational but plastic housing held together with masking
tape.
Comment by Lindsay Gow — January 31, 2010 @ 6:19 pm