Archive for April, 2009
Mobile Phone Insurance and Your Warranty
Phone insurance is definitely a wise thing to get.
We would say that - we're a little bit biased that way.
But think about the reality of not having it for a minute. One thing that is often thrown at us is that they are protected by the manufacturer's warranty.
Now, in every half civilized country - ok, we'll rephrase that... In most western countries, when you purchase anything from a retailer by statutory laws it must come with a manufacturer's warranty.
What's one of them?
It basically means that if the item 'goes wrong' ie stops doing what it is supposed to be doing, without having had any negative external influence - ie not dropped, kicked etc - then the manufacturer is responsible for either fixing it or getting you a new one.
By statutory laws you are covered in this way for the first 12 months after purchase.
The thing is that you are exposed in 2 ways:
1. After the first 12 months, you are on your own, out in the desert...
2. Within those 12 months, don't expect using the manufacturer's warranty to be at all pleasant or easy or quick.
The reality is - and this is circumstantial evidence from many, many stories from customers who have tried it - that is is quite an arduous long process that you have to fight for.
Often it can mean being without your mobile phone for quite some days while they work out if there is a problem and whether it is their problem. If your phone has scratch marks or drop marks - even if they were on the phone weeks or months before it started to go wrong, if the manufacturer puts the fault down to being connected with those knock marks, they get off scott free - and you have to pay for the replacement.
If you are insured, you wont have to pay those expensive replacement costs - so long as you have accidental damage cover - which our mobile phone insurance does 
Come back to the first point above - after 12 months the warranty no longer applies. If you have phone insurance then you are covered (if you are with us). Now to be clear, with us, you need to sign up to the mobile phone insurance within the 6 months from purchase, but so long as you have continuous cover after then, you are protected after your manufacturer's warranty has long expired.
Just another reason you need to get protected with mobile phone insurance
Mobile Phone Insurance and Water Damage
Everyone drinks every day - whether it is alcoholic or purely refreshment.
Everyone needs to use the toilet every day.
Most people - at least in the UK - use a washing machine to wash their clothes.
And these 3 liquid environments account for the biggest part of ALL mobile phone water damage.
In fact, over 1.2 MILLION phones are killed by water damage every year.
So every day, every phone user is at risk from water damage.
One of our management team only this last week killed his phone by inadvertently dropping it in his kid's bath without realising.
And it was dead, dead, dead within minutes.
And yes, he did claim through his mobile phone insurance - and had a new mobile phone within 48 hours.
The reality is, water or some form of liquid is all around us every day, everywhere we go. Tea, coffee, water, beer, wine, the sea, the bath, the pool, a puddle...
The list is almost endless.
And ALL could kill your mobile phone.
This is why water damage is actually a far bigger killer of phones than most people realise. With most (other) mobile phone insurance policies, water damage is not covered, so when those customers who are not covered for water damage drop their phone down the loo, some of them will claim their phone was "stolen" in order to use their insurance to get a new phone.
This is insurance fraud, completely illegal but it does happen. It is a known crime particularly with the Metropolitan Police. And this is why the phone theft crime figures are higher than they really should be - and why phone water damage figures are lower than they should be.
So the only sensible thing to do is make sure you have water damage cover within your mobile phone insurance
