Story Time: The Garbage World Of Phone Insurance

I don't know, maybe I'm just making a big deal about nothing. I'm sure you've experienced some sort of an issue at one time or another with a mobile phone.

Maybe you dropped it and cracked the screen or worse where something inside can't be repaired. Or possibly you dropped it in water. Recently, a friend of mine dropped a mobile phone accidentally in the toilet. Ouch.

I guess there's a trick of placing it in a bowl of rice to dry it out so the phone will work again. Never had that experience, so I don't know if it works. Well, I have destroyed a phone or two due to my negligence, and that's on me. The first time, it was cheap to replace and the second time I had insurance, but it still cost me 150 dollars for a new phone.

13 months ago, my wife and I decided to switch carriers on her phone. For reasons I can't even come up with, the phone is in my name and we never changed it over to her name. At the time of purchase (through monthly payments), we were asked if we wanted insurance, which we declined. My thought is why would I drop more cash per month on a phone since her last phone lasted 7 years, and was nowhere as good as the new phone.

Fast forward to last week. My wife takes very good care of her phone. Never been dropped, gotten wet, or abused in any way. But one month after the 12-month warranty expired, so did the phone. No warning, no previous issues, just died.

Took it to a local phone repair shop, they did their best to bring it back to life but declared it unrepairable. Went back to the carrier, and the option was to pay off the dead phone to the tune of 600 dollars and get a new phone with a new payment plan.  But of course, the sales tax on the phone needed to be paid upfront.

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There were phones of all kinds on the walls and counters, but our choice was limited to just two types of mobile phone manufacturers, one of which we have no desire to ever own. My wife and I felt like we were in that Monty Python episode with the cheese shop where it was revealed that the shop was out of cheese. Even the phone we purchased just 13 months ago no longer existed in that model.

Then came the question of insurance. Can we wait until the 12-month warranty is almost up? Nope. How much is it? 15 dollars per month. If we keep the insurance until the phone is paid off, we will have paid out 540 dollars. I've heard that mobile phones aren't lasting as long as they used to. Not sure if it's true, but since it happened to us in just 13 months, we added the insurance. Is there a deductible? Oh, yea, anywhere from 35 to 150 dollars depending on the issue.

Am I upset? Yes. Having to replace a phone due to operator misuse is one thing, but to have one that was well taken care of, with no indication of issues, just shutting down in the course of a year is not right. Especially when they cost so much. Oh well, you live and learn and make sure to have insurance.