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Re: Device protection
smplyunprdctble Apr 11, 2018 10:47 AM (in response to yaquelynrodriguez)- Member Since: Jul 15, 2011
This is one of the reasons I despise phone insurance.
Because devices get discontinued, you're paying for protection they can't provide after a couple years. And, in most cases, the deductibles are the same price as a used device from a third party (not that I recommend used devices from a third party because they can get blocked).
Do math. T-Mobile's insurance is $10/mo. After 3 years, you've paid $360. If you had put this money in a separate account, that's a nice down payment on a new phone. Or, if you have the device for six months and the screen shatters, you've paid $60 + $175 deductible for a refurbished device when you could have saved $60 in a separate account and put in $40 of your own money (with the saved $60) to pay for a $100 screen replacement at a repair shop. (My bank lets me open as many differently-named savings accounts as I want [I don't know if it's unlimited -- but, I have at least 5, I believe]. I have automatic transfers in to them for things like "phone insurance / new phone fund" and "vet bills and excess pet purchases" and "I'm going to eventually want to do something with my back yard and those stumps" -- the last of which needs to be renamed to something else because I have officially done something).
I'm not saying insurance is a scam all the time. There are people who genuinely need it (loss / theft is the biggest reason, so it depends on where you live, but also "I dropped it in the toilet"). But, if you're using insurance as a "in case I drop it and break the screen", you're definitely going about it wrong.
As for is there anything you can do? Probably not. You can probably contact T-Force on Social Media to see if there's something they can help with (I agree that this is not right -- I mean, if you crash your vehicle, your auto insurance at least gives you some value towards a new-to-you vehicle... though, this may be what happened -- they offered a $325 discounted device and the $175 deductible, but that doesn't seem right somewhere).