Sprint/Best Buy Insurance discussion/questions

[falconey]

I have five lines with smartphones on each. I am considering no insurance. With the rate with Sprint insurance rising to $8, that is $40 a month for insurance. I could put that money in a savings account and have $480 a year for a replacement phone. With that much money, I could afford a lost phone each year. (Not even adjusting for the deductible.)

Self-insurance might be the answer if you don't destroy your phone very often. Also, remember that every phone has a one-year warranty from the manufacturer.

I hear you, but what if you hose two phones in a year. Then another one the next year. I hate the cost myself, but it gives peace of mind for such an expensive device.

 

[Sketchr]

I'm not big on insurance on phones. Past experience and extreme hassle with refurbs as replacements turned me off. Too many refurbs are crippled and the monthly expense for them is not worth it. I'd rather pay full retail than go through that again.

 

[BigMamma]

I have five lines with smartphones on each. I am considering no insurance. With the rate with Sprint insurance rising to $8, that is $40 a month for insurance. I could put that money in a savings account and have $480 a year for a replacement phone. With that much money, I could afford a lost phone each year. (Not even adjusting for the deductible.)

Self-insurance might be the answer if you don't destroy your phone very often. Also, remember that every phone has a one-year warranty from the manufacturer.

Yeah, but you have to pay to mail the phone back to the manufacture and the manufacturer doesn't cover EVERYTHING. And they could lose your phone and not return it to you. So you will have to buy a new phone. No telling how long it will take to fix a phone shipped off to HTC. No, thanks. The insurance is worth it in the long run. Who has time to not have a phone for over a month?

 

[drexappeal]

I would've said Sprint for sure, but I just got a notification in the mail yesterday saying that the Sprint TEP fee is increasing to $8.00 per month. If you couple that with some of the policy changes they've made regarding the TEP, Best Buy Insurance is sounding a little better to me with comparable coverage (w/ exception to lost or stolen phones). The only thing that isn't good is it's a separate bill that I'll have to keep track of.

Not sure which way to go now.

 

[bobby2478]

Has anyone looked into Squaretrade's Warranties? I've often though about getting one but never talked to anyone who had done so. I know for the longest time it was the only Warranty option for anyone with an iPhone.

I just had to go through a replacement with Best Buy. Let me tell ya; Having the "loaner" phone for 3-6 weeks while they repair your Smartphone is NOT an option you want to consider if you are a big Smartphone user. The loaner phone was a pathetic non-3G device that could barely text-message.

That's PRECISELY what I was worried about! I had a friend that had her Epic 4G crap out on her, and just like you she got this piece of junk loaner phone she was stuck with for several weeks while they tried to repair her phone.

At the end of the day though, she still somewhat got screwed. She paid $250 for the Epic 4G, when the Evo was only $199. When BB said they couldn't fix her phone, they gave her a gift card for full retail value on the Epic 4G. She went into BB and the new Nexus S 4G had a full retail price that was $50 more then the Epic, even though the contract price of the Nexus S 4G was only $199. So if she wanted the Nexus, she'd have to pay another $50, meaning she would have had to pay $300 for a $199 phone.

To top it off, the gift card didn't cover the sales tax either. I'm sure you could argue about it at the store if you had the time to spare, which she didn't unfortunately.

So in addition to just the loaner phone fiasco, sometimes it appears that the way they reimburse you to allow you to buy a new phone can be somewhat garbage too. Just cuz you paid $250 for your phone on contract, doesn't mean you'll be able to get any other device that also has a contract price of $250.

 

[bobby2478]

I have five lines with smartphones on each. I am considering no insurance. With the rate with Sprint insurance rising to $8, that is $40 a month for insurance. I could put that money in a savings account and have $480 a year for a replacement phone. With that much money, I could afford a lost phone each year. (Not even adjusting for the deductible.)

Self-insurance might be the answer if you don't destroy your phone very often. Also, remember that every phone has a one-year warranty from the manufacturer.

In your example, if you have multiple lines and you're paying that fee for each, then it might not make sense for insurance. If you'd be saving up $480 a year in savings anyway, that is close to what you'd need to pay for a new phone, provided of course you don't have bad luck damaging or losing phones.

Personally for me, I only have 1 line to worry about, so $8 x 12 is only $96/year. So for a single line it is a good deal, but if you're paying $8 each month on multiple lines, your approach for just saving the premiums would probably be the way to go (again, provided you're not one of the people who goes through 5 phones a year lol)

 

[ArmageddonX]

That's PRECISELY what I was worried about! I had a friend that had her Epic 4G crap out on her, and just like you she got this piece of junk loaner phone she was stuck with for several weeks while they tried to repair her phone.

At the end of the day though, she still somewhat got screwed. She paid $250 for the Epic 4G, when the Evo was only $199. When BB said they couldn't fix her phone, they gave her a gift card for full retail value on the Epic 4G. She went into BB and the new Nexus S 4G had a full retail price that was $50 more then the Epic, even though the contract price of the Nexus S 4G was only $199. So if she wanted the Nexus, she'd have to pay another $50, meaning she would have had to pay $300 for a $199 phone.

To top it off, the gift card didn't cover the sales tax either. I'm sure you could argue about it at the store if you had the time to spare, which she didn't unfortunately.

So in addition to just the loaner phone fiasco, sometimes it appears that the way they reimburse you to allow you to buy a new phone can be somewhat garbage too. Just cuz you paid $250 for your phone on contract, doesn't mean you'll be able to get any other device that also has a contract price of $250.

Yeah, the Best Buy Smartphone Warranties are renown for being bad. Visit the Best Buy customer service forums sometime if you don't believe me. When it's time for Best Buy to pay up on their part of the deal; they don't want to. I just had my Palm Pre "repaired" and the refurbished Palm they sent me back works worse than the one I sent in.

It took me a month to get them to agree to even repair my device. First they had a broken loaner phone, then they didn't have enough loaner phones, and finally they couldn't transfer my contacts to the POS loaner. I Emailed corporate back and forth for 3 weeks with no helpful responses other than "we're sorry". When I finally got my loaner it was a non-smart non-3G device. It barely had text messaging.

They lie to you to get you to pay for the warranty by promising things like "free in-store same-day replacement" or "you'll get a brand new device that is just as functional as the device you have the warranty on" and then when it's time for them to fulfill their obligations you have to make all the concessions in order to get your device "fixed". I say "fixed" (with quotes) because to top it off now my refurb is worse than the phone I sent to get repaired... It's just bad...

I was lucky enough to have been on the "rapid replacement" list which doesn't take as much time. However if you visit their warranty customer service forums and do a search for Smartphones it's not uncommon for people to be without their Smartphones for 3-6 weeks while they're being "repaired". While the owners are stuck using some antiquated phone straight out of the 90s.

 

[bobby2478]

Yeah, the Best Buy Smartphone Warranties are renown for being bad. Visit the Best Buy customer service forums sometime if you don't believe me. When it's time for Best Buy to pay up on their part of the deal; they don't want to. I just had my Palm Pre "repaired" and the refurbished Palm they sent me back works worse than the one I sent in.

It took me a month to get them to agree to even repair my device. First they had a broken loaner phone, then they didn't have enough loaner phones, and finally they couldn't transfer my contacts to the POS loaner. I Emailed corporate back and forth for 3 weeks with no helpful responses other than "we're sorry". When I finally got my loaner it was a non-smart non-3G device. It barely had text messaging.

They lie to you to get you to pay for the warranty by promising things like "free in-store same-day replacement" or "you'll get a brand new device that is just as functional as the device you have the warranty on" and then when it's time for them to fulfill their obligations you have to make all the concessions in order to get your device "fixed". I say "fixed" (with quotes) because to top it off now my refurb is worse than the phone I sent to get repaired... It's just bad...

I was lucky enough to have been on the "rapid replacement" list which doesn't take as much time. However if you visit their warranty customer service forums and do a search for Smartphones it's not uncommon for people to be without their Smartphones for 3-6 weeks while they're being "repaired". While the owners are stuck using some antiquated phone straight out of the 90s.

Yes, I agree 100%. I have a friend who had such bad luck with his iPod, it had problems so they took it and sent it in to be "repaired" for several weeks. He finally gets it back and something is STILL wrong with it. Due to the hassle the last time though, he is reluctant to want to go through that again. Eventually he does bring it in to get "repaired" again and once again it's sent out for multiple weeks to get fixed. They need to do this 3 or 4 times before they consider it a "Lemon" and exchange it for you.

Their Rapid Exchange list doesn't include many phones, I was surprised a phone as popular as the Epic 4G WASN'T on that list. Which means you have to deal with the whole piece of junk non-smartphone 3 yr old loaner phone for up to 3-6 weeks while they try to "fix" your old one.

Then just like you said, even if they can't fix it, they give you a gift card for the non-contract price of that phone. Look at the example below, the Epic 4G price is what the phone sold for as little as 4 months ago when my friend bought hers:

Nexus S 4G= $699 (off-contract), $150 on-contract
Epic 4G= $649 (off-contract), $250 on-contract

So she pays $250 for the Epic 4G. It gets messed up, BB can't fix it and gives her a gift card for $649 since she no longer has an upgrade and has to pay full price. She wants to get the Nexus S instead, since she paid $250 originally for the Epic 4G and the Nexus S 4G is only $150, she should in essense get $100 back right? NOPE. If she wanted the Nexus, she'd have to pay an EXTRA $50 since the Epic 4G only has a non-contract price of $649 (which is what BB gave her to buy a new phone) but the Nexus has a non-contract price of $699.

Which means if she wanted the Nexus, at the end of the day she'd have to pay $300 ($250 for Epic + $50 difference) for a phone that sells for $150. To top it all off, they still charged her sales tax on the $649, meaning even if she did an even swap she'd still have to pay out of pocket since they charged her sales tax.

I think I'll stick with the Sprint plan, less hassles if you have any problems, you get your phone basically overnight instead of 3-6 weeks, no loaners, and they also cover loss, theft and full water damage.

 

[unplugged1]

... since they charged her sales tax.

This is perhaps the best point you made. Best Buy supporters claim that Sprint insurance charges you $100 in deductible. They forget that (at least in most of California) you would need to pay nearly $65 in sales tax on that $699 phone.

Saving $35 to wait 3 - 6 weeks, not getting coverage for lost, stolen or water-logged phones, and dealing with Best Buy's push-back on coverage:

Not such a great deal.

 

[ArmageddonX]

Updated above.

 

[Thomas S]

I didn't get the insurance when i bought my phone but I did get the Otterbox case. I have 30 days to decide. Just wondering if you all thought it was worth it. I'm pretty careful with my stuff. And that $100 deductible...

 

[ProfeZZor X]

The funny thing about the insurance is that it's always needed when you least expect it.

Just two months before I got my 3DVO, I had my Touch Pro2 for close to 2 years. I figure I had it all that time with no problem, so why keep it. So I cancelled it. Literally one week later, the touch screen stopped working. Without any insurance, I was told that I had to pay $35 bucks. But the positive thing about that experience was that on that fateful day, I discovered the EVO 3D through the ramblings of a young teenage boy that was in the Sprint store with his mom trying to decide if he should wait two months for the EVO 3D, or to get that tablet phone. Completely uninformed on what the EVO 3D was, I asked him what it was all about, and he mentioned a few key points about it.

Needless to say, he ended up with the tablet phone, and I left the store with all sorts of possibilities of owning one of the world's first glasses-less 3D phones... But until then, I still had to pay for my busted @$$ Touch Pro2 .

 

[oOMavrikOo]

I did. $100 is better than $550.

 

[Kattle]

I didn't. I figured that if it broke 6 months from now, the price would be cheaper for the phone, and could probably get it a few hundred dollars less. If it breaks soon then I'm in trouble.

 

[Tyler Perez]

I've had sprint for over 10 years now... think i've had insurance since i got my evo4g the day it came out...

I had to get that phone replaced 4-5 times, from me being just an idiot and breaking it snowboarding... I've taken it back everytime, they just asked me what was wrong with it... I told them... "it's broke"... thats it... they say ok, give me a receipt and ask me to wait...

everytime, they have just decided to give me a newly refurbished phone... I live in California, LA, so our sprint stores are always slammed with people... i've had to wait up to a week for a replacement phone... and they don't ship it to your home, they ship it to the sprint store.

The $8/month is completely worth it.

 

[aznmode]

For BB it seems better to just break your phone beyond repair so they don't have to send it to get repaired. But ya even if you get a gift card you still pay tax. So that means...

$55 avg tax + extra $3/month vs sprint for 1 yr is $36

55+36=$91

You're not really saving that much plus the headache of waiting in line and lost, stolen, and full water damage not being covered.

So Sprint FTW

 

[roadsoup]

I have to say Sprint. I just got my 3vo 2 weeks ago. No case, no protection what so ever. Dropped it on the concrete and the whole screen shattered. That was Friday morning. I had a brand new phone delivered Saturday afternoon. Best part, they don't want you to ship the battery or charger, so as a total bonus, I now have two chargers and two batteries.

 

[atg284]

I had the Sprint insurance plan. I lost my HTC Mogul out of state and I got a replacement the next day with no problem.

It was a good experience which I wouldln't have guessed going into it.

 

[buttacus]

i just did my phone a month ago and it was 100.00 dollars. And yes sprints insurance is the way to go

 

[josh427]

Hi All! Long time browser, but my first time posting in this forum. I have a HTC EVO 3D purchased through Best Buy with the Black Tie Protection Plan. About a week ago, I fell against the corner of my bed and later noticed that the acrylic covering the lower camera lens had been cracked inwards. I don't think that it hurt the lens, however it is defiantly noticeable when taking 3D pictures (which I do occasionally). I'd like to know if any of you have any recent experience with a best buy's protection plan and getting a phone replaced/repaired. I know that sprint discontinued production and sales of the EVO 3D around April. I like my EVO 3D (though i'd love an EVO 4G LTE) and I'm not sure if since the phone is discontinued I would receive a refurbished EVO 3D (or if this is worth the risk. I've read several stories of people getting refurbished phones that had more problems than their "broken" phone did) or if I would receive some other phone. Thanks for any info you can provide!

 

[Nalej]

Never bought a phone from them but I have an old laptop I bought from there that had their black tie coverage and they would send it out and get it fixed with replacement parts. I'm assuming it'd be something similar. Though going a week without a cellphone is different than a week without your phone so it may very well be different.

 

[villanim]

I have never purchased a warranty from Best Buy, and could not tell you the last time I purchased one from Sprint, as I use third party warranty providers as they are cheaper and provide better coverage. SquareTrade for example is $125 for a 2 year warranty that covers everything except loss and theft ($50 deduction). If you need a loss and theft policy than Safeware is your choice as their 2 year warranty is $163 with no deductions. You can buy 1, 2 or 3 year plans.

 

[drexappeal]

Hi All! Long time browser, but my first time posting in this forum. I have a HTC EVO 3D purchased through Best Buy with the Black Tie Protection Plan. About a week ago, I fell against the corner of my bed and later noticed that the acrylic covering the lower camera lens had been cracked inwards. I don't think that it hurt the lens, however it is defiantly noticeable when taking 3D pictures (which I do occasionally). I'd like to know if any of you have any recent experience with a best buy's protection plan and getting a phone replaced/repaired. I know that sprint discontinued production and sales of the EVO 3D around April. I like my EVO 3D (though i'd love an EVO 4G LTE) and I'm not sure if since the phone is discontinued I would receive a refurbished EVO 3D (or if this is worth the risk. I've read several stories of people getting refurbished phones that had more problems than their "broken" phone did) or if I would receive some other phone. Thanks for any info you can provide!

I've heard several stories of people getting awesome replacements due to their phone being discontinued. More recently, two peeps got new EVO lte and s3 in their respective situations. No money needed, covered under best buy insurance, no upgrade necessary. Those were photon replacements, which is also a discontinued phone.

FYI, for those that weren't aware, best buy discontinued the buy back program.

 

[DragonSlayer95]

I've heard several stories of people getting awesome replacements due to their phone being discontinued. More recently, two peeps got new EVO lte and s3 in their respective situations. No money needed, covered under best buy insurance, no upgrade necessary. Those were photon replacements, which is also a discontinued phone.

FYI, for those that weren't aware, best buy discontinued the buy back program.

That would definitely be nice is the sprint insurance did the same for ones that bought through the sprint store, I need a replacement but they're only willing to fix me up with a design for shift :/

DS

 

[drexappeal]

That would definitely be nice is the sprint insurance did the same for ones that bought through the sprint store, I need a replacement but they're only willing to fix me up with a design for shift :/

DS

-EDIT- Nevermind...just realized what you were saying. Yeah, it would be nice if Sprint insurance did that. In the past, I've actually had awesome experiences with Sprint protection, but in more recent years (with all the changes), I've been scared that I'd run into similar issues...which is why I opted for Geek Squad protection this year.