• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Verizon insurance for the ReZound

Blackthanos

Well-Known Member
Oct 15, 2011
219
67
Hi guys, gotta question for ya. I bought the Verizon insurance when I got the ReZound 3 weeks ago. Well all in all the phone as been near perfect, but last night I had a mishap. I was carrying a ton of stuff in both hands including a glass of soda. I dropped one of the bags(x-mas presents) and without thinking I bent over to pick it up, the soda spilled out and some of it got on my phone. The second I saw this I dropped everything and ran to the bathroom to dry it off. After frantically patting the phone dry everything still looked normal at first but then slowly the screen started dimming and flickering and then it shut off. I removed the back and continued to dry it in case I missed something. I let it sit for a while and then hit the power button. To my surprise it came on and everything seemed to be working just fine. The problem is as time went on and I was putting the phone through it's paces it almost seemed like it had some some minor glitching. Nothing to make the phone unusable but just kind of odd things. Like I went to a website and clicked on a link and nothing happened. I clicked the link like 10 times and nothing. Went to another site and everything worked. Logged on the first site via my pc and the link worked fine so it was something with my phone. Also it could be my imagination but now it seems like the voice recognition app doesn't understand what I'm saying as well now. It would type the wrong thing occasionally before but now it seems to always get something wrong every sentence. So anyway, my question is this. Can I exchange my phone for another ReZound? If not what exactly does the insurance cover? What do you guys recommend? Thanks ahead of time for any advice.
 
Calling Features: Total Equipment Coverage – now with Mobile Recovery


Asurion Wireless Phone Protection Asurion, a third-party licensed insurance agency, offers insurance coverage for your wireless device and certain standard accessories. If you have Wireless Phone Protection and your device is lost, stolen or accidentally damaged (including liquid and physical damage), you may file your claim with the Asurion within 60 days of the incident and the device will be replaced upon claim approval. To make an insurance claim online or to obtain Asurion’s Wireless Phone Protection Brochure (including all terms and conditions), please visit Asurion's website or call Asurion at (888) 881-2622. Asurion Wireless Phone protection is part of Total Equipment Coverage and is also sold separately.
 
Upvote 0
Hmm, so it's standard practice for them to issue customers a refurb phone if they use their insurance and pay the deductible? If that's the case I may wait a while and see what happens with my phone. I mean the glitches are a little annoying but if I get a refurb I open myself up to a unit that might have heating issues or boot loops or whatever...sigh. I think I'll stay put for now. I have never been good at playing roulette.
 
Upvote 0
Here is why I said this. My wife just went through this process. Her Droid 2 has a problem that she just accepted until I got the rezound. Then after seeing that I could do obvious things she couldn't she asked me to help. I could not get her phone to work so we took it to Verizon. They said that this was a hardware problem and that the phone qualified for a replacement.

Now here is the great part. They will give her a refurbished Droid 2 for $100 deductible. Cost of a replacement Droid 2 on Amazon $22. Also she has been paying $6/month for the insurance which for the last 19 months totals $114. We listened politely and I privately told my wife to just upgrade, which Verizon will allow because of the problem for $30, to another phone. Total cost to my wife for insurance experience to get an obsolete phone replacement $244 . Cost of a new rezound $219 plus $20 equals $239. What a crock!

Now before someone jumps on me for my not mentioning the time factor or for my admittedly anti-establishment logic think of this: the insurance companies are not there to help you - they exist to make money from you. They know that on average most people never have a claim yet when you do you get minimal return for your insurance investment. They are betting on you not breaking your phone while you are betting against yourself. Unless you are one of those few who hose the insurance companies then you get hurt. The rest of us pay for the game players antics anyway.

So push the store manager for a new phone! You paid to insure your phone so that you would be made whole not to replace a broken phone with someone else's broken one that they say was fixed. How do you think

I know I could receive a huge number of responses disagreeing with me about this but let's just save the server some storage memory and agree to disagree.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RottnJP
Upvote 0
The second I saw this I dropped everything and ran to the bathroom to dry it off. After frantically patting the phone dry everything still looked normal at first but then slowly the screen started dimming and flickering and then it shut off. I removed the back and continued to dry it in case I missed something. I let it sit for a while and then hit the power button. To my surprise it came on and everything seemed to be working just fine.

I'm compelled to point out that the first and only thing you should do when you get electronics wet is to disconnect the power. DO NOT turn the screen on to see if it still works. DO rip the battery cover off and get the battery out ASAP.

Electronics can get wet all day as long as there is no power going to them. Once the water is completely removed and power is returned, theoretically it will be as if nothing happened.

However, by leaving the battery in, you are inducing short circuits and potential component damage, which is what the OP is experiencing. On top of that, the sugar content in the soda will be impossible to remove. It will always be in the phone, bridging two circuits that were never meant to cross.

-------------
Insurance: My method to insurance is to only have it when the phone is new and expensive to replace. With a 1 month old model, it would cost $500+ to replace it, and there isn't a supply of used ones available for cheap. Insurance will pay off.

When a phone is more than, say, 6 months old, people start moving to other models (how people have the money to do this, IDK). At that time you should check out the ones available on eBay (for example) to see the going price. If they are selling for <$200, you should ditch the insurance. The cost of maintaining the insurance and then the deductible would match or exceed the cost of you getting a phone yourself. Heck, you'd have the option to switch models all together. When a model is a year old, I don't see any value in keeping insurance at all.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RottnJP
Upvote 0
why should they give him a new one?

I have to say, the practice of giving refurb phones is straight up bullsh*t. Every time I've gotten a refurb phone it ALWAYS (and I mean EVERY TIME) had something wrong with it. Something that you couldn't put your finger on, or was intermittent that you couldn't prove. This insurance is NOT cheap if you add it up, and then the $100 deductible. Hello? When I pay collision insurance on my car, I don't get fixed up parts from the junkyard. Why should my phone be different?

The only way the insurance make sense is to only have it while the phones are so new there really aren't many refurbs available or the phones get old enough that you can get a replacement under $200.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dougriley
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones