Carriers and warranty/insurance policies

[RobNazarian]

I'm looking to write an article about how the carriers suck, but I only have experience with Verizon so I need help with information from the other carriers.

 

1) do they offer a one-year upgrade (Verizon took this away)

 

2) do they offer 1-year contracts (Verizon took this away)

 

3) Will they replace or fix your phone past the 1-year warranty from the manufacturer?

 

4) how much is the monthly insurance and what deductables

 

My issue is that carriers (or at least Verizon) force us into 2-year deals, but won't stand behind the devices for the entire time of the contract. They will only replace or fix up to 1 year. They want us to buy insurance to cover this, but insurance was originally intended to cover accidental damage like dropping your phone in the toilet. So they want us to flip the bill for an "extended warranty" even though they want us to sign for 2-years and and if we don't full fill the contract they will penalize us.If you have a broken phone that won't work (after 1 year) they tell you to go to hell. At least that's how Verizon handles it, and I am assuming other carriers are the same.

 

Also offering full retail (off contract) doesn't make sense because you are paying for the subsidy that everyone else gets, but still have to pay the same monthly fee. So someone buys a phone for $299 that retails for $650, they pay whatever per month and the $350 they saved would become a penalty if they break the contract. Seems fair enough. But the person who pays full retail basically pays the "penalty" upfront but doesn't get a break in the monthly fee, so they lose big time.

 

Lastly, I think the carriers need to figure out a way for people to upgrade faster if they continue to release phones at the rate they are releasing them. The DROID RAZR, then 3 months later a DROID RAZR MAXX. How about the Galaxy S II on AT&T, then the Skyrocket, and now the Skyrocket HD? This is all too insane. Maybe some kind of leasing program makes sense that lets users get a phone every 6 months?

[Psywar]

Sprint:

1) Sprint took this option away from the Premier Customers. We are only allowed to upgrade (with a discount) every 2 years.

2) Sprint does have 1 year contracts but the price of the phone is increased by 50 to 75 dollars.

3) As long as you have the protection plan yes they will.

4) $8.00 / month (I included a screenshot of my bill for you)

Last I heard if your Evo 4G died Asurion was replacing the phones with the Evo 3D now. (This could have just been a rumor though.)

Here is Asurion's website: Sprint's Replacement FAQ

 

[JoshODonnell]

Living in an Igloo (just kidding, I swear winter called in sick this year up here in the great white north) I can't give you any dirt on American carriers, but I know that almost all the Canadian carriers are just as big money-guzzling step-on-your-toes-even-when-you're-already-signing-your-first-born-over-to-them swindlers.

 

I however have had the best experience with Rogers. An ex of mine had issues with Telus and, I've had bad issues with Bell (HTC Touch should have been recalled tbh, worst phone I've ever seen ANYONE use). Rogers does have a fairly decent upgrade system, I was able to get my GS2 upgraded from my cracked-screen iPhone for about $150 after a year (it was retailing for $250 on a 3 year when I did this).

 

I must say though, as tempting as those 3rd party insurances are, they're nothing but hodge podge. They tell you to pay $120 and that's it! No questions asked, just come in and an over the counter (cue extraordinarily large and extraordinarily subtle and mischievous ear-to-ear smile) replacement is yours! Yet when you finally go in to take advantage of this lovely offer, you get slapped with a $100 fee. At which point they tell you it takes 10 business days and six weeks later you're in a commercial tug of war (though it did land me an iPhone4 from my 3GS).

 

Apologies for using the "i" word so many times =P

[RoyAlugbue]

Hey Rob,

 

I'm an AT&T customer and while I've easily been taken advantage of for as long as I can remember, I'm so used to it that I don't even both complaining about it anymore. Here's your follow-up from an AT&T customer's POV:

 

1) No, AT&T did not technically offer a 1-year upgrade although the closest thing to a 1-year upgrade was an "early upgrade" which you could take advantage of approximately 10-14 months into your contract, but now I believe customers are only able to take advantage of an "early upgrade" with a slight discount approximately 6-9 months before your contract ends. Even then it only applies to certain phones.

 

2) AT&T never offered one-year contracts. :-(

 

3) If you sign up for the protection plan or warranty for the phone, AT&T will replace or fix your phone.

 

4) This is a major hot button in my book. Insurance was $4.99/month up until October 2011. Now insurance is $6.99/month. Adding insult to injury, there's a $150 deductible AND you are only allowed to replace your phone with a refurbished phone... not a new one.

[Revmacd]

I have Sprint and can second the information Psywar provided. I recently needed that $8 a month insurance as I still had 270 days to go before I was due for upgrade pricing. The experience with Asurion was excellent. I reported the phone destroyed at 2pm on Thursday and had the new device in my hands at 11am on Friday. They sent it FedEx overnight. There was a $100 deductible. They replaced my Galaxy SII (Epic) with the exact same model.

 

I should point out that if you root the phone, neither Asurion or Sprint want anything to do with it. I thought that was a little strange considering the reason a lot of us use Android in the first place is due to the ability to customize the phones. I'm not copping to perpetrating a fraud of any kind here but it did occur to me that had the phone been rooted, I would only have had to report it lost by checking a box and never turn it on again, and that was all the evidence they needed to have a new one on my doorstep in a day.

 

So the expense and the fairness of it aside, the sort of shoot themselves in the foot by not honoring repairs to rooted phones. It would be cheaper for them in the long run, assuming most people will do exactly that. Report a rooted phone lost if it breaks down.