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Lose the IPhone and no mercy from Apple or AT&T; this is wrong!.

I'm pretty sure the OP is frustrated that AT&T doesn't offer insurance for his iPhone bundled in with his service. I pay an extra $7 for insurance on my BlackBerry through sprint. It's through a 3rd party but they tack the monthly premium on to my monthly Sprint bill.

I see why the OP is angry, I lost my 3G last year and had to buy a $500 replacement the next day. I don't blame anyone else for losing my iPhone, but it sure would have been convenient for them to have offered the insurance on the iPhone when I signed my contract. I've had insurance on every mobile phone i've had over the last 12 or so years except the iPhone.
 
AMessy said:
I'm pretty sure the OP is frustrated that AT&T doesn't offer insurance for his iPhone bundled in with his service. I pay an extra $7 for insurance on my BlackBerry through sprint. It's through a 3rd party but they tack the monthly premium on to my monthly Sprint bill.

I see why the OP is angry, I lost my 3G last year and had to buy a $500 replacement the next day. I don't blame anyone else for losing my iPhone, but it sure would have been convenient for them to have offered the insurance on the iPhone when I signed my contract. I've had insurance on every mobile phone i've had over the last 12 or so years except the iPhone.
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There are other places to get insurance for the iPhone.
 
If you think insuring iPhones is a good business, then mortgage you house, borrow your parents life savings, and start an iPhone insurance company. Charge people $x per month, and then buy them new phones when they lose/break them. If it's a good business you'll be rich. If it's not you'll go bankrupt.

If you don't think insuring iPhones is a good business, then blame yourself, not some company for not offering you a deal that you wouldn't do yourself.
 
anjinhamarota said:
There are other places to get insurance for the iPhone.
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I agree, but there is a convienence factor by having the premiums added to your monthly wireless bill as well as being able to make claims are your local wireless provider.

It's probably impossible to get a difinative answer why they chose not to offer this option with the iPhone though i'm sure it has to do with dollars and cents. In the end I guess it must not be that big of deal, I knew what my options were for replacing a lost iPhone when i got my first one and it didn't stop me, nor does it seem to stop many other people...they are selling like hot cakes.
 
AMessy said:
It's probably impossible to get a difinative answer
Click to expand...


No, there is a definitive answer: the risks and incidence of fraud are too high, and Asurion doesn't want to carry that risk. Other companies will, but you have to pay their premiums.
 
Let me ask you this if you loose your car, will ford replace it for you for free? that is if they still made those POS Pintos that you drive.:eek:
 
Let me ask you this if you loose your car, will ford replace it for you for free? that is if they still made those POS Pintos that you drive.
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Nope, and if it wasn't fully insured, you'd still have to make the car payments.

Any surprise that there's been no response from this "one post wonder" newbie? :cool:
 
could have also been A

Good old Troll not that we have ever had one visit us a Mac Rumors! :rolleyes:


troll-0.jpg
 
Ah the Apple Kool Aid in effect

To me these are Nasdaq traded companies but to kool aiders it's a lifestyle bordering religion. Doesn't anyone question the fact that a company based in innovation coulmt simply offer insurance? That'd be an expected innovation.

If MSFT or RIM did this and Apple offered the warranty we'd rave that insurance is what made apple so much better than those stodgy old
companies.

I hate that I have to freak out over my iPhone getting stolen. I was too scared to travel with it. The person who made the jewelry store analogy puhhhleeez. Phones are commonly insurable.

I think a company as client oriented and innovative as apple should
work with AT&T to insure these phones. Apple makes fine products but I could care less for a few of their practices. If Google and blackberry can get it done so can apple. If people stop being apologists and demand it
enough it may happen.

Meanwhile this thread gave me good ideas for 3rd party options.
 
It's not up to apple to insure them genious. It goes thru 3rd party insurance that deals with wireless providers.
I'm sure none of them are willing to insure such a hot and expensive item cause the insurance fraud cases would be off the meter.
 
braddick said:
To bad there isn't a Government bail-out program for lost iPhones. Of course, even if there was it would cost the U.S. taxpayer $1,500. for every iPhone that was replaced under it.
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Are you trying to give the White House some ideas?
 
I found a persons iPhone black 8Gig 3G once, it was left in a parking lot of a multi store mini mall, none of the stores knew what to do, and posting lost iPhone in the paper resulted in no calls.

The phone was locked, meaning I couldn't make any calls on it nor figure out with either Apple or AT&T's help who it belonged to.

Oh the good ole days when people engraved their expensive items for lost or stolen return info.

I still have it to this day and my son uses it as an unlocked for T-Mobile.

Had the owner Apple or AT&T been helpful in some way, perhaps it would be back in the hands of the person who owned it.

I paid for the mobile Me service from Apple and use it on all my iPhones, but then I like it mostly for collaborating data between many devices and last resort for locating my lost phone or disabling and wiping it with use of the service.
 
acfusion29 said:
Second of all, $500 is very reasonable. What's stopping you from 'pretending' that you lost/stole it, handing it off to a buddy, and getting the phone for cheap price again?

And don't tell me, "they can block the phone" because they can't.
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Err... yes they can. They can block the handset IMEI on a network level. Indeed, you can do this with any mobile phone - it's part of the international standard, and all the networks share their IMEI blocklists to stop stolen phones being taken abroad even with a new SIM in them.

O2 do this with lost iPhones which they insure - I know someone who's phone was replaced, but her original was found by the police. O2 had blocked the IMEI and effectively permanently disabled it.

Phazer
 
OP -

Can understand your frustration, fortunately I was told to avoid the Applecare program alltogether since it didn't protect against much more than what the one yr warranty offered

Future reference, I would purchase from best buy and opt for their protection plan, around $15 a month. Covers loss and accidental breakage. Only drawback, it takes a week to get a new phone but they do give you a loaner in the meantime
 
iAddiction said:
To me these are Nasdaq traded companies but to kool aiders it's a lifestyle bordering religion. Doesn't anyone question the fact that a company based in innovation coulmt simply offer insurance? That'd be an expected innovation.
Click to expand...

Ahh, the Welfare State Effect.

Apple is not a charity, they are a business. And they happen to be in the business of making media-centric electronics, not the insurance business. I would rather they continue to innovate in what they do best, and let the insurance companies sell insurance. Which they do. All you have to do is Google it.
 
Maybe if there weren't so many people trying to get over, then AT&T and/or Apple would glad replace lost phones for cheap or offer insurance. But that's not the case ....... We all reap what we sew.
 
The Phazer said:
Err... yes they can. They can block the handset IMEI on a network level. Indeed, you can do this with any mobile phone - it's part of the international standard, and all the networks share their IMEI blocklists to stop stolen phones being taken abroad even with a new SIM in them.

O2 do this with lost iPhones which they insure - I know someone who's phone was replaced, but her original was found by the police. O2 had blocked the IMEI and effectively permanently disabled it.

Phazer
Click to expand...

US carriers do not block IMEIs, whether at customer request, insurance company request, or based on blocklists from foreign carriers. They could implement such a system, but they have not and probably will not unless forced to legislatively. acfusion29 is right: the insurance companies have absolutely no protection from that kind of fraud.
 
Sprint does. If you report your phone stolen to sprint nobody will be able to activate in on sprints service.
 
I am sorry to hear about your phone. Having to pay $500 more does suck. If other companies can provide an insurance policy, than I think Apple or AT&T should provide an insurance policy as well (with certain limitations). If the iPhone is also such a great phone (I own 5 under a company plan for my company. FAN discount of 24% a month is awesome.), they should be able to see if it was really stolen or not...I mean...Mobile Me can track it right?...So I am sure they can easily track it, or at least shut it off. I would pay $500 for a replacement phone, knowing that my old one is permanently bricked.

Offer insurance for your customers like other phone services/phone companies. :) Oh noooo. People are gonna scam them if they offer insurance! They will hand the phone to a friend and get a new free phone!! Right..they do make money off insurance...and not everyone has a mindset of a scammer...I paid insurance for all my Verizon phones (before I switched)...and never benefited off it even once. :) By the way...to all the people that think the OP is asking for too much....you guys for the consumer? Or the manufacturer/retailer? Stop sucking their ****s. They are big companies....selling billions of phones all over the world...they can help out a few customers...or many. <3

OMG a non-Apple supporting post!! Flame away (It is only fair since I flamed a bunch of you. I won't be checking back on this thread so it won't matter) :D
 
How the **** do you lose a phone? My phone is one of my most prized possessions and is on me always.

There shouldn't need to be insurance for carelessness.
 
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