Be very cautious if you are expecting complete warranty coverage of your electronic devices from squaretrade. I paid for coverage of my new Samsung Galaxy S5 and got ZERO coverage after filing a claim. Please read my full story below. It's a long read but I have to warn others about this dishonest company!I purchased a Samsung Galaxy S5 in June of 2014 through Verizon. I searched for an insurance plan that would replace a damaged phone with a new one, or reimburse me 100%A little background on how I ended up with squaretrade. I previously had another insurance carrier and when I had to utilize the warranty for a damaged phone, I was sent a "refurbished" phone. The replacement phone, never functioned 100%. That happened to me twice over the years. For whatever reason, there was always an unusual malfunction where the phone features never worked correctly. With the Samsung Galaxy S5 being a very expensive cell phone (at full price), I wanted an insurance plan that would replace or reimburse me in case it was damaged. I didn't want to deal with a refurbished phone again. After a lot of research, along with websites that suggested them, I decided on squaretrade. One feature that drew me to them--and this is also posted on their home page--is their claim that they will reimburse for the full value of the phone if it can't be repaired. I liked the fact that they claimed to have outstanding customer service. After looking and reading about several insurance carriers, I settled on squaretrade.
I signed up for the two year warranty coverage for $99 believing that if something catastrophic should happens, I would get a replacement phone. The specific coverage I purchased is what they term ADH ( Accidental Damage from Handling). This covers damage from drops and accidents etc, but not theft. I wasn't too concerned with theft coverage since I've never had a phone stolen. I emailed them a copy of the receipt and the purchase order from Verizon. I received an email which thanked me for providing the receipt and they provided my policy number. The email further said that they had the receipt on file and in case I had to file a claim, I wouldn't have to search for the receipt. This sounded like a genuine and trustworthy company.
As luck would have, in March of 2015, I dropped my phone and to add insult to injury, ran it over with my truck. I didn't notice it until backing up. As you can imagine, my heart sank because my phone (probably just like yours) is also a phone book, password storer etc. Most of my critical information is stored in that phone.
The phone sustained a cracked screen in several places and the screen was dark with no signs of life:(. It doesn't take a geeksquad technician to use their common sense and deduce that this phone is beyond repair. The phone was dead and none of the buttons worked to turn on or operate the phone.
I decided to file the claim online the next morning. I was somewhat comforted when filling out the claim form. They give you the option of reimbursement via PayPal within one day, or to a credit card, or a hard check which could take up to five days. The squaretrade site advises that once the warranty claim is submitted online, you usually receive a response within 30 minutes. That didn't happen in my case and in fact, I never received a response from them. I checked the status of the claim several times a day and figured I would be patient. The status was never updated. There was no response or contact from squaretrade.
On the second day after submitting the claim, I start looking a little deeper into the "status of claim" (or similar verbiage). The reason for the alleged delay is because they now need proof of purchase. As previously mentioned, they had acknowledged a few days after payment in 2014 that they had my received my receipt. This had me really suspicious and I started wondering if they were trying to find a reason to deny my claim? So I re-forwarded my Verizon receipt and purchase order that Verizon provided. Can you believe that even after both of these were sent, I still received no phone or email confirmation. Again, so much for near immediate responses from squaretrade!
My patience ran out after day three and still no change in the status of the claim or an email notification or phone call from squaretrade. So at this point, I'm wondering and really starting to doubt their claim about award winning customer service.
For me, my phone is my lifeline and livelihood. I am required to have a working cell phone or guess what? My family and I don't eat--simple as that! This is also my emergency contact for family too. So what would any reasonable person do? Go get another phone. I took my damaged phone to Verizon and they assured me that the phone was damaged beyond repair. The only option is to purchase a new phone at full price. Since it had been less than a year since it's purchase, I wasn't eligible for an upgrade or major discount.
Three days after submitting the initial claim, and a day after re-submitting proof of purchase, I contact square trade. Correction, they called me, but here's how they called me. I was unable to locate a number to call them directly. There is a link that you click to have a Rep call you. After clicking this link, the Rep then caIls you. I spoke to a female who was very pleasant. As others have mentioned, she sounded as though she was reading a scripted line. In the 10 minute phone call, I was put on hold a few times. She apologized about no one calling me back and provided no new information other than what was obviously already stated about the status of the claim. I expressed my disappointment with not receiving either an email or a phone call. In case anyone is wondering how I knew whether they ever tried to call, I logged into my Verizon account daily so that I could monitor if anyone had called. I also have my laptop and desktop computer and never received any emails from them during the time of the claim.
Getting no where with the conversation, and being indirectly denied a refund for the phone that I had purchased, the female Rep then transferred me to a hard-nosed male who did little to help me. He told me that squaretrade would not reimburse for the phone. He gave no specific reason why, even though I reminded him of their statement on the front page of their website to purchase a new phone if it couldn't be repaired, I must say that I stood my ground and demanded a refund but he didn't budge and said they would not reimburse me for the phone. It was his suggestion that they would refund the initial payment I had made for the warranty. Seeing that I wasn't making any progress or cooperation with his bully-type tactics, I accepted. Within an hour, I received an email stating "I" had cancelled the warranty--and get this--AT MY REQUEST! The email said the refund would be for $66. But where was the other $33 that I had paid when I initiated the warranty back in 2014. If I receive no warranty coverage, it's pretty obvious to me that I essentially had no coverage. They weren't even reasonable enough to refund the complete $99 and kept the $33 for the months that they had allegedly "covered me" for warranty coverage.
On April 9, 2015, I received a hard check refund in the mail for $63.
This was one of the worst experiences with a business ever! This was a total waste of time and money! Squaretrade is a scam and one of the most dishonest businesses I have ever dealt with. Red flag number one; There is no customer service number readily listed on their website. Most reputable companies will provide a number where they can be contacted. squaretrade does not! You have to really dig to find it. What they do offer is a link that you can request that they call you back but it's not designed for you to call them at your leisure. Secondly, after submitting the claim, there was ZERO response from them--even after the proof of purchase had been provided. I might reiterate that the proof of purchase had already been provided to them last year (2014) when I purchased the warranty. They even sent an email confirmation that they had received the receipt! Yes, I purchased the phone before I had "official authorization" from them. But let's be reasonable about this. No call or email from them in several days. No official response from them about the status of the claim. I heard nothing from a company that claims to offer excellent 24/7 award winning customer service. I think I waited a reasonable amount of time before buying a phone. And for safety sakes and maintaining my livelihood, I stand by my decision to purchase another phone. But the most telling of all of this is when the male squaretrade Rep quickly offered to refund my initial payment, apparently in an effort to wash their hands of any liability. And then, only a partial refund to boot. That's a slimy dishonest practice in itself!
My next complaint will be to the BBB. I feel that others need to know about the practices of this Company. They do not fulfill their misleading promises that's on the home page of their website. Stay far away from squaretrade. You won't get good coverage, customer service or get your phone replaced. You probably won't even get a return call or email after you file a claim. Many people have experienced the same dishonest practices. Find another business that is honest and honors their warranty.
SquareTrade, Inc. Reviews
Be very cautious if you are expecting complete warranty coverage of your electronic devices from squaretrade. I paid for coverage of my new Samsung Galaxy S5 and got ZERO coverage after filing a claim. Please read my full story below. It's a long read but I have to warn others about this dishonest company!I purchased a Samsung Galaxy S5 in June of 2014 through Verizon. I searched for an insurance plan that would replace a damaged phone with a new one, or reimburse me 100%A little background on how I ended up with squaretrade. I previously had another insurance carrier and when I had to utilize the warranty for a damaged phone, I was sent a "refurbished" phone. The replacement phone, never functioned 100%. That happened to me twice over the years. For whatever reason, there was always an unusual malfunction where the phone features never worked correctly. With the Samsung Galaxy S5 being a very expensive cell phone (at full price), I wanted an insurance plan that would replace or reimburse me in case it was damaged. I didn't want to deal with a refurbished phone again. After a lot of research, along with websites that suggested them, I decided on squaretrade. One feature that drew me to them--and this is also posted on their home page--is their claim that they will reimburse for the full value of the phone if it can't be repaired. I liked the fact that they claimed to have outstanding customer service. After looking and reading about several insurance carriers, I settled on squaretrade.
I signed up for the two year warranty coverage for $99 believing that if something catastrophic should happens, I would get a replacement phone. The specific coverage I purchased is what they term ADH ( Accidental Damage from Handling). This covers damage from drops and accidents etc, but not theft. I wasn't too concerned with theft coverage since I've never had a phone stolen. I emailed them a copy of the receipt and the purchase order from Verizon. I received an email which thanked me for providing the receipt and they provided my policy number. The email further said that they had the receipt on file and in case I had to file a claim, I wouldn't have to search for the receipt. This sounded like a genuine and trustworthy company.
As luck would have, in March of 2015, I dropped my phone and to add insult to injury, ran it over with my truck. I didn't notice it until backing up. As you can imagine, my heart sank because my phone (probably just like yours) is also a phone book, password storer etc. Most of my critical information is stored in that phone.
The phone sustained a cracked screen in several places and the screen was dark with no signs of life:(. It doesn't take a geeksquad technician to use their common sense and deduce that this phone is beyond repair. The phone was dead and none of the buttons worked to turn on or operate the phone.
I decided to file the claim online the next morning. I was somewhat comforted when filling out the claim form. They give you the option of reimbursement via PayPal within one day, or to a credit card, or a hard check which could take up to five days. The squaretrade site advises that once the warranty claim is submitted online, you usually receive a response within 30 minutes. That didn't happen in my case and in fact, I never received a response from them. I checked the status of the claim several times a day and figured I would be patient. The status was never updated. There was no response or contact from squaretrade.
On the second day after submitting the claim, I start looking a little deeper into the "status of claim" (or similar verbiage). The reason for the alleged delay is because they now need proof of purchase. As previously mentioned, they had acknowledged a few days after payment in 2014 that they had my received my receipt. This had me really suspicious and I started wondering if they were trying to find a reason to deny my claim? So I re-forwarded my Verizon receipt and purchase order that Verizon provided. Can you believe that even after both of these were sent, I still received no phone or email confirmation. Again, so much for near immediate responses from squaretrade!
My patience ran out after day three and still no change in the status of the claim or an email notification or phone call from squaretrade. So at this point, I'm wondering and really starting to doubt their claim about award winning customer service.
For me, my phone is my lifeline and livelihood. I am required to have a working cell phone or guess what? My family and I don't eat--simple as that! This is also my emergency contact for family too. So what would any reasonable person do? Go get another phone. I took my damaged phone to Verizon and they assured me that the phone was damaged beyond repair. The only option is to purchase a new phone at full price. Since it had been less than a year since it's purchase, I wasn't eligible for an upgrade or major discount.
Three days after submitting the initial claim, and a day after re-submitting proof of purchase, I contact square trade. Correction, they called me, but here's how they called me. I was unable to locate a number to call them directly. There is a link that you click to have a Rep call you. After clicking this link, the Rep then caIls you. I spoke to a female who was very pleasant. As others have mentioned, she sounded as though she was reading a scripted line. In the 10 minute phone call, I was put on hold a few times. She apologized about no one calling me back and provided no new information other than what was obviously already stated about the status of the claim. I expressed my disappointment with not receiving either an email or a phone call. In case anyone is wondering how I knew whether they ever tried to call, I logged into my Verizon account daily so that I could monitor if anyone had called. I also have my laptop and desktop computer and never received any emails from them during the time of the claim.
Getting no where with the conversation, and being indirectly denied a refund for the phone that I had purchased, the female Rep then transferred me to a hard-nosed male who did little to help me. He told me that squaretrade would not reimburse for the phone. He gave no specific reason why, even though I reminded him of their statement on the front page of their website to purchase a new phone if it couldn't be repaired, I must say that I stood my ground and demanded a refund but he didn't budge and said they would not reimburse me for the phone. It was his suggestion that they would refund the initial payment I had made for the warranty. Seeing that I wasn't making any progress or cooperation with his bully-type tactics, I accepted. Within an hour, I received an email stating "I" had cancelled the warranty--and get this--AT MY REQUEST! The email said the refund would be for $66. But where was the other $33 that I had paid when I initiated the warranty back in 2014. If I receive no warranty coverage, it's pretty obvious to me that I essentially had no coverage. They weren't even reasonable enough to refund the complete $99 and kept the $33 for the months that they had allegedly "covered me" for warranty coverage.
On April 9, 2015, I received a hard check refund in the mail for $63.
This was one of the worst experiences with a business ever! This was a total waste of time and money! Squaretrade is a scam and one of the most dishonest businesses I have ever dealt with. Red flag number one; There is no customer service number readily listed on their website. Most reputable companies will provide a number where they can be contacted. squaretrade does not! You have to really dig to find it. What they do offer is a link that you can request that they call you back but it's not designed for you to call them at your leisure. Secondly, after submitting the claim, there was ZERO response from them--even after the proof of purchase had been provided. I might reiterate that the proof of purchase had already been provided to them last year (2014) when I purchased the warranty. They even sent an email confirmation that they had received the receipt! Yes, I purchased the phone before I had "official authorization" from them. But let's be reasonable about this. No call or email from them in several days. No official response from them about the status of the claim. I heard nothing from a company that claims to offer excellent 24/7 award winning customer service. I think I waited a reasonable amount of time before buying a phone. And for safety sakes and maintaining my livelihood, I stand by my decision to purchase another phone. But the most telling of all of this is when the male squaretrade Rep quickly offered to refund my initial payment, apparently in an effort to wash their hands of any liability. And then, only a partial refund to boot. That's a slimy dishonest practice in itself!
My next complaint will be to the BBB. I feel that others need to know about the practices of this Company. They do not fulfill their misleading promises that's on the home page of their website. Stay far away from squaretrade. You won't get good coverage, customer service or get your phone replaced. You probably won't even get a return call or email after you file a claim. Many people have experienced the same dishonest practices. Find another business that is honest and honors their warranty.