Telus's Device Protection Plan: $7 a month rip-off

[Thorin]

My son bought himself a Samsung Galaxy S-III about 21 months ago.  The salesperson talked him into getting the Device Protection Plan (DPP) for a mere $7 a month, promising that it would cover any damages to the phone by fixing or replacing it for free (well, for free after the monthly payment).

So here we are today, the mini-USB port is loose and so the phone won't charge because the connection is wonky.  Great, go to Telus store, they say call the 1-866 number for eSecuritel.  Huh?  Oh, those are the people that handle fixing or replacing the phone for the DPP.

So we call eSecuritel, who apparently just took over the DPP contract with Telus last month (April 2014).  Great, here's our info, here's the problem.  What?  They're telling us we have to pay $150 to have the phone replaced?  So we have to pay $147 (21 months x $7) + $150 = $297 to have our phone replaced for free?  Are you @%&#ing nuts?

I had a lengthy conversation with a supervisor at eSecuritel, who at one point said that Telus was their client so I told him to charge the $150 to Telus, then he said that I was the phone user and thus needed to pay him, at which point I asked him why I wasn't informed that eSecuritel had taken on my contract for DPP seeing as how he was saying I had a contract with eSecuritel and you can't have a contract with an unknowing party, at which point he went back to saying that I was Telus's client.

My family was listening in and hearing my side of the conversation, and said the best line was when I asked, "So would you think it's a fair deal if you were told that if you paid this monthly charge you'd get something fixed, only to find out you have to pay another this much more?  Do you consider it fair to be paying for the privilege to pay more to get a phone fixed?"  At one point he lost track of what he was saying and agreed with me that it didn't seem like a fair deal.

I was not mad at the person in the call center "helping" me.  I certainly expressed my displeasure at the corporate treachery that Telus and eSecuritel had engaged in, and I explained that I would be telling all and sundry to avoid the Device Protection Plan offered by Telus and eSecuritel specifically, as they're clearly not an ethically-driven company.  Ha ha, they record those calls, that'll be a nice one to sit and listen to.  I must point out, at no time did I become rude or swear or anything, but I tell ya, I sure didn't make it a comfortable conversation for the man on the other end.

Anyway, my wife called up Telus (she was quite upset at this point).  She explained in no uncertain terms what a rip-off we considered this service, and that we'd been explained in the store that we would be able to replace a broken or damaged phone for free and that asking for another $150 clearly was not "replace for free".  She explained that we wanted nothing to do with DPP anymore, that we would not be using it as it's cheaper to buy a new phone than to use the DPP, and that she wanted the DPP payments refunded.  The kicker was when they asked her, "How long have you been with Telus?" . Her answer?  "Since 1998".  Seriously, continuously.

Anyway, the Telus rep had no problem refunding us the full DPP payments charged over the last 21 months ($147).  My son's happy, that's basically two free phone bills for him.  And he went to a local store called CPR (Cell Phone Repair) and they fixed the mini-USB port for $70.  Yes, $70.  Whereas the DPP would've cost him $297 for a refurbished phone, which I can buy new for $300 unlocked with no contract (through Koodo!).

[Tom]

Wow, that sounds worse than the plan I stupidly bought for my fridge. I didn't read the fine print till after. *sigh*

At any rate, I have a nexus 4, and the usb jack broke, it just wouldn't charge anymore via usb, now would data work. So I submitted a rma request with google play, and after going through the very short process they wanted (blowing in the connectors, etc), they put in a full RMA request no questions asked. They paid for shipping and cross shipped the new phone. In a few days I had a new phone, and was still able to use the old one while waiting. I don't think I have ever had such a positive experience with a device maker.

[Thorin]

How old was the Nexus, was it still under manufacturer warranty? This was out of manufacturer warranty...  Thus the attempt to go through the "insurance" plan.

At least it's been an eye-opening learning experience (and my son ended up getting $147 back and then only paying $70 to fix the phone, so it kinda worked out).  Only one extended warranty has ever been worth it for me - an extended warranty on a used Dodge minivan ($1970 for the warranty, we charged $7500+ in repairs in three years to it).

[Tom]

The internet seems to say theres a parts and labour "through no fault of your own" warranty for one year. It may have been more than a year when I sent it in...

nope, just checked my google play history, it was 10 months and 15 days. so just barely in warranty. still though. it was as smooth as could be.

[Lazybones]

Apple replaced my wife's iPhone  about a week or so ago free since they consider a single hair line crack and slight case warping under warranty apparently.


I have tried to get warranty support on phones with Telus in the past, sounds like it has only gotten worse.

Apple repair isn't always free but the level of support you get at the Apple store is excellent.

[Thorin]

Well, I have no idea what the manufacturer Samsung would've done. I'm sure it would've been decent. But we no longer were in the manufacturer's warranty period.

We've had decent results with Apple (dropped a phone in a toilet so totally our fault, replaced it for 229 instead of the 600 it still cost at the time).

But yeah, once you're out of the manufacturer's warranty, it's a @%&# show. I'm sure glad we have this CPR store in town where they repair phones no longer in warranty. They fixed a smashed screen for $90 on an iPhone 4 recently. Totally worth it, compared to $400 to buy a new phone (it was abuse damage, so wouldn't have been covered by Apple).

But AVOID ESECURITEL, they're a complete ripoff.

[Lazybones]

Ya your example is why I almost never get extended service plans accept on items super difficult to replace and where there is some track record of replacements actually happening.

The Apple extended care does cover abuse but with a $50 deductible.

[Tom]

I paid for a full three year, with accidental onsite warranty for my Thinkpad W530. It was expensive ($250?), but I got to use it once already, guy from some ibm partner came to my house, and replaced the keyboard on my laptop. Took like 5-10 minutes. So awesome.

[Thorin]

Well both of those are still by the manufacturer.  I did not know that Apple had an extended care that only charged a $50 deductible, although how much is the initial price?  Maybe, maybe, if the cost of the extended warranty is a one-time fee would I consider it.  But of the extended warranties I've bought, the only one that ever came close to paying itself off was the one on our used Dodge minivan.  Either the warranty cost too much compared to what was covered, or the warranty didn't lasts long enough to actually cover when problems happen.

And yes, I understand that the way insurance works is that as a group you pay more than what gets paid back to fix things.

But lets do a math exercise.  The phone costs $300 to replace with a new phone of the same model.  We're paying $7 per month, so 2.33 % of the price of the phone.  Then we're told we have to pay $150 deductible, so 50% of the price of the phone.  Lets compare that to a new car, a cheap one for $20,000.  That would make the monthly insurance payments $466.66 plus having a $10,000 deductible.  To me, and to most people, that doesn't seem anywhere near reasonable.

I guess one difference is that car insurance is mandatory (although only to cover damages you might do to others, insurance to replace your own vehicle if it's broken is entirely your choice).

Hey Tom, if my son had finished paying the three years of $7 per month, he'd have paid $252 for "insurance" on his phone, and then would've paid another $150 to get his phone fixed / replaced.  So more than for your laptop.

...

I just finished looking up AppleCare+ for iPhones, and it doesn't sound too bad.  $99 extends the warranty from one year to two, plus you can get a replacement phone for $79 if you drop it or get it wet (Accidental Damage due to Handling - ADH), up to two times.  Of course, it was only $90 to get the screen fixed at the Cell Phone Repair shop here in town, so if we dropped it twice and broke the screen twice, we'd have paid $180 to fix the phone as opposed to $99+$79+$79=$257 via AppleCare.  The fact that AppleCare+ still covers "liquid contact" might make it worthwhile, though...

[Tom]

I thought it was more than worth it to pay the $250+ on my laptop to extend the warranty by two years, and add accidental, onsite coverage. It bumped up the cost of my laptop to about $2000 before I replaced the hdd and upgraded the ram.... But yeah. so worth it.

[Tom]

We all need this:

[Melbosa]

Speaking of Extended Warranties... my wife and I purchased Sears extended warranty on our Dishwasher only because they recently (in the last two years) have implemented a new spin on theirs.  If you don't use the extended warranty at all in the term you pay for you get the cost back in a Sears Gift Card.  But if you even use $1 of the extended warranty you don't get the gift card.  Now most parts on my dishwasher would be $100 plus and the labour is included in the extended warranty so for the $250 we paid we thought it would be a good deal in the end, used or not.

[Mr. Analog]

Sears has one of the best policies for tools. They will replace most tools without a second thought.

And that's why I buy tools at Sears

Not that I buy a lot of tools, but still.

[Thorin]

Melbosa, that is an awesome extended warranty!  Basically, $250 for the first fix or money back if there's no fixes needed.  This is similar to getting a Costco card these days, where they give you 2% of whatever you purchase back at the end of the year, and if that rebate isn't as much as you paid for the card, well, then they give you what you paid for the card.

And yeah, Tom, I agree with you that a $250 one-time fee for tripling the warranty period and having them come out to you is not a bad deal.  I wouldn't even necessarily feel ripped off if nothing went wrong in three years - the amount compared to the service offered and the length of the term seems relatively fair.  Whereas my son's experience with the Device Protection Plan was obviously not a fair deal.

[Lazybones]

I just finished looking up AppleCare+ for iPhones, and it doesn't sound too bad.  $99 extends the warranty from one year to two, plus you can get a replacement phone for $79 if you drop it or get it wet (Accidental Damage due to Handling - ADH), up to two times.  Of course, it was only $90 to get the screen fixed at the Cell Phone Repair shop here in town, so if we dropped it twice and broke the screen twice, we'd have paid $180 to fix the phone as opposed to $99+$79+$79=$257 via AppleCare.  The fact that AppleCare+ still covers "liquid contact" might make it worthwhile, though...

The major difference with Apple Care is that it is a warranty replacement, IE you get FREE fixes for non-accidental items (which is apparently fairly robust including single line cracks in some cases) during that extra year and you get a fresh Apple refurbished unit if there is water damage or more than a screen damaged, the parts are all genuine as well. Selling even a 2 year old iPhone tends to not be very hard if it is in great condition making it a good return on investment.