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Contributor

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2 Messages

Sunday, May 10th, 2015 7:32 PM

AT&T not honoring price quote on AT&T insurance

Purchased IPhone6 October 29, 2014 with insurance from AT&T rep. (Have a receipt to prove phone and insurance purchase) Sales person stated we would receive the phone by mail to our address within 3 business days. We finally received the phone in late December 2014. We were told by the salesperson that our bill would go down if we changed from the unlimited plan we were on to a limited share plan. I kept waiting in good faith for the bill to go down. It just continued to go up every month.

In March of this year (2015) I began looking over the bills to see what could be wrong or why the bill was not less than before as promised. On April 6th I could not figure out why the bill was more than before and I also noticed that the insurance for the phone we purchased in October was not on our bill. I called AT&T to try and resolve the billing issue and the insurance issue.

AT&T stated that the billing was correct, there was nothing they could do on that. But that they did see that we purchased insurance on phone number [edited for privacy-please do not post personal or unique information such as but not limited to full names, employee ID numbers, email addresses, phone numbers, account numbers, etc.] back in October and that it is not on our bill currently. They said they didn't know why that happened but their mistake, so they will get it added back on right away. I said ok and conversation was ended.

On April 28th the phone fell out of pocket and the screen cracked. I was unsure of how to file a claim, since we have been with AT&T over 9 years and have not ever filed a claim, so I got on a chat online with AT&T to find out exactly how to go about it and what all was involved. The online agents were very nice. They looked up my account (3 phones & 1 tablet), told me how to file the claim, and sent me the claim forms via email. They also stated I asked them if there was going to be a deductible. Agent: "Yes.....It depends on the device you have". I let the agent know the device and number. Agent: "Gotcha! And since you never filed any insurance claim before rest assure that you will get a discount on the deductible Anthony. This discount is being discussed with our insurance team....." Agent:" I have now confirmed that you will be just paying $99 instead of $199." Agent:" Originally the IPhone6 deductible is $199 but since you never filed a claim you will get a discount and then you will just pay $99.

I filed the claim. They came back and said the claim was denied because the IME numbers didn't match with the phone I bought. They later called back and fixed that problem (again, their mistake) and told us to refile the claim. Which I did. They came back and said the claim was approved with a $199 deductible. I explained the chat with the agent online previously.

AT&T and insurance stated things like:
You would have had to of had the insurance for more than 7 months to file a claim. Explained we had only had that phone for 6 months, impossible to have insurance on a phone before we buy it. When we stated we were going to start recording the conversation, they changed the amount of time to 6 months. But then stated that we had only had the insurance since April 6th. I explained the issue with AT&T and how they added the insurance back on because of their mistake, but we purchased the insurance for that phone on October 29, which was 6 months ago.
Others stated we had to have the $9.99 a month instead of the $6.99 insurance to get the declining deductible discount. Which that is not true either. The ONLY difference between the 6.99 and the 9.99 insurance is that the 9.99 insurance offers the added technical help and AT&T Mobile Locate app. They both have the declining deductible discount.

AT&T stated that it was their fault the insurance disappeared from our account. But used it over and over again to tell us we had to pay a $199 deductible instead of the $99 deductible.

I asked insurance why would I pay a $199 deductible to get the screen fixed when I can take it down to the apple store and get it done same day for $120? They stated that if I took it somewhere else to get it repaired, it would void the insurance with them and we would no longer be able to get future repairs from them because of the outside repair on phone. So basically pay them $199 or else.

We have been long time loyal customers to AT&T. We were quoted a price from AT&T and AT&Ts; insurance and it was confirmed at $99 deductible. But it is not being honored.
We have spent hours upon hours on the phone to straighten this out. But AT&T always says to contact insurance to fix it, and insurance always refers us back to AT&T to fix the problem.

They have both stated that if we DID have insurance from October 29th until April 29th (when the claim was filed), 6 months....that the $99 declining deductible WOULD apply. But because of AT&Ts; mistake of not having the insurance on our account that entire six months, we do not qualify for the discount. (AT&Ts; FAULT!!!!)

ACE - Professor

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1.8K Messages

9 years ago

You ordered iPhone 6 at AT&T Corperate Store? You should have gotten everything down in writing, including the part about phone bill will go down when switching out from unlimited plan. As for insurance deductable, it's $199 dollars for iphone 6, I don't know about discount deductable. AT&T do not repair iPhones, you probaly will receive a refurbished phone from Assurion, ( phoneclaim.com ) if claim goes through.Smiley Surprised

Guru

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629 Messages

9 years ago

Hmmmm .... Awful situation all the way around I must say. I wonder... Have you tried asking ATT to send you the note/information they found showing you added insurance to your device when you purchased it in October? Even if you have, I would get in touch with ATT and ask that they either send you all information they have showing that you purchased insurace in October and then send it to the insurace company as proof of when the policy was purchased, or see if they could forward that info onto the insurace company themselves. Then the insurance company will have no excuse to deny you, or your discount because they'll have proof right in front of them that you have had insurace on the device for at least 6 months.

Professor

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3.2K Messages

9 years ago

Bad situation all around, but here is how Asurion looks at it. ATT collects the monthly premium and forwards it to Asurion. As far as Asurion is concerned, they have not received 6 months of premiums ($41.94) on your phone, so the declining deductible does not apply. Asurion is correct and on solid ground.

 

Should ATT step up; it'd be a nice gesture. But remember, they don't insure the phone, only collect the premium. I'd guess if in April they had said, "yeah, we'll put the insurance back on the phone as long as you pay the back premiums" you would not have been happy then either.

 

Finally, I pulled out the insurance brochure and took a look. The deductible goes from 199 to 149 at six months. It only goes to 99 after 12 months. I can scan it and send it to you if you'd like. No matter what any agent says, the contract is the final arbiter.

 

Edit: Here is the online brochure, effective August 2014. You can see that the declining deductible is $149 months 6 thru 12.

 

http://www.att.com/shopcms/media/att/2013/PDF/Mobile_Insurance_Brochure_English.pdf

Professor

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3.2K Messages

9 years ago


@lcalle wrote:
Hmmmm .... Awful situation all the way around I must say. I wonder... Have you tried asking ATT to send you the note/information they found showing you added insurance to your device when you purchased it in October? Even if you have, I would get in touch with ATT and ask that they either send you all information they have showing that you purchased insurace in October and then send it to the insurace company as proof of when the policy was purchased, or see if they could forward that info onto the insurace company themselves. Then the insurance company will have no excuse to deny you, or your discount because they'll have proof right in front of them that you have had insurace on the device for at least 6 months.

But the insurance WASN'T paid for 6 months. Doesn't matter when you purchase insurance. If you don't pay the premium, the insurance lapses. Again, it is clearly ATT fault, not the insurance company.

Teacher

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18 Messages

9 years ago

It is a very cute  story that on December when you  received the IPhone 6, you gave up the unlimited plan and  sometime April 6 , you notice there is no insurance  on the bill, ( after 4 months have lapsed) and requested the insurance to be placed,

 

It was good of the  AT&T rep to have allowed  the insurance coverage, I was told long ago that the insurance can only be placed on a device within 30 days of purchase and once added belatedly, there should be no claims on the next 60 days, (am not sure if this is still the rule)

 

Interestingly, on April 28, after your April 6 request, you filed a claim for damage...

and therein lies the problem : you filed a claim too early, try to file for a claim on June....

 

I am guessing that Asurion will not   process your claim even if AT&T intervenes in your behalf...

Contributor

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2 Messages

9 years ago

I have sent them proof of purchase of insurance. Both to att and insurance. They gave me a print out when I purchased the phone and insurance. Both are on the receipt.
Thank you for your kind reply.

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