Forum Discussion
Can't get Tmobile and Assurant to agree on my coverage
I am desperate for help. I changed to tmobile about 2 ½ years ago because of years and years putting up with AT & T's horrible customer service and now it's like I'm reliving AT & T all over again. My daughter's phone stopped working on 2/26/22 On 3/1 we filed a claim with assurant. I have had insurance on the phone since we bought it 2 ½ years ago. It's only supposed to take 24 hours to get a response. Three days later I call Assurant and they can't tell me why there's no answer so they refile the claim. 24 hours later when I check the claim it says denied because I didn't have insurance on the date that it stopped working. I knew that was wrong. On March 6th I call Tmobile to ask about my insurance. They confirm I had coverage and don't know why Assurant is denying my claim. I call Assurant back and told them I just got off the phone with Tmobile and they say I had coverage on the day it stopped working. They say, "Sorry, TMobile said you didn't so there's nothing we can do about that." Long story short, yesterday I went back and forth from Tmobile to Assurant for over 3 hours total. Tmobile would tell me to tell Assurant one thing and then Assurant would tell me to tell Tmobile something. Mind you, everytime I'm going back and forth I'm talking to someone new EVERY SINGLE TIME which means I have to reexplain the entire story over again every time. None of the reps ever entered notes into the system so I was talking to someone that had no idea what I was talking about every time. I kept asking them why they can't talk to each other (Tmobile and Assurant). I felt like I was in middle school as the go between for two friends who were fighting. I'm sure there's some legal reason Tmobile and Assurant reps can't talk, but I spent literally three hours going back and forth from Assurant to Tmobile. TMobile: "I don't know why they are denying your claim. You've had insurance since you've had the phone." Assurant: "I just need you to find out this or find out that from Tmobile so we can refile the claim." I finally broke down in tears when I was transferred to someone new at Assurant at 11:30 last night and had to start all over. He refiled the claim and acted like everything was all good. He said he put special notes with my claim to clear up any confusion. Now I know he was probably lying because a crying woman was making him uncomfortable. Needless to to say my claim was denied again. Same reason. "Our records indicate that you didn't have coverage on the date of loss you provided, so we can't authorize your claim." Three hours of going back and forth. I don't think I've ever felt so helpless over something as simple as an insurance company covering a phone that has been covered since I got it all the way up to today. Does anyone have any advise? I'm so disappointed in TMobile. My daughter has been without a phone for 9 days now. 9 days I've been paying for service mind you. I got in touch with Verizon to find out about their service deals. I'm probably going to change over tomorrow if I can't get someone to help me. It just really aggravates me that I've been paying $18 a month for 2 ½ year for that phone to have insurance and now it looks like they are going to get away with all that money, which is a lot to me.
What's the first thing any rational person tries to do when their phone stops working? Find a backup phone temporarily and put your sim in it if you can, not go file an insurance claim. But what they don't tell you is that once you put that sim in a different phone, your coverage apparently is no longer tied to the damaged phone. When I added the 360 protection I make the logical assumption that I was covering the phone I purchased when I added the protection, not any phone I throw my sim card into. They need some kind of warning or to ask you if you want to move coverage to the new phone.
This ended up creating a whole mess where my claim was denied because I had swapped my phone to my backup phone for a bit and then back to my damaged phone when making my claim and then back to my backup after I completed my claim. My phone screen stopped working, but I could still connect it to a TV to operate it. After 5 hours of being ping ponged back and fourth between T-Mobile and Assurant and hung up on 25% of the time I realized T-Mobile would do squat for me. Only after posting my frustrations on twitter did I get "lucky" and get immediately routed to a floor manager at Assurant who was able to confirm that my account did have my phone active on it at the time I filed my claim and quickly overrode the denial and approved my claim.
They clearly make this difficult for a reason. That reason probably being that the more claims Assurant denies the more money they make. They know that there's enough people who will just give up and be swindled into upgrading a phone with T-Mobile. That's why t-mobile doesn't care either, because t-mobile also makes money when Assurant denies a claim. And even if they loose some customers, if they are making money off of Assurant's scam, they are happy. Just disgusting and sad. I can't wait to get rid of t-mobile.Hola,
I was reading you story about your experience with carrier insurance @pamhampton im sorry you are going through this. I have been in your shoes before and the process with carrier insurance can be awkful! I highly recommend buying your devices and getting insurance through Apple (if you are a apple user) They have the same offers as you would in any carrier store, they accept trade ins and most importantly their insurance is way better! It covers accidental damages, gives software and hardware troubleshooting support right inside their stores!! Its a less stressful process, CHEAPER and you get better support!! If your sons phone is a apple product, go visit the genius bar.. you're still under limited warranty and they do repair/replacements on the spot. Then, cancel carrier insurance and get AppleCare + ! But its not a apple product then im sorry..
great advice! thank you!
I'm actually going through the same thing right now and its frustrating. The claim was filed again. They told me my device was not covered when I'm still paying for the 360 protection on 2 devices! I think i will switch to Verizon too, since i moved from AT&T to T-MOBILE.
Kemanjay wrote:
I'm actually going through the same thing right now and its frustrating. The claim was filed again. They told me my device was not covered when I'm still paying for the 360 protection on 2 devices! I think i will switch to Verizon too, since i moved from AT&T to T-MOBILE.
It's going to be same the experience with Verizon, and their insurance provider is Asurion. You won't win with either carriers.
AprilSunflower wrote:
Hola,
I was reading you story about your experience with carrier insurance @pamhampton im sorry you are going through this. I have been in your shoes before and the process with carrier insurance can be awkful! I highly recommend buying your devices and getting insurance through Apple (if you are a apple user) They have the same offers as you would in any carrier store, they accept trade ins and most importantly their insurance is way better! It covers accidental damages, gives software and hardware troubleshooting support right inside their stores!! Its a less stressful process, CHEAPER and you get better support!! If your sons phone is a apple product, go visit the genius bar.. you're still under limited warranty and they do repair/replacements on the spot. Then, cancel carrier insurance and get AppleCare + ! But its not a apple product then im sorry..
Going to Apple is the only solution, because they are taking away repairs and replacements from Apple Authorized Service Providers. Don't go to Best Buy if you need a replacement, they took that away from them. And T-Mobile no longer offers in store repairs anymore, since Assurant laid off their repair technicians as of September 26th, 2022.
I'm hoping after a year this situation is resolved! My only hind sight advice, would be is to get manager on either side involved, and keep escalating the situation if not resolved to your satisfaction in 48-72 hours. FYI, if you do have Apple, you can pay monthly for Apple Care, instead of all at once. I don't know how that would work with an older phone though. Can't hurt to ask.
But the main reason I replied to you after a year later is I know your pain with AT&T! You could have been describing our situation. We had been with them for over 20 years, most of that time with husband being an employee! Just the past few years my husband hasn't been affiliated with AT&T, and they didn't even realize it! So this is how they treat their employees as well as customers. The last straw was that they wanted us to pay for 5 G, when it wasn't available where we live. Plus charging us for 5 G, that would entail charging for all sorts of features we didn't want. My phone was paid off, husband was close, so we paid his off and went to TMobile. It's only been a month, so hopefully it will go well. We went with the AppleCare, since we had a few months left on the old phone. They transferred it to the new.
Ask for a supervisor and tell them they need to do an in house claim or call assurant on your behalf to clear it up bcuz you clearly are covered and assurant isnt doing anything and will not continue being transferred around. If they refuse tell them you want to remove insurance and be credited bacj all the payments youve made for it as well as all the days you have been without service.
Both companies claim to be independent of each other yet its clearly a symbiotic relationship that Tmobile collects our money while Assurant replaces devices with subpar salvaged equipment with each claiming to be independant of each other using so called acceptance of terms and conditions to be in breach of contract providing coverage all while they benefit from our payments. Its time we were going to the ICC of each state and the FTC to have them investigated and get some consumer advocacy with this clearly criminal conduct on each companies conduct and real business arangements. They are truly despicable in conduct, support and honoring the entire device coverage and replacement program. Tmobile and Assurant are obviously in a mutually beneficial consolidated antitrust violation of current laws. We need to get a class suit against both and bring the light of day to this criminal enterprise. Simply put its a scam with both companies failing to honor the agreements with us while making billions in fraudulant coverage. Call your states attorney General and consumer regulating agencies and spare no details on their conduct, failure to provide service and breech of contract. Im doing it right now. They are criminally intent and defrauding us with every payment for so called protection.
CRAIG-T wrote:
Both companies claim to be independent of each other yet its clearly a symbiotic relationship that Tmobile collects our money while Assurant replaces devices with subpar salvaged equipment with each claiming to be independant of each other using so called acceptance of terms and conditions to be in breach of contract providing coverage all while they benefit from our payments. Its time we were going to the ICC of each state and the FTC to have them investigated and get some consumer advocacy with this clearly criminal conduct on each companies conduct and real business arangements. They are truly despicable in conduct, support and honoring the entire device coverage and replacement program. Tmobile and Assurant are obviously in a mutually beneficial consolidated antitrust violation of current laws. We need to get a class suit against both and bring the light of day to this criminal enterprise. Simply put its a scam with both companies failing to honor the agreements with us while making billions in fraudulant coverage. Call your states attorney General and consumer regulating agencies and spare no details on their conduct, failure to provide service and breech of contract. Im doing it right now. They are criminally intent and defrauding us with every payment for so called protection.
I don't believe that to be the issue at all. There is a difference between two companies participating in criminal conduct and having employees that are simply ignorant.
Majority of claims surely are honored per the agreements but as with any company, you will have human errors.
The problem in some of these cases I am sure is you will get a rep who doesnt know what they are doing and will note the account so when the next person pulls it up they go with the same erroneous information and continue denying coverage.
I worked in QA for Sprint for over 4 years prior to and during the merger and would often handle executive escalations. I have seen first hand when things like this occur. Although it may seem like said companies are violating their own agreement, it's often do to misinformation and employees providing an inaccurate resolution which unfortunately, is very widespread.
On the latter, you will even see cases of employees doing the complete opposite i.e. covering someone who actually didn't have coverage and is even committing fraud.
