I do not recommend getting your Iphone or the insurance through Best Buy!!

Janet

Naomi from SquareTrade here. As Jeremy and others have pointed out, unfortunately Applecare does not cover drops, spills or other accidents… nor can you get iPhone insurance from AT&T.

This is one of the reasons many iPhone owners and Mac enthusiasts look for alternatives to Applecare — with the iPhone, studies show nearly 80% of failures come from accidents.

As you weigh the options for iPhone insurance or an extended warranty, consider asking these questions to ensure you are getting the best value possible for your protection needs:

• Will it cover water damage, including FULL IMMERSION?
• Does the insurance/warranty have a deductible?
• What happens if they can’t fix your item?
• Does the provider have a rated insurance company backing up its protection plan?
• What is the provider’s track record – does it have a reliable history of excellent customer service? (Are you able to find any reviews for their insurance or warranty claim service?)
• Will the provider allow you to cancel for a full or prorated refund?

As Brian mentioned, SquareTrade is one option for you to consider and the only warranty provider with thousands of consistent 5 out of 5 star customer reviews. I’m of course a bit biased since I work there too, but I’d suggest you ask these same questions to compare SquareTrade for yourself.

You can get the full details here (including coverage details, price comparison, customer reviews, Gizmodo and other press, etc.): http://www.squaretrade.com/iphone Of course, if you have any questions, feel free to give us a call anytime at 877-WARRANTY.

Hope this helps – good luck with your decision & enjoy your new iPhone!

Regards, Naomi

Paid out: £100 insurance Recieved £1000 worth of upgrades

Nice

I am the President and CEO of iRepair Team LLC. We have been in business for almost 2 years now and service customers all across the nation.

We do not require that the iPhone be mailed in to us. We offer two plans. One covering water damage and the entire phone for failure. This plan covers everything but theft and loss.

The other plan covers glass and lcd breakage as well as battery failure for 1 year for only $35 for the 3g and $45 for the 3gs. Only a $10 deductible is required for the 3g and $20 for the 3gs. 5 claims made me made per year.

There is simply no comparison to our insurance plans.

Please see iRepairTeam.com/iphoneinsurance for more information or call 888-269-5658 for more information.

Accidents happen, you could buy your iphone and walk out the door to go somewhere else to get it insured and drop it in the parking lot, after that BBY can’t insure it and neither can anyone else. If you splurge $15 when you bu it it’ll be covered for the next 30 days and in that 30 days you can look for “cheaper” insurances, but at least it’ll be covered while you’re doing it. If you do happen to find a better insurance all you have to do is call 1800geeksquad and cancel it with no cancellation fees.

**No on-the-spot repair or replacement. Everything is shipped off and the average turnaround is 7-10 days. You do get a loaner phone, but not an iPhone. Your data is not ported over and when your phone returns some 10 days later all of your data is gone.

*Water damage does not include any manner of submersion. Only surface moisture.

*They also told me that while you don’t offer black-tie for iPhones bought outside of BBuy; you do offer repair services BUT they could not give me any specifics on turnaround time or pricing. You would need to send it off and “see what we can do”

*Most interesting to me was that they claimed that “the most advanced trained best buy employees” actually handle your repairs in a best buy facility if you have black tie. If you dont have black tie then it is repaired by apple techs.

Anyway, thanks for the information you have already provided. I would love for you to clear up some of this for me. I was told this by a BBuy and GeekSquad cat who were standing together in customer sercvice.

Thanks again.

Outrageous.

Interesting statistics (I presume you pulled these numbers from the same place I pull my estimates).

I know people still using the 1st phone which never gave them any problem, but our company has had 7 different phones for 4 lines of service within the first year. (All covered by warranty).

I wish there was a good source of info on warranty repair rates. The Fanboys over on the Apple Forums insist its no more than 2%. But watching the Geniuses at the Apple store for an hour will tell you its a steady stream all day long.

Maybe Best Buy will release some numbers (I seriously doubt it, I doubt Apple would let them).

Any polls on this subject are largely useless, because those who do not have problems do not surf the web looking for solutions.

Further, I suspect the vast majority of iPhone users are not tech geeks like folks here, they just go to Apple and get it replaced.

I do worry about the second year of my ATT contract with no Warranty coverage.

@BBYM Thanks for pointing out its a Protection Plan, and not insurance. Suggestion: (If you actually work for Best Buy) Suggest to corporate that they develop and sell a Upgrade Plan, where you will take the old phones in trade, and offer new phones with each new Apple Release for a monthly fee. If Apple stays with yearly releases and ATT stays with 2 year contracts, you have a pretty large market for this service, and you still can flood the third world with wiped used phones.

So you have to figure that Best Buy has to recover 300/350 in premiums to replace one phone, which means that if you pay this insurance for two years they can afford to replace your phone.

I expect most users make it thru two years without needing dropping the phone, so this is going to be very lucrative insurance for Best Buy.

Further, since theft/loss is not covered you have to toss out one of the biggest risk factors.

I agree with others, that putting the money into a good sturdy case is a far better investment. Especially if it covers the whole phone and hides it from the eyes of thieves.

But for those that have to show off the phone (coolness factor seriously eroded by the $99 price) this might be an option.

You’re right cause I got my wife an iPhone 3G for X-mas from Best Buy and was able to put insurance on the phone from them. This is nothing new. But if you didn’t know, now you do.