Are O2 Insurance and Customer Service Pointless?

[Anonymous]

I spend a little over 200 quid a month with O2 and have insurance on my phone.  The touch screen stopped working, I was told that if I had dropped it O2 would cover it, but as it stopped working all by itself I could pay a little north of 230 quid to fix it.  Does that sound like a good deal?  I wouldn't bother with their insurance again.

[MI5]

Why not just drop it then.....?

[Anonymous]

Sounds like rubbish to me.

I would call back and speak to someone who knows what they are talking about

[Cleoriff]

 @Anonymous Is the phone still under warranty ? This could be the reason they wont pay if the manufacturer is liable for fixing it

[jonsie]

Which policy do you have?

[MI5]

But yes, it's complete and utter tosh.
It may be a warranty claim rather than insurance but either way you shouldn't have to pay.

[viridis]

It does seem that many of them moonlight as stand up comedians at evenings and forget which shift they are on.
I similarly got told the only way to get a faulty 1 day old phone replaced was to put in an insurance claim, which not only is me committing fraud if I did, but also is O2 hiding in a loophole regarding the new consumer laws.

[Anonymous]

I fully intend to just begrudge paying these clowns, nada for the last 18 months - only to be handed yet another bill.

[Anonymous]

Insurance is a first class scam. Yes, it may cover acidental damage like dropping your phone but for general failures you are covered by law :

If you bought the phone from 02 then you are covered as we all are :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sale_of_Goods_Act_1979

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_Rights_Act_2015

Main thing is how old the phone is. Essentially anything up to a year is pretty easy. The law OVERRIDES any warranties that conflict with the law.

So if they say 3 months, the law overrides that.

Remember also who the contract is with. If you paid 02 then the contract is with them, not the phone company. Don't let them palm you off with the old chestnut about 'contact the manufacturer'. It's complete and utter rubbish and part of the process of avoiding paying for things.

Tell them that they have to sort it themselves, and that they can then go back to the manufacturer themselves under their own purchase contract.

If you can, always buy in a shop - you can at least walk in, talk to someone and make a scene if necessary......

Anyway note the following relating to distance selling (buying on line) which is no incorporated in to the Consumer Rights Act

"if your goods are faulty and don’t do what they're supposed to, or don’t match the description given, you have the same consumer rights as you have when buying face to face.
Any terms and conditions that say you must cover the cost of returning an item wouldn’t apply where the goods being returned are faulty"

Regrettably far too few people know their rights and that is abused vigorously by companies. Read up, and get even 🙂

[Curr946]

I'm with @MI5. Its either a warranty repair or an insurance claim. Just remember it needs to be an accident when you drop it