Thoughts on Asurion

Steve Chan · November 8, 2023

Hi all!

We're currently exploring a partnership with the company Asurion.

They provide extended warranties and repair services for home electronics. For example, all of Samsung's mobile warranties are processed by Asurion. The campaign focus will probably be on their household electronics plans (as seen in the link above). This service is currently only available in the US, but if all goes well, we could see them expanding to other global markets too.

If anyone has had any positive or negative experiences with their services, or just any feedback/thoughts in general, please let us know!

Appreciate you all .

*Please note that our team does our own research and testing around vetting sponsor products and services. However, we've found that soliciting feedback from the community can sometimes add something new to the conversation that we weren't aware of*

Virixiss · November 24, 2023

Please do not.

I worked for Asurion both directly as a mobile repair technician doing warranty work, and as a repair tech for UBreakIFix, which I worked for during the Asurion buyout. Asurion calls their service warranty. It's not, it's very bad insurance. Repairs and replacements require deductibles, their service is full of weasel clauses to avoid paying out to their customers, and horrendous business practices are pushed on employees in order to sell the service to customers who do not want it. Some of the examples that steam my buns thinking back on the experience:

Scheduling customer appointments when they can clearly see that a needed part is not in inventory, then throwing techs under the bus when a customer is kicked back to them.
HEAVILY pushing their new "Home Plus" plan, to the point where employees had negative reflections on their reviews if they were unable to sell plans. We were actually encouraged to sell the plan without the customer's knowledge just to keep Asurion happy with the sign-up rates, doing shit like selling them a phone case, but actually signing them up for Home Plus instead, since the cost was the same to the customer at point-of-sale.
Send customers to our stores with devices that were going to be automatically rejected by Asurion, despite the customers telling Asurion that some kind of out-of-scope repair was needed. (Broken back glass on iPhones was a common reason to turn customers away, as an example.)
They sell their plans with the idea that almost everything electronic in your home is covered, but have a nasty reputation for rejecting almost everything that you can claim. Laptop need a replacement battery? That's normal wear-and-tear and is not covered. Smart thermostat fried due to a power surge? Sorry, that's a problem for your electric company to fix, and not covered under the plan.
I have watched 2 Asurion reps actually argue with each other about how their Home Plus service actually works, and almost every rep from their call center has a different idea of how the service works, which means your device may or may not be covered depending on who picks up the phone that day.
After quitting the company, I decided to open a small repair shop on my own with my personal tools and knowledge, only to get called by Asurion lawyers under an apparent non-compete clause that I could not find evidence for. But I couldn't afford a legal fight, so my business failed just after starting. (I include this to be transparent with you that I am not completely unbiased, but I did leave the company before deciding to try to start the business.)

Basically, Asurion purchased uBreakiFix as a front for their repair services. Instead of expanding their repair capabilities, they swiveled HARD into pushing for their warranty service and began ~~firing employees and closing stores~~ downsizing when sign-up quotas were not met. Their entire business model is to sell an "extended warranty" to as many people as possible, then weasel out of their responsibilities as often as possible to keep their pockets full.

This is not a company that LMG should associate with, in my opinion.

Hellreaver · November 24, 2023

On 11/8/2023 at 2:31 PM, Steve Chan said:

Hi all!

We're currently exploring a partnership with the company Asurion.

They provide extended warranties and repair services for home electronics. For example, all of Samsung's mobile warranties are processed by Asurion. The campaign focus will probably be on their household electronics plans (as seen in the link above). This service is currently only available in the US, but if all goes well, we could see them expanding to other global markets too.

If anyone has had any positive or negative experiences with their services, or just any feedback/thoughts in general, please let us know!

Appreciate you all .

*Please note that our team does our own research and testing around vetting sponsor products and services. However, we've found that soliciting feedback from the community can sometimes add something new to the conversation that we weren't aware of*

Please DON'T work with asurion. I am a PC/Phone tech, have worked for Louis Rossmann (as a receptionist, nothing fancy) and I worked for AT&T for a year. I also had Asurion coverage for 8+years.

I have heard > 100 complaints about pricing, hold times, customer service, incorrect charges etc. When I was working at AT&T if asurion charged someone $200-$1000 for the repair or non return deductible, Asurion would tell the customer that it was OUR charge! They refused to right their wrongs.

My personal experience is about as annoying as can be. I attempted to schedule THREE screen repairs on my note 9 and had to wait a week between each and the technician never showed up. The customer service representatives could not explain why the technician didn't show up, simply that he didn't. I ended up waiting 3 weeks for no repair.

After all that was over, they refused to send another tech and said they would replace my phone for free as a 'service to me'. Of course it's not a service as I had to spend hours transferring all my stuff.

Then, a week or so after I switched my stuff, I see a $400 charge from them! When I call, they say that they didn't get my returned phone and are charging me $400 for not returning it. At the time, the note 9 in 128gb was about $290 on ebay. It took > 10 hours of calls over TWO MONTHS to get them to reverse the charge. At that point they admitted that they DO have the device and have had it since 3 days after I shipped it.

To summarize, I paid $15/mo for 27 months ($405) and they wanted to charge me $400 for a phone that i DID return for a total of $805 for a screen repair.

PLEASE DON'T.

kirashi · November 25, 2023

On 11/24/2023 at 9:11 AM, Hellreaver said:

Then, a week or so after I switched my stuff, I see a $400 charge from them! When I call, they say that they didn't get my returned phone and are charging me $400 for not returning it. At the time, the note 9 in 128gb was about $290 on ebay. It took > 10 hours of calls over TWO MONTHS to get them to reverse the charge. At that point they admitted that they DO have the device and have had it since 3 days after I shipped it.

Wow. If a company is going to commit fraud, it's probably best to not be so obvious about it. (Charging a customer for an unreturned device despite having actually received it amounts to fraud in my eyes.) Based on your and @Virixiss recollections above, combined with everything I've read about Asurion on various subreddits, I agree that LMG should not take them on as a sponsor.

CA8OOS3 · November 27, 2023

My cell provider users them for damage claims.. I haven't had any bad dealings with them as a customer. My lady dealing with them involved my s21 ultra. The back shattered. Paid my $200 deductible and got upgraded to a s23 ultra bnib non refurbished. I would say I lucked out on that. They did try and sell me the whole home plan which I declined. Like I said as a customer I've had 0 issues...

QwertyChouskie · December 3, 2023

I got fired for trying to get them to fix their absolutely horrendous cybersecurity (such as "press F12 to view last 4 of SSN of any repair techin the nation pastor present employed", "change 1 number to give yourself complete system admin privlidges", ACE, etc). Stay far, far away.

@Steve Chan PM me for proof if interested, happy to help however possible (including call recordings).

Steve Chan · December 5, 2023

Hi everyone.

First of all, I would like to thank everyone for their valued input.

While in theory, the services Asurion were wanting to promote seemed to offer a good amount of value, its clear that there are some deeper issues at play here.

We have decided to pause working with Asurion for the time being, but are leaving the door open at the moment. Contact with them has been pretty steady, so we are going to give them a chance to address all the issues you guys have rightfully raised here, as well as work on their internal processes so these issues will not have to be raised again. Only once we hear back with a solid response and action plan from them will we begin exploring a partnership again. We are always open to hearing brands out over time, but right now, Asurion does not our standards in terms of a partnership.

If they do reach out to one of you regarding the issues you brought up, please do let me know via DM/PM. I would love to keep an eye on how things are going. Also, if there's a similar service to Asurion you have had a positive experience with, don't hesitate to let me know as well!

I'm going to lock this thread for now, but if a partnership opportunity with Asurion does arise again, please expect a similar thread on this board.

Thanks again; y'all the best!