mobile phone insurance

Mrsff has a Sony Ericsson W580i handset on T-Mobile. When she signed up to the contract the salesperson in the T-Mobile shop persuaded her to take out insurance for her handset, at £7 per month, to cover herself for every eventuality. For a while now the speaker on her 'Walkman' phone has not been working which has made the phone less practical. This week the buttons on the keypad cracked rendering the phone almost useless. She contacted T-Mobile who said that she would need to contact the insurer. The insurer have offered to repair the phone if she posts it to them at her own expense. It could take 10 working days to assess and repair.

I personally know of two other cases of this model of phone having exactly the same problems of broken keys. A quick search of the internet throws up many more examples of exactly the same thing. The Sony Ericsson W850i seems to have a design flaw, or a manufacturing fault, that causes the keys to break. My advice would be to avoid this handset.

T-Mobile's mobile phone insurance sold when you take out a contract will leave you without a handset should you need to claim for a repair. Mrsff has paid at least £91 in insurance premiums for her handset so far and faces having to purchase a replacement handset while her defective one is repaired. I'd like to say "I told her not to pay for insurance" (I did) but that won't help her at this point. If you are about to sign a contract for a new mobile phone with T-Mobile don't bother with the insurance policy as it is not worth having.

T-Mobile have not only lost a customer as when her contract finishes she will not be staying with them but also I won't use them and neither will the juniorffs thanks to their fantastic customer service. Well done T-Mobile. Cunts.