A couple of weeks back the microphone on my phone just simply died. I have Vodafone phoneInsure with my phone for just such a case. Or so I thought, seems I didn’t read the fine print though because I have been royally screwed by them thus far.

Firstly Vodafone phoneInsure isn’t anything to do with Vodafone. My phone died on Easter Friday so I went into a Vodafone retailer. They said they couldn’t do anything since Vodaphone phoneInsure were on holiday for the long weekend (and every weekend) and they can’t access anything on their network to lodge the claim. That’s just ridiculous!

Then I filled out the Vodafone phoneInsure form and faxed it off to them on Tuesday morning after Easter Monday. I then called them 3 hours after faxing it off to see if anything had happened with it. I hadn’t filled in the mobile phone number on the form because it was under the section saying “contact details”. My phone was poked so I left that off. Seems that section is actually used to figure out the account number or something. Why is crappy usability just about everywhere? Anyway they just left the form lying around rather than calling me on the business number that I had filled in to get the phone number they needed.

Anyway, I eventually got the claim number and my girlfriend dropped it into Digital Mobile (a Vodafone retailer) with the claim number. She had to fill in some other form and they took the phone. 4 days later I hadn’t heard anything so I went into Digital Mobile on the Saturday. They still had the phone there! Why hadn’t it been sent somewhere to get fixed I pondered. It seems that since there was a phoneInsure claim number they assumed that the phone was simply going to be replaced. It was just a broken microphone so I was sure that was going to be less than the excess of $125!

Digital Mobile also mentioned that I should have heard something from Vodafone phoneInsure within 48 hours of lodging the claim (which I hadn’t). So I called up Vodaphone to figure out what the process is supposed to be and it turns out they mail out the claim information, which I never got at work. What shabby customer service. At least they should call and check that it had been received. Email would have been faster as well.

On Monday I called up Vodaphone phoneInsure and they said that the claim had been denied because it wasn’t caused by impact or liquid damage. So basically I have been paying $7 a month and need to pay a $125 excess just incase I fall into the pool with my phone or smash it on the ground.

Just to make things worse, when I took it back to Digital Mobile to get repaired they said it was going to take 10 days to repair. 10 days later they called and said it wasn’t going to be covered by Nokia under warranty since it was purchased 13 months ago. Dammit! So now it is costing $108 dollars to repair (which was less than the excess anyway) and I still won’t get it for another 3 business days. By the time I get it back I will of not had a phone for over 3 weeks. What a pain in the arse.

Perhaps it would have been easier to buy a whole new phone!