Allstate Protection Plans

There are a couple of different letdowns. Initially, they told me to contact Google because it was a Google pixel phone and get some kind of paperwork statement from them saying it's out of warranty. The phone is several years old. It's clearly out of warranty, but I went through that hassle. So, it was pretty time-consuming, even travel-wise. Ultimately, I gave them all the information of all the rejections that I got from trying to repair it and they said, "Okay. Well, then we'll write you a check." Everything else gave me absolutely no extra worker issues.

When I purchase my warranty, I have the option to come back within 30 days. I might have done that one time but usually, I confidently just purchase it as I'm getting the product because I don't trust myself to remember to come back in 30 days. It's very valuable because when it comes to electronics, especially nowadays, you never know what to expect, even if it's like a brand name like Apple and things wear out and the consumer doesn't know how long it's meant to last. So, I love that Allstate offered like two and even three-year protection plans because that's when things start to happen.

We also have an ice maker claim out right now with SquareTrade. The ice maker was not getting water, so it was not able to produce ice. The guy came out to repair it and SquareTrade sent some parts, but all the parts didn't arrive before he came. He apparently did not know what part was expected to have available to him, so he did not know that he should have also had an ice maker there ready to install. He only had one part when he should have had two to replace, so they have to come back out to do the ice maker. I don't know if there was just a disconnect on this one. Because when I talked to somebody else, they said, "Oh, no, we share all that information. He should have known what parts he should have had." So, my only suggestion would be to let the parts arrive, and then schedule. The parts simply got held up in FedEx. It doesn't happen often, but it happens.

I ended up having my phone in my pocket, getting gas, and it fell out of my pocket face down onto the blacktop by the gas station, and cracked my screen. It wasn't even a couple months old. It was a $335 repair. I just deposited a $250 check last week. 85 bucks is a fair deductible because it's an expensive phone but I got back 250. My 120 is paid for two times already and I still have coverage. That's the first thing that happened to my phone in years, because the last time I had something happen, I didn't have insurance then. If you don't need it, fine. But if you do need it, thank God you got it.

This claim was fairly easy to submit and figure out where to go. I submitted everything and then I ended up with an email back where it said I was approved and told me to go somewhere to get it fixed. I already got it done. So when I responded back and when it's already been fixed, there's a little bit of redundancy on the whole getting it done. But I had the check within the week. I already exceeded the purchase cost in money back in recovering a repair on my phone. But the Wireless Advocates is no longer in Costco, so we won't be able to buy phones at Costco anymore. Hence, I won't be able to buy the Allstate Plan. We just got phones in August and I had my last phone for four years, so I'm hoping to ride this one out for a little while, but I'm still bummed.

I called Allstate back and it was taken care of right then and there. So, this is the second time that we've had this happen. It wasn't explained to me till the second time. But it doesn't matter. The guy that I spoke to was a fellow gamer himself, and so he understood the frustration and disappointment when you start having issues and then you can't play. Then you gotta go to the store and call about the money, et cetera. So Allstate sent over an e-gift card.

The gentleman told me that if there was a difference in cost, and if we submit the receipt, Allstate will end up giving us the difference somehow. But I told him, “I think the difference is only a couple of bucks. And I don't really care for the convenience and all that stuff. You guys are already doing us a big enough favor.” Granted we're paying for the insurance, but in my opinion, it's a big enough convenience just to get the majority of it back.

Overall, the people at Allstate have been very patient and informative. But it would be nice if everyone across the board was trained the same way. If there is a drastic difference in cost, the people should know that the customer is being told that you do have the option to submit the receipt or however the process is to be able to get the money back.

I used to be a manager of a call center and I know it's important that everyone's on the same page so someone is not telling the customer something and then they call back and someone tells them something different, or they're not knowledgeable of the product. But other than that, I've always been extremely satisfied with the entire process at Allstate. Every rep that I've spoken to has been very nice and helpful.

I called Allstate and told them what was going on. They said, “You need to submit this and then you have to pay from your pocket and we'll get back to you.” And I paid from my pocket. I submitted everything. And that same day that I went there, they replaced my AirPods and took the other one back. I started submitting receipts from that point on. They kept saying that they couldn't read them. They couldn’t open them. I called back again. I waited for almost a week and the lady told me that they couldn't open it. I asked, ‘When were you guys gonna let me know?” And she said, “Somebody was supposed to reach.” I said nobody reached out to me.” I asked to what email do I send it to. She said, “The same email they sent you, the first one.”

I said, “Ma'am, can you send me an email so I can send attachments, send it to you, and see if you can open it up and see it before we hang up?” She said it would take 15 minutes and she couldn’t be on the line with me. So I said, “Fine. No problem.” She sent me the email. It took one second to get the email from her while I was talking to her on the phone. I resubmitted. At the same time, I asked her if she received it. She said, “I can’t look at that right now. It takes about 15 minutes.” I sent her four to six times that day. And later on, the person emailed me and says, “We can’t open it.” That was about it. So I said, “I submitted six different times. Can you open any of them?” I didn't get an answer again.

I waited about for five days, yet still, nobody answered me. After that, I called again and the lady said, “We can’t open it.” I said, “We have a problem because I have submitted it six different ways and nobody's called me and let know or emailed me.” And she said, “We can't open it.” I’m done. I got upset. Told her I needed to talk to a manager. They sent me to a supervisor. She was a very nice lady and I explained to her just like I explained it here. She went in there, opened it up and said, “You know what? I'm able to see one and I have no problem with it. I will submit your claim right now and send you a check within five to seven business days.” I said, “Okay. No problem.” Once we did that, she said, "Anything else I can help you?” I said, “No, that’s about it.” I got the check five days later after talking to her.