back to article Ten unlikely iPhone insurance claims

In the past year, one in five iPhone users insured with Protect Your Bubble made a claim. What for? Since you ask... Top ten wacky claims 1. I dropped it from a hot air balloon 2. I lost it while sky diving 3. It broke when my son used it as a table tennis racket 4. I lost it while building a sand castle for the kids 5. I …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Lee Taylor

    Tom Dickson false insurance claim???

    >7. I dropped it in a food blender

    I'm sure there is youtube evidence this was not a geunine accident.......

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg1ckCkm8YI

  2. Jon Double Nice

    Is Jasper Carrot still alive?

    You might be able to rent these facts to him.

  3. Nigel Whitfield.

    Down the pan

    I once dropped my Nokia 8310 down a toilet in the Reichstag. A couple of days in the airing cupboard, and it was right as rain.

    1. Ted 3

      Not sure I would want to use it again

      I am glad to hear that you got your phone working again after dropping it in a public toilet.

      However, I am not sure that I would want to hold that phone close to my ear/face/mouth ever again!

      1. Nigel Whitfield.

        Fortunately...

        ... the toilet had been freshly flushed.

        Besides, anyone who's seen the photos on my Roomba and Navibot reviews here will know that a little bit of dirt has never scared me.

  4. Cameron Colley

    I remember a good one.

    We had a call from a secretary whose boss needed a replacement Blackberry because he dropped it in the canal while getting off a gondola in Venice.

    Then, about half an hour later, a call from his female colleague needing a new phone because she dropped hers in the canal while getting off a gondola in Venice.

    We ascertained that, yes, they were together in Venice -- but whether they were there for business or pleasure we don't know.

  5. Alan 6
    Jobs Horns

    7. I dropped it in a food blender

    So that's how the "Will it Blend" guy pays for the stuff he destroys.

    One of my dimmer colleagues "lost" his iPhone at V Fest a couple of years ago, he tried to claim that it was stolen, but someone managed to forward a You Tube video to the insurance company of him drop-kicking the phone into the crowd.

    Insurance companies become very suspicious of claims around the time of a new phone launch...

  6. Luben Solev
    Coat

    "I dropped it in a food blender"

    But does it blend?

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Or...

    Perhaps buy a product that does not succumb to so many varying faults? Just a thought.

    1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

      @zef

      Name one?

      I am not defending the iPhone here, but the state of consumer (or hell, even enterprise) electronics is truly appalling from a quality standpoint.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Badgers

      title

      "Perhaps buy a product that does not succumb to so many varying faults? Just a thought."

      Trevor_Pott is absolutely correct. I'm a fandroid (stolen from another article, cheers) and this is a fantastic opportunity to bash Apple/the iPhone, but it isn't really.

      You could look up any device's return reasons and get similar results. The "iPhone" in the title is there to lure you in. It worked. :-)

      Badgers, because I'm saving the troll for another article.

  8. Wize

    Lucky number seven

    "7. I dropped it in a food blender"

    Was that the boys from 'Will it Blend?"

  9. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Almost as much fun

    as the BOFH!!

  10. mmiied

    my favrote

    I accidentally buried it in the garden

    how do you do that?

  11. Bah Humbug

    The title is required

    One of the wacky ones reminds me of a night a few years ago. Had a company mobile, as I was always on-call, and went over to a mates house to smoke some possibly illegal substance.

    About 4 hours later, I get my stuff together to head home, looked for my mobile, and find my mates dog had been chewing on it all evening and it was now just in pieces. (Can you imagine how amusing we all found this - given what we had been doing for the last few hours??)

    Got some very odd looks from the telecoms dept. the next morning, when I took a bag of phone bits to them, and told them I needed a new phone, 'coz a dog ate my old one...issued a new one with no problems - as they put it, if I was lying, I'd at least use a convincing excuse!

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    what no graph of Claims over Time...

    Seem to recall stories about claims trippleing as soon as a new model appears.

  13. Tigra 07
    Welcome

    To the guy who lost his phone while building a sandcastle...

    Did anyone else get the image of a crab on the phone without affecting the signal?

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    7. I dropped it in a food blender

    To see if it would blend?

  15. GettinSadda
    FAIL

    Most common claims?

    3. Couldn't hear the other person when making a call

    7. Internet connection completely broken

    8. iPhone doesn't charge

    10. Screen freezes

    These all seem like warranty issues

    1. Alex C
      FAIL

      The reason they have apple care

      You've hit the nail on the head there.

      They are all warranty claims, and under the Sale of Goods and Services act certainly should be - as it's down to whether a reasonable person would expect the quality of the goods to survive the minimum term its sold for. This is something of a no-brainer to all bar the mobile companies who don't want to pay out.

      However Apple sells its phone with a 12 month warranty for 18-24 month contracts.

      Most claims made against insurance are after the phone has failed in some way that apple won't fix as it's after the warranty expired, leaving you in a several month contract black hole. Either claim on the insurance or pay apple their extended warranty

      The point, I suppose, it to trap you into a new contract. It's also why I won't be getting another iPhone.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Advert

    1) Shouldn't this be clearly marked as an advert? It's not exactly unbiased.

    2) "With that many ways an iPhone can get damaged, lost or stolen, insurance is probably a good idea" - this is very bad reasoning (as used by marketing weasels).

    What's the probability that an iphone is damaged/lost/stolen? What's the probability that the insurance weasels actually pay up? How much are they going to pay up - the actual replacement cost of the phone, or much less than that? How many hoops are they going to make me jump through to claim, and how much of my time is that going to take? How long am I going to be on hold on premium-rate* 0845 numbers, and how much is that going to cost?

    (* My definition of "premium rate" is "I pay more than for a call to a normal landline, and some of that money goes to the recipient of the call". I'm aware that the regulators use a different definition, and they don't consider 0845 to be "premium rate").

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Advert

      How does being in favour of gadget insurance = advert for insurance company?

      Articles are what we pay for. Adverts are what we get paid for. This is not a difficult distinction.

      1. Jolyon

        How?

        Two links to the company, the logo of the company and a suggestion that the sort of product the company provides is a "good idea" - it might not meet your criteria for an advert but if I was promoting something it'd meet mine.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: How?

          Your comment prompted me to take a closer look at the article.

          Blame enthusiasm for links and pictures rather than shilling. In this case - a simple list - the company logo and two links are overkill, I grant you that - and so we will update article to remove logo and one link.

          It's fairly standard fare for Reg Hardware stories to link to companies we write about and often to link to press releases. It is also standard fare for us to illustrate articles with product pics and company logos. Very occasionally, as is in this case, this tips the presentation to a point where some readers slap us.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    2. Stolen while texting

    What? Number 2 on the list? What are these people doing? They're presumably holding it?

    Pay attention!

    (Also applies to the numpty standing in the road talking on the 'phone the other day. The look on his face when the driver of the rather quiet car going past behind him leant on the horn was hilarious.)

    1. Cameron Colley

      Perhaps they were told to give it to someone on pain of pain?

      Or, due to antenna problems, they've decided to only hold it with two fingers?

  18. Clive Galway

    RE: RE: Advert

    "Articles are what we pay for. Adverts are what we get paid for. This is not a difficult distinction."

    So TheReg paid for this article? Or was it a no cash deal - article for ad?

    Anyways, not that I really care.

    I would be more curious as to which of these were paid out.

    For example, I would not consider losing it skydiving or in a baloon "Wacky". Dropping it from a thousand feet or twenty will probably have much the same result and is "Accidental Damage" in my book.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: RE: RE: Advert

      We pay our staff to write articles

    2. Russell Jones

      Skydiving claims have been paid

      Not sure which company my friend was insured with but he had an iPhone in his back pocket when he went skydiving and got a new phone courtesy of his insurance policy (- a £25 excess).

      The next day he remembered he had some location software running on it and thought he might be lucky and find it in the sofa or his car etc. Unfortunately the software showed the ride to altitude in glorious detail leading to a final fix at about 500ft above the ground but we never managed to find the phone. Not 100% sure what the terminal velocity of an iPhone is but i guess if it hit end / edge on it wouldn't leave much of a mark and would probably bury itself quite deep.

  19. Anonymous Bastard
    WTF?

    Does no one have a problem with...

    4. Leaving phone on the car roof so it falls off when driving

    I find this difficult to imagine how it would happen at all, let alone reach #4!

    Man talking on phone walks to car, with his other hand gets out key to open door.... nope.

    Man talking on phone and briefcase in other hand walks to car, needs to empty a hand to open the door, cannot be phone because that's in use so puts briefcase on the roof.... nope.

    Man walks to car empty handed, opens door, gets in, takes phone out of pocket and through the window puts it on roof.... nope.

    Man walks to car using two phones simultaneously (so he can 'tweet' and talk at the same time, he's clearly THAT important), puts one down to open the door.... ah so that's how it happens.

    1. caffeine addict
      Go

      Stupidity

      Don't underestimate how stupid people are.

      Back in the days when I worked for Do It All, I watched a guy drive off with a 10 litre drum of paint on the roof of his car. The drive home that night suggested he made it about a quarter of a mile before he braked too hard.

      I once saw a guy load his roofrack up with sheets of hardboard then forget to lash them down. When we tried to tell him he just hurled abuse at us. No idea how far that tosser got.

      So, yeah... a phone should be pretty easy to leave on the roof of your car.

    2. Steve Evans

      Re: Does no one have a problem with...

      I think you are relying on the phone being in use at the time too much...

      If it was on your hand because you just grabbed it from your desk as you headed out the door, then you could very easily put in on the roof while you rummage for your keys.

      Don't laugh, I had a boss that did this with several phones, and once even with a laptop. In the interest of good taste I will not detail what happened to the laptop.

      1. Daniel B.
        Alert

        I've seen worse

        Leaving a laptop in the ground. Not just any ground, but right behind the rear wheel of an SUV. The girl that did this forgot about the laptop... untilshe backed up and a horrible CRUNCH made her remember where her laptop was.

        Incredibly, that IBM ThinkPad actually survived with only a cracked monitor. Now that's heavy-duty hardware!

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      <Title here>

      phone in hand as well as tall thing / large bag of groceries etc. Put phone on roof of car while manhandling bulky item onto back seat - close seat - get in car drive off. Not done it myself but i often leave things on the roof of the car while i put other things into the car.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Alien

      Re: Does no one have a problem with...

      I know someone who was in the habit of putting his phone on the roof of his car while he got his keys out (phone & keys share one pocket).

      He left it there one day and drove off. Phone landed in a puddle and stopped working.

      Went back to the shop, who gave him a loan phone while his was 'repaired' (ie sent off to insurance company).

      He did exactly the same thing with the loan phone within a week, just this time it bounced on the road and ended up in bits.

      So yes, it does happen.

      And the first 4 phones I had all went for a swim (one in a clean porcelain bowl - knocked off belt clip when lifting jumper; others in puddles/ditch)... after a thorough drying out, each one worked fine!

      I think that says more about the quality of the phones than it says about the insurance though.

    5. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      So you've never anything daft? Well aren't you perfect!

      I once left my camera bag with £4k of kit on the roof, only when I got in the car to check for something before driving off I realised what I had done. Realised I had made one stupid mistake, because I am far from perfect. Now I make it a point to never, ever put anything on the roof no matter what. In the car, never on it.

      A phone is very easy thing to simply put down while distracted. Ever been distracted by two fighting kids and a dog, while it's peeing down with rain? I have and I have lost a number kid's shoes, spades, umberellas and other odds and sods in the process.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    re: what no graph of Claims over Time...

    @Seem to recall stories about claims trippleing as soon as a new model appears.

    My wife recently came to an end of her iphone 3g contract (about a week before the 4g was released). As the contract was coming to an end, she cancelled the insurance, and was advised her policy still had a week to run (paid in advance)

    Two days later, while brushing her teeth, she knocked the phone onto the tiled bathroom floor and the screen shattered (she'd dropped it from other similar heights on other occasions, but it always seemed fairly robust).

    I did feel like a bit of a fraud phoning to arrange a few handset a week before the contract and insurance policy expired. But I got a very good price from eBay for the completely unused handset.

    Anon just in case the insurance people are still on to me.

  21. xj25vm

    iPhone promotion

    Sometimes I wonder if the Reg is not an iPhone/Apple promoter in disguise. It just dawned on me that, for all the proclaimed lack of affinity for the above product and company in the Reg editorial department, there isn't a week without at least one article about them. Yes, El Reg might be bashing above mentioned product/company - but they are still keeping them in the news. After all - that's what it takes. If they would be completely ignoring them - that would, after all, be much worse for Apple and their products, wouldn't it?

  22. Z 1
    Stop

    Insurance

    Hmmm. I'll admit, I have mobile insurance. However, I'm beginning to think, doesn't most household contents insurance cover mobile phone accidents such as lost, stolen, broken, etc? Correct me if I'm wrong...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      YES! Check with your insurance company!

      Don't get mobile insurance from the mobile companies or shops.

      My Missus was quoted £15/month from CrapPhone Whorehouse for iPhone insurance. We phoned the people who do our house contents and they said it wasn't covered but can be included for a fee.

      "Oh dear, here we go! How much?"

      A grand total of...£1 month extra on house contents for a £600 phone! Complete replacement for almost any eventuality.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Odd...

    I was sure I would see

    "Became lodged in my arse when I accidentally put my head up their whilst making a call".

    1. JaitcH
      Jobs Horns

      Only one person capable of this ...

      Jobs!

    2. Pan_Handle
      FAIL

      The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.

      Head up their what?

  24. James O'Brien

    Reminds me of a good oen

    Was coming back from lunch and one of the guys where I worked was outside my office. Saide he needed a new phone.

    When I asked what happened to the old one he handed me a melted pile of plastic and said he accidentially dropped it in a fryer on Thanksgiving here. Ended up telling him he wasnt getting one unless he paid for it after that fiasco knowing that the insurance would laugh at us if I tried to get a claim with that story.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like