The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

Ten unlikely iPhone insurance claims

What's the damage?

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 accidentally buried it in the garden
6. It fell into the kettle
7. I dropped it in a food blender
8.  My dog chewed it to pieces
9. Juice from a defrosting piece of meat leaked into it
10. It flew out of the car window

Most common claims - no real shockers here

1. Cracked screen
2. Stolen while texting
3. Couldn't hear the other person when making a call
4. Leaving phone on the car roof so it falls off when driving
5. Pet knocked the phone off the surface
6. Stolen from handbag
7. Internet connection completely broken
8. iPhone doesn't charge
9. Dropped in the bath / toilet
10. Screen freezes

With that many ways an iPhone can get damaged, lost or stolen, insurance is probably a good idea. Don't get caught with your trousers down - and your precious Apple in the toilet. ®

(Written by Reg staff)

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.

12
0

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").

6
1

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.

4
0

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

3
0

@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
0

More from The Register

Is the next-gen console war already One?
Microsoft’s new Xbox - and more
 breaking news
Apple cored: Samsung sells 10 million Galaxy S4 in a month
Beware of South Koreans bearing Android
US boffin builds 32-way Raspberry Pi cluster
Beowulf cluster built for the price of a single PC
STROKE this mouse to make apps POP, says Microsoft
Windows 8 Start button comes to Redmond's rodents
Nintendo throws flaming legal barrel at YouTubing fans
All your walk-through vid revenue are belong to us
Fairphone goes on sale to all
The Android handset that's PC can be yours

Hands on with Hyper-V 3.0 and virtual machine movement

Our award-winning Regcasts have teamed up with training provider QA for the deepest of deep dives into Hyper-V, including a live demo.

Understand VM movement - just click to play, or go here for a bigger version.