Refurbed.ie

I have looked for answers to that, and it seems that paying excess is the new normal. I have never heard of it before, and they have not replied to my polite requests.

Hi,

I paid full insurance for a year when I purchased the phone, could you please explain to me what the excess fees are required for.

Regards,

After a lot of googling, I could only find UK results, none from EU and those results seem to imply that it is a fee towards their cost to repair the phone. I eventually found the fee in the many (7) documents that were emailed to me.

Personally, I find it a bit scammy and disingenuous to not have it mentioned when purchasing the insurance and the only place that I have found it mentioned is in the GCI (General Conditions of Insurance) received after the Insurance was purchased.

It effectively means that any insurance claims will cost €80 if the phone was between €100 and €299.99 as the initial full insurance policy costs €30

I guess it is my own fault for not reading all of the documents after purchasing it. But I will post this for the benefit of any potential future buyers of the insurance. These are the excess fees on top of the insurance, should you make a claim.

This image will automatically delete after 1 month - not by choice.

https://hostimagepro.com/teQPdrAiKo85unK

Apart from the excess fees, I find both refurbed and refurbed insurance horrible to deal with, not impolite, but painfully slow.

I would 100% not recommend going for the insurance on a phone within the above mentioned bracket unless you just plan on claiming it as lost or stolen. It will still likely take close to two months to get it sorted, from my experience anyway.

I honestly believe that it may never have been addressed if I had not persisted in contacting them using any method I could find.

In most cases it would be cheaper to have it repaired locally or buy a kit from ifixit.com including screen or parts and do it yourself with a guide.

I had no issues with the phone itself before the accident, my main issues are their support and insurance with excess fees.

I've never heard of it before, but maybe my tech has been less expensive. This was a pixel 4a 5g. A relatively old phone to begin with.

I have taken out insurance before, but IIRC I never had the need to use it. As this was called a full policy, I assumed (I know, never assume) that it was fully covered. Paint this any colour at all, it just smells of scammy by the insurance company. The amount of people that must be paying insurance not realising that and it going straight to the insurance company must be fairly high. I will only imagine that if more people knew how it worked that they wouldn't bother with it.

A small update on my refurbed insurance.

I decided to pay the €50, as the repair in store was actually €85, and I had already paid €30 to Refurbed for insurance.

Once I paid them, I received this auto-response from them:

Dear ,

We are pleased to confirm that your excess fee payment has been processed, and the insured device can now be repaired by our repair partner.

Our assigned repair partner will contact you shortly to arrange collection of your device: a courier will then collect your device and deliver it to the repair centre.

Google Google Pixel 4A 5G XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Attached you will find the repair order for your claim.
To avoid delaying the repair process, please make sure to follow the steps below:

- Remove all inserted memory cards, SIM card and other accessories (e.g. headphones, protective covers) from the device. Leave the battery in the device.
- Delete all lock/security codes and deactivate the lock functions on your device.
- If the secured device is an Apple device, make sure that the Find My iPhone function is and remains deactivated (go to for more information).
- Synchronise your device with another device, if this is technically possible. This way, your data can be restored after the repair.
- Pack your device in a small, inconspicuous, sturdy box with sufficient filling material (e.g. newspaper, napkins, etc.) to protect the device from further damage.
- Please ensure that the repair order attached to this e-mail is signed and enclosed with the unit in the box.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.We are pleased to count you among our customers!

Kind regards,

Your bolttech & Refurbed Plus GmbH customer service

 

Customer portal:

E-mail: refurbed-IE@bolttech.eu https://support.apple.com/kb/PH2702?viewlocale=de_DE https://refurbed.bolttech.eu/#/

I have received nothing since. I have emailed and phoned a lot of times at this stage. I bought a Nothing phone in the Amazon sale, as I could no longer use my old xiaomi without my head exploding. So now I will just see how long it takes them to get back to me, if ever.