Asurion Storm Question

[y2nicco]

Hey All...

I have a storm 1 that recently fell into some water... after i let it dry, it works well MOST of the time, aside from the occasional flicker in the screen, which gets pretty annoying. I have an upgrade coming up in a couple months and was wondering how I proceed. I can either use an old curve, keep the storm with its problems, or file an asurion claim. I was wondering if anyone has recently filed an asurion claim for the storm 1. I only ask to see whether they replaced it with a storm 1 or storm 2. If storm 1, I may just use curve and deal with that for a couple months so im not out $50... if storm 2, it may be worth $50 for two months use.

Thanks,

y2nicco

[groove93]

This happened to me a few weeks ago. Dropped my Storm into a cup of juice. Phone works fine after it dried out with the exception of the buttons on the bottom of it. I did file a claim with Asurion and with a 50 Dollar deductible, I would've received another Storm.

Rather than spend the money to get another Storm, I went ahead and purchased a Moto Droid. Didn't want to be bothered with a Storm anymore and I'm glad I jumped ship.

[y2nicco]

Thanks for your input. Just to clarify, they gave you the option of having a storm one through insurance? or the storm two? I may wait to upgrade until Q1 or Q2 of next year so a $50 storm 2 would beat a storm 1.

[jetman1287]

Originally Posted by y2nicco

Thanks for your input. Just to clarify, they gave you the option of having a storm one through insurance? or the storm two? I may wait to upgrade until Q1 or Q2 of next year so a $50 storm 2 would beat a storm 1.

I'm interested in this too. Maybe I should treat my phone a little more ruggedly and let something "unfortunate" happen to receive a Storm2?

Just a thought I mean, I have paid Asurion like $150 without any claims...

[jetman1287]

Also, I must add - do NOT say you dropped it in water because there are time concerns. I believe it's during a specific time period like 30 or 60 days where you have to make the claim.

Just say that you lost the phone.

[groove93]

Originally Posted by groove93

This happened to me a few weeks ago. Dropped my Storm into a cup of juice. Phone works fine after it dried out with the exception of the buttons on the bottom of it. I did file a claim with Asurion and with a 50 Dollar deductible, I would've received another Storm.

Rather than spend the money to get another Storm, I went ahead and purchased a Moto Droid. Didn't want to be bothered with a Storm anymore and I'm glad I jumped ship.

It would have been a Storm 1.

[rlmesq]

I recently got a new-in-box S2 as a replacement for my S1, but it was an unusual situation.

The center bb/back button on my S1 got caught in my pocket & broke. I did the Asurion claim online and got a refurb S1 as a replacement.

The refurb was a defective POS. If I did a battery pull, it would lose everything -- apps, service books, email accounts, calendar, theme settings -- EVERYTHING. If I did a soft reset with MeterBerry, it would keep whatever was on the phone at that time... but if I did a battery pull, it would go back to where it was on the soft reset.

I called Asurion and got a very patient customer service rep. I explained the problem in detail... calmly, politely... and he asked to do a little troubleshooting, joking that it would probably take a few battery pulls and reboots, and "We'll probably be best friends by the time it's over."

Along the line, while waiting for one of the several reboots, I mentioned that I had considered upgrading to an S2, but was waiting for the next gen.

After a couple of reboots, he sent me an email and made sure I received it, then asked me to do a battery pull. Sure enough, it was gone when the reboot was done.

He said, "Doesn't sound like there's much point in going through this again... I'm going to see a new replacement... and I'll see if I can get you a Storm 2."

Sure enough, the next day I got a new in box S2. They even tossed a car charger and a belt case into the outer box.

It's obvious Asurion reps have authority to do upgrades. I think the key is being patient and polite.

[galannyc]

I really need to know if asurion will do the upgrade for me..I lost my Storm 1 and kinda hated it in the first place because of the lack of wifi, low amount of ram, and constant freezing. I'de only be willing to pay the deductible if my replacement was a storm 2. Verizon doesn't even sell storm 1s anymore. If not, I'm saving those $50 for the Droid X. What should I do? Any asurion rep in disguise out there?

[groove93]

Put the 50 towards the Droid X.

[-ZOMBIE-]

I was thinking about taking a chance on this as well but I ended up upgrading to the Droid X as well just this week. Well, did a couple of things...

My Storm that I'm on now has been acting up, getting stiff to press in the lower left corner and left side, it will stop recognizing the memory card that's in it if it's just bumped slightly, like if I had it on the arm rest of my recliner and knocked it over and it fell to the floor which is carpet then that would be enough for it to show that there wasn't a memory card inserted when there is one. I would have to open it up and constantly slide it in and out over and over, real fast and then really, really slow and it would finally recognize it but again, any small bump or whatever and it would be lost again. Also the screen wouldn't touch correctly, for instance I only have 4 icons showing at the bottom in portrait mode and if I pressed the SMS icon in the far lower right corner then it would highlight that icon as well as the signal bars directly above it in the upper right corner and so on with all the other icons, it would just highlight and try to open whatever was directly above it if I pressed the screen down. So it was like thinking I was like "multi-touching" it...

I ended up just doing a 2 year upgrade for the Droid X and I received it on Wednesday. Well I wasn't expecting it till after 8/3/10 as it said it wouldn't even ship till then, but it ended up coming way earlier. I ended up deciding that I was going to let my two daughters use my Storm for the camera and like as an MP3 player and I snapped about the memory card losing it's "connection". That's when I was going to try and see on taking a chance on canceling the upgrade and see if I could get a Storm 2 from Asurion and just tell them that it got lost/stolen so that way I wouldn't have to send back the old one and get another device with it's own battery as well and just pay the $50 or $80 deductible (whichever it is now), but since the Droid X came in I decided to call VZW and tell them that I was going to send back the upgrade and just get a replacement device for my Storm since I had the TEC (Total Equipment Coverage) Insurance because I was outside of the regular/normal 1 year warranty period but still under 2 years with the device. I tried to see if they could send me a Storm 2 but of course they said no and tried to sell me the upgrade for that as it being "Cheaper" than the Droid X but I declined of course.

They sent out my replacement, but what I'm going to do is still activate my new Droid X after I get my replacement Storm and activate that on the account since the replacement coming in has a pending feature order change coming up, then I'll change ESN's again and switch to the Droid X and then send back the somewhat damaged device and then give my daughters the semi-newer Storm so that way they don't have issue's with the memory card like I did. Plus I'll at least have a working Storm just in case I ever need to use it as a temp device if something happens to my new/regular device as a backup.

Although, if someone can verify that Asurion has indeed ran out of Storm 1 stock on their replacements they send and instead are sending out Storm 2's for people who make a claim then I just might go ahead and cancel out of the upgrade and send it back to them within the 30 days so that way I'm not under contract again and would be more than happy to use the Storm 2 for another year or whatever and do an upgrade much later when I have more money. Obviously I already paid for the Droid X, but it kind of was an impulse buy because 1. My Storm has been messing up and I was getting fed up with it because trying to call people sometimes was a pain in the @$$, 2. I heard VZW is going to be putting "caps" on their "Unlimited Blackberry & Smartphone Email & Web" plans/features pretty soon and they will NOT be unlimited anymore.

It's supposed to be something like AT&T's new data features/plans they're rolling out (which I believe is being rolled out now or this week matter of fact if it hasn't already). From what I've seen on Engadget and heard from a friend that works at VZW (I used to work there to 8 months ago) that it's going to be like $30 for 2GB's of data for Blackberry's and Smartphone's and I believe like $60/$70 (or maybe even more) for like 6GB's. I know that's still a lot, but since I've been looking at the Droid X for awhile because of it's big screen as well as being able to browse the internet on it just like a desktop cpu since it'll have flash with Android 2.2 or you can DL the Skyfire browser for Android devices and that works with flash on sites as well and I kind of already use a lot of data browsing on my Storm that I know I would use a heck of a lot more especially if I can go to more websites that I frequent on a desktop like Justin.TV for example that has streaming videos, etc..

From when I've been there, VZW (Verizon Wireless) does not force people to have their plans or features changed to the newer version ones. For example, they used to have a plan for PC Cards and USB Modems for laptops/desktops that would connect them to the internet that was "Unlimited" and then they ended up changing it to a capped 5GB Limit and if you went over 5GB's then you just got billed for overage. Before, if you went over 5GB's in a month and you were on the "Unlimited" plan, they couldn't charge you for overage but they would put limits on your connection, like they would cut the download/upload speeds in half and or temporarily suspend the service till the person called in. So yes, technically VZW did have caps on their "Unlimited Data Plans" for devices like PC Cards/USB Modems, etc... (not Smartphones or Blackberries, that is TRULY UNLIMITED for right now because they don't/didn't think people would even use or get close to 2-5 GB's of data on those devices because they were really limited on what websites they could pull up and stuff...) However they just couldn't bill you for going over 5GB's at the time. People were able to keep those plans as well even after they did away with the "Unlimited" part of the plan and capped it at 5GB's a month, however if those people that were still on "unlimited data plans" for those devices did an upgrade, esn change to a different device, disconnected/suspended, or changed plans (like say activated a phone under the # from a PC Card but then changed the ESN back to a PC Card a couple of months later) then they would HAVE to go to the new data plan which was still the exact same price, only now they were limited and could be billed for any data over 5GB, but they also wouldn't get limited service either if they did go over 5GB.

Also the Terms of Service changed as well to. Before when it was unlimited, people were not supposed to be using the data for gaming, streaming music/movies/videos, large downloads, etc... It was just mainly ment for basic web browsing and emails... Also you got to remember that most of the people that would even be on those plans and have those devices were "business people" using them and the service for "business" related stuff, so there wasn't a whole lot of data being used back then. But once more and more "regular people/consumers" started to get and use those devices and plans for personal related stuff then the data started being used a whole lot more.

That's what's going on right now with Blackberry's and Smartphone's. These devices aren't just for business type people anymore and now these devices are able to browse and view the web just like a desktop would so more and more people are using their data features a whole lot more now than ever. Especially more than people that are on AT&T or people that have iPhone's because VZW's data services/speeds/networks is way better and faster than AT&T's and the #1 device that is using the most data right now is the Droid X because of it's nice/large screen. Which is what I liked about the Storm because it wasn't like the other blackberry's where you only had half a screen and the other half a keyboard.

Hopefully someone can confirm if Asurion is shipping Storm 2's for the Storm 1 due to no more stock of the Storm 1, before my 30 days is up then it would greatly be appreciated! I could use the $200 I spent on the Droid X for other things and just spend $50, but I'm not going to spend $50 for a Storm 1 when I can still get that replaced for free till Jan or Feb of 2011 through VZW. It's just this replacement Storm I'm getting that I'm really going to let my daughters use and or as a back-up device for emergencies will be like my 3rd or 4th Storm already and VZW doesn't do the "3 Strikes" program anymore, well they kind of do but it's more like an upgrade as it would extend your contract if your on one or add one if your not on one and it also pushes out your available upgrade date. So if I was eligible to upgrade in Feb 2011 and I did that new 3 strikes then it would get pushed out to August of 2012 or something like that, so it's just better to get the same device or do an actual upgrade but to the phone you want. VZW just sends you a brand new device of the same model or the next one up for free as well as having to have 2-3 replacements within a 90 day period as well, which I haven't had either. It's like every 4-6 months I've had to have my Storm replaced.

Heck my very first Storm I got was damaged/messing up that they had to send me another brand new Storm since I was still within the original 30 days of upgrading to the Storm. Technically I was within a few days of it, but still... If I was outside of the original 30 days then they would have sent a refurbished/like new device instead of a brand new in box one.

Also you guys keep in mind the data feature changes and if you are interested in upgrading then now might be the time so that way your locked into the unlimited plan for blackberrys/smartphones till the next time you upgrade or change your plan. For me if I do keep the Droid X and activate it here in the next few days then I'll more than likely keep it for the whole 2 years or maybe even longer. I could stay on my Storm I have now for awhile longer but because of all the issues and how awesome the Droid X has been getting is the reason I figured I would upgrade, plus the data feature being limited pretty soon eventually.