Squaretrade....

adamc260

I was looking for an extended laptop warranty and when looking through google I noticed they were selling policies through multiple websites.

Amazon were listing the particular one I wanted for approx £169 including Accidental Damage. Another website listed the EXACT same policy for £133 and it gave me the option to purchase it.

I contacted Squaretrade to find out what was going on to be told 'That policy is exclusive to products bought on that site' despite all the T&C's and info NOT saying that what so ever (I mean it has the option to add the indivudual policy to your basket and completely pay for it/arrange delivery!). I asked if they could match the price as it seemed a bit unfair to pay £40ish for the same thing?

They went away for approx a day or so to look into and came back to say 'Nope, you have to go to the other site and buy the more expensive one', I was informed if I didn't despite the policies being identical in wording/coverage when I came to claim they'd reject it and just refund my money (but wouldn't do this UNTIL I needed to claim).

It seems like they've got a pretty decent scam going on there, they try to make out that the amazon cover can be bought to cover products bought from anywhere (at a higher cost) but the one from the other website ONLY covers items bought on that site (despite not saying this and the cover being identical).

If this is how the company operates i'm quite glad I never took cover out with them... I expected more considering all these 'glowing reports' which in fairness appear to be fake. Hundreds and hundreds of people saying how fantastic they are with perhaps 1 or 2 bad ones thrown in there which when you read them seem far more realistic.

All in all a let down, instead of doing the right thing and merely going 'Yes we'll match it' they dug their heels in, wasted my time and theirs and lost a customer. I was more than happy to buy the policy at the time but why should I pay £40 extra for the same thing, they even tried to make out the policies were different and there was 'less coverage' which is simply not the case.

Someone is telling fibs and no one can justify why the cheaper policy cannot be bought other than the reason they want you to buy the identical more expensive one.

keyser666

Think it is entirely fair IMHO. You have no knowledge of the premium they have to pay amazon, eBay etc etc and their prices no doubt reflect this

Money-Saving-King

I don't know why you think it's a scam? I really can't believe you don't realise the prices each site charges to sell on will be different. Amazon is always the more expensive, I phoned up a seller on Amazon for a bulk buy deal & he explained the fees compared to eBay etc & we just did the deal over the phone & bypassed Amazon so he didn't have to pay Amazon the comission for the sale.

It doesn't take much to work out each site will have different charges for selling on it.

Truepat

It is not a scam, just different retailers charging different prices - just part of a free market.

BTW have you also looked at your household insurance which may provide enough cover for your needs?

Fella

Sounds like typically shady behaviour from an insurance company (the part about only finding out when you try to claim that you're not actually covered being a good example of the sort of practice no other business is allowed to get away with but the insurance industry seems to have it's own rules). Furthermore £170 sounds extremely expensive just for a warranty tbh so you may well be better not buying it. Stash the £170 somewhere & buy a whole new laptop for probably not much more than that if & when you need to?