Wireless Phone Insurance with Cingular Wireless

So, I’m reading over my cell phone bill— which I never really do since it’s on auto-pay, and I pretty much just ignore it— and I notice that I’m being charged for insurance on my wife’s RAZR, but not on my Treo. Since I requested coverage for both of them when we upgraded last year, this was a surprise. So, I write Cingular up, and say, “hey, why am I only being charged for one? They’re both covered, right?” And I get in reply:

Dear Mr. Boszko,

Thank you for taking the time to e-mail Cingular Wireless regarding the insurance feature not being added to both lines on your account. I am happy to help you with your inquiry and I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

After reviewing your account, I see that the insurance feature was only added to the [my wife’s phone number] line at the time of sale on 9/27/06. The insurance company allows insurance to be added up to 30 days after a new phone purchase. Unfortunately, our records do not indicate that insurance was requested on the other line. Because of this, documentation or proof will be required to add the feature to the other line on the account.

Since it has been less than one year from the date of purchase, you may qualify for our Warranty Service program. The Warranty Service is a program that allows you to be mailed a replacement for a defective in-warranty, non-functioning phone without ever walking into a retail store.

You can call the Warranty Service Center from a landline phone at 1-800-801-1101. A replacement handset can be delivered to your door in as little as 24 hours.

I am always here to assist you. I encourage you to visit us at www.cingular.com often to view your monthly account statements, make payments and shop for new products and services. I greatly appreciate the opportunity to serve you. Please let me know if I can assist you in any other way, and thank you for choosing Cingular Wireless.

Sincerely,

A.B.
Cingular is now the new AT&T
Online Customer Care Professional

So, I write back:

Since I ordered all of this by phone, to my knowledge, there is no written documentation to support this other than my notes taken during the phone call. I can fax you those, if you like. Perhaps you have this phone conversation recorded and can look that up on your end?

I am somewhat taken aback to be asked to provide “proof” that you said you would do something. I *did* request insurance on both phones during the (very long) phone call when I ordered them from you last September. Why would I request coverage on the cheap phone and not on the expensive PDA-phone? That makes no sense.

Please advise as to how we may resolve this.

Regards,
MB

They respond:

Dear Mr. Boszko,

Thank you for taking the time to e-mail Cingular Wireless regarding insurance for mobile number [my phone number]. I am happy to help you with your inquiry and I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

After reviewing your account, I see that you upgraded to the Treo 650 on 9/25/2006. This phone is not covered by the Equipment Insurance offered. I apologize for any confusion and inconvenience this may have caused. This means that even within the first 30 days, this feature would not have been able to be added to this phone. I have provided a link below where you can view information regarding terms and conditions of insurance. If you have further questions or concerns regarding this, you can contact Asurion at 1-888-562-8662. Thank you for your patience and for being a Cingular customer!

http://www.cingular.com/learn/basics/choosing-features-services/wireless-insurance.jsp

I am always here to assist you. I encourage you to visit us at www.cingular.com often to view your monthly account statements, make payments and shop for new products and services. I greatly appreciate the opportunity to serve you. Please let me know if I can assist you in any other way, and thank you for choosing Cingular Wireless.

Sincerely,

J.R.
Cingular is now the new AT&T
Online Customer Care Professional

::SIGH::

My response:

There doesn’t seem to be anything at in in the document you linked me to that would have disallowed my phone for coverage. Could you please explain what part of the terms disallows this?

Additionally, if this is in fact the case, could you please explain to my why I was told by one you your representatives that my phone would be covered? Thank you.

MB

Does anyone out there have a Treo with Cingular, with their Wireless Phone Insurance plan on it? If so, I’d very much like to hear about it.