Having seen their adverts all over the telly for the past few months (you’ve seen Squeak, the mouse who keeps losing his gadgets) we decided that since they were the most prominent, ProtectYourBubble deserved to be reviewed first. (In case you don’t know we’re reviewing all of the different iPhone cover policies out there. You can see the full report here)
So what did we learn?
Well, according to their website (www.protectyourbubble.com), they insure over 250,000 customers which is pretty impressive. Not all of them are iPhone customers of course. As a gadget insurance company, ProtectYourBubble also offer cover for laptops, cameras, tablet computers and a wide range of other electronics and gizmos.
Most importantly for us (and you) however, here’s what they offer in terms of cover for iPhones:
The facts…
- Price: £5.99 per month (or £1 extra if you want cover for loss).
- Provides cover for:
- Theft
- Damage
- Water/Liquid Damage
- Loss (£1 per month extra) - 60 days travel cover (gives you the same cover abroad as in the UK)
- Free data backup (let’s you back up contacts and other information on your mobile)
- Extended warranty (basically extended breakdown cover for problems that are outside of your warranty’s coverage)
- Replacement iPhone within 48 hours
- One month’s free cover with all new policies
- £1 from every policy goes to charity
Full terms and conditions can be seen here.
Other important points…
- Excess is £50 (with an additional £25 for loss claims). Excess is the amount you have to pay when you make a claim and is pretty common in all forms of insurance, including mobile phone insurance.
Many Ways to Get in Contact
If you’re an iPhone user (or better still an iPhone blogger like me), it’s fair to say you’re a bit of a geek. I think it’s also fair to say that most geeks prefer to deal with companies digitally- over email, Twitter, Facebook etc – not over the phone. That’s definitely my opinion anyway. I hate being on hold, I hate speaking to people over the phone – I just don’t see why I should have to in this day and age.
It makes me happy then that Protect Your Bubble have such a good social media presence. They’re active on both Twitter and Facebook (they’re pretty good at replying to emails too) which makes the process of asking questions about claims or anything to do with their policies, a whole lot easier. For me, anyway.
Mixed Reviews
Lots of Fans as of 19/10/2011
Every insurance company has both good and bad reviews. Search for ‘ProtectYourBubble reviews’ online and you’ll find a mix of experiences. We realised early on that it was important to weigh each story up individually i.e. ‘was the company genuinely bad or did the customer fail to submit the correct paperwork?’ There’s two sides to every story and usually neither party is perfect.
PYB like all companies have a mix of reviews, and it was hard to make a decision about them until we looked at their social media (mentioned above). The fact that they responded to each question on Twitter/Facebook showed that they have an active customer service team which at the very least means we could get a reply to our questions if needed. Since none of us have made a claim with PYB, we can’t comment on the claims process but if you have, well there’s a space to leave your feedback below.
Closing Thoughts
It Blends!
PYB are always in the news for their research. One of the best stories I came across was a list of their weirdest iPhone insurance claims.
I “lost my iPhone whilst skydiving naked” or I “dropped it in the food blender” were two of my favourite. I guess just seeing the name frequently in the news (along with on Twitter and Facebook) in a pleasant way like this made me smile, but maybe I’m just easily sold with a good story!
Overall we really liked Protect Your Bubble. Their website was easy-to-use, everything was explained quite clearly and they had a very open and friendly customer service team. While none of us have had to make a claim yet (touch wood) we felt that it was be easy to get in contact with the right person.
You can find out more about ProtectYourBubble at their website protectyourbubble.com
How is this even a review? You’ve clearly stated that you haven’t made a claim yet, so your entire customer experience is that they have a flashy website and take your money every month.
The fact is that once you come to claim, PYB have a step-by-step system designed to eliminate the overwhelming majority of legitimate claims. Their entire business model is based on frustrating claims for months on end, and only the most dedicated (a small percentage unfortunately) will get a replacement (used) phone which they probably could’ve paid for themselves from the premium and excess money.
Avoid them at all costs.
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