ProtectCELL
Reviews and Complaints

On November 5th, my daughter phone was accidentally broken 2017. I called Protect Cell [protected]) to have it replaced for her because she is on our cell phone plan. When I contacted them there seemed to be no problem I paid $175 to them for a new one. The phone was sent, and my daughter received it on Wed the 8th of Nov. Upon receipt of this "new" phone we discovered that it would not work. It was also noticed that this was not a new phone, it is refurbished. They keep telling me that it is in their terms and conditions that they can send refurbished phones. When we got the contract with our carrier we were told that they would replace a damaged phone with a new one, and believe me for what they charge they should make sure it is new.
I contacted Protect Cell again on Friday the 10th of Nov 2017 and explained to them what happened again. They over-nighted the next phone and my daughter received it on Saturday the 11th of Nov 2017. She thought this phone would work fine until the 5th day, which was the 15th of Nov 2017. This phone started going crazy and you could not do anything with it. She couldn't get any numbers to work or type or touch anything in the middle. I was out of town and did not find out any of this until 16th of Nov 2017. I contacted Protect Cell immediately and they told me that I had to send it back and they had to make sure there was no water damage or any "customer damage". or I could put a hold of $500 dollars on a credit card and they would send another one. It appears that you only have 5 days to make sure that a phone works properly or they make you try to pay more money or you have to wait until they decide to send it to you! They just have to make sure that the phone damage was due to the manufacturer. It has been one problem after another. I sent both phones back on the 21st of Nov 2017. I called Protect Cell today, Nov 25, 2017 and was told they had received on phone on the 22nd, but would not receive the other one until the 27th of Nov 2017. They were going to the same company and was sent out the same day. I spoke to a woman and was told it would take 7-10 more days until I would receive another one because they had to check it out. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told that one would call me back in 24 hours. I was told that last week also and no one called me back. Today is the 25th of Nov 2017 and my daughter still does NOT have a WORKING phone. Or any phone for that matter, n*but they have $175!
Protect Cell keeps telling me that something, usually for their benefit is in their "terms and conditions". I am pretty sure that it also states that the customer is supposed to receive a Good" working phone with no defects. I have had my fill of this company. I want a NEW phone, no more excuses and a refund on $175. I will take no less. These people are out to take people for a ride and just keep asking for more and more money.
Protect Cell is very a very dishonest company. Just look at the other customers complaints. Not hard to find.
If anyone is thinking of using this company for anything DON'T. They will take you for a ride. This company is very greedy and dishonest. Don't be the next victim to this company!

We are in a 2-year contract with our service provider who uses this company (ProtectCell) for insurance. We pay $10 per month for insurance (so $240 over the life of the service provider contract and phone which we also pay monthly payments on). We got our daughter an LG G4 (was the latest model at the time). She had it around a year and all of a sudden it would just reboot over and over again and never start. We researched and found this was a defect in the G4 phone that was well known to LG - it was called a boot loop error. LG was replacing these for free, but only for a certain amount of time after purchase, and we had exceeded that. So, we used the insurance option by ProtectCell. We paid a $200 deductible and they sent us another G4 (this was about 5 months ago). It turns out they sent us a "refurbished" model, and this phone developed the same boot loop error a few months later. We called them and complained saying how much we paid for 1 1/2 year old cell phone model that was refurbished, not even new, and how they should replace it for free. They said they would and had us ship it to them. We shipped it and then several days later they called and said they would not give us another phone because this one had water damage. My daughter never got this phone wet - most likely it was water damage that was there from whoever owned it before it was refurbished. On top of that, we are very familiar with the boot loop problem (which is caused by the phone overheating) as we already went through it before, and that is what it was doing. This company is a rip off - I would never get phone insurance from your provider if they use this company.

Buyer beware! Worst insurance ever! I paid $199 upfront and was told this would cover any claim and if I didn't make a claim in 2 years half the pric wou, d go towards a new phone. When my phone stopped working I was charged an additional $150 deductible for a refurbished phone! Unlike medical and auto deductibles this one is never met, do if the refurbished phone they sent me stops working after 2 weeks, I will have to pay another $200 to get it replaced. None of the was explained by the Vetizon sales rep. After I made the claim I went back and read the 8 page printout of how it works and it's all spelled out there. Don't make my mistake! Read the fine print! And better yet, have nothing to do with ProtectCell insurance!

I purchased a plan at the recommendation of my cell phone company in Marshall MN. After two years I would get my money back if there were no claims. MY 2 year plan was up in October 2015. February 5 I realized I had not received a check back. I was told there is only a 30 day period to get the refund back or you lose it. Then they hung up on me. They then called my cell phone and when I answered they hung up on me again. This is like the old gift card scam with a deadline. This scam is an intentional set up to keep money promised with unreasonable time lines and no warning except for the fine print from 2 years ago.

I have called to cancel our policy in July and was still being billed in August. When I called to ask why, they said there was no record of the cancellation. Knowing better...It took me some time to research but I saved a copy of the chat session in paper, confirmation number and all. They refused to let me speak to a supervisor saying they would call me back. Still waiting. All my interactions with this company were difficult, they could never find my plan, they hung up on me, ended a chat session, simply told me there was nothing they could do to help and ultimately told me my money would not be refunded because there was no record of the cancellation. I hate for this to happen with others, specially older people that don't take notes and just trust others. I have the proof, it is not ok how they are conducting their business. Something needs to be done.

I have had to use the service twice, purchased the ProtectCELL COMPLETE™ that was the best plan they offered, paid in full at the Verizon store ~$200.00.

The first time experience was fine, broken screen on my new S4, I would rate the overall experience * * * * 0.50 stars. I was surprised at the $150.00 charge for the first replacement and $200 any further replacements, ( - 1/2 * ). I chalked that up to me not reading the fine print. Wish I had been told this up front at the store and it would not have stung so bad when I used the service for the first time. You will have to pay the replacement fee up front. The replacement was a fine re-manufactured device that worked out of the box. Had to get all the updates, etc on the device, but so do new ones out of the box, not a big deal. The replacement was shipped in a timely manner and arrived via Fed-Ex, signature required. Their Website kept track of everything on the request, when the device was shipped, tracking info, etc. With all things considered I was pleased with the service and happy to have purchased the ProtectCELL COMPLETE™ insurance plan. Even bragged to some of my friend about the experience and how I had made the correct dissension purchasing the plan.

Now my second time experience = ZERO *'s, hence my rating ( 4.5 + 0 / 2 = 2.25 ) * * 0.25
Some history: The S4 received some updates then afterwords the touch screen became not-so-responsive. After a week or so, I could not enter the password on the S4 and I was unable to get into the smart phone. After some "googling" for a fix, none of which worked, I took the S4 back to my Verizon store for assistance. They were also unable to correct the problem.

My options, purchase a new smart phone for full retail price ( 57 day till the 2 yr contract runs out) -- ouch!, or turn in a claim to ProtectCELL. I had almost forgotten about the insurance until the Verizon rep went through my account. Heck yea I exclaimed, had a great experience the first time around and was proud of my decision to purchase ProtectCELL. I had the Verizon rep call from their phone and paid the $200.00 and verified my mailing address, done! According to the ProtectCELL customer service rep on the phone that took my $$ I should expect the replacement S4 in a few days, tomorrow or the following day at the latest.

Here is where things start to turn for me: Went back home and logged into the ProtectCELL website to see the Request Device Activity and sure enough there was the second request. I could not get to the status of the claim though, ?... Therefore, I could not see the status or tracking information. Didn't think to much about that, but I was a little disappointed that I couldn't see the status. Next day, no S4. Second day passes, no S4. Third day passes, still no phone? Logged back into the ProtectCELL website to see the Request Device Activity and sure enough there was the second request but still could not get a status. Can't call because my smart phone is broken, so I sent them a note via their " Contact Us" link on their front page. They sent me an email requesting I call or use the "Live Chat" option. Had to choose the "Live Chat" option. At 18:45 I was second in line, at 18:48 I was next in line on the chat... >120 minutes later, I was still next in line... I sent multiple requests for service with no response via email. The next morning the chat window was still active and I was next in line, that's >12 hrs being next in line. When I get back home from work, I have an email from a "Contact Center Supervisor" requesting my "shipping address"; are you kidding me? the address was verified 4 days ago when they took my $$ over the phone at the Verizon store, and has never changed. So now being the weekend, the Contact Center Supervisor responds back that the S4 will be shipped out Monday. If your keeping track, 7 days before the S4 will "supposedly" be shipped.

NO EXPECTATIONS NO DISAPPOINTMENTS.
At this point I feel abused by the plan and what I've gone through to still have no replacement or tracking information at the very least. They have, in my opinion, failed by using stall tactics to replace my S4. They were able to take my $$ without a problem, within minutes, before the phone hung up at the Verizon store.

This company is a complete ripoff.

I purchased the complete iPhone 5 protection from them and lost my phone. They had promised to send a new phone in 2 days. But this is when their "secret policies" come into play.

It seems that within 30 days they need copy of receipt of phone purchase as well as protectcell. I provided all the information and the copy of receipts. But then they said that the receipt I provided wasn't valid because it didnt have a protect cell logo, when I went back to the shop I got the phone from, they called their corporate office. The corporate lady said that she looked into it and the phone should come in a couple of days. In the evening I saw that the status is "Pending supervisor approval", when I called again it seems that the guy had no idea why is it stuck and I need to call the corp office to get this resolved.

Also, if you didnt get the insurance on the same day of purchase, you are not entitled to get a new phone within 30 days. So all you have to do is wait to get a new phone.

No idea when and how will I get a phone.

Please dont but protectcell insurance.