Over the last few weeks, I’d been experiencing serious trackball issues with my 1.5 year old BlackBerry Curve. When I scrolled right, the cursor would jump left. When I scrolled left, the cursor would jump right. So, I called my mobile phone service provider to see if it could be fixed or replaced. After unsuccessful attempts at troubleshooting, I thought I could get my broken cell phone replaced without problems. After all, I had been paying the $4.79 per month insurance since I first got the phone, right? Wrong!

My cell service carrier told me that all I could do is to keep my current (broken) phone or buy a new one.  The reasons?

1. The default 1 year manufacturer’s warranty had expired.
2. The PHP Insurance from Asurion I purchased didn’t cover a warranty extension—if I had gotten the $5.99 per month insurance, then my warranty would have been extended for life, not just for the first year. (Wish they told me this before!)
3. In addition, insurance only covers the phone in case it is lost, stolen or damaged. It doesn’t cover manufacturer’s defects such as the trackball issue that I was experiencing. And even if the insurance covered my issue, I would have to pay the $200 deductible first. That’s pretty much the same as the cost of buying a new phone!

In other words, the insurance protection I thought that I had been paying for wasn’t protecting me nor my cell phone at all!

Luckily, and, to my surprise, the customer support rep on the other end of the line said she convinced her manager to override the limitation on the warranty because “I had been really nice to her” and because I didn’t know the difference between the $4.79 and the $5.99 insurance packages.

So now I’m waiting for my new Blackberry Curve in the mail, hopefully sans trackball issues, so that I can return my broken phone. Oh, and the nice customer support rep also suckered me into upgrading my insurance to the $5.99 package.