I'm hoping some day in the future you might show me a thing or two

[venta]

Aw, bless 'em. Don't you just love insurance salesmen.

I recently took out a contract (with 3) for a USB mobile internet dongle. With it I automatically acquired a insurance policy (first month free! cancel at any time!).

So I rang to cancel it. The saleschap asked why.

Well, the original salesperson gave the cost of the dongle as £50. The cost of the insurance is £3.49 a month for 17 months. It's cheaper just to buy myself a replacement if I lose it.

Oh well, he said, obviously we wouldn't expect you to take the insurance policy for the full eighteen months. It makes most sense to have the insurance policy when the device is new.

It does ? Really ? Given that it's insurance against technical failure as well as loss, I'd have thought it made most sense to have insurance when a device is getting old and flaky.

Curious, I asked him why it made most sense to have insurance at first. Did he think I might get bored of it, and thus not care if I lost it ?

Yes, he said, I might get bored of it. Or I might find a different method of getting online.

I'm willing to accept that technical innovation or improvement might occur, but if I'm paying for this service for 18 months, I'm damn well going to use it for 18 months.

I told him I'd been using the internet for nearly 15 years and I wasn't bored yet, and cancelled the insurance anyway.

Comments

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

I want boredom insurance. That would be great. "Yeah, I bought this games console/mobile phone/boyfriend, but now I'm bored with it. Can I have the new shiny model now please?"

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Or it could work a bit like company cars, so you pay a subscription fee for your console/phone/boyfriend and it's periodically replaced with the latest model^[1].

---

[1] Only spotted the pun after I'd typed it, honest!

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

I'll pack up my stuff then?

[grin]

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

You bought a boyfriend? I thought that hadn't been legal for quite a long time...

Though I did a YouGov survey yesterday with the question: "Which three of the following garden accessories are at the top of your wishlist?" and possible answers included bbq, patio, decking, hot tub, etc., swans/peacock which struck me as a little odd and hunky gardener. Do they come from the plants section or as a flat pack, I wonder?

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

Flat pack? Six pack, surely?

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Six?! I would never have enough breakfast cereal!

[stegzy.livejournal.com]

Yeah I had the same problem with Dial-a-Phone

[lathany.livejournal.com]

:-)

Sometimes these salespeople need to suss when they're onto a loser with the whole "why" question. And occasionally I find that they do.

[shui-long.livejournal.com]

3's mobile broadband dongles are now selling for about £29 rather than £50, which makes the insurance even less worthwhile.

[(Anonymous)]

Don't these things come with guarantees? "First few months" failure implies "not fit for purpose" anyway.

[marjory.livejournal.com]

He should have said, "Don't come crying to me when your dongle explodes!"

and left it at that.

Lovely parasites hoping no-one does the maths!