Do you have insurance on your cell phone? If you do, make sure you don’t wait too long to call to report any damage. That’s what the person in this story learned the hard way!

But he didn’t let a smug insurance rep defeat him. He was determined to get his phone fixed anyway.

Find out what he said to make her change her mind about covering the cost of the repair.

Insurance Rep Insists on Following the Rules—Until She Realizes the Cost

Back in the mid 2010s, I had my phone insured through a premium bank account. The deal was simple: pay a fixed excess, and they’d either repair or replace your phone.

The excess was the same whether it was a cracked screen or a full replacement, so it seemed like a solid arrangement.

One day, I cracked my phone screen. It still worked fine, and I had a holiday coming up, so I decided to wait until I got back to file a claim.

Uh-oh!

When I finally called the insurance company, the representative asked when the damage had happened.

So I told her honestly. That’s where the trouble started.

She explained that I’d waited too long to report the damage. There was a time limit for claims—around 10 days—and I’d missed it.

She wouldn’t back down.

I explained that the phone was still usable, and I’d needed it for my trip.

But she wouldn’t budge. Rules were rules, she said, and my claim was invalid.

Her tone was borderline smug.

Fine, I thought. Let’s try some pre-emptive MC.

He probed for info.

Me: “What should I do if the phone gets damaged further?”

Rep: “You’d need to call us back and file a new claim. But make sure it’s within the time frame.”

Me: “Got it. And I can’t include the existing screen damage, right?”

Rep: “Correct. The new claim would have to be for unrelated damage.”

He made his intent more obvious.

She seemed oblivious to where this was going, so I pressed on.

Me: “So how likely is it that a cracked screen could lead to water damage? If water got in and fried the motherboard, you’d most likely have to replace the whole phone, right?”

There was a long pause. Then she said she needed to speak to her supervisor.

When she came back, her tone had changed. Suddenly, they were willing to overlook the missed time frame and process my original claim for the cracked screen…

Seriously. Run over the phone with the car and get a new one. Or drop it in a glass of water. Thankfully, it didn’t come to that.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

Just stick to the script.

This person would’ve handled it differently.

This is so funny!

Here’s a story about Best Buy.

If the problem isn’t bad enough, make it worse.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.