Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsBuyer Beware!
Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2023
Buyer beware! Asurion may be a hassle to deal with and may cause more damage to your assets than they fix.
I had purchased a refurbished laptop on Amazon, the same as two others that I own. After the refurbisher's warranty expired, the hard drive crashed. Fortunately, I had recently backed up the hard drive image.
Problem 1: online, Asurion assumes that purchased laptops were new and that factory warranties still apply, therefore providing no methods to file claims.
Problem 2: Asurion's phone number was difficult to find online.
Compliment: for shipping laptops, Asurion sends a nice box with a novel and robust hinged air bubble sleeve.
On a HP zbook G2 laptop, the hard drive is easily accessible for replacement by moving two sliders, removing the battery, then removing the bottom cover.
Compliment: Asurion was prompt with repairs and shipping.
Problem 3: Upon receipt of my laptop after drive replacement by Asurion, I noticed that they had jammed the sliders that hold the battery and bottom cover.
Problem 4: upon lifting the lid, I saw a nice quality checklist showing that everything was OK but then upon removing that note was shocked to see that they had managed to damage the HP 733688-001 keyboard by somehow removing and losing the pointing stick pad, which proved their quality checklist was meaningless by not catching this glaring problem.
Observation: Asurion installs Microsoft Windows in such way as to prevent normal booting. Upon power up, you are immediately forced into setting up Microsoft Windows, whichever version they choose for you.
Again, I had to do research to find Asurion's phone number to complain about the damage they created to the keyboard (top) when they replaced the hard drive (bottom). Again, I sent my laptop across the country and waited for Asurion to fix the new problem that they created.
Observation: upon receiving my laptop back from Asurion for the second time, there were black plastic fillings the same color as my laptop inside the protective air bubble sleeve. I hope none of these got into the cooling fan or anywhere they could melt then start on fire. Where did they come from? Did they scrape my laptop to fit the keyboard, scrape the keyboard to fit the laptop, or drop some random plastic fillings from the floor into the sleeve out of spite? At this point, the laptop should not be powered on until the internals are thoroughly checked.
Problem 5: the top cover of my laptop now has multiple scratches on it.
Problem 6: they again jammed the sliders that hold the battery and bottom cover.
Problem 7: I was shocked but not surprised anymore to see that they had now replaced the HP 733688-001 backlit pointing stick keyboard that they damaged with an inferior aftermarket one that had painted dots in place of the NumLock and CapsLock indicator lights. In addition, the inferior replacement keyboard was installed sloppily with not all of the internal clips locked in, so that it was wavy. Of course, there was a new meaningless quality checklist on it telling me everything was OK. This situation reeks of incompetence and is not yet resolved.
Upon my third call to Asurion, I was asked to send my laptop back to their technicians. I expressed wariness about what new surprises may occur next and was told that their ambassadors would be calling me.
Summary: $5 was wasted on buying the Asurion add-on warranty from Amazon, then by using Asurion instead of replacing a $50 hard drive myself, time has been wasted, I have been unable to use my laptop as intended, my laptop's top cover is scratched thanks to Asurion, and I have now spent an additional $150 on a new HP 733688-001 keyboard to replace the one they damaged then replaced with an inferior one.
I hope my experience with Asurion is not typical of their service.