Geezer Gamers - Is SquareTrade For Real? A Geezer’s Account

For Christmas last year, my daughter (whom some of you know as ShadowMedic93, the Kid Formerly Known as SomeShadow), who has a penchant for acquisition and takeover of her mothers gamertags, wanted her own 360. Being the good and decent father that I am, and one that immediately recognized the benefit of not straining to play split screen on a T.V. with a little girl wiggling her toes in her father face while he tries to snipe at her teammates, I talked my wife into this being a good gift for her.

Now I’m also an underpaid firefighter/paramedic who works for a small fire district in rural suburbia (yes that is now a real place and not an oxymoron). I immediately began my study of Ebay and the onslaught of refurbished systems on sale for the holidays. Most offered only the 30-day standard guarantee. This means that they know it’s going to take 30 days for those red rings to warm up anyway, so they’re fine offering only 30 days. Being on my third 360 of my own, and being a fortunate Best Buy warranty owner, I needed to have some sort of protection. I had a killer deal for a “Pro” system at $199.00, but I simply had a feeling that it was going to be a brick at some point and Microsoft would laugh at me.

I had seen the SquareTrade logo multiple times on Ebay and felt that it was another way to get a few dollars from me. I really hadn’t researched it that much, but that day I needed it to be real. I read everything I could on SquareTrade (ST). “Not just Ebay Listings!”. They’ll warranty items you buy from your own store. You just have to call and get the warranty after you buy it. “No hassle”. “Customer Focused”. Every other bullet point made me cringe. “Why isn’t everyone using it then?” I mumbled to myself. Surely there were catches but I was running out of time, and needed something. I figured I’d fight it out if need be.

June 1, 2009. Three red rings and a checkerboard screen. At least hers died just like my others did. My confidence in the ST warranty was such that I immediately called MS to see if I could just send it to them, but I was laughed at and sent on my way. After a few cries to the gaming gods about why Microsoft had forsaken me once again, I pulled up my confirmation email from ST. Here we go…

I filled out my claim online, and was given a claim number and instructions to ship it back to them. They would then take a look at it and decide whether to approve my claim or not. “Aha! That’s the catch! You dirty %$^#&*’s are going to take this box, deny the claim, and leave me with a dead box!” I was concerned. I had tied a few dollars back into this thing with a new copy of H3, all of the maps to date, and several Arcade titles. I decided the issue warranted a human being to at least tell me that I was out the money, and my kid her Christmas gift.

I reach ST customer service, and I am immediately connected with a young man who couldn’t have sounded cheerier. He looked up my claim and reiterated what the email had already said. “Well here we go…” I thought to myself. I implored him, is there a place where I can take it locally to have it looked at? My kid has her hard drive filled with all manner of songs, DLC, videos, and other things that cost money and made my wife wonder why the hell I talked her into this. Then Mr. ST said the most amazing thing. “Just keep your hard drive, and send the rest back. Then when we approve your claim, and we will, take the $200.00 and go…” I already knew the rest myself as I had already thought it. I’ll just go buy a NEW arcade system for her, and she’ll have the 60gig HDD to put on it. ST customer service defused me without me saying anything, addressed the problem immediately, paid for the shipping to return the item to them, and I had my claim paid out back to my Paypal account within 7 days of me shipping it back to them. I then did just that, and she got a new system.

SquareTrade in my experience is a great value, and a valued service. You literally can buy a warranty for almost anything, from anywhere, and it makes a convenient option to “shop for a warranty”. I do encourage my Geezer family to check it out and see if SquareTrade can help protect you like it did me.

Good luck and good gaming. I’ll see you on the box.

FireMedic41