I recently had the opportunity to interview Stephen Ebbett, President of ProtectYourBubble.com. Protect Your Bubble is a third party gadget insurer (extended warranty provider). We talked about buying an extended warranty. We talked about when you should and shouldn’t buy extended warranties. We also talked about the difference between insurance and warranties.
Why are extended warranties offered for every imaginable gadget and electronics? Why do they seem to be on the rise and offered by every retailer imaginable? Do they deserve the bad rap that they have gotten? Is buying an extended warranty right right you?
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Below is my interview with Stephen Ebbett. My questions are in bold. And his responses are right below each of them. Hope you enjoy!
Tell us a little bit about “ProtectYourBubble,” what is it, what do you offer on the site?
We’re a specialist insurer, and we’re also an insurance company strictly for gadgets such as smart phones, tablets, laptops, and cameras. We offer both insurance and also extended warranties as well.
And we just provide choices to customers of the different options they might be able to buy. One of our competitive advantages is the speed at which we replace your device. So if you lose or break your device, we’ll ship a device out to you so you’ll have a new device the very next day.
Why bubble? What is that a reference?
We’re cognizant that our lives these days they’re very fragile. And particularly when it comes to smart phones, you know, we need to be connected. To a certain extent, our world is quite fragile, kind of this bubble, and it can burst very easily.
And if you’ve ever been away from your smart phone for more than 24 hours, you’ll know what that feels like. So we wanted to kind of have a message that we’re there to we protect your bubble and help you to keep safe. And people seem to like the name.
What’s the percentage of people that buy extended warranties at like the point of sale, versus a third-party like Protect The Bubble?
Thirty to 40% take the kind of point of sale extended warranty and insurance option inside a big box retailer or at a cell phone carrier. And then the after-market solution is there for people who don’t decide to do that.
I think what we’re seeing more and more is that consumers want to do their own research. So they don’t necessarily want to buy these first and only option given to them. They want to be able to shop around, and they want to be able to look at coverage, price, deductible, and service.
Then they can make a decision like they do with so many other things in their lives. They want to have the ability to make an important decision on their own two feet.
Nothing is worse on a vacation than a cancelled flight or really long flight delays. And it’s made even worse by the fact that the airlines often have no requirement to help you out when the delay is because of weather, which is the biggest cause of nasty flight delays.