Consumer columnist and West Hartford resident Harlan Levy has more than 20 years of experience writing stories about everyday experiences that anyone could encounter.

By Harlan Levy

Before I get to my topic of the day – our daughter’s stolen iPhone – and in the wake of the severe Trump tariffs that just went into effect, here are prices of Canadian tomatoes and Mexican avocados at the four main West Hartford supermarkets as of 8/12:

• Big Y: 236-1505. Tomatoes: $3.79/lb. Avocado: 2/$3.00
• Whole Foods: Tomatoes: $3.69. Avocados: $3.49
• Trader Joe’s: Tomatoes $1.29. Avocados: 4/$5.98
• Stop & Shop: No Canadian tomatoes. Avocados: 4/$5.00

I’ll see how the prices are next week, given that Trump often alters his tariffs and/or postpones them. In other words, there’s no certainty in Trump’s economy.

A torturous stolen phone ordeal

The following saga may tax (tariff??) your concentration:

On July 30, our daughter was getting off a New York City bus with her 4-year-old daughter and two toddler friends when she inadvertently left her phone behind. Then someone on the bus pocketed it.

She tracked it all over town via the “Find My” app, until it ended up at a residential address in Queens. Worried about a thief’s possible use of her phone, she enabled the “Lost My iPhone” app, which locks down missing phones and puts a message on the screen giving a number to call if found. She also reported it to the NYC transit authority on the off-chance that the phone would be turned in.

Her phone and those of five other family members are all on my family AT&T plan, so I filed a claim for a free replacement phone. My wife then called Asurion, AT&T’s insurance carrier, which promised a replacement phone within 24 hours. She repeatedly called back because we were all going on a family vacation the next day and our daughter needed a phone. But she was told each time that she had to wait to hear from an adjustor. Finally, I called Asurion myself and was stunned to learn our claim had been rejected “because we had no insurance.”

“Are you kidding???” I exploded. “We’ve always had insurance.” But the Asurion guy said, “No, you don’t,” and told me to call AT&T.

I then spent two hours on the phone with AT&T’s Sebastian, who researched the matter and told me that when I had bought a new iPhone 16 back in April, my insurance – and also that on all five of our other phones – had been canceled without my permission or knowledge, possibly because I had not specifically asked to continue it. (That, in my opinion, is negligence on their part.)

Sebastian said he would see what he could do for us, including possibly getting insurance made retroactive so that we would qualify for a replacement with a $275 deductible.

Sebastian finally said that, beyond what was required, he could give my daughter a credit for $486, the amount she still owed on her old phone, so she could buy a new one to replace it.

The next day, we went to AT&T’s Bishops Corner store and consulted with agent Dave Ma. He said that my daughter could buy either another iPhone 15 Plus or a new iPhone 16 Plus. Both were on sale for $395 – way down from $930. Ma said that customer service had advised him that the insurance plan on the new phone should be able to be used retroactively to cover a claim for the previous stolen phone.

Ma then made sure the $486 credit was in place. Our daughter bought the new $395 16 Plus, and I re-signed us all up for insurance.

The following day, I called AT&T to ask if it would apply retroactive coverage. AT&T rep Charde put me on hold for an excruciatingly long time, then came back to say, “No. Asurion’s rules don’t allow retroactive claims.ʼʼ Arrrggghh!

Our daughterʼs ordeal

Our daughter quickly realized that she could not manage with the 128 GB of storage capacity on her new phone. As a professional musician, she needed the amount of storage on her original phone, 512 GB. She called AT&T to see if a new phone could be shipped to her. Randy said she should first check local stores to see if they had any in stock. My daughter called around and found none available. They had to order one for her, but she had to come in person, because she could not place an order over the phone.

The next day, she went to an AT&T corporate location, only to learn that you have to call AT&T to order a new phone, then surrender the phone you have, and it could take days for a new one to arrive.

She called from the store, making sure they could send a shipping label for the old phone and ship a new one. She was assured that this was possible and left. After she returned to her office, the man she had spoken with called back to apologize. “You have to go to a store,ʼʼ he said. “We can’t process the exchange over the phone.ʼʼ

Completely exasperated and playing what felt like ping-pong with her brain, she was told by a manager that she should just go buy a 512GB phone at an Apple store and return the other one to any AT&T store.

She ordered a very pricey new phone for pick-up that day and made sure to buy AppleCare on top of that. Then she went to return the other phone at an AT&T store, where an agent divulged that she too had experienced this cancellation of insurance when she went in for an upgrade and then been gaslit “from here to kingdom come.ʼʼ Someone had turned off her insurance without her knowledge, and AT&T had taken no responsibility for the mistake, even though she was an employee. Adding insult to injury, my daughter was told she had to pay a $55 restocking fee.

So, even though AT&T was at fault for canceling our insurance, in the end it did nothing to help and sent everyone into a tailspin. At least we got the $486 credit.

This was maddening to live, fatiguing to write, and probably aggravating to read, but now you know what can happen when you don’t buy insurance for your cell phone.

NOTE: I talked with several acquaintances about this, and none had insurance. Good luck to them.

NOTE: If you have a consumer problem, contact me at [email protected] (“Consumer” in subject line), and, with the power of the press, maybe I can help.

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