I think the gist of the coverage is that traditional insurance policies are sold with the intent to make the insured "whole" after the incident. The new polices don't pretend to do that, they instead pay out a flat fee so the insured have something to "start over" with. Frankly I think it's a better deal for all involved because there is no bickering and lawsuits with either side trying to nickel and dime over something that was lost is actually worth, so long as this is reflected in lower premiums in the real world.
In a way I recently bought insurance very similar to this for a MacBook. The insurance/extended warranty that Apple offered was really expensive, and it covered a lot of things that were unlikely to happen. So I bought an after-market warranty from Upsie that covered most of the same things but their maximum coverage is limited to the cost of what we paid for the MacBook. Sure enough, the dog snagged the cord, pulled it off a desk and it fell and broke the screen. It was over $600 to fix it at Pahoa Tech and Upsie sent us a check for the full amount. Pahoa Tech offered to fix it for half that amount if we agreed to have a non-Apple screen put in, but we passed and had the OG equipment replaced but here's the rub.... If the screen breaks again the policy won't pay another $600+ to fix it because that would exceed what we paid for the unit... but there IS enough left on the coverage to have an aftermarket screen put in. Frankly, I feel "whole" either way, and saved a fortune on the policy.
While I'm on the topic let's discuss the coverage offered by places like eBay and Amazon. I bought a lightweight flexible solar panel back when I was pretty sure the technology wasn't "there" yet, so I paid an extra couple of bucks for the insurance. Sure enough, about 2 years later the panel failed. The panel was about $100 but I had a 50% off coupon. The Asurion or Allstate or whatever policy covers the list price, not the price after coupons. So they paid me $100 for a panel I paid $50 for. They also wanted me to send the panel to them at their expense, which I was happy to do, but the only box I had that was big enough was this gigantic box full of styrofoam etc from a window air conditioner I had just bought. So not only did I get the $100 for a $50 item, UPS came and hauled my garbage away with it. Another one you ask? Okay, buying an SLA battery on eBay and they offer me a 3 year warranty on it for $3.00. What are the chances the battery is going to last 3 years the way I'm cycling it? Practically zero. Sure enough, the battery failed just in time for the policy to cover it. Okay, one more. I bought a smoker and paid for the extended warranty. The "stainless steel" racks that came with it weren't really stainless steel and they disintegrated. I checked with the warranty and they sent me a check to cover replacing the entire unit. Because of the size/weight they didn't want it back and asked me to dispose of it. There was another seller on Amazon that was selling replacement stainless steel racks for that model, so I was able to just buy the racks and continue using the smoker. All of these examples made me feel "whole" even though the coverage was limited to the original listing price. And the last one for real this time... I bought an electronic item that failed and got the reimbursement. But the price had dropped significantly since I bought it. They could have sent me a new unit per the policy but for whatever reason it was cheaper for them to reimburse me the full amount and have me replace it myself and "keep the change".
One last observation on extended warranties. Lets say you're buying multiple of something at the same time. Like 3 solar chargers... One policy will cover any one of those chargers.
In a way I recently bought insurance very similar to this for a MacBook. The insurance/extended warranty that Apple offered was really expensive, and it covered a lot of things that were unlikely to happen. So I bought an after-market warranty from Upsie that covered most of the same things but their maximum coverage is limited to the cost of what we paid for the MacBook. Sure enough, the dog snagged the cord, pulled it off a desk and it fell and broke the screen. It was over $600 to fix it at Pahoa Tech and Upsie sent us a check for the full amount. Pahoa Tech offered to fix it for half that amount if we agreed to have a non-Apple screen put in, but we passed and had the OG equipment replaced but here's the rub.... If the screen breaks again the policy won't pay another $600+ to fix it because that would exceed what we paid for the unit... but there IS enough left on the coverage to have an aftermarket screen put in. Frankly, I feel "whole" either way, and saved a fortune on the policy.
While I'm on the topic let's discuss the coverage offered by places like eBay and Amazon. I bought a lightweight flexible solar panel back when I was pretty sure the technology wasn't "there" yet, so I paid an extra couple of bucks for the insurance. Sure enough, about 2 years later the panel failed. The panel was about $100 but I had a 50% off coupon. The Asurion or Allstate or whatever policy covers the list price, not the price after coupons. So they paid me $100 for a panel I paid $50 for. They also wanted me to send the panel to them at their expense, which I was happy to do, but the only box I had that was big enough was this gigantic box full of styrofoam etc from a window air conditioner I had just bought. So not only did I get the $100 for a $50 item, UPS came and hauled my garbage away with it. Another one you ask? Okay, buying an SLA battery on eBay and they offer me a 3 year warranty on it for $3.00. What are the chances the battery is going to last 3 years the way I'm cycling it? Practically zero. Sure enough, the battery failed just in time for the policy to cover it. Okay, one more. I bought a smoker and paid for the extended warranty. The "stainless steel" racks that came with it weren't really stainless steel and they disintegrated. I checked with the warranty and they sent me a check to cover replacing the entire unit. Because of the size/weight they didn't want it back and asked me to dispose of it. There was another seller on Amazon that was selling replacement stainless steel racks for that model, so I was able to just buy the racks and continue using the smoker. All of these examples made me feel "whole" even though the coverage was limited to the original listing price. And the last one for real this time... I bought an electronic item that failed and got the reimbursement. But the price had dropped significantly since I bought it. They could have sent me a new unit per the policy but for whatever reason it was cheaper for them to reimburse me the full amount and have me replace it myself and "keep the change".
One last observation on extended warranties. Lets say you're buying multiple of something at the same time. Like 3 solar chargers... One policy will cover any one of those chargers.