Avoid at all cost, if you value your phone's warranty
I made the mistake of changing from the amazing CoverCloud to i-Digital to try to save a couple of pounds and this has now cost me my warranty on my Samsung S21. Back in August 2021, I had to do a claim with i-Digital to have my broken phone screen replaced and I asked i-Digital if I can use an official Samsung authorised company to replace my screen as it was under warranty. With my previous insurance with CoverCloud they would let me get a quote from Samsung and authorise the repair to ensure my warranty is intact. I-Digital however said they do not allow this and that they use their own approved repair companies only, so I proceed with their process. Roll forwards 9 months and my phone camera has been gradually failing, randomly at 1st (about 5 months after the i-Digital repair), but now every time, so I contacted Samsung to do a warranty repair as it is clearly a hardware issue. Last week Samsung came over and said the phone was repaired by an unauthorised company and that they can't repair the camera because the company that i-Digital used was not authorised and my warranty is now voided. They also noted that the repair was of bad quality, which is likely the root cause of the issue with the camera hardware. They said that when they replaced the screen, they re-flashed the device and the seal was not replaced with a new seal and the old one was not put back properly. Also they said the battery was not replaced as they would do. Samsung repair kindly re-sealed my phone and gave it back. Following this, I contacted i-Digital to ask them about this and ask for a solution. They called me and noted that it's in their small print that they may (I can pretty much guarantee that they will) break your phone warranty and that their repairs are under warranty with them for 3 months only. So all I can do is another claim, using their own repair company and pay another excess, which I'm unwilling to do given the state of the 1st repair by their own repair company. Steer clear of this insurance company. Their working practices are unethical, given the high cost of these devices and the risk it puts on your phone warranty. At the time of purchasing their insurance, they do not make it clear of the risks their repair process puts on your device's warranty. Neither do they use companies that actually know how to repair a phone to the same standard and quality as an authorised company, with shoddy workmanship and risk of breaking other parts of the phone (my camera in this case). For me, I'm now raising an official complaint with the Insurance - Financial Ombudsman Service (I-FOS) as all comms were done via email I have a full history of my claim and have good grounds to ask the I-FOS to look into the company's claims and practices, lack of marketing clarity about their repair policies and to ask them to look into having my phone warranty intact again, either through a like for like phone replacement or approving a Samsung authorised repair to repair the camera. Fingers crossed