As rumors about Apple's AirTags ramp up, AirTag competitor Tile is planning to launch a new "Premium Protect" service that will provide up to $1,000 to reimburse customers who subscribe for their lost items.
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Tile already has a premium plan that provides Smart Alerts when an item is left behind, free replacement batteries each year, and 30-day location history, but the $30 subscription service (per year) does not include item reimbursement.
As highlighted by Engadget, the Premium Protect service will cost $100 a year and will offer all of the same features as the premium service, but with the promise of up to $1,000 if Tile can't help users locate a lost item within seven days.
Premium Protect will cover Tile trackers as well as items that have built-in Tile tracking features like SkullCandy earbuds and the HP Elite Dragonfly laptop, with the warranty provided in partnership with warranty company Cover Genius.
Using the feature will require users to sign up, register the associated tile, and take a photo of the item that it is attached to. Tile says that Premium Protect is considered a service warranty on the Tile network rather than an insurance policy on the item.
If the Tile network is able to locate the item but it's unable to be safely retrieved, Tile will not provide reimbursement for the item. If the Tile network can't find the item at all, then it is eligible for replacement. According to Tile, the Tile network is able to find around 90 percent of items that are marked as lost.
Tile CEO CJ Prober told Engadget that Tile is system agnostic, which is a benefit that it offers over Apple's rumored AirTags. "Our customers aren't forced to choose a single platform and are advantaged by Tile being system-agnostic. We work with Android, Apple and other platforms people are already using and want to use to help find their lost stuff," he said.
Tile's Premium Protect service is going to launch in the fall, with current rumors also suggesting that Apple's AirTags could launch before the end of 2020, perhaps alongside the new iPhone 12 models.
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Integrity. Courage. Honor. Respect for the rule of law. Fear of consequences. Conscience. The same things that keep us from shoulder-surfing pin codes at the store, cheating on our taxes, signing bad checks, shoplifting, committing insurance fraud, stealing our neighbors mail. Faith that most responsible members of society will do the same. Like good ole Billy Graham said: When you drive your car over a mountain, do you stop before the top, walk over and check to see if any cars are in your lane? No, you have faith. ?So what prevents a user from signing up for this. Walking their item through a park- then smashing the tile to pieces? The tile won’t work and the user gets a $1000 reimbursement?
This is Marketing 101: misdirect. With Tile, you're still choosing a platform -- the Tile platform. In 1 year, I'm betting the Apple Airtags-aware platform will be far more ubiquitous in the US than the Tile platform.Tile CEO CJ Prober told Engadget that Tile is system agnostic, which is a benefit that it offers over Apple's rumored AirTags. "Our customers aren't forced to choose a single platform and are advantaged by Tile being system-agnostic. We work with Android, Apple and other platforms people are already using and want to use to help find their lost stuff," he said.
It's insurance. Insurance has always been and will always be a money grab predicated on the fact that most people with it never need to use it. This is no different in principle than your car or health insurance.So it’s essentially a money grab if they claim 90% of most items are able to be found, but don’t mention how many of that 90% are actually retrieved (and usable after the fact)?
Insurance companies have made a behemoth of an industry based on risk mitigation and fraud detection. "Up to" a $1000. Tile determines what "up to" means monetarily. Besides, not many scammers are going to shell out $100 for the chance at scamming Tile for up to $1000. The initial $100 investment would curtail most of the lazy scammers. Any scammer more industrious isn't wasting their time for the chance at $1000.So what prevents a user from signing up for this. Walking their item through a park- then smashing the tile to pieces? The tile won’t work and the user gets a $1000 reimbursement?
Hold on. If I lose my crappy car at the mall's parking lot I fully expect to find it mutated into a Ferrari once found with Tile.I don't see it that way. Tile is an item tracker. If you forget where something is, Tile will tell you. That's their only service provided.
If you know where it is but can't get it or it's damaged after you left it behind, your Tile still fulfilled its purpose. If the item can't be located, you lost it because Tile failed, so you can be reimbursed.