human ingenuity and laptop insurance
I'm going to be leaving the country for a week soon (very soon, this Saturday. eek!) for a conference. Somehow a whole group of us tricked Yale into thinking it necessary to send us to a conference in Argentina. The downside? It's entirely in Spanish. Except for the parts that are in Portuguese. Uh oh.
Anyways, I decided to a be a real responsible adult (about 10 minutes ago) and bought insurance for my laptop so that I don't have a heart attack at any point during the trip. I receive my confirmation email whose first line is "Congratulations". I bought the insurance. What accomplishment am I being congratulated on? Maybe correctly entering in my credit card number.
Attached to gratuitous congratulatory email is the contract. Ay, there's the a rub. A basically worthless low-coverage insurance I bought online in two minutes and that was signed by no one has a 7-page contract. I apparently entered into it sometime after pressing the "submit" button. What can one possibly say about this insurance for seven pages?
Well, it starts out defining such obscure terms as "you", "your", "we", "us" and "our". After this insult to the reader the entire contract, which mentions the word "loss" at least thirty times, feels the need to do so only in quotes. Yes, "your "loss" " and "in case of "loss" you...". Apparently losses aren't real they are only hypothesized. And sarcastically at that.
The contract ends with another helpful set of definitions including "falling objects", "flood" and "sinkhole collapse". In the interim I was told that I am not insured in the case of nuclear hazards, government action and calendar date recognition problems. Because Y2K might yet hit late.
I am trying to imagine how many hundreds of dollars went to lawyers to write this shining example of human intelligence.
Anyways, I decided to a be a real responsible adult (about 10 minutes ago) and bought insurance for my laptop so that I don't have a heart attack at any point during the trip. I receive my confirmation email whose first line is "Congratulations". I bought the insurance. What accomplishment am I being congratulated on? Maybe correctly entering in my credit card number.
Attached to gratuitous congratulatory email is the contract. Ay, there's the a rub. A basically worthless low-coverage insurance I bought online in two minutes and that was signed by no one has a 7-page contract. I apparently entered into it sometime after pressing the "submit" button. What can one possibly say about this insurance for seven pages?
Well, it starts out defining such obscure terms as "you", "your", "we", "us" and "our". After this insult to the reader the entire contract, which mentions the word "loss" at least thirty times, feels the need to do so only in quotes. Yes, "your "loss" " and "in case of "loss" you...". Apparently losses aren't real they are only hypothesized. And sarcastically at that.
The contract ends with another helpful set of definitions including "falling objects", "flood" and "sinkhole collapse". In the interim I was told that I am not insured in the case of nuclear hazards, government action and calendar date recognition problems. Because Y2K might yet hit late.
I am trying to imagine how many hundreds of dollars went to lawyers to write this shining example of human intelligence.