Return/refund on protection policy

Typically, protection plans can only be returned within the original return period that they were purchased in. If you are returning a product because it is defective and you are outside of the products original return period, a protection plan would be consumed in order to facilitate that return.

Let's use graphics cards as an example. Let's say you purchased a GPU and protection plan and used it for several months. All of a sudden, it starts artifacting/dies out mid-use. Normally your recourse would be to ship it out to the manufacturer for a replacement and wait for a replacement GPU to be available. With a replacement plan, you can bring the card back in for an exchange/gift card for the value of the graphics card. If this occurred during the original return period of the graphics card, you would get a refund on the plan as well, since technically you could just return the entire purchase for a full refund during that time period. If it occurs outside of the return period, the replacement plan is consumed to extend that window and allow that exchange to take place outside of that original timeframe.

It's also important to keep in mind that replacement plans are not "return-extension plans", they exist to add peace of mind for products so consumers do not have to worry about something failing several weeks into their purchase and having to deal with first-party warranty claims.

That said, if you met all of @Ian's criteria above and the return of the replacement plan was still denied, that is something we can look into on your behalf.