Sprint's upgrade fee

MacLeod

Man, I upgraded my cell phone a couple months ago and this month got nailed with a $36 "upgrade fee"! WTF?!?! I called em and bitched and they said, "yeah we started this about December and apparantly the store didnt tell you". She knocked off half of it so I guess I should be thankful for that but still, thats kind of a stupid policy.

Isnt Sprint making enough money that they dont have to penalize their customers beacuse they want a new phone? What a rip off.

Ive been a Sprint customer since 2000 and have always have great service and have never had cause to complain but I think this is kinda crappy.

Anyhoo, just thought Id warn any Sprint customers out there that are planning to upgrade their phones; youll have a "suprise" in the mail 3 months from now.

brettw22

It seems that they're going backwards in terms of pricing, but they all have it. With Verizon, you can only upgrade every 2 years, or you're going to pay "full retail price" to the tule of $400+ for a phone that they're selling daily for $50-100.

On the plan that I have (with Verizon), overage minutes are $.45 that's what they were when cell phones were bricks and were still being carried in satchel bags.

I'm thinking about dropping VZW because of their pricing actually

MacLeod

I cant complain about Sprints pricing at all. I have 1000 anytime minutes and unlimited minutes with no roaming charges for $55 a month which is pretty good. With the free roaming, I have service virtually anywhere!

Their upgrade plan is pretty good too. After the first year (or 18 months I think) you get $75 instant rebate and after 2 years you get $150 instant rebate.

All in all Sprint has been a great carrier for me. This is actually the first thing Ive had to **** about them in 6 years!

Shizelbs

Sprint and all the other cell phone carriers are making money hands over fist off all of us. They've got us by the balls and they know it.

Toxis

I was with sprint from 00 til this last January. I have never had a good experience with their customer service in that entire time. I've had problems with bills only to have them barely take care of the issue. I hate Cingular and wouldn't go to them for free service and Verizon's new plans were not that impressive IMO. So I went with T-mobile because they have the best priced plans today, not to mention I knew a guy who hooked me up on phone prices. I got two RAZR's (for me and the g/f) for $40 each. A lot better than the $150 they wanted at the time. lol

But the way I see it, there's no good cell phone company now. They all suck, the question is who sucks less?

I-SIG

I'm pretty happy with Sprint/Nextel. For $60 amonth, I'm on the 400 flexible plan with nights starting at 6PM and free Sprint to Sprint minutes. I'm on pay as you go for walkie talkie stuff now, but have too many relatives that use the walkie talkie too much for me to give it up.

CS has been great for me with Nextel. I think it make sa huge difference if you actually go to a store and talk to someone in person.

Wes

Early B.

MacLeod wrote:

I cant complain about Sprints pricing at all.

Their upgrade plan is pretty good too. After the first year (or 18 months I think) you get $75 instant rebate and after 2 years you get $150 instant rebate.

Sprint is horrible. What you're saying MacLeod is that Sprint overcharges its customers so much that they can give customers a portion of the excess profits back to them. That's absurd.

I just dropped Sprint after having them since 1998. My experience is similar to Toxis -- they had horrible customer service the whole time and charged too much money, especially for their phones.

By all means, everyone should avoid Sprint.

candyliquor35m

T-Mobile rarely advertises its 3000 anytime minutes for $49 plan but they've had it for at least 5 years. It doesn't include long distance tho except maybe a few states close to you which was 6 states when I signed up. I've upgraded phones every year for free except last year it was $20 with a $20 rebate (basically free). By upgrading I mean the latest bare bones basic nokia. With taxes and everything, I pay about $60 a month.

Toxis

I need free long distance though. So I'm doing the 1500 anytime, free nights/weekends deal for $50. I'll take it.

BTW, T-mobile has free upgrade (or $150 off) every year. Money!

Shizelbs

Toxis wrote:

I need free long distance though. So I'm doing the 1500 anytime, free nights/weekends deal for $50. I'll take it.

BTW, T-mobile has free upgrade (or $150 off) every year. Money!

VOIP my friend, VOIP.

MacLeod

Early B. wrote:

Sprint is horrible. What you're saying MacLeod is that Sprint overcharges its customers so much that they can give customers a portion of the excess profits back to them. That's absurd.

Whats absurd is how the hell you got that out of what I said? Sprint's prices are among the lowest on the market with the biggest coverage plan and it has really good rebates also. How is that anywhere near what you came up with?

Customer service has always been good for me. When I called to **** today, I got straight thru with virtually no holding time and within 30 seconds she had cut my fee in half. Works for me.

I just hate that theyre getting into this fee grabbing crap by tacking on fees for buying new phones. This does signal a trend that theyre getting too big for their britches.

Sami

Toxis wrote:

I got two RAZR's (for me and the g/f) for $40 each. A lot better than the $150 they wanted at the time. lol

Yep, I got T-mobile service as well and the RAZR was free. The phone sucks IMHO so I wouldn't pay $150 for one. It's a nice mechanical design but horrible GUI and RF doesn't seem to be that good either.

bknauss

I-SIG wrote:

I'm pretty happy with Sprint/Nextel. For $60 amonth, I'm on the 400 flexible plan with nights starting at 6PM and free Sprint to Sprint minutes. I'm on pay as you go for walkie talkie stuff now, but have too many relatives that use the walkie talkie too much for me to give it up.

CS has been great for me with Nextel. I think it make sa huge difference if you actually go to a store and talk to someone in person.

Wes

That sounds like a horrible plan for the money. I assume the 400 min are anytime, and you get free nights/weekends which start earlier than most services. When I had my own plan (not the family with the little lady), I had I believe 600 anytime and free nights and weekends for $50 with T-mobile.

exalted512

Ive had sprint for the last few years because i like their phones. I had a samsung with one of the best interfaces ive seen on a cell phone. Everything was extremely simple and very convenient.

I now have Cingular as of about a week ago. Plan is better, I get better coverage than with sprint. I got the SLVR for $100, very sleek, good looking phone. Interface leaves much to be desired. I use my cell phone for many different things, unfortunately with this phone it takes me a while to get through the menus whereas my old phone i could navigate through all the menus easily using the number pad. I cant do that with this phone. It has the quick launch buttons like most do, unfortunately it doesnt have enough to go to all the functions i utilize my phone for in a smooth manner. Its not horrible, just an inconvenience. Im sure as I have the phone more ill get quicker at it, but having numbers assigned to different menus/functions is much easier. Blue tooth technology is awesome though, granted its not limited to cingular, but im getting a lot of use out of it. The pictures it takes are really dark which is a big downfall about this phone because I use it a lot, but o-well.

I do have a question though, does Sprint offer phones with SIM cards? I dont think they do, which is a major downfall IMO. If they do, I'm pretty sure they dont have many phones that use them.
-Cody

Sami

exalted512 wrote:

I do have a question though, does Sprint offer phones with SIM cards? I dont think they do, which is a major downfall IMO. If they do, I'm pretty sure they dont have many phones that use them.
-Cody

Sprint PCS is a CDMA service and do not use SIM cards (they are only used for GSM networks)

I-SIG

exalted512 wrote:

I do have a question though, does Sprint offer phones with SIM cards? I dont think they do, which is a major downfall IMO. If they do, I'm pretty sure they dont have many phones that use them.
-Cody

My Nextel i560 has a SIM card even though it works on an iDEN network. It's nice to just swap the cards from phone to phone.

Wes

joeparaski

I think I have the BEST cell phone plan of all....I got rid of the damn thing. Now I use a land line to get my messages. Now I can put the volume up in the car without worrying that I won't hear or feel the phone ringing. Now I'm not interrupted at work when I'm with a customer. Now I don't curse cuz I lost or signal or the battery died. And best of all, NOW I'm saving a ton of money every month.

Sami

My plan: free, unlimited whenever minutes with free international calls and int. roaming. My "service agreement" is about to end as I am leaving Nokia at the end of the month.

Tour2ma

After my year with Sprint and nil for a signal strength at home, Verizon has been a Godsend.

MacLeod

bknauss wrote:

That sounds like a horrible plan for the money. I assume the 400 min are anytime, and you get free nights/weekends which start earlier than most services. When I had my own plan (not the family with the little lady), I had I believe 600 anytime and free nights and weekends for $50 with T-mobile.

Yeah, that doesnt sound right. Im getting 1000 anytime minutes with unlimited night and weekends, nationwide long distance and free roaming and Im only paying $55 a month.

PhantomOG

Tour2ma wrote:

After my year with Sprint and nil for a signal strength at home, Verizon has been a Godsend.

Verizon is expensive but no one in my area comes close as far as signal strength. Their upgrade plan isn't too bad, especially considering most of their phones are pretty well built. New Every 2 gets you $100 off the new customer 2-year pricing, but you can also pay the new customer 2-year pricing after just one year.

BIZILL

sprint is the devil. but i keep locking myself into contracts with them.:rolleyes: actually, all cell phone companies have their ups and downs. i'm a bit of a cell company ****. they've all left me with sour tastes in my mouth at one time or another. but they continue to earn my money. go figure.

PhantomOG

BIZILL wrote:

but they continue to earn my money. go figure.

well for as much as people try to portray cell phones as this huge evil, they are a very convenient thing to have. i almost always have a cell phone with me--not so people can reach me, but it is extremely convenient being able to make a phone call whenever and wherever I happen to be. Not to mention a nice thing to have in case of emergencies. Everyone always **** about not wanting to get calls all the time... well, a) turn it off b) put it on silent alert c) don't give out your phone number to every Tom, Dick and Harry that you don't want bothering you.

Its also a great comfort to know my loved ones can reach me almost anytime instantly. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

MacLeod

I love cell phones. I used to make fun of people with them but now I couldnt imagine going out without one! Ive gotten so used to being able to call anyone anytime or never being out of touch. Actually I think the cell phone is the most important invention of the 20th century. I mean look at all the things you can do with one now and imagine what you will be able to do with them in 20 years!

Toxis

I remember 9 years ago (when I was 17) and I begged to get one. My parents said no but it was my father who decided to let me get one so I can learn some responsibility. I can honestly say it worked. "I have how much to pay this month? Awe dammit!" Well, I have gone maybe 5 months in the past 9 years without a cell phone. I love them but I just can't find a company I'm even 80% pleased with (I haven't been with T-mobile long enough to give them a thumbs up or down yet).

danger boy

i like that i have Cingular.. and their rollover minutes.. it's saved me from going over on my minutes a few months. Where other plans if you don't use them you lose them.

kingsqueak

I've had little trouble with the actual cell service and coverage from Sprint so I've stuck with them for the last six years.

However, they are total ripoff artists with record low customer service levels.

They owe me $300 for over a year now for their phone upgrade rebate scam. I'd never used it until this point. They keep making excuses that this step or that step was skipped or that I never sent in this piece of information or other. I sent it all in, some of it twice. They hire specialist rebate firms to handle the process and string you along until you give up.

The only reason I upgraded our phones was that they were nearly free with the rebate, they stuck me with them. I'll likely leave them at the end of the contract.

tonyb

When Sprint and Nextel did the merge thing ,they got even worse.I upgraded the package on one of my phones and was told that automatically extends the contract date.WTF IS THAT?:mad:

brettw22

King, don't get suckered into thinking that it makes more sense to stay with a company (however many months left x monthly feees) than to pay the early termination and kick them.......

kingsqueak

Yeah, but friends with Verizon which seems to be the only other choice for solid national coverage and NYC metro coverage have almost equal complaints.

It's not like I'm jumping at the bit to change over, I've been cornered more or less. Sprint stole from me, unless I sue them I'll never see the money again and my alternative is as bad as they are from what anyone I know has said.

Toxis

here's what I had to do to get my $150 from them. I went into my local Sprint store and told them my story of how they never sent me my rebate (sound familiar?). The guy said he can't take $150 off a new phone because I hadn't hit the 2 year mark (11 months at the time) so they gave me a $150 credit on my account (which had no balance) and said I will have to just buy a new phone at full price but at least I got my $150 off my account. So after that, I left and switched to t-mobile. Two weeks later, I got a check in the mail for.......$150. I was shocked that I had to leave sprint to get my damn money. I only wanted them to give me $150 off a new phone and I would've gave them 2 more years of service (on top of the 4.5 years I've already been there) but they didn't want to do that so oh well. I got my money finally and switched away from a horrible company. No complaints here now!!!