Negotiating New Retention Plan

[djenn]

Hi all, I'm new here, so wanted to say hello!

Now for my question, I have been with Sprint for atleast 7 years, maybe longer. I last received a loyalty call sometime in 2005 and added my boyfriend to my contract. We've been on this plan for 3 years:

750 Minutes Shared, N/W Start at 8pm
Free Mobile to Mobile
Free Roaming (Added after complaints of dropped calls)
500 Free Text Msgs/Line (Also added after frequent complaints of dropped calls)
$60.00 - 23% business discount = $51.00/month after taxes

I am FINALLY off of my contract as of June and my phone (no warranty/insurance) is now dying. It works okay except when calling Sprint users, it will drop the signal immediately. My boyfriend is still on his contract until April 2009. I was told if I were to cancel, he would pay $40/month to keep the plan as is and we would take me off the plan.

I was able to call retentions and negotiate the following:

1500 Anytime Minutes, N/W starting at 7pm
Pick 3 (it's back!) for both lines
Unlimited Data
New BlackBerry Curve for me for $49.99
New BlackBerry Pearl for him for $129.99
Waived activation fees
Original Plan = 129.99
-29.90 (My 23% Discount)
-15.00/month (their offer)
= $90/month after taxes

This seems relatively good to me, but I also haven't done much negotiation with them. I do want to stay with Sprint but I have also had VERY VERY bad service with them at times. Now that they are no longer giving money back for call credits and I do not come close to using up my minutes, it's not really worth it to me to stay with them for ~$50/month for the both of our lines when we can't even speak to each other.

We would really like to upgrade phones and the price of $90 seems fair, but could we possibly get better? We have been with Sprint for so LONG and I have no problem signing a contract for another 2 years if the deal is right.

My questions are -- can I get anything else if I upgrade? If so, what might I ask for? (Could I ask for Airrave? If so, how does that work if my boyfriend and I live in different cities - would we be able to get 2 systems and have the monthly fee waived for both lines?) Could I possibly get any additional features of discounts? Once we add insurance/warranty, our bill will be roughly $100 and I'm not sure if that's a great deal anymore.

Any insight from fellow Sprint customers would be awesome.

Thanks in advance!!

[deathorglory]

That's as about as good a deal as you're gonna get. I'd take it.

[spazticrecords]

Thats a really good deal considering your getting 1500 AT mins, and 2 blackberry services for $90 bucks and your getting the curve for dirt cheap. Plus, if I'm reading right your getting a stacked discount which is almost impossible. What kind of plan is it, an older share plan or newer share plan they offered you?

[James2012]

It sounds like a good deal... but do you need all those minutes?

If you don't go over your minutes at all currently, maybe what I have may work better. I dropped my 1500 to a 700 plan that became effective yesterday because we don't go over 700 minutes. Most reps may tell you this plan doesn't exist, but maybe you can try to be persistent and talk to a supervisor or something.

Powerpack for Family 700 - $69.99/month
2 lines included
PCS to PCS, Roaming
7PM free - Add 6PM for $5/line
Pick 3 (GET IT NOW - even if you don't swap plans, add it before it "expires")
By doing this, you should also be able to keep your free texts as well. Then you would have to worry about the BB data plan add-ons, etc.

The other option is to keep your current plan and ask to add 6PM nights option (hopefully as $5/line) since it'll be cheaper than the Powerpack Family 700.

Otherwise... if you need the minutes, etc... you won't find much of a better deal elsewhere, unfortunately.


Hi all, I'm new here, so wanted to say hello!

Now for my question, I have been with Sprint for atleast 7 years, maybe longer. I last received a loyalty call sometime in 2005 and added my boyfriend to my contract. We've been on this plan for 3 years:

750 Minutes Shared, N/W Start at 8pm
Free Mobile to Mobile
Free Roaming (Added after complaints of dropped calls)
500 Free Text Msgs/Line (Also added after frequent complaints of dropped calls)
$60.00 - 23% business discount = $51.00/month after taxes

I am FINALLY off of my contract as of June and my phone (no warranty/insurance) is now dying. It works okay except when calling Sprint users, it will drop the signal immediately. My boyfriend is still on his contract until April 2009. I was told if I were to cancel, he would pay $40/month to keep the plan as is and we would take me off the plan.

I was able to call retentions and negotiate the following:

1500 Anytime Minutes, N/W starting at 7pm
Pick 3 (it's back!) for both lines
Unlimited Data
New BlackBerry Curve for me for $49.99
New BlackBerry Pearl for him for $129.99
Waived activation fees
Original Plan = 129.99
-29.90 (My 23% Discount)
-15.00/month (their offer)
= $90/month after taxes

This seems relatively good to me, but I also haven't done much negotiation with them. I do want to stay with Sprint but I have also had VERY VERY bad service with them at times. Now that they are no longer giving money back for call credits and I do not come close to using up my minutes, it's not really worth it to me to stay with them for ~$50/month for the both of our lines when we can't even speak to each other.

We would really like to upgrade phones and the price of $90 seems fair, but could we possibly get better? We have been with Sprint for so LONG and I have no problem signing a contract for another 2 years if the deal is right.

My questions are -- can I get anything else if I upgrade? If so, what might I ask for? (Could I ask for Airrave? If so, how does that work if my boyfriend and I live in different cities - would we be able to get 2 systems and have the monthly fee waived for both lines?) Could I possibly get any additional features of discounts? Once we add insurance/warranty, our bill will be roughly $100 and I'm not sure if that's a great deal anymore.

Any insight from fellow Sprint customers would be awesome.

Thanks in advance!!

[James2012]

Interesting thing is, according to a rep I spoke to, $$$ credit codes aren't considered stacking. Now... Loyalty percentage discount plus NVP discount is considered stacking. How stupid... So I lost my 10%/month.

I currently have 21% company discount plus $20/monthly discount. I was so happy when I also had the 10% to boot. :weeping:

And the fun thing is, the nice rep told me that my discounts don't expire until 2098... My plan will turn into an heirloom. :hee:

Thats a really good deal considering your getting 1500 AT mins, and 2 blackberry services for $90 bucks and your getting the curve for dirt cheap. Plus, if I'm reading right your getting a stacked discount which is almost impossible. What kind of plan is it, an older share plan or newer share plan they offered you?

[chilidogtampa]

i guess the big question is whether you actually need the extra minutes, the price on the new handsets isnt the point because they can give you just about anthing free if you agree to a 70%-80% plan price increase. I like the looks of your old plan myself.

[Pyramid-3]

Well it's one or the other. For instance I have a 5 line 2100 minute plan less than a year old and it's no longer offered. My options would be 1500 minutes for $20 more or 3000 minutes for $80 month more.

I'm pretty sure that Sprint is going to abandon all shared minute plans soon to push everyone to extremely expensive flat rate 'unlimited' plans. Heck when I see my own plan page on Sprint's website they actually suggest to me that my best option is to spend $490 month to convert all lines over.

[kessler11]

Interesting thing is, according to a rep I spoke to, $$$ credit codes aren't considered stacking. Now... Loyalty percentage discount plus NVP discount is considered stacking. How stupid... So I lost my 10%/month.

I currently have 21% company discount plus $20/monthly discount. I was so happy when I also had the 10% to boot. :weeping:

And the fun thing is, the nice rep told me that my discounts don't expire until 2098... My plan will turn into an heirloom. :hee:

Thats not true as I have 16% and 5% recurring discounts. They play nice and were on last months bill. I just re-upped and have Data as a recurring $15 credit. But I have yet to see a bill for this yet so we will see. I do have it in writing that its free and I get to keep all my discounts from eCare.

[James2012]

I think it's a consensus here... If you have it, you're under the radar and you're one of the lucky ones. Many of us got them nixed when the migration happened or something. Congrats to you though... I'm jealous.

Thats not true as I have 16% and 5% recurring discounts. They play nice and were on last months bill. I just re-upped and have Data as a recurring $15 credit. But I have yet to see a bill for this yet so we will see. I do have it in writing that its free and I get to keep all my discounts from eCare.

[djenn]

Thanks for your input everyone.

I just called CS and got the bad news that the discounts were not stackable and the CSR I spoke to before was wrong :icon_smil

They couldn't offer me anything except for $40 off the price of the Pearl.

I asked them about Airrave which she said could be waived but the system was down, so I would have to call back when I made a final decision.

So besides getting discounts on the phones, it doesn't seem like they are offering much (besides maybe Airrave, not sure) ... which really sucks :[

Regarding minutes, 700/750 may be adequate but if we both had BB phones, wouldn't we need to pay for more than just the standard data pack (which rules out paying for the $69.99 plan mentioned above)?

Where to proceed at this point?

[James2012]

Thanks to your post/heads up - I just managed to add Pick 3 to the rest of my lines FINALLY... Waived monthly fees and just required a 1yr contract, which she said doesn't matter since my current plan is to expire a year from now. :hee:

Anyway...

Can't hurt to ask - I'll betcha that adding BB's to your current plan, adding Pick 3 to both lines, and doing 6PM nights will be better for you. Just say, not ask, you want 6PM for $5/line. Since you're at 8PM and still under your 700 minutes, I'll bet you that changing it to 6PM will give you even more unused minutes.



Thanks for your input everyone.

I just called CS and got the bad news that the discounts were not stackable and the CSR I spoke to before was wrong :icon_smil

They couldn't offer me anything except for $40 off the price of the Pearl.

I asked them about Airrave which she said could be waived but the system was down, so I would have to call back when I made a final decision.

So besides getting discounts on the phones, it doesn't seem like they are offering much (besides maybe Airrave, not sure) ... which really sucks :[

Regarding minutes, 700/750 may be adequate but if we both had BB phones, wouldn't we need to pay for more than just the standard data pack (which rules out paying for the $69.99 plan mentioned above)?

Where to proceed at this point?

[djenn]

I'm confused, do I need a "BB plan" for $30/month each line? So far we are paying $60 pre-discount so adding $60 to our plan would take us pretty darn close to $129 for unlimited data usage and 750 more minutes.

I think the 2nd or 3rd CSR (I had a dropped call once and had to talk to a new CSR) was telling me she could comp me Vision if I didn't get a BB but since I wanted a BB, that pretty much sealed the deal at a $129 plan.

I really wish the coupons were still stackable!

BTW I'm glad my post helped you get your Pick 3, I actually should have negotiated that they added that while we were still making a decision to keep vs. cancel!

Thanks to your post/heads up - I just managed to add Pick 3 to the rest of my lines FINALLY... Waived monthly fees and just required a 1yr contract, which she said doesn't matter since my current plan is to expire a year from now. :hee:

Anyway...

Can't hurt to ask - I'll betcha that adding BB's to your current plan, adding Pick 3 to both lines, and doing 6PM nights will be better for you. Just say, not ask, you want 6PM for $5/line. Since you're at 8PM and still under your 700 minutes, I'll bet you that changing it to 6PM will give you even more unused minutes.