Does Sprint want me to go elsewhere?

[Randman]

I've been with sprint since '99, and am out of contract. My last plan was 3 lines (me, my wife and my father in law, who rarely uses the phone), 550 Fair and Flexible = $55 - 15% loyalty - 18% employee discount = $38.00 before taxes and additonal profit, I mean, fees (no text, no power vision, no nothing extra). Of course, I lost the 15% when the new billing system went in, but they credited me the $ amount to cover the rest of the contract.

Today, we were talking about different options. Retention eventually offered me $300 up front credit no matter what plan I re-upped on, and then finally offered to credit the rebate if i got two Instincts. That's it. No further discounts on the plan (going from $38.00 to over $150 for the 3 lines if we got Instincts), no discounts on phones, nothing. Just the $300 right away.

If I go with a blackberry or Instinct, and have to pay a lot more for the plan, seems I should at least get a proportional discount to the % I had before. The $300 upfront would only be an 8.3% discount on the Instinct plan.

Is this as good as I'm going to get? Any ideas/ suggestions? These last 2 years have been very aggrevating with Sprint, and I'm not above walking away.

[Dan]

I've been with sprint since '99, and am out of contract. My last plan was 3 lines (me, my wife and my father in law, who rarely uses the phone), 550 Fair and Flexible = $55 - 15% loyalty - 18% employee discount = $38.00 before taxes and additonal profit, I mean, fees (no text, no power vision, no nothing extra). Of course, I lost the 15% when the new billing system went in, but they credited me the $ amount to cover the rest of the contract.

Today, we were talking about different options. Retention eventually offered me $300 up front credit no matter what plan I re-upped on, and then finally offered to credit the rebate if i got two Instincts. That's it. No further discounts on the plan (going from $38.00 to over $150 for the 3 lines if we got Instincts), no discounts on phones, nothing. Just the $300 right away.

If I go with a blackberry or Instinct, and have to pay a lot more for the plan, seems I should at least get a proportional discount to the % I had before. The $300 upfront would only be an 8.3% discount on the Instinct plan.

Is this as good as I'm going to get? Any ideas/ suggestions? These last 2 years have been very aggrevating with Sprint, and I'm not above walking away.

You want the instinct, the only sprint phone that REQUIRES a plan change. Choose a phone that lets you keep your current plan, or deal with the "new" sprint.

The days of wheeling and dealing on new phones and building super cheap plans are over with sprint. You get the standard 22 month "new" customer pricing and any applicable contract renewal offers that sprint has for you, such as a $50 service credit for renewing your agreement. Was the $300 an incentive above and beyond new customer pricing or was that the offer of the standard $150 rebate X2 new phones?

[Randman]

The $300 was a one time credit if I renewed. Then, I could go to a store and get phones, and would have to renew again with them. So, retention was simply giving me money, and then when I got the phones, the store would renew my contract again a 2nd time.

[ImNoPrince7]

Yes I do believe that Sprint either wants you to go to their new Higher priced Plans or Leave.

I have no problem with that it's business. It's good they offered you the up front money but have you looked around else where to see what you can get 3 lines for.

Good Luck but I thinks it's time to Pay to Play with all the big carriers now with times the way they are.

P.S. you could still just keep your plans and get different phones as suggested above.

[JoJoMeXi]

hmm... i'll try to explain how things work. with the instinct, theres virtually NOTHING we can do on a simply everything plan to give discounts over such a plan (just the simply everything, not the other everything plans). and unfortunately, if you go with a blackberry, they are the ONLY device on sprint that REQUIRES A DIFFERENT TYPE of data plan to use their data features. treos and all other smart/dumb phones use either POWER VISION or VISION (for older phones). blackberries actually do have their own type of data plans, regardless if youve gotten a power vision or vision to somehow work on a BB or not. if you want to switch to a phone that doesnt require a special data plan or a specific voice/data plan, go with anything that isnt an instinct or blackberry. im waiting for the touch pro personally :)

[bearxor]

Either buy your phones outright and have the ESN swapped (but not Instinct or BlackBerry's) or walk away. Sprint basically told me to walk away when they wouldn't approve me for a third line for an Airave just so I could actually use my phone in my house. The rep basically told me that if I wanted good service in my house, that I would have to go with a different carrier and then once my line was closed, they could add a Airave to the account for my wife.

My wife and I both ended up switching to AT&T, but I kept her SERO line because it's only $24/mo for a EVDO Modem.

[texasholdem]

I was with sprint since '98. In early '07, I was OOC and tried to negotiate, but they practically blacklisted me after 2 calls and wouldn't offer me squadoosh to enter another contract.

Luckily SERO was available 3 months ago. I created a brand new a/s under spouse's name and xferred my numbers over to SERO.

It does seem like Sprint treats really really old customers like sh.t. 3-5 yr customers get better treatment.

altho SERO is no longer available, you could consider coming in and negotiating as a new customer and shut down your old account (if you get a deal). your numbers can be transferred via a pre-paid service such as go-phone.

[bearxor]

I was with sprint since '98. In early '07, I was OOC and tried to negotiate, but they practically blacklisted me after 2 calls and wouldn't offer me squadoosh to enter another contract.

Luckily SERO was available 3 months ago. I created a brand new a/s under spouse's name and xferred my numbers over to SERO.

It does seem like Sprint treats really really old customers like sh.t. 3-5 yr customers get better treatment.

altho SERO is no longer available, you could consider coming in and negotiating as a new customer and shut down your old account (if you get a deal). your numbers can be transferred via a pre-paid service such as go-phone.

indeed. I have used sprint since 98 and had this account since 2002. Kind of sad leaving sprint, really.

[sagamore]

In May, my contract was expiring and I asked the rep if I renewed, would the cost of my plan (5 lines, $110 + 3*10, with discounts of 20%, 5%, and 5%) remain the same. The rep said yes. I renewed the next month and afterwards, like many others, found those discounts suddenly disappearing. Overall, since May my bill has increased 12% from what it's been for the last two years. I've called to ask what's going on and to remind Sprint what the rep said about the cost remaining the same, but the response has been either 1) "we have no record of our rep saying that" or 2) "the rep was right, the cost of the plan has not changed, but the discounts are no longer available".

I've been with Sprint for about 9 years and have felt good about it, referring friends, etc. But I don't feel that way any more. I wish that I had not re-upped in June. Where do people tend to go when the leave Sprint, and what have you heard about how that has worked out for them?

[Randman]

Ok, so I did re-sign for 2 more years with $print. Here's what I got.

2 Instincts - $129 each, no rebate.
1 Samsung M220 - $0 (for father in law who only needs most basic phone).
$300 service credit
No activation fees
1500 minute TMD Plan - $130
Add a phone $20
$10 credit each month (to lower cost of father in law plan)
18% company discount
Removal of some fees on current bill (data I never used, but they tried to bill me for).

So, not that greatest deal, but it meant I got the Instincts for free, and a small discount of each months bill. Better than going in new with another company.

[chilidogtampa]

just keep your eye on the calendar, you have 30 days and ive seen more than a few posts about people wishing they dumped their instincts... maybe the math is gonna sink in that you just more than doubled your bill for a couple of phones that have been described as "buggy", "disappointing", and worse...

[djenn]

That is pretty amazing ... I didn't realize you could stack your 18% discount with a $10 per month recurring credit. I was originally told that story and was laughed out of retentions when I tried to confirm that plan :( Everything has been downhill since then and Sprint clearly doesn't give a crap if I go elsewhere.