Sprint keeping Evo's only for non-sprint customers?

[6tr6tr]

HTC Evo 4G Out Of Stock, Unless You're From T-Mobile

AndroidandMe's Nick Gray did some investigative journalism by calling up six different Sprint stores around his area (Minneapolis). They reported from low to zero stock of HTC Evo 4G handsets. Of the three stores that said they were out of stock, he called them back as a T-Mobile customer looking to switch teams. Surprisingly the Sprint reps said that they somehow "found a few in the back", making us think that they had some reserves in the back for new customers.

I HATE this. The phone companies all want loyalty from customers but never give that loyalty back. If you're with a company for years, you get less than someone who's never been with them.

 

[beret9987]

Didn't have that problem with mine.. It's probably not too widespread hopefully but we all know its a fact that new activations look better than upgrades.

 

[gabbott]

Were these actual Sprint corporate stores or third-party Sprint stores? I don't believe Sprint corporate stores would do this. Mine certainly did not on Friday morning as I have my EVO in hand.

 

[jhamilton3#CB]

Is anyone really surprised? It's business.

 

[Gigity]

Given Sprints dreadful recent history, the last thing they can afford to do is tick off any customer.

 

[Ilmater]

I'm an employee, and I only mention that because I don't feel it's right to defend Sprint and act like I'm just another random poster with no stake in it. Clearly, I don't speak for the company, let's get that straight. Obviously it's sad that this would happen at all, and I also would like to know if these were company-owned stores, or just Sprint-branded stores.

But the nature of the beast is this: reps don't make nearly as much money for selling someone an upgrade as selling them a new phone. You can't change that. Nobody in the industry pays their sales reps the same for an upgrade as they do for a new customer. However, from our end, we give customers the same price whether they're new or upgraders, and that's about the best we can do. I might add that while the rest of the industry has a 2-year upgrade policy, we reward our best customers with a full rebate every 12 months. So from that perspective, we clearly do what we can to reward our current customers as well as our new ones.

With that said, any sales rep in any industry is there to make money. It's not at all unbelievable - just sad - that someone would do this so that they can make more money. Sprint certainly doesn't condone or support those kinds of actions. Regardless of where this happened, those are the actions of the people in the store, not Sprint itself.

I actually agree with Gigity: we really want to do everything we can to make all customers happy, so I certainly hate to see that happening. But again, Sprint's loyalty plans are far and away better than anyone else in the US. Verizon basically has nothing. AT&T offers you $50 more than the regular customer after 18 months and $100 more after 24 months, and you don't even get that high of a rebate unless you pay over $99 a month. T-Mobile called their $50 unlimited voice-only plan a loyalty plan, but compare that to our regular $69.99 Any Mobile, Anytime, unlimited text and unlimited data plan and it's not even a good value. Sprint gives a full rebate every year to qualified customers, and 25% off any accessory.

P.S. I'm new here, and I really just joined to take a look at the reactions to the EVO. I'm a Pre user that has grown tired of waiting for HPalm to release new hardware. I'll be making the switch to Android soon myself.

 

[ddunn]

I'm a current customer. I had ZERO problems getting my Evo at all. I walked in, paid my money and poof...new Evo. Sprint corporate store.

 

[kinster02]

Why would any body go to a Sprint store a have to deal with mail in rebates when you have you have choices, BB, RS, WM, etc. Right now wirefly.com has the Evo for $168 with free shipping and some say if you use Bing they are getting additional $50 off. I pre-ordered my from RS 199 - 20 credit and 15% off.

 

[gabbott]

Why would any body go to a Sprint store a have to deal with mail in rebates when you have you have choices, BB, RS, WM, etc. Right now wirefly.com has the Evo for $168 with free shipping and some say if you use Bing they are getting additional $50 off. I pre-ordered my from RS 199 - 20 credit and 15% off.

I went into a Sprint store to get mine because I had mine charged to my bill. When that bill is due is mid July. So I've yet to pay anything out of pocket and by the time the bill is due I should have my rebate back.

I had a great experience at my local corp store picking up my EVO Friday morning. Traded in my moment at that time too for another $90 credit. Yeah I could have sold it on Craigslist for a little more but then deal with the hassle of craigslist. So out of pocket, I am paying about $130 for my EVO.

 

[VKitty]

HTC Evo 4G Out Of Stock, Unless You're From T-Mobile



I HATE this. The phone companies all want loyalty from customers but never give that loyalty back. If you're with a company for years, you get less than someone who's never been with them.

Thats on entirely true... I have been with AT&T for 7+ years, and I get sooo much preferential treatment its makes me cry (happy cry) ::smile::

 

[6tr6tr]

Thank you very much for a well thought out response.

I do understand but at the same time this type of action is making it clear that loyalty is something you'll be "punished" for, and that you'll do better leaving to another company.

And while Sprint does want/need new customers, their biggest problem has been LOSING customers. So I'd think they'd try harder to keep the ones they've got.

Really, Sprint's problems all stem from nextel. Their entire attitude towards customers changed for the worse when they merged and it's only now starting to get better.

I'm an employee, and I only mention that because I don't feel it's right to defend Sprint and act like I'm just another random poster with no stake in it. Clearly, I don't speak for the company, let's get that straight. Obviously it's sad that this would happen at all, and I also would like to know if these were company-owned stores, or just Sprint-branded stores.

But the nature of the beast is this: reps don't make nearly as much money for selling someone an upgrade as selling them a new phone. You can't change that. Nobody in the industry pays their sales reps the same for an upgrade as they do for a new customer. However, from our end, we give customers the same price whether they're new or upgraders, and that's about the best we can do. I might add that while the rest of the industry has a 2-year upgrade policy, we reward our best customers with a full rebate every 12 months. So from that perspective, we clearly do what we can to reward our current customers as well as our new ones.

With that said, any sales rep in any industry is there to make money. It's not at all unbelievable - just sad - that someone would do this so that they can make more money. Sprint certainly doesn't condone or support those kinds of actions. Regardless of where this happened, those are the actions of the people in the store, not Sprint itself.

I actually agree with Gigity: we really want to do everything we can to make all customers happy, so I certainly hate to see that happening. But again, Sprint's loyalty plans are far and away better than anyone else in the US. Verizon basically has nothing. AT&T offers you $50 more than the regular customer after 18 months and $100 more after 24 months, and you don't even get that high of a rebate unless you pay over $99 a month. T-Mobile called their $50 unlimited voice-only plan a loyalty plan, but compare that to our regular $69.99 Any Mobile, Anytime, unlimited text and unlimited data plan and it's not even a good value. Sprint gives a full rebate every year to qualified customers, and 25% off any accessory.

P.S. I'm new here, and I really just joined to take a look at the reactions to the EVO. I'm a Pre user that has grown tired of waiting for HPalm to release new hardware. I'll be making the switch to Android soon myself.

 

[RG129]

They did this with the Pre also. I went to a Sprint corporate store a week after launch, and was told I was #45 and would probably be waiting a week or longer since their daily shipments were so small. Before I left, he asked if I was upgraded or porting over, and said I was porting over from AT&T. Early the next morning, somebody called and said my phone was ready to pickup.

 

[Ilmater]

Thank you very much for a well thought out response.

I do understand but at the same time this type of action is making it clear that loyalty is something you'll be "punished" for, and that you'll do better leaving to another company.

And while Sprint does want/need new customers, their biggest problem has been LOSING customers. So I'd think they'd try harder to keep the ones they've got.

Really, Sprint's problems all stem from nextel. Their entire attitude towards customers changed for the worse when they merged and it's only now starting to get better.

I typed a longer response out, but I think if I keep this short I can help stay on topic. Sprint isn't losing customers at some ridiculous rate. On a percentage basis, we only lose about 2/10ths of a percent more than AT&T or Verizon do every month. However, the reports make it look like we're losing customers because we're not gaining enough to offset our losses. That perception keeps customers away. All we can do now is offer the best prices of anyone in the industry, the best loyalty programs of anyone in the industry, and the best data experience of anyone in the industry and hope that things like this don't happen as much as possible.

Don't let a few reps wanting to make some extra money offset all the good things we have to offer - the best values and the best loyalty programs in the industry, hands down - and make it feel like we're "punishing" our customers. That is simply not the case.

 

[forumsid987]

that site you linked to lies. why do you guys visit it?

 

[mikemsd]

I went to a Sprint Corporate store, no problems getting an Evo on an upgrade. You may have a few bad apples out there, that care more about commission than customers, but I would say it's in the minority. I've always been treated extremely well by Sprint. One of my friends that has AT&T went with me when I got the upgrade, and she commented how much more friendly the sprint store employees were than AT&T.

 

[Roadkillstewie]

It's not the first time I've heard this accusation... and we've seen reports of some stores saying users HAVE to purchse insurance, or accessory 'packages'.

We can't blame Sprint for it, only those individual stores...and it's not right to deny it may have happened with some sort of proof either. In these cases, the best thing TO DO is contact Sprint, tell them what happend and what store #/location is was and let Sprint address it.