Many Sprint users used to be able to upgrade every year. Now the Premier program is going away, what can you do?
Option 1: Share an upgrade from another line or from a friend, then swap phones.
Option 2: Call the Sprint Retention Department at (877)775-4886. Be polite. Ask what your [Only registered users can view links. ] (ETF) will be if you cancel and go to another carrier. Can you open a new line and cancel this existing line and pay the EFT? Tell them that you would like a new phone. Tell them if your old phone is having problems. Ask if you could pay the EFT and stay with Sprint instead of leaving.
Option 3: The Best Buy Buy Back program may be right for you but [Only registered users can view links. ].
Option 4: Bight the bullet and buy the new phone outright as many here do. Some suggest Wirefly, eBay, or Craig's List then sell your old phone. Also ask Sprint, Best Buy and Radio Shack what they will pay for your old phone. Your out of pocket expense may not be that much more than just buying a phone on contract.
Follow the Backup, Restore or Transfer instructions on how to backup Apps, Photos, Contacts, Call log, Bookmarks, Texts, Settings, Home Screens (including shortcut positions), Alarms, Dictionary, Playlists, etc. to tranfer to the new phone. Also, Android may not backup free apps or any app settings unless you know the tricks. See the Getting Started for more tips.
Any other ideas? Post them here!
Last edited by milominderbinder; 10-10-2011 at 11:53 AM.
lol @the Miz .... I Agree lol That buy back program sounds like a good idea but then you see how they put it together and like what no way. RS gave you 100 bucks for a EVO 1 year old to get yourself a new phone. I know this is not a poll vote but Option 2 and 4 are the best way to go IMO...
Another choice is to know someone with a upgrade 1 year after you and have use theirs to get your next phone. this way you can give them yours and you both when. Just make sure you get yourself a new one so when you exchange that person will have a new phone too.
I added verbiage to make that more clear. Great feedback. Thanks!
Option 3: The Best Buy Buy Back program may be right for you but [Only registered users can view links. ]. Read the small print. Many users here say avoid it.
lol @the Miz .... I Agree lol That buy back program sounds like a good idea but then you see how they put it together and like what no way. RS gave you 100 bucks for a EVO 1 year old to get yourself a new phone. I know this is not a poll vote but Option 2 and 4 are the best way to go IMO...
Another choice is to know someone with a upgrade 1 year after you and have use theirs to get your next phone. this way you can give them yours and you both when. Just make sure you get yourself a new one so when you exchange that person will have a new phone too.
I fleshed out the Option 2 about Best Buy and added Option 5 as you noted:
Option 5: Share an upgrade from another line or from a friend, then swap phones. In a year, share your upgrade with the other person and swap again..
For Option 2.......do you switch to the higher plan around the 9 month mark?
If you are in a qualified plan for months 1, 2 and 3 and get Gold, can you then drop down and keep the Gold or will they switch you to Silver.
Im pretty sure it has to be done towards the last 3 months but wanted to double check.
Heh, I think you're over-thinking it... To qualify for Premier Gold you just have to be on the higher tier plan for three months, so just switch over around the 9 month mark if you KNOW you'll want to upgrade after a year for sure. In the past the mail-in rebates could've added some complexity (possibly requiring you to stay on the higher tier plan for an extra 4th month), but with the current instant rebates it's cake.
Once you've got your phone just switch back to your old plan, which Sprint allows you to do at any time w/o any penalty (you'll of course revert back to Premier Silver at that point). You have to plan this out a little tho, if you wait around until you're on your 16th month or later to change plans you might as well just wait until the contract ends (because the upgrade wouldn't kick in until the 19th).
There's nothing saying you can't swap plans at 10th, 11th, or 12th months tho, if you're just not sure about an upgrade when you're still on your 8th or 9th. Say for instance you were doing this now but weren't sure about the EVO 3D or wanted to wait for the Photon, you could've just swap plans in June and be eligible for an upgrade in September.
Regarding OPTION 4, even if you decide to bite the bullet and buy the phone out of contract, you should never have to pay the full off-contract price on Sprint if you're buying it after the 12 month mark of your contract. Even though Sprint removed the full-upgrade option for Premier Silver, they still left in a $75 discount on new phones that's available at any point after being on-contract for 12 months.
So if you bought an EVO 4G last summer and decided to explore ANY other avenues today, at wort the EVO 3D would cost full price - $75 (so like $450-75 = $375, or was the off-contract price $500?). You're of course renewing your contract for this discount but it just resets your date, doesn't stack it, you could also renew for just 1 year for a measly $25 discount.
Also, Sprint's trade-in program seems to be as good as any of the 3rd party retailers... They're STILL (as of today) offering $150 for used EVO 4Gs, even tho they're selling it for $99 on new contracts, crazy. Not only that, but if you get a price quote online, you can lock in the quoted price for 45 days which comes in very handy for those of us watching several new phones while fearing the trade-in value of our existing phone will suddenly drop.
Personally I think $150 for my year old phone is just great, they're not selling for much more than $200 on Ebay (for a variety of reasons) and that's more of a hassle. Worth noting also that you can do this by mail or in-store, and if you do it in-store the credit can be applied towards a new phone rather than towards your account balance.
Regarding OPTION 5, there's an extra sub-option available for Airave owners that's closely related to this... As you may know, the Airave appears on your account as a sort of 2dary line, and a lot of people have been able to eke out an upgrade out of this line at Best Buy or Radio Shack (even on Airaves they're not paying for since they were given out by the Retentions Dpt after complaining about bad signal at home).
I've read reports of people being able to do this both online and in-store, they just fill in the info for their Airave line and ask the store employee to not activate the device (otherwise it messes up the setup of your devices and you then have to call Sprint to straighten it out). It's probably the sketchiest options of all but it's worth trying I guess, I might give it a shot next year. It will definitely not work if you try to do it directly thru Sprint tho since their system is smarter than that (didn't use to be tho).
Another option that has been offered to some i(by the Retentions Dpt.) s to buy out their contract, which is basically equivalent to paying the ETF as if you were canceling the contract... Your upgrade date is then reset. If you've been on-contract between 12 and 16 months it can be cheaper to buy out (the ETF shrinks the longer you stay on contract) than to pay full price outright, tho with the $75 discount it's pretty close either way.
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