Walmart activation question/ im a newbie, sorry

[Kizzmocat]

I have a family plan, wifes phone due for update, want to use it for evo lte, can walmart switch my phone# to the evo lte and put my wifes# on my og evo? Or do I have to go to sprint for that? Thanks in advance for any replies!

 

[Paul627g]

To my knowledge (anyone correct me if wrong..) Sprint or any carrier for that matter will not swap out the phone numbers so you can grab that upgrade from someone else on your account. I'm sure some have possibly succeeded at this from time to time but its not normal policy to move numbers around to accommodate our thirst for using an available upgrade to get that phone we want so bad.

Little better explanation, I've heard of some people getting the upgrade on say the spouse's account and then having the carrier swap it a day later but its not normal practice and I wouldn't bank on it unless you hear differently.

 

[Kizzmocat]

I did ask the sprint guy in the online chat about this and he said it would be fine, I wasn't aware of any problems with this, now I feel my bubble beginning to burst! Lol, I was only asking if walmart could do it in lieu of going to a sprint store, now I'm re thinking my options! Thanks for the reply though paul

 

[skoolboi]

no one .. sprint or 3rd party will give you or let you use someone else's upgrade on their line the option that people have been going with is upgrading the line that is due and like Paul627g said and just swapping phones/numbers between the two lines a few days later.. I have done this without issue in the past, but beware it doesnt mean it works for everyone. If going through a 3rd party retailer its good to read their fine print on new activations some .. like wirefly charge fees if the phone is removed i.e swapped or the contract/plan is changed within a certain period of time..

 

[Kizzmocat]

Well I guess it's a weekend of playing with my "wifes new evo lte" then the begging begins next week for a # swap, thanks guys

 

[Paul627g]

No prob OP. Just throwing out a warning... If they will grant it then cool but proceed with caution.

Normally I have bad luck when attempting these things (Thats just me...)

 

[SilverZero]

Seems like it would be fine if you wait a few days. I mean, people buy new phones off Ebay and such and have them activated, so who's to say your wife didn't sell hers and you bought one and now you want to activate different phones on your lines?

I'd say the only danger is getting roped into a $36 activation fee for both phones, and the EVO twice (hers and then yours). I'm not sure how that works, though.

 

[TraderGary]

I had no problem doing exactly this one year ago when I went from my OG 4G to the EVO 3D. My wife had an upgrade available but still liked her phone and did not want to use her upgrade. All I did was walk in to my local Best Buy and asked if I could use my wife's upgrade to get a 3D for me. BB said there was no problem and 20 minutes later I walked out with a new 3D activated on my own number, all in one fell swoop. Just walk in and ask. It certainly worked for me. And I had my own upgrade still available to have my EVO 4G LTE preordered and delivered last Thursday.

 

[Quis89]

It's really not as big a deal as people are making it out to seem. Stores will do this for you. Worst case scenario that's what Sprint.com is for. Make sure you go to a corporate location though.

 

[ericj12]

yeah this is possible. as long as you get someone who will do it for you. a friend of mine does it all the time on his t-mobile account. he has a family plan with his wife and daughter and he uses his, his wife's, and his daughter's upgrades all the time for himself and gives them his old phone so they all get a new phone like every 10 months. lol.

 

[myxmastrmike]

Doing a cross upgrade is QUITE common...
When we got my wife's OG Evo at best buy, we used the upgrade from another line, and the best buy rep did the switching of the Evo to the proper line AND the restoreing of the original phone to the line whos upgrade we used. Super super common.
Just yesterday, we got her an LTE and again used another lines upgrade to do so, but this was at walmart, and the rep there claimed they could not do the switch (even though that was a total lie, it was just the rep being either too lazy or not knowing how to do so).

So immediatly after paying for the phone, before even leaving the store, I called sprint customer care, said "I just upgraded line X, but it was supposed to be a cross upgrade and the walmart rep said they couldnt do the switch for us. So I need the original phone put back on line X, and the Evo LTE put onto my wifes Line Y" the rep said "no problem" and within 5mins and a single restart on the Evo LTE, all was said and done and both the upgrade lines original phone and my wifes new Evo LTE were working 100% as they should.

Definatly NO need to wait any time at all before calling and doing the swap (Certainly not a couple days). And like I and the guy a few post above me said, at best buy, they will do the whole upgrade and line swap for you 100% no problem. I have done that almost a half dozen times, never had a problem, always went smooth and was done in 15-20mins.

But the only place we could find a phone for her locally was Walmart, so thats why we went there yesterday, and yeah, flat out, It was either the rep not knowing how, or being lazy and not caring to do it for me.
Both Best Buy and walmart (and all 3rd parties) use the same program to work with Sprint accounts (program called BEAST) so the walmart rep definatly had the PHYSICAL ability, but just didn't...

 

[jmbiro2]

We do this everytime we upgrade. I'm on a plan with 3 lines, and I always use one of the other line's upgrades. However, Sprint ALWAYS tells us to wait 24 hours after we activate to switch the lines to make sure we get the upgrade discount, though I think with the past 2 phones we did this (evo4g, 3evo) they had mail in rebates, so maybe that is why. Can anyone comment on this?