Didn't Have To Wait For My Rebate Or Contract Expiration

[stimulatedboredom]

I'm posting this in the event / hope that it will be helpful for others who are still waiting for their $150 rebate date or for their contract to expire, before getting the Galaxy Nexus (or any other Sprint phone, for that matter, including the iPhone).

I have been with Sprint for over 10 years and was more than a little perturbed when they took away the Premiere program that allowed me to upgrade every year...which I always did.

After nearly 2 years with my EVO 4G, my upgrade date was July 1st (by the way, Sprint will let you get the rebate 2 weeks prior to your official upgrade date) and my contract was up in September. I had gone to the Sprint store with the intention of potentially paying full price for the Galaxy Nexus and then letting my contract expire...allowing me to get the new customer price ($199) the next time I wanted to upgrade my phone.

To me, $150 rebate every 2 years and still having to pay hundreds on top of that for a new phone and a new contract was no longer an incentive.

Long story short, is that I mentioned this to the Sprint salesman. He mentioned that Sprint had been doing a temporary upgrade program for the last month and that I might qualify. Essentially what it is, is you pay a prorated amount to essentially "buy out" the remainder of your contract / accelerate its expiration date. With mine being up in September, my prorated amount was $54 and I would be able to get the new customer price ($199) if I agreed to another 2 years.

Therefore, for a phone I was willing to pay nearly $600 for (or even $400+ if I waited for my rebate), I got it for $254...SOLD. My girlfriend is also on my plan, but she joined later, so I had them check on her prorated amount, which was $95.

I wanted to stay with Sprint, but assumed I would have to pay a ton to get a new phone early, then wait out my contract. This new program is a genius idea, as I bet it is meant to abate customers like me who felt slighted by the ending of the Premiere program.

The sales guy said he had no idea how long the program was going to go for, that it might be a test, but in the meantime it has been successful. I was on the fence paying $600 (duh), but when he mentioned I was eligible for the program, it turned into an immediate sale.

Not sure what qualifies people for the program, could be how long you have been a customer, but the sales person didn't know either.

I'm glad a griped a little to the Sprint guy when I first walked into the store, because that is what prompted him to check in their system and tell me about the program. Now I have a shiny new preeeeeeeecious and didn't have to wait for my contract to expire or for a measly $150 rebate.

I hope this is helpful for anyone else that is itching to upgrade their phone and is waiting out their rebate / contract expiration date!

 

[TropicalSammich]

Sprint is constantly bending backwards to please right after they make ridiculous policy changes due to the backlash from the customer base.

Also true of when a new device launched.

They have to field hundreds of thousands of calls of customers bi^ching and moaning about wanting a new phone and their current eligibility date standing in the way.

Note, doesn't always work out in the end for the little guy, but most of the time customers get there way just so Sprint can get them to shut up.

It's called retention. People use it, people abuse it.

I remember my 7+ tenure on the front line's..

No one gives a crap about policy, they just want a new phone, and are blinded by 'consumerism'.


It really is kind of sad. You buy a phone, you know the contract terms, you know when you can upgrade again.... whining like a school girl when a new phone comes out 1yr into your 2yr contract, and making the carrier subsidies you again (even though they haven't broken even on your last device yet).

You wonder why companies go under. People have NO idea what it takes to be a large corporation, operation costs, salaries, it's endless.

The subsidies should end. Then the carriers can be more profitable, and actually lower your monthly plans.

 

[TropicalSammich]

BETTER yet, the carriers should stop selling devices directly. Let the 3rd Party Vendors deal with it.

Carriers would be much better off concentrating on their networks and providing their services if they didn't have to deal with the cash-flow non-sense of equipment sales & subsidies.

 

[jdubbletrouble]

I did the same thing essentially but i called instead of going to the store. They posted the upgrade eligibilty to my account in no time that day and i went to the sprint store traded in a broken epic and they still gave me $25 but gave me the option to wait and have it show as 50 on a later bill for that. I wasnt aware that the sprint store was now doing the instant rebate for phones priced at 199 and above. so i walked out paying 180 something +$45 charged to my bill for the etf

 

[stimulatedboredom]

I did the same thing essentially but i called instead of going to the store. They posted the upgrade eligibilty to my account in no time that day and i went to the sprint store traded in a broken epic and they still gave me $25 but gave me the option to wait and have it show as 50 on a later bill for that. I wasnt aware that the sprint store was now doing the instant rebate for phones priced at 199 and above. so i walked out paying 180 something +$45 charged to my bill for the etf

Nice

Plus they gave me $70 credit on my account for trading in my EVO.

 

[david279]

Is this still going on? My contract is up in October and I want to get the Evo LTE.

Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk 2

 

[eric3316]

Doesn't seem like Sprint is really doing much of anything here. For anyone who is not up for an upgrade but might be soon, you probably signed when the cancellation fee was only $200 to start and then came down every month. Where you are at now is probably between $50-$100 to cancel your line. So what is Sprint really doing? Letting you cancel your line? You could do that anyway...

The only difference here is that you are being allowed to keep your phone number instead of having to add a new line with a number then canceling your old. Money wise, it's the same thing....

What I would like to hear is from someone who signed a contract with Sprints new $350 cancellation fee and was offered to get out for $50 - $100. Then I would say Sprint is actually doing something....

When I was with Sprint in the past and before the premier program, I did this all the time. Paid whatever the cancellation fee was and got a new line so I got a discounted price on the phone. Always came to be much cheaper then buying a phone for full price. Only headache was giving people my new number. But it was worth it to save 2-3 hundred dollars.

Now that Sprint raised their fee to $350 and doesn't start dropping till 6 months I think and I forgot the lowest it can go, doesn't work out in our favor anymore.

So again, someone please tell me what Sprint is doing for you here? I think they are just playing games with everyone making them think they are getting a deal for people who's contract is up within the next few months but really are already to do all this on your own...

Plus, some online vendors give better prices on phones when you add a new line then just upgrade one so it might even pay more to cancel the line then go with the upgrade...

 

[Mercury81]

No it's not canceling your line, it's an upgrade fee if your not eligible on your contract . It all depends how much time you have left. The 50-100 sounds right. You just sign your new two year contract a few months earlier. You keep your original line the whole time.

sent from Evo4G using Tapatalk

 

[eric3316]

No it's not canceling your line, it's an upgrade fee if your not eligible on your contract . It all depends how much time you have left. The 50-100 sounds right. You just sign your new two year contract a few months earlier. You keep your original line the whole time.

sent from Evo4G using Tapatalk

It's not a fee, you are paying the charge to terminate your contact. Instead of having to add a new line for a discount, they are letting you keep your current line. Bottom line is they are not giving you anything money wise. Pretty simple concept, just a little hard to explain.