I can only upgrade my phone at a Sprint corporate store???

[dvdmon]

I just spend over two hours at Best Buy trying to get a new Galaxy Note 2. Turns out they can't sell me one because of some Sprint exclusivity that doesn't show up anywhere except when they try to go through the purchase transaction. But aside from that, we had to call Sprint 3 times before they would even activate the phone!

According to them, because I have a discounted Family Plan+ or somesuch plan, I can only upgrade via a Sprint corporate store. Problem is that Sprint has no financing available. I have a Best Buy credit card with no interest and payments for 18 months, and so wanted to buy it through them. I'm already paying $100 to Sprint to buy up my eligibility to upgrade early, I can't afford to shell out another $300 for this expensive phone on top of that and pay all of this up front in cash.

The odd thing is that two weeks ago I went to Best Buy and got my wife a Galaxy SIII. She's on the same plan as me of course, and the Sprint rep that Best Buy called (there system was down) did the activation without issue. Today, the first two reps gave the same answer, and the third finally allowed it.

So I guess I have a couple of questions. First, is this a real policy, and if so, why is it enforced by some but apparently can be ignored by others. Is it just one of those things that Sprint is not on top of and so you just have to keep calling them to find a rep that doesn't know of it? Secondly, why on earth does this policy exist? Seems like for those of us who are lucky enough to have a discounted plan, we have to get punished by not allowing us to buy the phone we want where we want. It's a huge hassle that makes me just want to give up on Sprint. It feels very anti-customer.

Can anyone help answer these questions? I'd appreciate it!

 

[bblaze]

It probably has something to do with who the primary is on the account. Sprint is very weird about those types of things. Before they ditched their premier program, only the primary account holder could upgrade after 1 year while all other line holders needed to wait the full 2 years. That's the reason I recently left Sprint. They took away my "upgrade after a year" plan. I would have gladly shoveled money at them for another 2 years to upgrade after the 1 year, but NOOOOOO. Now they get nothing. Long story short, Sprint is funny with who they deal with on account/phone upgrades.

 

[dvdmon]

It probably has something to do with who the primary is on the account. Sprint is very weird about those types of things. Before they ditched their premier program, only the primary account holder could upgrade after 1 year while all other line holders needed to wait the full 2 years. That's the reason I recently left Sprint. They took away my "upgrade after a year" plan. I would have gladly shoveled money at them for another 2 years to upgrade after the 1 year, but NOOOOOO. Now they get nothing. Long story short, Sprint is funny with who they deal with on account/phone upgrades.

Not sure about that because I actually paid them to upgrade both our lines. Our lines are about a year and a half through their contract, so we had to pay an extra $100 per line to be elligible for an upgrade. Apparently they were fine with us upgrading through a Sprint (corporate) store, just not at Best Buy.

 

[Sole07]

That's strange. I just upgraded my S2 using my hubbies upgrade eligibility. Got myself the S3 and gave him my S2. Put everything on my best buy credit card. I had no problems.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

 

[dvdmon]

Yeah, my wife's upgrade at BB went flawlessly two weeks ago as well. I think it's totally luck of the draw re which Sprint rep you get...

Sent from my NABI2-NV7A using Android Central Forums

 

[pitmasterme]

Did you pay for an early upgrade on your wife's phone? If not, that's probably the reason they wanted you to go through corp store......I'd guess....

Stout season is upon us!! Do yourself a favor and find Founders Breakfast Stout........so good......

 

[dvdmon]

Did you pay for an early upgrade on your wife's phone? If not, that's probably the reason they wanted you to go through corp store......I'd guess.....

I did, but now I'm not positive whether that 3rd time we talked to a Sprint rep (when the rep let me do it) was after I'd called them up to get the upgrade turned on or not. I'm thinking it was, but I also am not sure whether the 2nd rep we spoke to (who said no) was before or after I did the upgrade buy up... So could very well be that was the issue, but I posted this to SprintUsers and someone who is a rep confirmed it was a policy...

 

[Darth Mo]

I've run into this problem before. It has something to do with newly released high end phones. It's not that they don't want you to buy it from a retailer, it has more to do with availability.

The premise is that they get more exposure to customers from other carriers at retailers like Best Buy. For example, someone on VZW has his contract up and happens to be shopping at a Best Buy. He walks by the cell phone section, sees the Note 2 for Sprint, impulsively picks it up and goes and now Sprint has another subscriber.

Now, typically customers on special plans to tend to be either long time customers, or they're not likely to go anywhere. So Sprint prefers they not go into a retailer and eat up all its inventory. Can't have impulse purchases when there are no phones in stock; most people will just say nevermind. Retailers have a limited number of phones where a Sprint Corp store can get a case in overnight.

So yeah, it is an inconvenience you can't use a BB credit card in this situation, but it's a business/marketing decision that makes sense.

 

[dvdmon]

Darth Mo,

I'd agree with some of what you say, but at least with the Note 2, by the time BB starts selling it for Sprint, two of the other three main carriers will already have it selling through BB as well. The only carrier who won't is Verizon, who will have it about two weeks later. I know that maybe that's not typical, but I also know that in general most of the carriers, save for maybe Tmobile, have had fairly equivelent types of phones. Sure occasionally there's a novelty like the EVO 3D or the Kyocera phone that had two screens, but mostly people will see generally the same from from carrier to carrier.

In a way, loyal customers are essentially being punished because Sprint doesn't regard them as valuable as a new customer. I know this is the case already in that Sprint will offer better prices on phones to someone switching. But allowing a customer to buy a phone where they want seems to be a pretty arbitrary restriction to inflict on someone. I wonder if this is duplicated by any of the other carriers...

 

[Darth Mo]

I'd agree with some of what you say, but at least with the Note 2, by the time BB starts selling it for Sprint, two of the other three main carriers will already have it selling through BB as well.

I never said anything about the Note 2 being exclusive to Sprint, or any other carrier for that matter. I just said that Sprint treats it's new phones differently when it comes to retailers, regardless if another carrier has an equivalent. Sprint's and every other carrier's bottom line is number of subscribers. They're going to do whatever is in their best interest to gain more subscribers.

In a way, loyal customers are essentially being punished because Sprint doesn't regard them as valuable as a new customer. I know this is the case already in that Sprint will offer better prices on phones to someone switching.

Nearly everything subscriber based this way; people just seem to be more up in arms when it comes to cell phones. Be it cable/satellite TV, landline phones, magazine, newspapers, online streaming services, etc. In every single one of those new customers are paying less either initially or over a period of time. It's not like this is a new concept.

I'll give you that for cell phones since you get something physical (the phone itself) that it seems different, but from a financial standpoint, it's all the same.