Sprint has been on a bit of a tear lately cutting back on several consumer-friendly policies that set them apart from their counterparts at AT&T and Verizon. Last month Sprint raised their smartphone ETF to $350, belatedly following AT&T and Verizon. This month the company shortened their 30 money back guarantee window (imposed after a settlement with Minnesota's AG) to fifteen days, in addition to eliminating full refunds for unsatisfied customers during that period. Sprint also recently decided to cap official tethering users at 5 GB, in stark contrast to their purported dedication to unlimited data options.
Leaked documents suggest Sprint is also getting rid of their bill to account option, which while not a devastating change, was a nice option that let customers in good standing bill hardware to their Sprint account.
Like Cablevision and AT&T, Sprint is placing new fine print in their terms of service banning users from participating in class action lawsuits. Earlier this month they also raised their "administrative fee" from ninety nine cents to $1.50 -- then buried language in their TOS trying to prohibit customers who tried to get out of their contracts citing a "material change in contract."
Most of these policies are things AT&T and Verizon had imposed some time ago, but Sprint held off on in the hopes being more consumer friendly would mean more subscribers. That hasn't really worked, but that in large degree is due to being locked out of iPhone distribution.
Most of these decisions are simple math for a company that hasn't seen positive cash flow in fifteen quarters. Several of the changes were imposed to counter lossed related to the Apple iPhone arrangement and bring in additional cash to offset their upcoming not-at-all-secret LTE upgrade. Still, these moves have come at a cost, and collectively they're eroding the impression that Sprint is any different from their competitors.
Customer service and pro-consumer policies have been cut to help the balance sheet, and you have to wonder how long Sprint's dedication to unlimited data will last. Ironically, these changes are also occurring at the same time Sprint is trying to portray itself as a pro-consumer alternative to the AT&T/Verizon logjam. That's a hard sell when you decide to mirror most of their policies.
You obviously have no clue what you are talking about. Sprint purchases those phones and resells them, so they arent collecting anything for 3rd parties any more than BestBuy is collecting for 3rd party TV companies.
Also, being that you did not comprehend the article, this is not something offered to everyone. If I am not mistaken, this was only offered to Premier account holders. Being that the Premier account status no longer exist with Sprint, I am guessing this goes along with it.
I've been a champion of Sprint since I joined them in 2007, but they've clearly thrown in the towel on being the "friendly" carrier now that they know they're getting the iPhone.
I'm leaving for Simple Mobile's unlimited minutes/text/3g data for $40/month.
Welcome to TMO! Just remember with Simple Mobile you can NOT roam in NON TMO areas. Pay the extra $9 and just get it with TMO and be able to roam. And have 4G included.
And this is only a tip off the iceberg for Sprint. More will come.
Well from the looks of their coverage map, as long as I'm not particularly fond of Montana I'll be ok. 4g is a total sham in the U.S., since you're capped on 3/4 carriers. If their caps weren't so low it'd be worth it to have 4g as a backup internet, but the carriers are too greedy. Fail. I'll just use cable/DSL and go back to 3g. Less money for carriers. In another 5 years prices will probably be more reasonable, carriers are still trying to wrap their heads around what it means to be an ISP.
I personally wouldn't hop onto T-mobile until the merger dust settles. There's just too much in the air, exchanging of hands, etc. for me to be comfortable in using it as a cellular carrier.
I guess with a prepaid you can always leave...but then you're left with equipment you paid for.
There is nothing wrong with the unlimited prepaid plans with t-mobile. You get speeds uptp 42Mb/s, roaming, and more with the no contract plan. Same thing either way.
Well right up until they get acquired by AT&T/Sprint/whoever and they get gutted. Again, you're free to bounce, but then you have that hardware cost you're never getting back.
Which is the same exact thing that would happen if the poster above went with simple mobile. It is the t-mobile network with no roaming. Either way, same thing. At least with t-mobile owned prepaid you get no fee 4g and roaming.
Well, for $10 more (it's $50/month), and you only get 4G speeds for your first 100 MB per month. For prepaid unlimited 4G it's $70/month (an increase of $30/month over the OP's $40).
Other than maybe the official tethering change (but we'd never go over 5 GB/month in a matter of a few days though!), these changes don't really do a thing. Sprint's still the cheapest of the bunch where we're at, plus they're still the last unlimited internet holdout.
Maybe when our contracts are up and we're all looking at an additional $10/month per line for a new smartphone, we'll look at options. Until then, they're still king of the rather sucky offerings of the whole industry. I may have to consider a prepaid organization then if all choices are scraping the bottom of the barrel.
(edit) I'm certainly not a fan of my plan perks eroding, I'm just saying it doesn't affect me currently, nor is there a better deal happening elsewhere. Sprint's squeezing customers just as tightly as AT&T and Verizon are.
While sensational headlines may sell newspapers... there is nothing "Anti-Consumer" in raising ETF's, losing BTA, or capping usage/tethering.
ETFs are just a means to subsidize phones. Y'all seem to want expensive phones without paying up front for them ... thus, higher ETFs. No one is forcing you to sign such a contract.
Tethering caps, and other network management techniques benefit the consumer. Without some form of controls in place, of which caps are just one tool, the network can become unusable for the majority of subscribers, as is demonstrated with VMUSA.
ETFs are just a means to subsidize phones. Y'all seem to want expensive phones without paying up front for them ... thus, higher ETFs. No one is forcing you to sign such a contract.
ETFs are a way to make money off unhappy subs. you can bring your own handset and still get hit with ETF if you jump ship early.
ETFs are a way to make money off unhappy subs. you can bring your own handset and still get hit with ETF if you jump ship early.
True, one doesn't have to get a phone subsidy to be subjected to an ETF, but if you're savvy enough to bring your own handset, why are you committing to a contract term?
Sprint is just following what other companies are doing. BUT they still have the unlimited plan on phones so they still have a good deal. Lucky for me my contact is not up till next year, so if they are still a good deal Ill stick with them, if not Ill go to another provider.
I've been with sprint for 11yrs with the same number. The biggest pet peeve for me was when they started blocking my phone as a modem back in 2009. Aside from that, I have nothing but good things to say about Sprint. All my contracts were honored, all my lost phones got replaced of course with my insurance, I browse the interwebs on my phone all day, unlimited texts, unlimited calls for the same price every month.
Let's cross bridges once we get to them. Speculating for the future (especially when you're just going to be grandfathered anyways) won't yield anything useful.
If you go and sign up with Sprint today, your in for 2 years of unlimited data. Even if Sprint decides to go for caps next month, you're still in for unlimited data. Judging a wireless provider for what they *might* do (and won't affect you in the least) is just silly.
Again, worry about the Sprint data caps once there's actually caps to be talking about. Until then, we're just talking theoretical conjecture and not about real-world use.
More than other carriers Sprint has been eroding the status of grandfathered users.
Removal of discounts on family plans for lines 3, 4 and 5 was retroactive for ALL users, including grandfathered users. This meant up to a $15 per month increase to a family, regardless of contract status or grandfathered status.
Similarly the 60 cent per line increase is retroactive and affects grandfathered users.
The 5 GB tethering cap, is retroactive and affects grandfathered users.
The $10 per line for smart phone activations affects grandfathered users.
Sprint had a lot of nice offers and they have been busy of late removing them even from grandfathered customers.
Sprint may still be slightly less than Verizon or AT&T, but not by as much as they used to be. Their network is still small, much of the Sprint map shows roaming on Verizon which overlaps a lot of the native Sprint coverage. Most of Sprints native coverage is along highways, in large cities or dense / wealth suburbs.
....because Sprint isn't part of the 'old boys club'. Only AT&T and Verizon are allowed to raise prices and ETFs, replace unlimited data plans with tiered plans that throttle and charge for overages, and have the same prices as eachother while continuing to record subscriber gains and record profits.
On a side note it's funny how Sprint cries to the DOJ about AT&T buying T-Mobile is ant-competitive and bad for consumers while Sprint quietly does this.
Why exactly is doing away with Bill To Account AntiConsumer?
I’ve spent enough time at Sprint corporate stores in the past few months to see a lot of insight on the pure idiots these people have to deal with day in and day out. Here’s the deal with bill to account, it can cause more headaches then its worth.
I’ve witnessed firsthand this type of situation 5 or 6 times now. Someone walks into a Sprint Store, wants a new phone and wants it billed to the account, one problem, they are not the account holder. The employees at the Sprint Store refuse to complete the purchase unless that customer provides another form of payment or shows back up with the account holder, customer gets irate and starts yelling and swearing.
Due to too many people being idiots Sprint has enacted a very strict policy when it comes to making sure the account holder knows what’s going on so they don’t get a shock when they open up their next bill and see it for hundreds of dollars more then it normally is because someone on the account upgraded their handset and billed it to the account without notifying the account holder .
I’ve been doing a lot of chatting with one of the store managers at my preferred Sprint Corporate Store, very intelligent guy. He said you would not believe the amount of people that would be on a family plan with their significant other, the relationship would end in a break up and the non account holder would come in upgrade their phone, bill it to the account and now the account holder is stuck with the full cost. This ofcourse causes mass headaches as the account holder will no doubt come in to the store and/or call up customer service and bitch.
Sprint not allowing bill to account anymore, is in no way anti consumer. Asshole consumers brought it upon themselves. Any for anyone thinking about pulling any of this shit, in my area at least, if a customer turns into an ass, someone at the store will call all the other corporate stores in the area to give them a heads up that that person may be heading their way. If a Sprint employee does bill to account without the account holder being there, that employee is subject to termination.
Ok. It really wasn't my choice. The company who pays for my phone made the choice (without consulting me - as usual).
I've actually been quite happy with Sprint. I happen to live and travel in a tight corridor where WiMax is deployed.
I do object to the Sprint's sudden burst of price spikes. But it's the company who has burden the ever increasing costs. Evidently they've read the blogs and said enough is enough.
So where are they transitioning to?
wait for it...
I learned today my new cell phone provider will be...
MetroPCS.
ick.
I have one of their stores a block from my house. Every time I've gone in there, all I wanted to do was escape and bathe. Let's just say that it isn't packed full of societies over-achievers.
in many markets Metro PCS overlaps with Sprint's limited footprint... YMMV of course.. but I'd be willing to bet that MILLIONS of current Sprint customers have an alternative w/ Metro or another minority carrier (not at&t, tmobile or verizon) not including MVNOs of these larger companies.
I'm glad I left Sprint, although now I maybe forced to join Cricket as even a partial takeover of T-Mobile is looming. I was lured in to Sprint with the premise of them being the more customer-friendly company. What happened to the wireless industry? Why do AT&T/Verizon have about 70% market share with their mediocre service and high prices? The only thing going for them I can think of are the medium-large size private-sector and public-sector partnerships (where employees of X employer get a nice discount for going with them), which seems to be the playing field of AT&T/Verizon now.
I personally on a conspiracy level think they are meeting together and fixing prices. Sprint will follow eventually after looking over its shoulder and covering its tracks before joining the crowd, but it just seems like a steady borging process when it comes to wireless pricing.. Noone is truly competing.. Hell, why should they when your options are prepaid through their networks, or nothing..
They won't fix their screw-up on my bill. Every time I call and my my point with the first person they transfer me to there supervisor and sure enough some how I keep getting hung up on. Probably due to the fact of charging me tax's for 2 different states county take for that state is only on 1 bill. And the rest....ahh whatever. There on my list of things to fix today. I mean cancel.. I love how they show a 3g icon on the android when you dont really have a 3g connection. Thanks to connectbot and getprop command it really shows only cdma 1x.. 3 support tech's later they admit that only roaming has 3g in that area.. ahh thanks for leaving the option for roam only on my phone... So we had to get roam control.. the list goes on and on.. And im almost positive they cap or throttle data connection. Good luck to you all.. A so to be ex-customer since at-least 2007..
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