Sprint Throws $400 at Families Who Ditch Verizon and AT&T

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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According to leaked promo flyer information, Sprint wants your business: no, really wants your business and is willing to put money where its mouthpiece is. Beginning on August 19th, Sprint will be offering $400 in store credit to family customers who switch service over to Sprint. Of course there are the usual restrictions and conditions as you would expect.

That's pretty much all we know about this upcoming Sprint promo, so in case you are interested, give your local Sprint retail store a call this Sunday
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how are they compared to att? also how are they "up north" or out of the cities like in wisconsin.
 
meh.... when i had my evo 4g, i got shitty data download speeds. they'd have to improve a lot in that area before i'd ever consider them again. att lte works great in my area so i'll definitely pass on this.
 
So they give you $400 if you switch 3 devices to their Everything plans, and that $400 is only store credit... translation they aren't giving you shit, your "new phone" that many places give you will just come out of that $400
 
funny, I ditched sprint FOR verizon.

Yeah sprint was nice and cheap 73/month unlimited everything -- guess what though? no 4G in my area, and when I did get to 4G "wimax' areas the download speed was a joke and killed my battery

It's worth an extra 20 bucks a month to get useable service -- just like everything else in the world when they say they are going to 'give you 400 dollars' all they are really saying is they are going to make you feel like you got 400 for free but in reality you are still paying out the ass for nothing.
 
They've done similar before. The last time was probably a year or two ago. Store credit is getting around the fact that they can't give cash or pay your termination fee out right due to agreements the phone companies made when number porting was started. One of the big issues that the companies had with porting at first was fears that everyone would port constantly to chase deals.
 
collegeboy69us said:
funny, I ditched sprint FOR verizon.

Yeah sprint was nice and cheap 73/month unlimited everything -- guess what though? no 4G in my area, and when I did get to 4G "wimax' areas the download speed was a joke and killed my battery

It's worth an extra 20 bucks a month to get useable service -- just like everything else in the world when they say they are going to 'give you 400 dollars' all they are really saying is they are going to make you feel like you got 400 for free but in reality you are still paying out the ass for nothing.
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This was my experience as well. I signed up for Sprint when I lived in San Antonio. There 4G was acceptable there, the price was right, and they still offered unlimited data. I moved to upstate NY and boy did things change. In town, I was lucky to get 100kbps out of my "3G". A mile outside of town and I'd drop to 1x. Another mile or two and I'd lose cell signal all together. My cell phone was unusable most of the time.

I got lucky thanks to Sprint changing the way discounts were applied to family plans, and was able to leave Sprint ETF-free. I switched to Verizon... my bill went up about $20 a month, and now I have a 4GB data cap... but you know what, I can use my damn phone, anywhere. I've yet to find an area where I don't get 3G. In more remote areas it's slow, but still about on par with what Sprint was at home. At home, with Verizon, I get about 800kbps average. That's acceptable considering where I live.
 
I had shit service with them. While in my home city speed were so slow that I would have been better off with dial up. when at work in the bay area, 4G was alright. I was so sick of having the worst customer service ever. There was 4 phone replacements, and 2 months of trying to resolve the issue before I put a Verizon PRL(awesome speeds 3g). I wanted to cancel the service but since I was "on the hook" they would not waive the $350 ETF. I then proceeded to watch Netflix all day until the terminated my contract a moth later. I flashed the phone to MetroPCS. I get the same service I had with the Verizon PRL unlimited data and only pay $40 a month vs. $110 for shit service. Even though I don't have their service they still try to bill me. They got good phones but the service is shit. Sprint also through shitloads of bloatware onto your phone that you can't remove. Sure you can flash a Android phone but that is extra bullshit that I don't want to have to do as a customer. The $400 credit is a joke. More than likely they will deny people the credit after they sign up. Oh and you will have to remind the rep that is bending you over about the credit.
 
I switched to sprint from AT&T a few months ago. Other than the slow data speeds the service is reliable in Dallas, TX. on the iPhone 4s here as well.
 
sprint sound like 3uk randomly good but mostly bad where you need it to work (3uk can't be bothered to fill in the gaps on there network for indoor coverage and out door in some cases)
 
Evil Juggalo said:
aaaaaaaand long time customers get nothing..
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Call them up, bitch them out, and have them note that if you want to leave Sprint, you can ETF free. I did that and am a lot happier. After 11 years with Sprint, I got sick of the crap coverage and data speeds.
 
Ruoh said:
Don't think of it as $20 a month... think of it as $480 since you are likely locked into a two year contract.
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480 dollars is a small price to pay for 2 years of reliable, stable, and full bandwidth.

My bill went up 20 dollars, but it's nice to be able to use watch a video without telling my friends 'ummm gotta wait a few minutes to buffer'

if you really want to save 480 dollars and get effectively zero data use out of your phone, then why have a data plan or a contract at all?
 
jroe52 said:
how are they compared to att? also how are they "up north" or out of the cities like in wisconsin.
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they suck everywhere. i live like 150 yards from cell tower and i can hardly get good reception inside or in backyard. as far as data goes, it's fking slow as hell and i've to pay for 4g price even though they don't have it in my city and they've said it that they don't have it and they won't reduce the charge.
 
aaaaaand I acutally just left sprint this past month after 13 years of service. Data speed on sprint was always decent until smartphones became the rage and sprints 3g tours couldn't handle the load these past 2 years. So now I'm on straight talk and pay damn near 1/2 what my bill was. And even in back woods Appalachia areas I still have HSPA+. Who the hell would want to pay $100+ for another network and be locked to what ever CDMA phone they decide to carry? Not I
 
sprint customer for 12 years. my download data speeds are 200kbps - 600kbps in my area. in kcmo i would be lucky for 3-6mbps on sprints 4g network. my work gave me a stipend to switch to att so i would have coverage at work and i don't regret it. my att bill is $20 a month more than sprint's bill, but work gives me $50 a month for my bill, so it ends up being cheaper.

att speeds where i live - 3-5mbps. kcmo speeds 10-42mbps usually.
sprints network is a joke. it seems like they can't catch a break and keep making poor business/tech decisions.
however, sprint's customer service has improved a lot in the last year. i used to call and get Bill from India that couldn't ever handle my call anyway, but in the last year i was with sprint i was speaking to a lot more people from the southern states, which was sooo much better and they were usually able to handle the issue i was calling about.

Sprint's new customer service could have gotten me to stay if it wasn't for Sprint having such a slow and sparse network.
 
Left sprint about a year ago and wouldnt go back if they offered me double.

Service just blows here in Des Moines and all i hear is the same in many cities. Even when you can manage a solid signal the data speed is pathetic.
 
I just dropped sprint. Apparantly when you drop Sprint, you get a letter from the CEO asking why. Here is what I replied back, to the letter sent from 'Dan Hesse' the CEO of Sprint:

Dan,
We decided to go with another carrier for three main reasons:

1. We wanted a plan that does not require a contract with expensive add-on's just because of the type of phone we want.
2. Sprint would not allow us to upgrade our phones and keep our existing plan, even with phones purchased outright (as in not subsidized).
3. We decided to go to a GSM carrier, as we have experienced hundreds of missed calls with sprint due to the limitations of CDMA technology. Many times, I would miss calls because an email or other data packet was being sent via the CDMA protocol. As you know, GSM does not have this problem. (This issue could not be mitigated even by going with 4G Sprint service, as the 4G coverage is not usable where we live and work. The effective result would be the 4G radio search would drain the battery continuously unless manually turned off, rendering the new tech useless.)

In short, we purchased two new Galaxy phones for a total investment of less than $400 and we have unlimited data service with 5 Gb allowed at 4G speed, unlimited texts and more minutes than we have ever typically used. The service costs only $30 per phone, with no other taxes or surcharges.
On top of all this, it's now as easy as changing a SIM card if we want to use another carrier or upgrade phones, in effect allowing us to influence the market with our own terms, instead of being limited by any given contracts terms.

Dan,
As 'CEO' of Sprint, if you believe Sprint can compete with the above, you should start competing about now.

BTW: Please send the unused paid balance on my account via check to my address of record.
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BBA said:
I just dropped sprint. Apparantly when you drop Sprint, you get a letter from the CEO asking why. Here is what I replied back, to the letter sent from 'Dan Hesse' the CEO of Sprint:
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I never got any letter from the CEO. On a side note as far as CEOs go Dan Hesse seems like a pretty down to earth guy, just stuck with a sinking ship.

They took a big gamble and dumped all resources into the iphone when IMO they should have worked on their network. Time will tell how that works out.
 
Disposed said:
I never got any letter from the CEO. On a side note as far as CEOs go Dan Hesse seems like a pretty down to earth guy, just stuck with a sinking ship.

They took a big gamble and dumped all resources into the iphone when IMO they should have worked on their network. Time will tell how that works out.
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Maybe I should feel special?

Dear Customer,

I'm sorry to see you've taken your business to another wireless provider. Your business is very important to us and I'd like to understand why we were not able to keep you as a Sprint customer. We'd like to hear from you. Please reply to my office at [email protected] and let us know the most convenient way for a member of my team to contact you. Thank you for being a Sprint customer.

Dan Hesse
CEO
Sprint
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I use Sprint at home and find it an OK service. At work we were on Sprint also but have switched to Verizon because the Sprint reception is so poor in buildings. Verizon has closer towers.
 
So I can get $400 to switch from Verizon's great coverage to Sprint's suck ass service with it's "off the highway = out of range" coverage? :rolleyes:
 
jroe52 said:
how are they compared to att? also how are they "up north" or out of the cities like in wisconsin.
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Up nort' here in Wisconsin Sprint service does not exist. Neither does ATT. We are stuck with US Cellular and their craptastic service. :mad:
 
If they had better coverage I'd love to switch to Sprint. They generally have a better selection of phones and their service plans are more realistic than Verizon.. However I need to have cell coverage everywhere I go, and Sprint just can't handle that.
 
Reading all the comments makes me sad. I'd much rather go with Sprint when i drop AT&T but it doesn't seem like their network is there yet. If I wanted to pay for a sub-par network service I'd just go pre-paid.
 
Chimay said:
Reading all the comments makes me sad. I'd much rather go with Sprint when i drop AT&T but it doesn't seem like their network is there yet. If I wanted to pay for a sub-par network service I'd just go pre-paid.
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Actually, these days most pre paid options blow sprints network away.
 
Just switched my wife to Verizon from Sprint that she had for almost 2 years.
She had three different phones with Sprint (Hero, Nexus S 4G, Galaxy Nexus) and while the phones themselves were great, the service was absolutely horrific.
Towards the end there she was literally dropping 10 calls a day, and one day she just snapped and couldn't take it anymore.

We have had zero issue with Verizon, other than the bill being about 30% more, but if that's what it takes for service that works, then what choice do we have.
 
BBA said:
We decided to go to a GSM carrier, as we have experienced hundreds of missed calls with sprint due to the limitations of CDMA technology. Many times, I would miss calls because an email or other data packet was being sent via the CDMA protocol. As you know, GSM does not have this problem. (This issue could not be mitigated even by going with 4G Sprint service, as the 4G coverage is not usable where we live and work. The effective result would be the 4G radio search would drain the battery continuously unless manually turned off, rendering the new tech useless.)
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What carrier is this? I'm on Verizon LTE unlimited text & data, 500 mins talk, but I pay $84 a month with my company discount.
 
Also, I think Sprint would get more business if instead of giving you $400 in store credit, reimburse your ETF after you switch over.
 
But I like my phone to work in other countries besides the United States, for those rare occasions I'm back in England, or I may need to actually make a call without a crap signal.
 
I just ditched Sprint this morning. Either the Sprint network or my old HTC EVO's radio sucked really badly. Missed calls, unable to update phone/apps without switching to WiFi due to continuous disconnections, etc. For me the bottom line was that I barely used my phone, so $91/mo was just too much imo. Ported to a Verizon-based $45/mo Android StraightTalk phone, only took 20 minutes! The camera is not as nice, no status led,and it doesn't have that "kick stand", but life goes on at half price with better reception.
 
david_ said:
Also, I think Sprint would get more business if instead of giving you $400 in store credit, reimburse your ETF after you switch over.
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They can't just come right out and offer that. This deal is a round about way of trying to
 
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