[Rourke Swift]

Back when I worked for Nextel (and again later for Sprint after the merger), any time a customer was in your situation--as in, phones manifesting structural defects after the 30 days--it was pretty much standard to sell them TEP and have them wait a few days to use the ESRP, instead of referring them to the phone manufacturer. Technically it's a no-no, but Sprint would rather have a happy customer paying $4-$7 more per month than a frusted customer with a broken phone.