Future of SERO

[Silent Assasin]

The issue is that Sprint enticed customers to subscribe to their service because of the great their plan (SERO), now I agree that WE have been getting over on them, however, if the plan gets phased out, they have to expect to loose a lot of those customers as well.

Lets face it, their coverage is nowhere near as vast as AT&T's or Verizon's. I specifically signed up to them because of the SERO plan. I will seriously have to weight rather I would remain or go to other competitor.

This is not the time for them to nickel and dime it's customers. They are already laying people off and now they may alienate customers instead of trying other innovative ways to provide better service w/Out raising costs.

[mconig78]

Originally Posted by Silent Assasin

The issue is that Sprint enticed customers to subscribe to their service because of the great their plan (SERO), now I agree that WE have been getting over on them, however, if the plan gets phased out, they have to expect to loose a lot of those customers as well.

Lets face it, their coverage is nowhere near as vast as AT&T's or Verizon's. I specifically signed up to them because of the SERO plan. I will seriously have to weight rather I would remain or go to other competitor.

This is not the time for them to nickel and dime it's customers. They are already laying people off and now they may alienate customers instead of trying other innovative ways to provide better service w/Out raising costs.

They never enticed customers to the SERO plan. It was for employees. So your willing to go to another provider and spend 40 or 50 more a month on a plan? They are not alienating customers, these customers shuold not have even had the SERO plan from the start. Just be happy you saved alot over the past few years on a SERO plan. I have not had any coverage issues with Sprint. Alot of people I know have ATT and the iphone and they complain about dropped calls all the time.

[w7excursion]

It was not for employees,S-print E-mployee R-eferral O-ffer was for family and friends of sprint employees. They only needed an employees email address to sign up. At one point it was open to the public and they didnt need that much,only a promotional email address. Employees get a better deal than sero. Now when they want to TOL one of their Advantage lines it will be converted to a sero plan or when they stop working for sprint they can switch to a sero plan.

Edit: SERO is now considered an employee plan because they are technically the only ones who can get it. But thats not how it started out.

[wildpig]

I think for me also, it has to do with customer loyalty. Yes, loyalty does depends on getting a great package. Would you try to raise the price and hope for the best that some of your clients would stay anyway or would you let the customers keep the good packages that they have and make the small profit from those customers very slowly over time? I don't think in this ultra competitive market they can afford to lose any more customers. Beside, I ve been with sprint since 2002 and probably wont ever switch unless they start taking everyone off SERO or limit the phones so much (i am a WM phone type so as long as i can use most of the latest WM phone). I believe that I am should be entitled to something at least for customer loyalty.

[QrafTee]

Originally Posted by w7excursion

It was not for employees,S-print E-mployee R-eferral O-ffer was for family and friends of sprint employees. They only needed an employees email address to sign up. At one point it was open to the public and they didnt need that much,only a promotional email address. Employees get a better deal than sero. Now when they want to TOL one of their Advantage lines it will be converted to a sero plan or when they stop working for sprint they can switch to a sero plan.

Edit: SERO is now considered an employee plan because they are technically the only ones who can get it. But thats not how it started out.

It was basically made for certain group and many people abused it. So anyone throwing a tantrum about this and never really qualified for it... just move onto another carrier and stop complaining, seriously. If I had a SERO plan, I would have gotten an HTC Touch Pro 2 and lived with it. But since I don't and I'm on Verizon, I'm probably getting a Motorola Droid.

[w7excursion]

Not sure why you quoted me cause I didnt start the thread. Nobody on any site has seen me whine about sero plan restrictions either. Im loving my tp2 on sero and couldnt care less about droid or a pre.

Im still trying to figure out how sero was "abused". Where did sprint say that?

[Silent Assasin]

I'm not whining about saving money. The simple fact is that an I.T. put me on to the plan. They work with phones and he had a hookup. Technically, you could say it was a referral, just like the plan was created for.

Granted, Sprint didn't advertise the plan, but they did open it to the public for a period of time. They also ADVERTISE about paying people who refer new customers to Sprint, via $25 and up to $50 debit/credit cards. So they are getting something out of it, free advertisement.

I did not say I would immediately jump ship, I did infer I would have to consider it. As a consumer I have that right. I was with Sprint when they were providing the home service and got 10% cash back for every $100 spent at the end of the year in the late '80s. I am not trying to get anything more than what was advertised and contractually agreed upon by Sprint to provide me.

The fact that they are excluding long time customers from being able to access new phones or features, w/out paying for upgrade or new plan is what I have a problem with. As long as I don't change my plan, it should be grandfathered in. I know relatives who had accounts (customers with AT&T since the 70's-Back then I believe they were Bell) where they were paying 25 cents a minute for phone calls. They were old and set in their ways so they never changed the plan. I didn't see the phone company call them and say, you are giving us too much money. You may want to sign up for this cheaper plan. Obviously, if they had called, they would've qualified to receive the lower cost, but where is the loyalty of the company, to look out for their customers. Oh yeah, they are in the business of MAKING MONEY.

I agree their is something to be said for loyalty, companies such as Sprint should also have the same mentality rewarding long term customers, i.e. Retention department giving crazy discounts for "Loyal cusotmers". They should actively look for customers such as the above example I provided to reward customers who have been with them instead of if they don't contact us, we'll keep taking more money then they have to spend. I know this will not happen becasue they would have to provide employees to search for these customers, which puts more of a financial strain on their company.

My point was if I wanted to buy a new phone, Sprint should not exclude me from doing so. Lets face it, I am not asking for a free phone. I am willing to buy the phone, at a reduced cost of course, with the understanding that they have me locked in as a paying cusotmer for another 2 years.

[wmdunn]

Originally Posted by Silent Assasin

I'm not whining about saving money. The simple fact is that an I.T. put me on to the plan. They work with phones and he had a hookup. Technically, you could say it was a referral, just like the plan was created for.

Granted, Sprint didn't advertise the plan, but they did open it to the public for a period of time. They also ADVERTISE about paying people who refer new customers to Sprint, via $25 and up to $50 debit/credit cards. So they are getting something out of it, free advertisement.

I did not say I would immediately jump ship, I did infer I would have to consider it. As a consumer I have that right. I was with Sprint when they were providing the home service and got 10% cash back for every $100 spent at the end of the year in the late '80s. I am not trying to get anything more than what was advertised and contractually agreed upon by Sprint to provide me.

The fact that they are excluding long time customers from being able to access new phones or features, w/out paying for upgrade or new plan is what I have a problem with. As long as I don't change my plan, it should be grandfathered in. I know relatives who had accounts (customers with AT&T since the 70's-Back then I believe they were Bell) where they were paying 25 cents a minute for phone calls. They were old and set in their ways so they never changed the plan. I didn't see the phone company call them and say, you are giving us too much money. You may want to sign up for this cheaper plan. Obviously, if they had called, they would've qualified to receive the lower cost, but where is the loyalty of the company, to look out for their customers. Oh yeah, they are in the business of MAKING MONEY.

I agree their is something to be said for loyalty, companies such as Sprint should also have the same mentality rewarding long term customers, i.e. Retention department giving crazy discounts for "Loyal cusotmers". They should actively look for customers such as the above example I provided to reward customers who have been with them instead of if they don't contact us, we'll keep taking more money then they have to spend. I know this will not happen becasue they would have to provide employees to search for these customers, which puts more of a financial strain on their company.

My point was if I wanted to buy a new phone, Sprint should not exclude me from doing so. Lets face it, I am not asking for a free phone. I am willing to buy the phone, at a reduced cost of course, with the understanding that they have me locked in as a paying cusotmer for another 2 years.

Well said ...