HERO/sero: bunch of BS!

[gazment]

Originally Posted by ydoucare

I'm currently on the SERO 500 plan, but will soon be switching for the Hero. It was a good 2 year run on SERO, but have to give it up I guess.

The bright side is, if you call in to retentions, they should offer you the Everything Data 450 with a $20 recurring credit for the length of your contract, which would make it $49.99 instead of $69.99. There's a lengthy thread on the sprintusers.com SERO forums discussing plan changes.

I got off the phone with sprint yesterday and initially spoke to a rep that said there is no retentions department because I was threatening to leave them for bc my bill was to high after I switched to the hero, after being polite with the guy and explaining my difficulties, he says he can give me a plan with an "add-on" data package. I told him that this is not possible with the hero, he said sure yes it is. So then I return with "Have you ever activated a Hero before with an Add-On data package?" He says, "I've activated every phone you can image with just about any type of plan" So i'm like go for it. After waiting for a bit he comes back and says he can't do it. Duh, I already knew this.

Then he tells me he's going to transfer me to retentions. My response "I thought you said there was no retentions?" To which he replies sorry sir we have to follow a certain protocol. Yeah Right!!

So after going back and forth a bit with retentions and how my bill is about 20 dollars more than it previously was I got a $20 dollar monthly discount for the rest of my life with sprint (as mentioned by the previous poster) on top of this I keep all my bonus minutes roughly 400 and my 20% discount from work.

So to break it down Plan cost 69.99 - 20% (14.00) - $20 monthly discount i'll be paying about 35 dollars that's 1/2 off!!!, and with taxes and everything it should be back to what I was originally paying (about 42-43 dollars)

I am an 8 year customer, and retentions has always come through for me. If you've been with sprint for a few years give it a shot. It doesn't hurt to try.

PS I did have to sign a 2 year contract extension, but i've been with sprint for so long I don't think i'll ever move to a different carrier. Plus I get a Hero with an inexpensive contract to boot.

[laythy]

for people who has plans that cant get the hero on, get a hero from ebay and exchange the esn number on it with another regular phone (if you know how to do that) and then activate it.
sprint will be fooled that the phone is the older on when the hardware is actually the hero

not sure if its possible on the hero for 100% but ive tried it before on htc diamond with another esn and it worked just fine

[mconig78]

Originally Posted by laythy

for people who has plans that cant get the hero on, get a hero from ebay and exchange the esn number on it with another regular phone (if you know how to do that) and then activate it.
sprint will be fooled that the phone is the older on when the hardware is actually the hero

not sure if its possible on the hero for 100% but ive tried it before on htc diamond with another esn and it worked just fine

yea that is also fraud.....

[shadowmite]

Originally Posted by mconig78

yea that is also fraud.....

But technically radio updates from HTC violate the EXACT same law as MEID/ESN changing... Go look it up!
And it wouldn't be fraud if you use it as your only phone and pay for it. Its just a outdated law that was created to stop real fraud (cloning of peoples phones without their permission or to allow multiple devices on the same paid line).

Edit: quote from no2chem:

I am in the process of getting some letters typed up to get the FCC to change this outdated law which really serves no purpose. Interestingly, 47 CFR 22.919 makes it illegal for a phone manufacturer to update the firmware, see 47 CFR 22.919(c) in relevant part:

"Cellular mobile equipment must be designed such that any attempt
to remove, tamper with, or change the ESN chip, its logic system, or firmware originally programmed by the manufacturer will render the mobile transmitter inoperative." (emphasis added)

Firmware updates are clearly, (1) not the originally programmed firmware and, (2) not programmed by the manufacturer.

Let me also add the FCC's own site about this:
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts...honefraud.html

Clearly someone cloning their own phone and only using one at a time does not fall into either category, which is why this is a argued over thing.

[orangekid]

Originally Posted by laythy

for people who has plans that cant get the hero on, get a hero from ebay and exchange the esn number on it with another regular phone (if you know how to do that) and then activate it.
sprint will be fooled that the phone is the older on when the hardware is actually the hero

not sure if its possible on the hero for 100% but ive tried it before on htc diamond with another esn and it worked just fine

yeah we're looking for legal ways to handle this issue.

[shadowmite]

I'd like to mention that while I was a firm believer that sprint was in fact just trying to force people off sero to get these fancy phones, I no longer think that is the case.

Suffice to say I've seen some technical reasons why they may have taken this stance and furthermore, my theory works with the fact the TP2 was allowed:

Phones that use visual voicemail are not allowed on sero. That seems to explain it. When these devices get activated they need a slightly different backend system which requires different account codes. Thus sero would not properly work without some issues (maybe minor, but not to a company that has to support them). Anyway, just wanted to put this out there.

[pjrey]

ydoucare... why do you have to give it up? because you want the hero? wow.. i could see if there was NO other options out there. but there are TONS!... its not that im frugal, its that i am stubborn... the whole thing is goofy...
p

[ydoucare]

Originally Posted by pjrey

ydoucare... why do you have to give it up? because you want the hero? wow.. i could see if there was NO other options out there. but there are TONS!... its not that im frugal, its that i am stubborn... the whole thing is goofy...
p

Because I can afford to. SERO is not make or break for some of us. Who the hell are you to tell me otherwise?

[dannzeman]

Is it really that surprising that Sprint is doing away with SERO? Have you seen their profit (or lack of) reports for the last year? With these SERO plans they were practically giving away their plans.

[dmb60614]

Originally Posted by dannzeman

Is it really that surprising that Sprint is doing away with SERO? Have you seen their profit (or lack of) reports for the last year? With these SERO plans they were practically giving away their plans.

this

they may give you a million different reasons but the reality is that they are trying to transition people off of SERO because they are losing money on it. sero was like a black friday sale. they used it bring people to sprint. now they want to transition people from SERO to plans that will make them money.