New SERO Oct 1st

[BooDaddy]

Thanks austin420. I gave you a "thanks" for the defense.

Nerys, I am making these posts to offer another alternative for you. I didn't know if you knew about being able to cancel your contract penalty free if it does indeed change from your original contract. You just have to really watch for the notices and the deadlines.

I for one, do agree with you in some ways. heres one: I think it is indeed a little silly for Sprint to charge the "coolness tax" for the Evo and Epic. Although the charge can be justified in several ways by Sprint, it is totally optional and avoidable by buying a different phone. To me thats cool I guess, because my power as a consumer comes from my "dollar vote". And right now, my dollar vote is kinda on the fence with the Evo and Epic. For me (not living in a 4G area right now) that extra $10 just doesnt add any real value other than having the badass phone. But thats just my opinion.

On the other hand, I do think it was pretty awesome of Sprint to offer SERO folks the option to get an Evo or Epic. The could have easily NOT offered us this route.

I do think that the first EXTRA initial $10 fee that Sprint is doing for Sero Premium is a good value for SERO folks. With $30 + $10 you get a crazy amount of service options. They are going to add Navi (for folks like me with older SEROs that dont have NAVI), BIS, Sprint TV, and the ability to add WebOS, Android, and Blackberry phones to our plans. The other nice thing is that this fee is 100% OPTIONAL!!! No one is forcing you to take the option. If you are happy where you are, Sprint is happy letting you stay there.

If you truly are upset about these changes and offerings as you sound, then you might want to take your "dollar vote" to another company like VZW, ATT or T-mobile. But good luck to you on finding another plan thats as competitive as SERO.

Remember you the consumer are the one in control of where you put your business.

[nerys]

"On the other hand, I do think it was pretty awesome of Sprint to offer SERO folks the option to get an Evo or Epic. The could have easily NOT offered us this route."

but this is my issue. I ALWAYS had the option to go with something like the evo or epic or 8530 or pixie. Sprint CHANGED the rules took that option away and then came up with this "fee" to get it back.

they are offering nothing. they took it away and then said here you can have it back for a price.

thats unethical. (not the 4G fee the $10 upgrade fee)

and the idea of voting with my dollar is a strawman argument since you KNOW the conditions involved here.

Let me clarify a few parts of your reply to the way I see them

"I do think that the first EXTRA initial $10 fee that Sprint is doing for Sero Premium is a good value for SERO folks. With $30 + $10 you get a crazy amount of service options."

they are adding nothing of any real value to the typical SERO user and the features they add are worthless largely for the phones you would PAY the fee to get.

"They are going to add Navi (for folks like me with older SEROs that dont have NAVI),"

Woopee? the phones that need the $10 fee have far superior FREE alternatives to Sprint Navi even the PAY navi options are cheaper than sprint after 6-10 months.

BIS,

Woopee? worthless UNLESS you bet a BB and its probably ONE TIME. ie I bet if you pay the $10 and do not get a BB then you can never GET BB from then on (could be wrong) but even still its largely not that important to me and likely not important to most SERO users since ALL you get with BIS is Push Mail and access to app world. anything else you can still do without BIS

Sprint TV,

again woopee my orb server is a billion times better

" and the ability to add WebOS, Android, and Blackberry phones to our plans."

They are NOT giving you the ability to add webos android or blackberry phones to our plan. YOU ALWAYS had that ability until they REMOVED IT and now offer it back for a price.

"The other nice thing is that this fee is 100% OPTIONAL!!! No one is forcing you to take the option."

This is the part people do not understand. its NOT optional. its effectively compulsory. inevitably if they continue this trend YOU WILL be forced to make the choice of cancel or pay the fee. Eventually you won't be able to find an equivalent phone that does what you need that will "work" with your account.

you ARE being forced just not being forced "TODAY" but you will be forced.

try finding a nice sample of a decent smart phone from 5 years ago. any idea how hard it is to find good working PPC6700's ?


AGAIN what upsets me is NOT sprints actions. they are for the most part expected and I know how to handle sprint just fine.

what aggravates me is the inability or unwillingness of some on this forum (who I would assume are ABOVE AVERAGE in knowledge to begin with for the fact that they are even HERE) to understand and to even DEFEND these actions.

[BooDaddy]

I like how you assume that every SERO user is JUST LIKE you. I am obviously not, as you can see from my previous replies.
And since when did Sprint EVER offer the ability add Android phones? I remember when Android first came out on Sprint.... they were NEVER available for SERO folks.

Oh, and for BIS, you can also use it for BES, which my company has...and BES is actually really nice if you are a BB fan.

From the replies I read on this thread, the majority seem to think that the fees are acceptable. Even with the fees the plan is still cheapest you will find comparatively.

And just because you signed up for a plan X amount of years ago, doesnt mean Sprint HAS to keep offering you that plan. If you signed up for PowerVision phones, do you expect sprint to keep hanging on to Powervision just for you and the few that are left?

\How happy would you have been if Sprint said "Beginning Oct. 1 2010, all SERO plans will be cancelled due to incompatabilities with our newer generation handsets"

They didnt do that, they give you the option of upgrading your plan for these new phones.

[beserker15]

nerys, what you aren't getting is that the contract you signed up for doesn't guarantee you newer devices in the future. It'll support ALL power visions phones that was available when you signed that contract. Which...back then the highest was probably the MotoQ. It would be unethical of them to suddenly declare the MotoQ an unsupported phone when it was originally supported. Any phone newer than the MotoQ is fair game...the only thing Sprint risks from denying future phones is pissing off its customers. Sprint did that with the Samsung Instinct and a lot of people got upset. That's why the continued letting a few more power phones active, like the Intrepid and our TP2 because of the Windows Mobile heritage. They saw a new chance when Android came out as they would have a more legitimate reason that Sprint customers would understand. There will always be older customers upset that they can't use the new handsets, but they appeased about half of them by offering this $10 iconic upgrade. Then they are left with the half that still oppose to the fee...which they figure is not that many.

Basically in the end, unless you can specifically point on the line in your contract that supports what you've been saying...you have no legal case. And as far as the morality argument goes, you can't really do anything with that legally.

[yankees45us]

Originally Posted by nerys

"On the other hand, I do think it was pretty awesome of Sprint to offer SERO folks the option to get an Evo or Epic. The could have easily NOT offered us this route."

but this is my issue. I ALWAYS had the option to go with something like the evo or epic or 8530 or pixie. Sprint CHANGED the rules took that option away and then came up with this "fee" to get it back.

they are offering nothing. they took it away and then said here you can have it back for a price.

thats unethical. (not the 4G fee the $10 upgrade fee)

and the idea of voting with my dollar is a strawman argument since you KNOW the conditions involved here.

Let me clarify a few parts of your reply to the way I see them

"I do think that the first EXTRA initial $10 fee that Sprint is doing for Sero Premium is a good value for SERO folks. With $30 + $10 you get a crazy amount of service options."

they are adding nothing of any real value to the typical SERO user and the features they add are worthless largely for the phones you would PAY the fee to get.

"They are going to add Navi (for folks like me with older SEROs that dont have NAVI),"

Woopee? the phones that need the $10 fee have far superior FREE alternatives to Sprint Navi even the PAY navi options are cheaper than sprint after 6-10 months.

BIS,

Woopee? worthless UNLESS you bet a BB and its probably ONE TIME. ie I bet if you pay the $10 and do not get a BB then you can never GET BB from then on (could be wrong) but even still its largely not that important to me and likely not important to most SERO users since ALL you get with BIS is Push Mail and access to app world. anything else you can still do without BIS

Sprint TV,

again woopee my orb server is a billion times better

" and the ability to add WebOS, Android, and Blackberry phones to our plans."

They are NOT giving you the ability to add webos android or blackberry phones to our plan. YOU ALWAYS had that ability until they REMOVED IT and now offer it back for a price.

"The other nice thing is that this fee is 100% OPTIONAL!!! No one is forcing you to take the option."

This is the part people do not understand. its NOT optional. its effectively compulsory. inevitably if they continue this trend YOU WILL be forced to make the choice of cancel or pay the fee. Eventually you won't be able to find an equivalent phone that does what you need that will "work" with your account.

you ARE being forced just not being forced "TODAY" but you will be forced.

try finding a nice sample of a decent smart phone from 5 years ago. any idea how hard it is to find good working PPC6700's ?


AGAIN what upsets me is NOT sprints actions. they are for the most part expected and I know how to handle sprint just fine.

what aggravates me is the inability or unwillingness of some on this forum (who I would assume are ABOVE AVERAGE in knowledge to begin with for the fact that they are even HERE) to understand and to even DEFEND these actions.

You really are hard headed. Doesn't matter if people don't like it or can't afford it... Prices will always go up. That's a fact of life. This $10 charge is a way of sprint allowing people to keep their discounted sero plans and have some of the new phones that use more data. And yes, the android phones use more data than wm phones. I know because I came from a custom rom tp2.

I also worked for verizon back when they introduced new plans to replace the older plans that used to use minutes for internet instead of kb. After verizon introduced those plans they mandated that alot of the phones could not be activated unless you upgraded or changed to one of the new plans. Did anybody make a big deal about that or threaten with legal action? No.. The reason why not was because it was completely legal. Just like it is completely legal for sprint to make these changes now. They might seem unfair and unethical changes but these businesses are in it to make money. That hasn't changed and won't change anytime soon.
At least sprint is trying to meet people on sero halfway. So keep complaining. I will just pay the extra huge amount of money..wow $10 and get the extras like anytime any mobile, unlimited nav, which reviews have shown that it is as of now better than google nav because telenav does a good job of updating it.
So keep complaining while everyone else is still happy since there is no other plan that can even touch the sero even with the addon charge.

Sent from my Evo using Tapatalk

[frazell]

Originally Posted by nerys

what aggravates me is the inability or unwillingness of some on this forum (who I would assume are ABOVE AVERAGE in knowledge to begin with for the fact that they are even HERE) to understand and to even DEFEND these actions.

You aggravate me by not understanding the reality of the situation...

No carrier has ever offered a perpetual contract to anyone. They are free to raise prices, drop features, and anything else they choose on new and out of contract subscribers. A contract is just what it is, a contract,... A legal document binding two people to perform agreed upon actions for some duration of time.

Without a contract Sprint is under no obligation to provide you service and you are equally under no obligation to stick with Sprint. As such, Sprint could easily say they are killing Sprint for any Out of Contract customer. That wasn't what they chose to do!

Also, Sprint never took the right to get any phone away from you. That is in your right today and always will be. You also have to agree to pay whatever fees come with that device. If you don't agree you can always vote with your wallet.

See, you are quick to generalize all of us SERO users to me like yourself. It is for this reason that Sprint is walking the line they are walking. They aren't generalizing us and instead are allowing us to choose on our own merits. I would like unlimited Sprint Navigation (I find it better than Bing or Google maps personally) and Any Mobile Anytime. To say none of us see them as valuable is laughable.

But... If you don't agree they are worth any money or useful then you vote with your wallet... You skip adding $10 extra to your SERO plan.

SERO is still the best plan on the market right now competitively speaking and will be even moreso after the $10 buy up. But make the buying choice that best fits your needs.

A loaf of bread was a nickle at some point... Now you pay a good solid $3... Never expect inflation to pass you by

[fcastro]

This is turning into a mass flaming. If you feel that paying 2/3 more the cost of your current SERO plan makes sense (10+10) then knock yourself out. I'll stick to my slow TP2 and hope that the roms that continue coming out address the mass slowness windoze mobile is all about. Sprint basically is telling us SERO users that we can have the latest toys and OS'es but we are going to have to give up our great rates in the process. Again this a dollar and cents game, $35 bucks to $55 bucks...YOU BE THE JUDGE.

PS Prices WILL NOT always go up! The more and more smart phones come to market, eventually that should put downward pressure on pricing and plans. 3rd and 4th tier carriers (sprint and tmobile) are pricing way below at&t and verizon. Virgin and Metro and also aggressively pricing.

[JAmerican]

I don't want to add fuel to the flame, just want to add my non-flammable two cents.

I love Sprint service. I've been with Sprint since July 2008 (two days before they canceled SERO). I bought a Treo 700wx and swapped it for a Treo 800w. The Treo 800w came out on the day SERO ended. These two years flew by. I've had like 5 replacements issued to me (all insured replacements - no deductible) for my Treo 800w. Sprint is by far better than anything I've seen on T-Mobile for the 6 horrible years I was with them. I've experienced negligible drop calls and near-excellent call quality. All this for SERO pricing of $43/month (taxes and insurance included).

I just learned that my college gives me a 23% on a new service contract with Sprint (http://www.evpdiscount.com/). Sprint has so many discounts, it's ridiculous. I personally do not like the coolness tax and I do not like the Android/Iconic SERO tax either. The low price SERO plan has made it possible for me to pay my bill on time every month.

The way I see this situation is as follows. Sprint is wrong for being ambiguous about rates in my opinion but it is obvious they need money. Now I can point to a lot of ways Sprint can save money (pay board members less, don't spend money on NASCAR, etc), but I don't know how doing that will affect the company in the long run. I personally do not know how long Sprint will last but I definitely do not want to see it go. I would pay the extra amount to help Sprint out, but usually when you help a big corporation out, they turn around and screw you anyway (I say this from experience).

To conclude, I won't complain because I've loved every second of being on Sprint. Everywhere I go, I get service (except out of the country - I turn my phone off). If I do go below one bar, I switch to FREE Roaming. T-Mobile charged me for roaming. What I will do instead of complaining, I will continue to look for deals that fits my budget and devices that suit my needs. Like that link I just posted about the discount you get at some colleges or even businesses.

Remember, you didn't get SERO by complaining, you got it by diligently looking for a better deal!

I guess my two cents had some gasoline on it but it won't burn down the place.

JA

[beserker15]

Originally Posted by JAmerican

I don't want to add fuel to the flame, just want to add my non-flammable two cents.

I love Sprint service. I've been with Sprint since July 2008 (two days before they canceled SERO). I bought a Treo 700wx and swapped it for a Treo 800w. The Treo 800w came out on the day SERO ended. These two years flew by. I've had like 5 replacements issued to me (all insured replacements - no deductible) for my Treo 800w. Sprint is by far better than anything I've seen on T-Mobile for the 6 horrible years I was with them. I've experienced negligible drop calls and near-excellent call quality. All this for SERO pricing of $43/month (taxes and insurance included).

I just learned that my college gives me a 23% on a new service contract with Sprint (http://www.evpdiscount.com/). Sprint has so many discounts, it's ridiculous. I personally do not like the coolness tax and I do not like the Android/Iconic SERO tax either. The low price SERO plan has made it possible for me to pay my bill on time every month.

The way I see this situation is as follows. Sprint is wrong for being ambiguous about rates in my opinion but it is obvious they need money. Now I can point to a lot of ways Sprint can save money (pay board members less, don't spend money on NASCAR, etc), but I don't know how doing that will affect the company in the long run. I personally do not know how long Sprint will last but I definitely do not want to see it go. I would pay the extra amount to help Sprint out, but usually when you help a big corporation out, they turn around and screw you anyway (I say this from experience).

To conclude, I won't complain because I've loved every second of being on Sprint. Everywhere I go, I get service (except out of the country - I turn my phone off). If I do go below one bar, I switch to FREE Roaming. T-Mobile charged me for roaming. What I will do instead of complaining, I will continue to look for deals that fits my budget and devices that suit my needs. Like that link I just posted about the discount you get at some colleges or even businesses.

Remember, you didn't get SERO by complaining, you got it by diligently looking for a better deal!

I guess my two cents had some gasoline on it but it won't burn down the place.

JA

Well said. See...not everyone who dislikes the new plans or disagrees with Sprint has to talk like Sprint killed their family or took away their favorite pet. I mean if we want to talk about lying in a contract here...how many SERO customers actually know the Sprint representative who's email they used We are all bargain hunters here so if you don't like the prices, keep looking for ways to get better ones.

[brownhornet]

Originally Posted by fcastro

This is turning into a mass flaming. If you feel that paying 2/3 more the cost of your current SERO plan makes sense (10+10) then knock yourself out. I'll stick to my slow TP2 and hope that the roms that continue coming out address the mass slowness windoze mobile is all about. Sprint basically is telling us SERO users that we can have the latest toys and OS'es but we are going to have to give up our great rates in the process. Again this a dollar and cents game, $35 bucks to $55 bucks...YOU BE THE JUDGE.

PS Prices WILL NOT always go up! The more and more smart phones come to market, eventually that should put downward pressure on pricing and plans. 3rd and 4th tier carriers (sprint and tmobile) are pricing way below at&t and verizon. Virgin and Metro and also aggressively pricing.

Yea... and neither one of those carriers have a network even half the size of at&t or Verizon. There's a reason that you have to pay more because they cover more real estate, have more towers, more maintenance and regardless of how much cheaper the other networks are Verizon still has more customers than either of them. That alone proves that for many people it is NOT all about the price. It's no secret that Verizon has the best coverage and people are willing to pay to get it.

It's easy for carriers like Sprint, tmobile, Virgin and Metro to price less when they cover less real estate. Metro is $40 unlimited here in GA but when you leave the Atlanta Metropolitan area the service goes from ok to being a joke. Sprint here is pretty good.. but there are spots that if it werent for being able to roam on Verizon you would have no coverage.

It's not just as simple as saying "oh well yea we're going to lower our prices." These other companies have NO choice because if their prices were the same as Verizon with less coverage... they wouldnt have any customers. Verizon actually has cell trucks that they send to sports events to sit outside of the stadium so people can make calls. I've seen this firsthand about 10 times and maybe once from Sprint. They also ride around LOOKING for dead spots just to build a tower in that area. That's what paying the high Verizon bill gets you.

And when Metro builds out their LTE, we'll see how long those cheap unlimited plans last.