Cannot UPGRADE!!!! WTF!!!!!
 

Ok so i went to the sprint store today, i added a new line for my wife just fine and got her the PRE, however because i am not at a year into my contract on my line yet, not until november i cannot upgrade to the pre, i would have to buy it outright. WTF is this crap, how can sprint be wanting new customers but wont even make there current customers happy. Anyone else run into this problem. Anyone know of anything that can help me out?????

Re: Cannot UPGRADE!!!! WTF!!!!!
 

What do you expect them to do? They gave you a discount on the phone you bought less than a year ago. They need that 22 months to recoup their rebate they ALREADY gave you. Sprint is the best at current customer upgrades imo. After 22 months you get the same price as any new customer. You think palm charges them less than $199 per phone?

EDIT: BTW from what you said it's not that they won't let you upgrade, because according to you you can. So you may want to update your title. Sprint is letting

Re: Cannot UPGRADE!!!! WTF!!!!!
 

well they could give us the option to add another 2 years onto our already two years. why cant they do that, so you have a 4 year contract??

Re: Cannot UPGRADE!!!! WTF!!!!!
 

So that they have to wait longer to recoup their losses? You'd be ok with them changing your early termination fee to $500 too?

Re: Cannot UPGRADE!!!! WTF!!!!!
 

do you work for sprint, cause your huggin there nuts pretty good right now

Re: Cannot UPGRADE!!!! WTF!!!!!
 

If you sprint guys can upgrade evey year your lucky cause at Alltel they make you wait the full 2 years, they will let you resign a contract 3 months early but they add the 3 months to your next contract.
Dont get me wrong, Iv been with Alltel for 12 years and their customer service has always been top notch, along with their phones. but I wish they would give at least one upgrade in the 2 year contract period.
I think AT&T allows upgrades every 6 months or something like that, that would be awesome!

Re: Cannot UPGRADE!!!! WTF!!!!!
 

No, I do not work for them, but have been a long time customer. This is simple business practice and is done by all the cell phone companies. If you haven't gotten a discount on a phone for over 2 years, you would have some merit to your case, but if you got the full subsidized discount in less than 2 years then you really can't be mad at Sprint. This has been their practice for atleast 5 years, they don't hide this fact from anyone, they advertise that you get a new customer price every 22 months, how is it their fault?

With Sprint you have multiple upgrade options. And no AT&T isn't giving upgrade pricing every 6 months. Here at AT&T's facebook page they explain about this http://www.facebook.com/ATT. They just announced today they will let people who are eligible for upgrades from July until September get their upgrade early. But that's only 3 months earlier than they normally would have qualified.

Sprint gives you an upgrade discount at one year. $75 off if you sign two more years or $25 off if you sign only one more year.
At 22 months you get the same discount as a new customer if you sign into two more years. If you only sign one more year at this point it's $75 off.

Re: Cannot UPGRADE!!!! WTF!!!!!
 

Yeah, it does suck really bad... that being said, where have you been? Every wireless carrier operates this way?!?!? I'm more surprised about you being surprised about this than you are surprised about it.

Re: Cannot UPGRADE!!!! WTF!!!!!
 

Well im more surprised that your surprised that hes surprised that...... wait, where was I again??

Re: Cannot UPGRADE!!!! WTF!!!!!
 

i was on att before and i was walking in almost every 4-6 months buying a new iphone and renewing my contract for another 2 years from the time i walked in, thats why im surprised. you just think since sprint is the behind att and verizon that they would try to make there current customers happy.

Re: Cannot UPGRADE!!!! WTF!!!!!
 

I think your experience with AT&T was an exception... I used to have AT&T as well and I had to go thru the normal upgrade routes to get a new phone at upgrade prices. It's standard for the industry. Hopefully, someday the whole contract thing will be in the past, and there are people that are taking legal steps to work toward that... but for now, this is pretty much universal for all carriers.

Re: Cannot UPGRADE!!!! WTF!!!!!
 

Once the contract days go away we will be paying full unsubsidized prices like they do in Europe. Be careful what you wish for people. I like it today, you have the option to get a contract and get a subsidized price, or buy a phone outright with no contract.

Re: Cannot UPGRADE!!!! WTF!!!!!
 

well like att they are allowing 3 months early, if we were allowed 3 months early, i could atleast get it in august, id only have to wait a month and a half, but as it stands i have to wait til november. i think ill just add another line, get the pre, wait 30 days, transfer my number, pay the 200 ETF to close that line, the $100 rebate will cover half the ETF, sell my touch pro for 200, that will cover the other 100 of the ETF and still give me my rebate. if all works out, thats how its goin down.

Re: Cannot UPGRADE!!!! WTF!!!!!
 

I'm not sure I believe that but I'll take freedom of choice over being locked in to a provider any day, regardless.

Re: Cannot UPGRADE!!!! WTF!!!!!
 

You may be able to call them a bit early and complain enough until they give you an early upgrade.

Re: Cannot UPGRADE!!!! WTF!!!!!
 

The unsubsidized pricing may be less because of competition amongst manufacturers, but it will still be unsubsidized without a contract.

Re: Cannot UPGRADE!!!! WTF!!!!!
 

I think you are right about that... and I think it will be worth it to get some freedom of choice. :)

Re: Cannot UPGRADE!!!! WTF!!!!!
 

Also keep in mind that the Pre is currently only sold "on-the-street". There is no tele-sales and no web-sales. Once that changes you may, repeat may be able to negotiate on price.

late,
Coz

Re: Cannot UPGRADE!!!! WTF!!!!!
 

hey was just wondering, if i dont like the service, i have 30days to cancel, can i cancel the line, do i get to keep the phone?

Re: Cannot UPGRADE!!!! WTF!!!!!
 

Nope. You have to return the phone too.

Re: Cannot UPGRADE!!!! WTF!!!!!
 

just get it from ebay i got my diamond from ebay and got it for half price so i payed 250 instead of 500 btw sprint was the seller lol

Re: Cannot UPGRADE!!!! WTF!!!!!
 

if you're a sprint premier customer, you can upgrade every 12 months.

Re: Cannot UPGRADE!!!! WTF!!!!!
 

Forgot about this I did that with my diamond since I wasn't eligible for an upgrade at that time. Got the diamond for $250 instead of $550.

Re: Cannot UPGRADE!!!! WTF!!!!!
 

Well, having been with Sprint a Decade, They Allow Premier customers $150 Bucks off a phone every 12 months. Do you know if you qualify as a premier customer?

Re: Cannot UPGRADE!!!! WTF!!!!!
 

no my 12 months isnt until nov.1 but yes i am a premier customer. i think im over the hype now, i will just wait it out and maybe something better is out by november.

Re: Cannot UPGRADE!!!! WTF!!!!!
 

You buy a phone, they give you a bunch of discounts, you agree to a two year contract.

If you decide to drop out early they knock you with a 175$ ETF to basically reimburse themselves of the discounts they gave you when you bought the phone.

If you want to work out a deal with sprint try asking them to extend your contract. If they say no, try telling them you'll even willing to tack on an another ETF. If they still say no, just open a second line and end the first one. You pay ETF and you renew for two years.

Sprint alredy has you as a customer. They have no reason to "lure" you in to getting service with them. The PRE is marketed as the must have phone. They want everyone from AT&T, Verizon and tmobile to go OMFG! I must have this phone, I must have sprint to get it so therefore I will get sprint to have this phone.

As we end our current contracts sprint wants us to think OMFG!, This pre is what I always wanted and i'm willing to extend my service with them to do so.

For those of us who still got months to go before our contract is up (myself included) sprint could care less with helping us get this phone. They already have us under contract. Why waste a sale on someone now with short supply when they could use it to secure a new customer / new line.

When the pre fad dies down sprint will definitely be more willing to help you out because supply and demand will have been put into balance.

Oh will AT&T let you tack on years to a contract to get new phones?

Cause i'd love to just buy 30-40 phones at a discounted rate and just pay the 200$ to end my 99 year contract with the profits i'd make selling them on ebay.

Re: Cannot UPGRADE!!!! WTF!!!!!
 

I just had to vent about Sprint.
We had Sprint for many many years, and my wife would intermittently use the internet unknowingly so I had them block it.

I bought my first PPC a few years back and had nothing but crap from them. First I didn't want to pay for any internet services since the phone had WIFI so when I got it I noticed right off that it would use sprint data intermittently so I called them and told them to block it. well they didn't. So this incurred charges upon charges and call after call from me to tell them to block it and reimburse me.

After that it seemed that they would screw up my bill every almost month for the following 4 years (yeah I put up with it for way to long). They actually gave me an employee discount for all of my trouble. I thought that was nice but I spent so much time on the phone with them it sucked. During all of this I found part of the problem was that my wife would call and somehow the kept changing the plan I really don't think it was her fault but hey whatever, and they kept pushing my contract back either on a whim or because of the plan changes.

Well one day I made the mistake of hitting *2 to call them and it tells me that they were updating my phone. BIG mistake first it isn't just a phone so I got a bit ticked at that. I think they should make you aware and let me know what they were doing and why BEFORE they did it kinda like the regular windows option. After that I lost a lot of the signal that I had. I had crappy reception for the remainder of my contract.

Luckily the Touch Pro went to Alltel shortly after Sprint so I went with them, Sprint was getting way to many strikes and in my book 3 strikes your out.

Re: Cannot UPGRADE!!!! WTF!!!!!
 

All carriers do this now. Like the second poster said,they need the 22 months to recoup the discount they gave you. They aren't going to give discounts and then have you turn around a month later and cancel,they would lose money,that's why nextel was in so much financial trouble. In cases where people would threaten to cancel because of upgrades,I submit a form to my POP team, Port Out Prevention. Try discussing that with the sales rep/store manager.