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Advice / experience cancelling Sprint line with iPhone

oneMadRssn

oneMadRssn

macrumors 603
Original poster
Sep 8, 2011
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As much as I like Sprint (not sarcasm), I am looking to switch to T-Mobile soon. My question has to do with ETF of a smartphone versus a basic phone.

Sprint's ETF pricing structure is here:http://support.sprint.com/support/a...ase-sp061027-20110823-171256/?ECID=vanity:etf

As I have an iPhone on my line, my ETF is quite high, $260 at the moment. If I had a basic phone on my line, my ETF would be half that, $130.

My question is, as I have several old Sprint basic phones laying around, if I switch my line to a basic phone before cancelling, will they charge me the basic phone ETF rate?

Has anyone tried this before? Does anyone have experience going through the ETF process with Sprint?

Also, if anyone has cancelled Sprint recently, how is their retention department these days? I remember years back they would bend over backwards, offer crazy discounts, and do pretty much anything to get you to stay.

Thanks for the help.
 
oneMadRssn said:
As much as I like Sprint (not sarcasm), I am looking to switch to T-Mobile soon. My question has to do with ETF of a smartphone versus a basic phone.

Sprint's ETF pricing structure is here:http://support.sprint.com/support/a...ase-sp061027-20110823-171256/?ECID=vanity:etf

As I have an iPhone on my line, my ETF is quite high, $260 at the moment. If I had a basic phone on my line, my ETF would be half that, $130.

My question is, as I have several old Sprint basic phones laying around, if I switch my line to a basic phone before cancelling, will they charge me the basic phone ETF rate?

Has anyone tried this before? Does anyone have experience going through the ETF process with Sprint?

Also, if anyone has cancelled Sprint recently, how is their retention department these days? I remember years back they would bend over backwards, offer crazy discounts, and do pretty much anything to get you to stay.

Thanks for the help.
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I don't have any experience with leaving or with ETF. But I do know that if you roam, they will terminate you and if they do, it's ETF free.

One person I read about went and downloaded an Ubuntu install disk every night for two months. The first month they will ignore you, but two months in you should get a termination letter.

As to Retentions, I doubt very highly that they will do anything for you, at least without you pushing for a while. According to one Sprint employee, Sprint is aware of the network issues and is not doing anything to prevent anyone from leaving. They are counting on being able to bring people back when the network gets up and running. Who knows when that will be!

I got a free Airave out of retentions last year. Another option is to file a complaint with the BBB or the FCC or both. Guaranteed you will have a call back from Sprint if you do that. dan@sprint.com to contact Retentions direct (via email anyway).

Incidentally, there is a material change to the contract right now. You have until July 31st to cancel ETF free. But I've heard it both ways. That Sprint is not allowing this and that it is. So, YMMV.
 
eyoungren said:
Incidentally, there is a material change to the contract right now. You have until July 31st to cancel ETF free. But I've heard it both ways. That Sprint is not allowing this and that it is. So, YMMV.
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Interesting, do you know what the material change is, or if there is a link with more info?

I thought about doing the data-roam-abuse thing, but it's difficult to coordinate given this is on a familly plan. We have 5 lines, 2 are out of contact, 3 are in contract, one of those in contract (mine) is a smartphone. Not sure how I can swing that with the other lines.
 
The "material" change is that Sprint is changing the TOS to remove material changes that allow you to get out of your contract.

For instance, before 7/1 Sprint did not have any language in the TOS that said they could change your plan on you. So changing your plan on you was a material change which would allow you to go ETF free. As of 7/1 and within the thirty days Sprint has written new language into the TOS that allows them to change your plan on you. By not leaving you agree to this on 8/1 and surrender any right to leave ETF free if Sprint changes your plan.

It's a fine point and you will probably strenuously have to argue it before they let you out without ETF.

Take a look at this thread. Dan's comments are probably the one's you want to pay most attention to.

OFF-TOPIC: I find it interesting that the traffic at sprintusers.com had declined considerably since 2009 when I joined. It used to be a place that was happening as much as MR is here. Now, there only seems to be a core of people remaining and most of those people aren't Sprint customers anymore and stick around because of their time investment in the community. It's a pretty good indicator I think of just how bad Sprint has allowed things to get.
 
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ETF won't go down because you change the phone to a non-smartphone. The ETF is set when you get the phone so you will still pay the smartphone rate.

From what I gathered, excessive roaming on one line will get the account closed without ETF. Not just the line itself.
 
I just found this too. Posted in the Sprint is Pathetic thread.

Pretty much the same thing the post from sprintusers was talking about.
 
eyoungren said:
OFF-TOPIC: I find it interesting that the traffic at sprintusers.com had declined considerably since 2009 when I joined. It used to be a place that was happening as much as MR is here. Now, there only seems to be a core of people remaining and most of those people aren't Sprint customers anymore and stick around because of their time investment in the community. It's a pretty good indicator I think of just how bad Sprint has allowed things to get.
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Everybody goes to S4GRU now.
 
AutoUnion39 said:
Roam on VZW and get kicked off their network instead?
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Probably the most common tactic. Change your PRL to Verizon or outright roam on Verizon and start streaming Netflix. You'll get a nastygram first, and then they will boot you without ETF if you continue.
 
GusHerb said:
Everybody goes to S4GRU now.
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Yeah, unfortunately rants over there aren't allowed. And anything that remotely smacks of criticizing Sprint, even if it's true, is considered to be a rant.

They don't want to hear about the current state of the network and it's problems. The only thing they want to talk about is the first coming of Sprint LTE and how wonderful it will be.

Considering also some of the opinions held there about network usage and the fact that a lot of them seem to favor going back to stone-age technology, I've never signed up. My first post would probably get me banned.

I just use them for the publicly available info. Not interested in donating to a forum community whose views seem to be opposite mine.

Just my opinion.
 
oneMadRssn said:
Is it still possible to port your number to another carrier when you do this?
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It's my understanding that they give you a certain amount of time to find another carrier before cutting you off. You can port out during that time.
 
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