Carrier Anyone Tempted by Sprint 1/2 Price Plan Offer?

[eyoungren]

That said, today it's a pretty good network in Chicago, in terms of data speeds, coverage, and voice quality. I submitted my AT&T bill online and they offered me unlimited everything for $26.50 pre-tax based on what I'm paying for my grandfathered AT&T plan (Nation 450 with 200 messages and unlimited data). I submitted a request to AT&T Customer Care to see if they'll boost my minutes and text allowance.

Me reasoning is that if I were to switch to Sprint, it would essentially be a wash, except that Sprint is offering me unlimited minutes and texts. Here's why:

• Sprint's plan offer is $26.50 pre-tax. An iPhone 6 would be $27.09 for 24 months. So the total pre-tax is $53.59.
• I currently pay AT&T $53.74 pre-tax.
• Sprint requires turning in a phone or paying $200. If I used my upgrade on AT&T to get an iPhone 6, I'd pay $199 plus tax.
• Sprint's network is as good as AT&T's in Chicago.

I'll see what they say.

I'm on an old Everything Data 1500 Family Share plan. That's 1500 minutes between two people, unlimited messaging and unlimited data rolleyes.

Sprint just recently gave long term customers on old plans unlimited minutes. So, now I have unlimited minutes too. Something I won't ever touch though as there has always been free nights and weekends, free long distance and free mobile to mobile.

Of course I'm paying way more than $60 a month, but Sprint no longer has UD for family plans.

 

[solodogg]

uploaded my AT&T mobile value 20GB to their website, and it claims I have to visit a Sprint store because I don't have data. Uhhhh....good work Sprint! Guess your savings site works as well as your LTE network does.

 

[lordofthereef]

I'm on an old Everything Data 1500 Family Share plan. That's 1500 minutes between two people, unlimited messaging and unlimited data rolleyes.

Sprint just recently gave long term customers on old plans unlimited minutes. So, now I have unlimited minutes too. Something I won't ever touch though as there has always been free nights and weekends, free long distance and free mobile to mobile.

Of course I'm paying way more than $60 a month, but Sprint no longer has UD for family plans.

This has probably been asked from you and I missed it, but why do you stick with sprint? I have to assume they're the only carrier that gives you service somewhere you frequent?

 

[eyoungren]

This has probably been asked from you and I missed it, but why do you stick with sprint? I have to assume they're the only carrier that gives you service somewhere you frequent?

Yes, it has been asked but I don't have a problem repeating myself.

I re-upped with Sprint in Sept. 2012. They did not have LTE then in Phoenix, so I decided to give them two years. 3G on my old phone was still ok then.

But data was horrible on the iPhone 5. A year later we got LTE. Which was great, but not everywhere. Once it started getting everywhere the problem then became lack of backhaul which caused data to be slow, even though ping was good and response to the tower was good.

Right now, Phoenix is 64% complete and it's backhaul that's killing Sprint here. Nothing has moved concerning the towers I connect to most at work and home. But towers all around those have seen upgraded backhaul.

I haven't left quite yet, because I need to buy new phones and text and voice, which we both use our phones for is still good. But in the new year, when we get our refund check it will be an entirely different matter. Once I have that check, I will be visiting a T-Mobile store shortly after that.

 

[lordofthereef]

Yes, it has been asked but I don't have a problem repeating myself.

I re-upped with Sprint in Sept. 2012. They did not have LTE then in Phoenix, so I decided to give them two years. 3G on my old phone was still ok then.

But data was horrible on the iPhone 5. A year later we got LTE. Which was great, but not everywhere. Once it started getting everywhere the problem then became lack of backhaul which caused data to be slow, even though ping was good and response to the tower was good.

Right now, Phoenix is 64% complete and it's backhaul that's killing Sprint here. Nothing has moved concerning the towers I connect to most at work and home. But towers all around those have seen upgraded backhaul.

I haven't left quite yet, because I need to buy new phones and text and voice, which we both use our phones for is still good. But in the new year, when we get our refund check it will be an entirely different matter. Once I have that check, I will be visiting a T-Mobile store shortly after that.

Makes sense. I commend you for sticking it out with a conoany that seems to have given you more grief than joy based in your posts. Hope TMO works out. I'd love to save money with them if I coukd!

 

[tritron]

That said, today it's a pretty good network in Chicago, in terms of data speeds, coverage, and voice quality. I submitted my AT&T bill online and they offered me unlimited everything for $26.50 pre-tax based on what I'm paying for my grandfathered AT&T plan (Nation 450 with 200 messages and unlimited data). I submitted a request to AT&T Customer Care to see if they'll boost my minutes and text allowance.

Me reasoning is that if I were to switch to Sprint, it would essentially be a wash, except that Sprint is offering me unlimited minutes and texts. Here's why:

• Sprint's plan offer is $26.50 pre-tax. An iPhone 6 would be $27.09 for 24 months. So the total pre-tax is $53.59.
• I currently pay AT&T $53.74 pre-tax.
• Sprint requires turning in a phone or paying $200. If I used my upgrade on AT&T to get an iPhone 6, I'd pay $199 plus tax.
• Sprint's network is as good as AT&T's in Chicago.

I'll see what they say.

I wonder how long will sprint charge you only 26$ a month and can you buy used iphone for sprint and have it activated and can you trade any old smart phone

 

[eyoungren]

Makes sense. I commend you for sticking it out with a conoany that seems to have given you more grief than joy based in your posts. Hope TMO works out. I'd love to save money with them if I coukd!

Thanks. Yeah it's past time we go. There seemed to be hope with Marcelo Claure but more and more what I am seeing there is a guy positioning Sprint for the most Softbank can squeeze out of it before it tanks.

TMO should be excellent. I live in an urban metro area and travel maybe once a year. Phoenix is apparently TMO's market as they've won Rootmetrics score thing at least twice now. And while possible coverage may not be everywhere it's certainly going to be in more places then Sprint and faster where I find it.

Getting TMO's most expensive UD plan is actually going to cut our bill in half and gives us stuff Sprint does not include. Hahahahaha, a reverse Sprint promotion by leaving!

 

[HenryDJP]

Sprint could offer free service and I wouldn't take it. I just got rid of them after 4 years of misery. The "unlimited" data gave me unlimited slow speeds. Jumped to Verizon on for my new iPhone 6 Plus and got the $60 unlimited talk/text and 2GB of data. I'm in heaven. Very fast data speeds.

 

[KPOM]

I wonder how long will sprint charge you only 26$ a month and can you buy used iphone for sprint and have it activated and can you trade any old smart phone

They claim it will be for as long as you keep the plan. You need to buy a new phone upfront. The phone you trade in needs to be "current," or they charge you $200, but they don't define the word. I looked on AT&T's website and they still sell the Samsung Galaxy SIII Mini. I saw several on Swappa for $80.

 

[tritron]

Sprint could offer free service and I wouldn't take it. I just got rid of them after 4 years of misery. The "unlimited" data gave me unlimited slow speeds. Jumped to Verizon on for my new iPhone 6 Plus and got the $60 unlimited talk/text and 2GB of data. I'm in heaven. Very fast data speeds.

Well and you use your 2gb in a day. My fastest speed I seen on verizon where
36 mb/s sprint was 5 mb/s tht in colorado

 

[Applejuiced]

This has probably been asked from you and I missed it, but why do you stick with sprint? I have to assume they're the only carrier that gives you service somewhere you frequent?

Because he has tons of patience.
I don't know how he does it and hangs in there still but I applaud him for that I'd drop them like a bad habit.
lol

 

[tritron]

They claim it will be for as long as you keep the plan. You need to buy a new phone upfront. The phone you trade in needs to be "current," or they charge you $200, but they don't define the word. I looked on AT&T's website and they still sell the Samsung Galaxy SIII Mini. I saw several on Swappa for $80.

I would go for it but not close you att account you can sell you service for 1000 but I bet it would try out sprint first before getting out of att

 

[KPOM]

I would go for it but not close you att account you can sell you service for 1000 but I bet it would try out sprint first before getting out of att

Unfortunately, you need to port your number to Sprint to get the plan. Submitting a port request closes the AT&T account. Realistically, I'm trying to see if I can get any kind of concession from AT&T (more minutes or texts, for example).

 

[eyoungren]

Because he has tons of patience.
I don't know how he does it and hangs in there still but I applaud him for that I'd drop them like a bad habit.
lol

Well, truth to tell, if calls were dropping like flies and text messages consistently got delivered days after I sent them AND data was the way it is now then I would have cut my losses a lot earlier and got out. I wouldn't have liked being on dumb phones for a few months before the refund could afford us new phones, but doing that would be preferable to the hell I know other Sprint customers have gone through.

To one of the few credits I will give Sprint though, call quality and messaging has been good and consistent. Where I do have LTE data away from my normal locations speed has been good most of the time. As I have said many times though, it's the towers I connect to most that are giving me the problem. And 90% of the time, it's those towers I'm using!

That is the only reason I've held out this long.

But I now have less than a month to go, so I'm getting excited about getting out of here!

 

[HenryDJP]

Well and you use your 2gb in a day. My fastest speed I seen on verizon where
36 mb/s sprint was 5 mb/s tht in colorado

Correction "YOU" use your 2GB in a day. I don't senselessly and irresponsibility watch videos on my phone using up data. Why pay more to a carrier for data? I use my data for my Garmin GPS and Apple Maps GPS as well as accessing web pages for work related stuff. Still I barely use .5GB/month since I bought the 6 Plus in September.

If somebody wants to senselessly and irresponsibility eat up 2GB of data in one day then that's on them but the data should be used as a supplement when Wifi isn't available...which shouldn't be very often.

 

[eyoungren]

If somebody wants to senselessly and irresponsibility eat up 2GB of data in one day then that's on them but the data should be used as a supplement when Wifi isn't available...which shouldn't be very often.

Back in 2012 before I got my iPhone 5 my wife and I pulled 10GB a month. We still pull down about the same amount on WiFi (only because we can't really use LTE).

We do not stream videos, tether, or otherwise use our devices as a media substitute. From time to time, we might, but it's not a regular occurence. Most of our data is because our phones go out for email, internet, messaging and various apps grabbing location data and updating.

You are obviously not in the camp I am. I pay Sprint for Unlimited LTE/3G data. Whether WiFi is available or not and my location is irrelevant. Since I am paying Sprint for it I will use it. I do not believe in abusing unlimited data (i.e., using my phone as my ISP) but neither do I believe that what I pay for should "supplement" WiFi.

I'm paying Sprint for unlimited data, not for occasional data and phone calls.

But that's just the way I see it.

 

[tritron]

Correction "YOU" use your 2GB in a day. I don't senselessly and irresponsibility watch videos on my phone using up data. Why pay more to a carrier for data? I use my data for my Garmin GPS and Apple Maps GPS as well as accessing web pages for work related stuff. Still I barely use .5GB/month since I bought the 6 Plus in September.

If somebody wants to senselessly and irresponsibility eat up 2GB of data in one day then that's on them but the data should be used as a supplement when Wifi isn't available...which shouldn't be very often.

I dont have many places where wifi is available where I use my phone. Hiking
moving train/car does not have wifi. Most of the time verizon lte is faster than wifi and I have unlimited data. With audio streaming 2gb of data would not lats me more than few days.

 

[Applejuiced]

Correction "YOU" use your 2GB in a day. I don't senselessly and irresponsibility watch videos on my phone using up data. Why pay more to a carrier for data? I use my data for my Garmin GPS and Apple Maps GPS as well as accessing web pages for work related stuff. Still I barely use .5GB/month since I bought the 6 Plus in September.

If somebody wants to senselessly and irresponsibility eat up 2GB of data in one day then that's on them but the data should be used as a supplement when Wifi isn't available...which shouldn't be very often.

I like watching videos, stream live tv, live radio, pandora and viewing dvr shows from my homes TiVo and many other things. I don't see how that's senseles or irresponsible.
Some people like to use data and not having to limit themselves to a few websites for work only and gps navigation.

 

[KPOM]

Update: AT&T Customer Care wasn't willing to put me on the legacy 900 minute plan, but was willing to give me 1000 extra rollover minutes and put me on the $20 unlimited messaging and M2M plan for $10 (a $3.75 increase for me with my corporate discount) effective as of a future date (since I don't need unlimited M2M yet with the extra rollover minutes I just got). It's a start, and not bad for playing "softball." In the meantime, the Sprint promo runs through 1/15/15. I have a few weeks to try the retention desk again.

If anyone is able to extract a better deal from AT&T or Verizon, let us know. I, for one, am not about to negotiate with Verizon on a "loophole" UDP account, though I may drop it down to the legacy 30 minute plan.

 

[eyoungren]

Update: AT&T Customer Care wasn't willing to put me on the legacy 900 minute plan, but was willing to give me 1000 extra rollover minutes and put me on the $20 unlimited messaging and M2M plan for $10 (a $3.75 increase for me with my corporate discount) effective as of a future date (since I don't need unlimited M2M yet with the extra rollover minutes I just got). It's a start, and not bad for playing "softball." In the meantime, the Sprint promo runs through 1/15/15. I have a few weeks to try the retention desk again.

If anyone is able to extract a better deal from AT&T or Verizon, let us know. I, for one, am not about to negotiate with Verizon on a "loophole" UDP account, though I may drop it down to the legacy 30 minute plan.

Just a thought to you should you ultimately decide to come over to Sprint…

What you did with AT&T you can't really do with Sprint. Sprint's retentions department has been decentralized in the last year or so with a small part of it's authority passing on to Sprint CSRs.

So, essentially, there is NO retentions department to call and any Sprint CSR you may deal with at that time is only empowered to give you minor things.

Lastly, threatening to leave has not worked in the last two years. It came down from corporate that because of the problems with the NV rollout that if a customer wanted to leave, CSRs weren't permitted to offer them anything to retain them. So, a lot of customers walked because Sprint basically told them "too bad".

There is a new CEO now of course, but I haven't heard of the policy changing yet. And things may be different soon. But as of this time, a customer has no leverage over Sprint.

 

[KPOM]

Just a thought to you should you ultimately decide to come over to Sprint…

What you did with AT&T you can't really do with Sprint. Sprint's retentions department has been decentralized in the last year or so with a small part of it's authority passing on to Sprint CSRs.

So, essentially, there is NO retentions department to call and any Sprint CSR you may deal with at that time is only empowered to give you minor things.

Good to know, but if I went with Sprint and got unlimited everything for $26.50, I'm not sure what else they could provide, except perhaps a discount on hotspot, that would have any value.

 

[eyoungren]

Good to know, but if I went with Sprint and got unlimited everything for $26.50, I'm not sure what else they could provide, except perhaps a discount on hotspot, that would have any value.

Well, here's a scenario for you…

Sprint's coverage maps tell you you have good coverage, so you port over to Sprint.

Only to find out that your coverage sucks in your house. So you call Sprint. After getting the runaround you finally get a hold of someone who is aware of Sprint's Airave. So they check and the maps tell them you're in good coverage. If you want the Airave (a femtocell, 3G only that uses your home internet (I have one)) it'll cost you $140 plus a $36 activation fee. Oh, and now it's another line so your plan price has just gone up.

You argue, but because of the maps telling the CSR that you have good coverage they can't help you.

I've seen that scenario happen countless times. I was fortunate that apparently at the time the maps favored me so my Airave was free all the way around.

I am not trying to dissuade you from coming to Sprint. All I am trying to do is give you as clear a picture of what you can expect from Sprint if you become a customer.

It's not the pretty roses and pro-customer attitude it's advertised as once they get you. Learning to protect yourself from them is unfortunately part of being their customer.

 

[KPOM]

Well, here's a scenario for you…

Sprint's coverage maps tell you you have good coverage, so you port over to Sprint.
...
I am not trying to dissuade you from coming to Sprint. All I am trying to do is give you as clear a picture of what you can expect from Sprint if you become a customer.

It's not the pretty roses and pro-customer attitude it's advertised as once they get you. Learning to protect yourself from them is unfortunately part of being their customer.

Fair enough, but my biggest beef is that they require porting a number over, which cancels an account at AT&T or Verizon.

Make me sign a 2 year contract if they want, but I'm not giving up an AT&T or Verizon UDP without knowing what I'm getting into. If they were willing to give me a $26.50 unlimited everything plan if I bought a $650 iPhone 6 and gave them an old phone or $200, why not do that even if I don't cancel my AT&T account? They can see I'm one of those "high credit scoring, desirable AT&T/Verizon customers" and know how much I'm paying them. If I like Sprint, I'd port later.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Good to know, but if I went with Sprint and got unlimited everything for $26.50, I'm not sure what else they could provide, except perhaps a discount on hotspot, that would have any value.

I have been a Sprint customer for about 15 - 16 years. For many years, the coverage was decent but the usable speed was terrible, especially before the iPhone. Now, I have decent speeds (as a whole) for the areas that I traverse. If that weren't the case, I would move to another carrier.

If you do sign with Sprint. make sure to decide early on in your contract period if the speeds will work for you. Once you go past the contract grace period, you are locked in unless you want to pay the EFT, unless you buy outright.

Keep in mind, that many people here love to rag on Sprint just because they can, even though they have never used them, or had bad coverage in their area. So what if I don't get 20 MBPS on LTE with my iPhone 5 in Atlanta. Most of the time, my coverage and use are not in conflict such that there is a big problem.

One size does not fit all. Don't allow other people to do your thinking for you. If the phone coverage meets your needs, great. If it doesn't, take action asap.

 

[HenryDJP]

I like watching videos, stream live tv, live radio, pandora and viewing dvr shows from my homes TiVo and many other things. I don't see how that's senseles or irresponsible.
Some people like to use data and not having to limit themselves to a few websites for work only and gps navigation.

I dont have many places where wifi is available where I use my phone. Hiking
moving train/car does not have wifi. Most of the time verizon lte is faster than wifi and I have unlimited data. With audio streaming 2gb of data would not lats me more than few days.

Back in 2012 before I got my iPhone 5 my wife and I pulled 10GB a month. We still pull down about the same amount on WiFi (only because we can't really use LTE).

We do not stream videos, tether, or otherwise use our devices as a media substitute. From time to time, we might, but it's not a regular occurence. Most of our data is because our phones go out for email, internet, messaging and various apps grabbing location data and updating.

You are obviously not in the camp I am. I pay Sprint for Unlimited LTE/3G data. Whether WiFi is available or not and my location is irrelevant. Since I am paying Sprint for it I will use it. I do not believe in abusing unlimited data (i.e., using my phone as my ISP) but neither do I believe that what I pay for should "supplement" WiFi.

I'm paying Sprint for unlimited data, not for occasional data and phone calls.

But that's just the way I see it.

And none of this changes the fact that Sprint has the worse LTE service. The slowest and the by far the least amount of coverage against Verizon.