Carrier Sprint Advantage plans get iPhone 6 & 6+ (aka killing the Advantage Club)

[bflowers]

I've been waiting for the email saying I could upgrade to the 6 or 6+, but today was a real disappointment. Sprint seems to be trying to kill the Advantage Club, or at the very least chase off anyone using the plans.

Until recently, you paid the subsidized price for your phone, but received a great price on the no contract plan. For me with an iPhone 4S, it was $40+tax/mo. It was a great deal despite the lower network coverage and speeds compared to the other carriers.

Today, when I went to order my upgrade, my payment options were lease, Easy Pay or pay in full. No more subsidized iPhones for Employees and their families!

So picking Easy Pay (which the Sprint email said SWAC members have to do), it told me I would need to pick a new plan, then only offered me standard customer plans and not the $40 Advantage plan.

I guess Sprint doesn't care about keeping the most loyal customers (family members of employees), because for full price, I might as well pick a carrier that doesn't perma-lock their phones.

 

[eyoungren]

I've been waiting for the email saying I could upgrade to the 6 or 6+, but today was a real disappointment. Sprint seems to be trying to kill the Advantage Club, or at the very least chase off anyone using the plans.

Until recently, you paid the subsidized price for your phone, but received a great price on the no contract plan. For me with an iPhone 4S, it was $40+tax/mo. It was a great deal despite the lower network coverage and speeds compared to the other carriers.

Today, when I went to order my upgrade, my payment options were lease, Easy Pay or pay in full. No more subsidized iPhones for Employees and their families!

So picking Easy Pay (which the Sprint email said SWAC members have to do), it told me I would need to pick a new plan, then only offered me standard customer plans and not the $40 Advantage plan.

I guess Sprint doesn't care about keeping the most loyal customers (family members of employees), because for full price, I might as well pick a carrier that doesn't perma-lock their phones.

Did you see this?

How to Upgrade or Replace Your Device or Add a Line to Your Account

Advantage Club subscribers are eligible for upgrades under the Sprint New for You program, every 20 months.
Account-impacting transactions, including establishing new lines of service and purchasing device upgrades or replacements, must be completed by your employee sponsor. This is due to account liability being in the employee's name.
If you are not currently an Advantage Club subscriber and want to become one, or if you are already a subscriber and want to upgrade or replace your device or add a line, please contact your employee sponsor to complete your transaction.
Your employee sponsor may:

• Visit one of the following stores: Reston Campus store, Overland Park Campus store, Town Center Plaza store (Leawood, Kansas), or Prairiefire store (Overland Park, Kansas)
• Shop online on the Advantage Club Web site

To help with the online purchasing process, your employee sponsor can send you an invitation to shop on the Advantage Club web site. You can then submit your order to your employee sponsor for their approval.
In order for your employee sponsor to give you access to the Advantage Club Order Request Site, they should type 'advantageclub' in their browser at work, and then select 'Invite your friends or family members to shop'.

It's located here: http://www.sprint.com/landings/advantage_club/?id8=vanity:advantageclub

Your employee sponsor has to do the shopping on a special website. Are you the employee sponsor? Did you go to the special site?

The site also says this:

Only the employee sponsor can make the following changes, regardless of whether or not they have given you security information:

Order/purchase an upgrade or replacement
Activate a line of service
Apply or remove an account spending limit
Balance transfer
Transfer of liability
Change security information
Change billing name

 

[bflowers]

Actually, they are transitioning everyone off Employee Liability.

Dear Sprint employee:

As you may have seen on i-Connect, we recently launched the following new devices to Employee Wireless Discounts and Sprint Wireless Advantage Club:
· iPhone 6 (16GB, 64GB)
· iPhone 6 Plus (16GB, 64GB)
· Samsung Galaxy Note 4
· Samsung Gear S

That’s right, this year you can purchase the latest and greatest iPhones in the middle of holiday shopping season and in plenty of time to give them as a gift.

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are only available via Easy Pay or Lease. Please keep in mind:
· This approach is in line with our latest National strategy – as seen in the Cut Your Bill in Half event, customers are required to lease or buy with Easy Pay
· Leasing provides a tremendous value to you and your Advantage Club customers – the total cost over 24 months is less than for a subsidized purchase
· Easy Pay provides you a path to an Early Upgrade at no additional monthly cost. That’s right, if you purchase a device on your employee line with Easy Pay, you will be eligible for your next upgrade in only 12 months

See the recent i-Connect story for more information on the launch of these iconic devices, including pricing and discounts.

Also, make sure your conversions are complete before you or your SWAC subscribers make any purchases. Click on the appropriate link below to convert your accounts:
Converting SWAC subscribers
Moving SWAC subscribers to Your EWD account

Happy holidays from the Employee Phone Program team.

You cannot make any new changes to your account prior to converting it off of your employee sponsor.

I'm going to call the Employee version of Customer Care tomorrow and see what they have to day. I did find a newer Advantage Plan offering than the one I have, and maybe I need to switch to that one first.

Still, what was once a top notch deal (worth the tradeoff of a weaker network) for friends and family of Sprint Employee is now no better than their common offerings or those offered by TMobile.

I really just posted to give a heads up to other SWAC members waiting to upgrade.