Technically 15 days.
The day you sign the papers and walk away with the activated phone is day zero. The next day, is officially day one; however, you are right about everything else.
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Carrier Switching to Sprint from T-Mobile - good or bad idea?
- Thread starter Anthony T
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Technically 15 days.
The day you sign the papers and walk away with the activated phone is day zero. The next day, is officially day one; however, you are right about everything else.
I work for a small business that my friend owns. He got a business discount and supposedly he was able to give one employee who has T-Mobile the discount as well.
This speed is the norm with sprint,AT&T and verizon in my apartment and 0 with t-mobile since I don't get any service unless I'm hugging my window and even then the speed is poor. With sprint I've seen as high as 10-14 mbps here which is the highest between the four carriers. I've gotten around 9mbps tops with AT&T and around 8 with Verizon.
As far as test drives goes spending possibly $55 for the restocking fee to try out the service is well worth the cost if your looking to save some money with sprint because when you get down to it only your own experience with the service will help you the most. Also your needs and what you care about. My parents for example don't care about speed and one still insists to use a dumb phone lol. The other has an iPhone and really doesn't care as long as it works.
Why would anyone buy the phone from Sprint then, why not purchase from Apple where there is no restocking fee?
$55 closer?
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Well, I guess one would need to take the gamble for that non down payment benefit over possibly paying the restocking fee. One will pay for the phone now or later, that's a decision to make.
It's $55 dollars.... I'm not that cheap to waste my time to go to an Apple store to buy an iPhone if the apple store is further away. This is also assuming I want to return the phone. Luckily I live in NYC with a ton of Apple stores. Also you're assuming you want an iPhone or the whole family wants an iPhone. For example you have a family of four and only 3 people want an iPhone and one wants an android device. You're not going to make two separate trips to buy a device for your whole family.....
I got my iPhone 6 plus after I bought a nexus 6 and returned it so it would of not been possible to get the device I originally wanted at an Apple store....
Well, I'm certainly not cheap either. Service quality comes first for me over cost of plan or anything else, But my main point was if you are just trying out Sprint for the first time, I'd go with the non cost option. Then again I live in a larger city where both Apple and Sprint stores are located 5 miles in any direction. So, I'm not considering that. Fair enough.
That said, I do think a $55 restocking fee is a bit of a gouge considering they want customers to "try" their service.
I'm not even sure sprints restocking fee is that high lol. Might if been $35. I could be thinking of T-Mobile restocking fee. Either way it's a small price to pay if you want to try it out. Honestly I would just try out a friend's device if he or she has sprint.
$35 is more reasonable. It's about principle at the point.
Yes, try out a friend's phone where you work, play, reside etc. first.
If you're happy with T-Mobile, you should stay with them. T-Mobile's 6GB plan is $65/month, and you get music streaming that doesn't count against your data, as well as Binge On if you don't mind 480p video.
Yeah, I might just end up doing that. What I'm wondering is, am I better off paying off my EIP and then selling it when the new iPhone comes out? Or should I stick with the monthly payments and get the new iPhone using my Jump On Demand?
If I was on T-Mobile, I'd fully take advantage of JUMP! and get three different phones every year.
Honestly I would rather go with that if your willing to spend full price on your phone or get your current iPhone unlocked since it will work on cricket. $55 a month with auto pay which includes taxes and 10gb of LTE data. It's limited to 8mbps and gets throttled but still better than t-mobile since you get AT&T network imo.
And if you exclude any device payment plans like you're doing with Cricket, it's only $65. It's like you're trying to make Cricket seem like a much better deal compared to T-Mobile than it actually is.
Not to mention that if he's still paying off a phone on T-Mobile, he can continue doing that if he stays with T-Mobile. If he switched to Cricket, he'd have to pay the remaining balance on his phone at once.
Another reason to stick with T-Mobile is, as I said earlier, music streaming and Binge On which don't count against your data.
Also, like you said, Cricket throttles at 8Mbps when T-Mobile does not.
And finally, you can't really say AT&T is better than T-Mobile, because for him it might not be. He already said he was happy with T-Mobile.
Music streaming and binge on are crap. 480P Video ? Crap. Music streaming I do all the time with Sprint and i barely use much data with streaming vs not.
Deer Park is quite fine with T-mobile but Speeds there was crap last time I was there with T-mobile. Nothing special which you can't get with Sprint or AT&T. T-mobile I average around 10-15 MBPS with their sub-par coverage. AT&T on the other hand has the best coverage in the Tri-State area in terms of having service. and my favorite of the four if I am going based on terms of coverage and speed.
And I was never comparing Cricket to T-mobile .... T-Mobile with EIP will be around $100 period with EIP. $50 for the plan plus around $25 for the phone and with taxes included will be around $100. Without EIP it would be around $75-$80. That only includes 1GB of LTE data so you'll probably want to upgrade to Unlimited or the tier under it which is $65 which for a single line in NY will be around $15-$20 in sales tax. Either way you cut it T-mobile is quite expensive. Now to compare Cricket to T-mobile Cricket offers 10GB of LTE data for $60 or $55 with all taxes included. Sprint offers 6GB for $45 which is cheaper than T-mobile which is $65. For a single line T-mobile is not the cheapest at all and coverage in the Tri-state area is meh. Sprint isn't much better but it is cheaper and good enough.
8MBPS is good enough for music streaming and Netflix so as long as he doesn't watch a ton of movies on LTE like if he or she has a child who needs to watch TV in the car than Crickets 10GB is good enough. I watch a lot of Hulu on my phone and I barely around 8GB with my unlimited data with Sprint.
480p video on a phone is fine. Plus you can turn it on or off whenever. You can't act like options are a bad thing. And you must not stream a lot of music. I only stream music and I use several hundred MB every day.
Again, he said he was happy with T-Mobile, so coverage is not really a good reason to switch. He could switch and AT&T be even worse than T-Mobile where he uses his phone.
There you go with the EIP again. You're saying T-Mobile is $35/month more expensive because of the EIP, then saying just bring his old T-Mobile phone to Cricket or buy a new phone for full retail. If he switches, he'd have to pay off the phone he already has. If he did that and stayed, it would cost him the same amount of money and then there's no longer a phone payment plan.
And where do you get $75-80? I already said 6GB is $65. Taxes and fees would be a few dollars, not $10-15. It's only $10 more expensive than Cricket, but OP also gets a discount through his employer, which should bring it down to the same price as Cricket or less.
OP was asking about switching carriers to save money, not get better coverage as he already said he was happy with T-Mobile.
I do stream music A LOT I JUST SAID SO.
T-Mobile is $35 more expensive....... $65 for the Plan with 6GB + $30 for the Phone EIP + Sales Tax. You subtract the phone you still have Sales tax. The plan will be AT LEAST $80 dollars per month without EIP. Cricket is $60. If you don't have an EIP with T-Mobile ALREADY your phone is obviously paid off and you can leave. Even if he does have an EIP than go to SPRINT which is cheaper than T-mobile for the same 6GB plan. Sprint with lease is $75 with lease of an iPhone 6s Plus. the T-mobile plan is with an iPhone 6s Plus will be $95 a month all before taxes. T-mobile is a ripoff which is one of the reasons why I left them for Verizon. $10 more at Verizon I got better coverage and better speeds. Eventually left Verizon because even than i was spending $150 for myself only.
T-Mobile with an iPhone 6s Plus with the 6GB plan:
$65 for the plan
$30 for the EIP
Sprint iPhone 6s plus with 6GB plan plus financed phone ( same price as lease for 18 months):
$45 for the plan
$32 for the phone.
For $5 dollars more per month you can get unlimited 4G LTE data with Sprint than T-mobile 6GB plan. T-mobile 4G LET unlimited plan is now $95 while Sprint is $70 either way you cut it Sprint is CHEAPER than T-Mobile. As far as cricket goes your better off paying the ETF or payment plan and going with Cricket. I seriously think people need to stop drinking the T-mobile Kool-aid because they are just as bad as every other carrier in the United States
To each their own I suppose. I've been using binge on and really can't complain. It's far better than I expected it to be, but the reality is, tastes are different. In st a point where my son watches quite a bit ofyoutube in the back seat of the car and we hover just under 10gb on two lines (it's not always the same phone he uses). This is with binge in reducing (not eliminating) YouTube bandwidth by up to 2/3 (I'm unsure what the real time number is as I haven't gone through the effort of testing. An uncompressed YouTube HD stream can easily consume 750+my per hour, so again, usage patterns will dictate exactly how much streaming can be done in a tiered plan.
Streaming music should take up around 75-100mb per hour. There are obvious variables here but I base that on how much data I used on ATT versus TMO. One hour of streaming a day may represent 3gb a month.
I'd actually be more worried about relying on programs like this as a means of calculating data long term because of the net neutrality implications it might carry with it. Will TMO be forced or pressured to revamp their binge on program? I really couldn't say at this point.
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It's worth noting that we are still trying to respond to the OP's question here, who apparently gets a $20/mo bill credit, so that $95 is actually $75.
I agree that $95 is quite a bit more than $75, but in the OP's specific circumstance, that $5 might simply be worth the ability to be "constantly" upgrading phones, which Sprint, AFAIK, doesn't allow.
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I have done annual upgrades since 2012 and its tiring .... the last phone I kept for 20 months or longer has been my iPhone 4. These are the phones I gotten since then:
2012: Samsung Galaxy S2 Skyrocket
2013: Samsung Galaxy S3
2013 Samsung Galaxy S4
2014: LG Nexus 5
2014: Samsung Galaxy Note 3
2014: Samsung Galaxy Note 4
2015: Apple iPhone 6 Plus
2015: Bought a Motorola Nexus 6 but returned for a iPhone 6 Plus
Sprint does offer an upgrade yearly with their iPhone forever promotion which basically works like Jump! and they offer an annual upgrade for $10 monthly for other phones.
As I said I am tired of people drinking the T-Mobile Kool-Aid which seems to be working. Yeah they are improving how they look in perception but the customer Service reps on the phone suck and their prices are actually worse for single lines. $95 to have unlimited 4G data which was $70 when I signed up in March 2014 right before they bumped it to $80. the price has increased twice since 2014. The fact they don't have band 12 support in the NYC metro area means coverage inside buildings sucks in New York specially since a lot of the buildings are older and don't allow cellphone signals go through like my apartment.
I was referring to a potential three upgrades a year with my "constant" statement. I do remember the iPhone forever advertising which is basically why T-Mobile moved to jump on demand. If that's not something the OP cares about that's certainly fine. I know I won't be using three upgrades (but for different reasons).
I'm just trying to out all options out there. Something that is of no added value to you or me doesn't mean it's that way for everyone. You don't care for binge on, I find that it saves our family money and is more than adequate for now. Nothing wrong with either scenario.
As an example of my own, we have four lines with 10gb each. We pay $120. That same four lines with 10gb would be $90 on sprint but I can guarantee we would go over as binge and music freedom already has us at 8-9 gigs on two lines. So I can either pay $15 additional per Fif with sprint or upgrade all lines to unlimited. Since binge and music freedom don't require me to buy more than that 10gb of data per line, I'm actually saving $30 a month over the only viable option sprint offers me. If I did want to upgrade my unlimited lines with TMO it would cost $150, same as sprint.
I won't calculate the bill credits we get for out EIP since those were promotions and discounts and credits for errors that TMO made since that's not typical for most customers.
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Nobody needs to upgrade 3 times a year ..... Specially if its an iPhone since they only do Annual upgrades as of today February 22nd 2016. With Sprint being cheaper and offering unlimited 4G LTE data cheaper than T-mobile and $5 more than T-mobiles 6GB offering you don't need Binge on or their streaming deal because you have unlimited LTE data which even with Sprint speeds is fairly good in Deer Park Long Island. I drive there on i450 ( The LIE or the Long Island Expressway) and Sprint service was good the whole way to Exit 51 or 52 which are the two exits to Deer Park which the OP said lived in Deer Park.