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Get Out of Sprint Free
hyades1 writes in to let us know that Sprint has extended to Jan. 31 the time in which subscribers can switch carriers without paying an early termination fee. "Last month we learned that Sprint was increasing its administrative fee to $0.75, giving customers until January 1 of this year to back out without a penalty. It seems that $0.75 wasn't going to cut it as Sprint has raised its fee yet again, this time to $0.99. Customers now have through January 31 to sever ties sans-ETF, so if you missed the boat last month you're in luck. Though some customer care reps apparently aren't yet aware of the change, we did confirm it with Sprint so keep trying and as always, contacting them via chat seems to go a bit more smoothly than calling them up."
If so, I expect to see a story about how T-Mobile customers can get MyFaves for free, since that's also something people on mobile phone forums are talking about.
Seems as though the only people I know who actively choose Sprint choose it because Sprint is the only viable option where they live. The GSM carriers' coverage really starts to suffer in the big, wide-open spaces of the Midwest.
Breakfast served all day!
Do any of you know of a way to escape contract with Alltel without paying the early termination fee? I'm sick of the 5-7 day delay in getting my voicemail messages! ):
Claim they're breaking the contract by not providing you with service. You're paying them to deliver messages in a timely manner, not take messages like shithead roommates.
Disclaimer: The opinions and actions of the US Gov't are in no way representative of those held by this author or its ci
File an online petition with the FCC claiming the service doesn't work as advertised and they will let you go.
why would you have to extend? Just buy a replacement phone at full price. Personally, I don't find it worth it to save $100 or so by committing to spend 24 x $90/month.
Unless of course you were going to spend 24x90 anyway. Its not like you get a reduced rate if you buy the equipment outright, so you might as well take the subsidies.
Thank you for that information!
I found the FCC's Electronic Consumer Complaint site and I guess we will see how it goes.
Again, thank you (at least now there is some hope) (!)
Censorship is obscene. Patriotism is bigotry. Faith is a vice. Slashdot 2.0 sucks.
You're with T-mobile. They're a GSM carrier. Just buy a new phone on Ebay. There's a great selection of GSM phones. Also, (and I'm not sure if this works any more), but you used to be able to buy a cheap, prepaid GSM phone, and then just put your postpaid SIM in there. Cheap, easy way to get a replacement.
Like credit card companies, the wireless companies write into their contract the ability to 'revise' terms as they deem necessary. As long as they provide you a copy of the updated terms and conditions with a note along the lines of "if you don't contact us by such and such a date to tell us you reject these changes, they are in effect".
In theory, you should be able to contact them and tell them you reject the changes, in which case you are still on your old contract and/or they negotiate a different set of changes for you. In practice, they also tell you refusal to accept the changes will result in the termination of your account. Since the termination is their decision rather than yours, they aren't suppose to be able to levee any 'early cancelation' fees.
Not that that stops it from happening.
The same thing happen about a year ago with international messaging rate hike. I called to cancel my plan but the rep. tried to argue that it doesn't constitute a "material change" to the contract. Seriously? Anyways, after threatening to call the California Public Utilities Commission failed, I actually called the California PUC. The PUC rep. told me that before I file a complaint, I should speak to their executive accounts customer service people so he transferred me over to their number. Some Sprint person picked up and was about to redirect me to retentions again but I told him very clearly that I've been forwarded by the PUC and am about to file a complaint. At that point, he actually forwarded me to their executive accounts people. I spoke to the lady and laid out my argument by reading the back of my bill, which contains the terms, along with the notice of the rate change. She put me on hold for a few minutes to check some stuff over and agreed with me. She even went so far as to put my account on hold and save my number so it can be ported to a new carrier. I switched to Virgin, who ironically is on the Sprint network, but having no contracts is awesome.
Hope that helps anyone trying to leave Sprint. Don't let the retention rep scare you. If you have something like a PUC backing you up, use it! Know your rights.
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They must be using Verizon Math.
But it does add up. That's 99 cents per month, or $12 per year, which granted isn't much. But when you add an "FCC" fee, "communications" fee, "we got sued by somebody and are passing the legal expenses onto our customers" fee, and the "just for the heck of it because we can" fee every month, you can be looking at a pretty hefty bill.
No, never. If you keep signing 2 year contracts we'll never have competitive rates because you keep giving up your biggest bargaining chip. When you are monthly, you can cancel at any point for bad service and they lose market share while their competitor gains market share. You can use this to negotiate down your monthly rate on a monthly basis rather than every 2 years.