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Considering Sprint? Read This First!

I have been searching all of the forums for the last two weeks regarding the TP2 and Sprint service, which on the surface sounded good. I purchased a brand new (in the box advertised as not requiring a contract) TP2 and called Sprint to port my number and was informed that even providing my own (paid for) hardware, they will not activate service without a 2 year contract. I'm stunned! Even Verizon will allow activation of your own handset without a contract. I called the CS line and was told that they will not activate without a contract. I guess I will sell this one and go with Verizon. No wonder Sprint has been loosing customers!

IIRC its actually illegal to do that, there was a big class action suit several years ago that forced all cellular providers to allow users to buy the phones and activate without contract
FWIW i activated my TP2 without a contract, i already had sprint (my previous 2 year contract was up and i have the 30 dollar SERO plan so i didnt want to change)

bs. all of my phones have been activated without 2 year. ive been with sprint 8 years.

You can activate the phone online.
I, too, recently activated my TP2 w/Sprint after being out of contract for just over a year. You probably fell on bad luck talking to people who were out of the loop. There are some corporate Sprint stores in malls (not kiosks) that will hook you up.

I actually started with a Sprint store ( 2 hour drive) as I intended to port my number. The Sprint employee at the store is the one that first informed me of the 2 year contract requirement. I then tried CS on their toll free number. The CS person was very polite, and did put me on hold while she supposedly spoke with a supervisor, but the answer was still 'no contreact, no service'. Considering that we do not have GSM service in our area, my only option is to get rid of this phone and go with Verizon. At least I know they will activate my equipment without a contract. It will be interesting to see if the legislation currently being considered by Congress will also include regulation over some of the policies of the cell carriers...

defaultdotxbe said:
IIRC its actually illegal to do that, there was a big class action suit several years ago that forced all cellular providers to allow users to buy the phones and activate without contract
FWIW i activated my TP2 without a contract, i already had sprint (my previous 2 year contract was up and i have the 30 dollar SERO plan so i didnt want to change)
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Do you have a link to that legal decision? I have been searching all morning looking for the case, and court ruling. Thanks!

timm9 said:
Do you have a link to that legal decision? I have been searching all morning looking for the case, and court ruling. Thanks!
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this is interesting information, do u mind sharing the actual court ruling document?

i dont remember the details, it was between when i got my first and second cell phone, my first you couldnt just buy a phone, they would only sell you a phone if you got a contract, and when i got my second you could buy the phones (for like $200 more) and activate without a contract, and i was told it was because of a lawsuit
this all like 10 years ago though, so i dont know if that was even the case

http://forums.precentral.net/palm-p...-if-they-buy-phone-full-cost.html#post2231359

Sometimes to get a good deal or something usually requires a 2year contract. No big deal IMO since I have no interest in leaving Sprint anytime soon. Another plus was I was able to get ahold of the department that does discounts and such. (2 years ago I got called for a survey in exchange for a 10% discount). It disapeared from my bill and since I didn't know it was a 2 year only discount (thus the reason for the 2 year contract renewal when they first asked) I asked if there was any way to get another discount. The woman on the phone was really helpful and hooked me up with a $10 off discount for another 2 year contract. HELL YA! So now I have a 1250 Sero plan + $7 insurance - $10. On the bill for April my total after tax, fees, etc was exactly $50.00 on the dot. Love Sprint, Love their service, and their phones are getting better and better. (TP2 has been sweet and the EVO looks ever sweeter. As long as they hook it up with some dang good WM7 phones this summer I can see they have learned a lot about getting into the market with a damn good device to keep competitive.

you need a contract with sprint to get service. They dont do month to month plans.

THATS THE BIG PROBLEM WITH SPRINT THEY HIRE SOME OF THE DUMBEST CUSTOMER SERVICE PEOPLE,but when i have problems i go into the store BECOUSE I KNOW THE PEOPLE THERE HAVE THEIR BRAIN CELLS AND THEY TAKE GOOD CARE OF ME.Sprint has its drawbacks but what company doesnt overall im very satisfied with the company i mean verizon may have better service in my area but they cost more and i have free roaming so now i have better service and im content

At this point I have returned the TP2, and have gone with Verizon without a contract. On this site a post indicated that the 'contract required' is no longer legal based on litigation, but it's not worth my time and energy to fight over it. Like my wife said, "After all this, why would you want to do business with Sprint"?
That about sums it up...
Thank you all for the responses!

Existing Customer - New Customer
I read through some of the posts. I have activated several phones with Sprint, out of contract. I have 4 lines with Sprint, and I've not been on contract with them for maybe 3 years now. During this time I have activated maybe 6-8 different phones that I have bought on my own (usually on ebay), and never once been required to enter a contract.
The difference with me (and most other respondents) and yourself is we are existing Sprint customers; we have gone through our 1yr or 2yr contract with Sprint.
Verizon is obviously different in that, if you don't get a free or discounted phone from them, then you can obtain service without a contract.

Those of you sharing experiences of not signing a contract when swapping ESn's are off track here.
O.P is NOT an existing customer (*mentions porting his number to Sprint) and was wanting to join Sprint as a new customer but with his own Sprint handset. Sprint does not do month to month service (anymore, though they use to for an additional $10/month yrs ago).
Any current Sprint customer can change out hardware as much as they want and they're not required to modify their contracts. But a new customer joining Sprint whether he/she is bringing their handset is being required to sign a contract, it seems.

LordLugard said:
Those of you sharing experiences of not signing a contract when swapping ESn's are off track here.
O.P is NOT an existing customer (*mentions porting his number to Sprint) and was wanting to join Sprint as a new customer but with his own Sprint handset. Sprint does not do month to month service (anymore, though they use to for an additional $10/month yrs ago).
Any current Sprint customer can change out hardware as much as they want and they're not required to modify their contracts. But a new customer joining Sprint whether he/she is bringing their handset is being required to sign a contract, it seems.
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this is true to a certain extent....if you bring a line from a shared account into a separate (new) line but have bad credit, you only have to sign a 6 month contract and go month to month from there. (trust me, i know )

timm9 said:
I guess I will sell this one and go with Verizon. No wonder Sprint has been loosing customers!
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timm9 said:
At this point I have returned the TP2/QUOTE]
:| why didnt u just flash it to verizon..
well if u lost no money doing this then w/e.....
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This is really on how you play it out man. You can't give up like that homie. Really someone gave you bad info in the first call. You have to be in a contract to get service. But you can get out your contract really easy down the road. If you sign up you have 30 days to kill your service no questions. So if you were going to leave them someone might fix it for you spri-nt is dumb like that. But you have to keep calling you might get someone who is like F&*k my job I'm doing what ever today I'm going to quit. Talk to a female, guys their be tryin to mr tough I know everything you know.

Just wondering and thinking out loud i guess but you could goto a sprint store or online get a crappy feature phone with the cheapest plan that meets your needs then go online and activate your TP2 or whatever smartphone you want. I mean you will be stuck with sprint for 2 years but there prices are really good and if you want to switch devices again say when WP7 comes out your going to have to buy it used or pay full price again anyway idk just my 2 cents
EDIT:
sorry to revive a dead thread

sprint fan
i am more than happy with sprint.
while sprint has always bent over backwards to help me out other providers with whom i dealt to help out friends and family seem to tun around with their heads so far up their ass they need a glass stomach to keep from running into things.
go sprint

[Q]I need some advice from someone who knows Verizon well (related to upgrades)

Hello,
I hope this is in the right place, I've only made a few posts on here, but I read this site daily. Thanks to everyone who contributes!
I have a quick question I googled around about and couldn't really find an answer too.
I am currently using a T-mobile galaxy S 3 on ST w/ an att sim, but I also have a line on my parents plan w/ an old kin two m feature phone that will be due for an upgrade in the spring. My parents firmly believe that smartphones and data plans are the devil...So we have a talk and text family plan w/ 4 feature phones on it. I am curious if there is any way that when the upgrade is available, I could use it to buy a smartphone(capable of unlock/gsm capabilities), and then continue to use my kin two on the plan.
Does upgrading to a smartphone, from a feature phone, require adding a dataplan to purchase the phone? If so can I add the data plan to a single line for a month, then remove it and switch back to the feature phone?
Sorry if my post doesn't really make sense, any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for your time!

wxcarne89 said:
Hello,
I hope this is in the right place, I've only made a few posts on here, but I read this site daily. Thanks to everyone who contributes!
I have a quick question I googled around about and couldn't really find an answer too.
I am currently using a T-mobile galaxy S 3 on ST w/ an att sim, but I also have a line on my parents plan w/ an old kin two m feature phone that will be due for an upgrade in the spring. My parents firmly believe that smartphones and data plans are the devil...So we have a talk and text family plan w/ 4 feature phones on it. I am curious if there is any way that when the upgrade is available, I could use it to buy a smartphone(capable of unlock/gsm capabilities), and then continue to use my kin two on the plan.
Does upgrading to a smartphone, from a feature phone, require adding a dataplan to purchase the phone? If so can I add the data plan to a single line for a month, then remove it and switch back to the feature phone?
Sorry if my post doesn't really make sense, any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for your time!
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You would add data and could take the phone off back to Kin 2. The problem is you would need to get a phone from VZW that is gsm capable. Their global offerings are lacking and in most cases are locked from using USA gsm signals. Checking newer phones' radios first would be a must.
Sent from my SGH-I747 using xda premium

Thanks!
Hey, thanks for the input, it's appreciated.
Since I just got this S3 in early Oct I will probably hold onto the upgrade till next fall when hopefully a new note or something else cool is released, (saying that it could be unlocked for GSM). If i am lucky there will be more Verizon 4g LTE phones out that can be unlocked for GSM in a year from now. I never really expected that you would be able to unlock Verizon CDMA phones for GSM, but a guy in my CompTIA A+ cert. class said that his Verizon S3 could be unlocked for gsm and it got me thinking.
It's kinda a long story, but what got me asking about this I originally wanted a note/ note 2.
In September another forum member and I found two galaxy notes for $300 on CL, and the one I picked had motherboard problems of course(Avoid CL phones/tabs please!) I was luckily able to sell the phone for parts on ebay for $150 easily, but I still lost a little money on the unlock code, zagg, and a new S-pen. After that I really just needed a dependable phone fast, and couldn't really gamble on something used, or wait on the US Note 2 release, so I settled on the S3, so here next fall after i've had the phone for about a year hopefully i'll be able to upgrade to something new. I have grown to really like my S3 though.

[Q] Verizon Bogo?

Ok so here it is, i have three iPhone 4s's. Do not want them anymore so I'm trading them in for the new htc one m8. my total value is $600. As verizon states you can buy one and get one free. As i am buying this off-contract but still putting this on my phone number, does the deal still count or do i have to actually completly sign a whole new 2 year contract. Im asking this because I'm wondering if i do get another one free that i can give to another family member in my family. Knowing verizon there is probably a catch, Thanks for your replies.
Btw: if i do get another one for free i do have another line to put that phone on.

It requires a 2 year contract.
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using xda app-developers app

It requires either A) two brand spanking new Verizon contracts, B) one existing line with an upgrade and a new Verizon contract, or C) two existing lines each with their own upgrade. Verizon's HTC One M8 BOGO deal only applies to devices purchased via contract, so buying both out of contract (from either Verizon or HTC) will not allow you to take advantage of this deal. There is no way around any of this, I personally have checked, tried, and failed.
EDIT: After purchasing these devices, you may play as much musical chairs with them and their respective lines as you like, but in order to purchase them in the first place, your current Verizon Wireless phone plan must fit into one of the above three categories.

Sevinex said:
It requires either A) two brand spanking new Verizon contracts, B) one existing line with an upgrade and a new Verizon contract, or C) two existing lines each with their own upgrade. Verizon's HTC One M8 BOGO deal only applies to devices purchased via contract, so buying both out of contract (from either Verizon or HTC) will not allow you to take advantage of this deal. There is no way around any of this, I personally have checked, tried, and failed.
EDIT: After purchasing these devices, you may play as much musical chairs with them and their respective lines as you like, but in order to purchase them in the first place, your current Verizon Wireless phone plan must fit into one of the above three categories.
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That is correct, and just to clarify, both lines must be on the same account.

skaforey said:
That is correct, and just to clarify, both lines must be on the same account.
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Thank you for that @skaforey!
@nty123, while I am unsure of your current data situation, what you could do, and this may be a long stretch, is actually purchase two upgrades from someone off of Craigslist (or other website, it does not matter), and use those to access this BOGO deal. I actually considered doing this for my HTC One M8, if upgrading through another line on my phone plan didn't pan out. The way it would work is you either create a post, or find a post, of someone willing to sell their upgrades for cash (a reasonable price would be $100 per upgrade, though your mileage may vary). Meet them at a nearby Verizon store and pay them for 1) the two upgrades, 2) the two phones themselves, and 3) the upgrade fee. You would be surprised at how many people would jump on a deal like this.
EDIT: I realize that this may be more expensive then you were originally considering, however you would be getting two brand new phones, out of contract, for (very close to) the same price as it would cost to get them through the regular upgrade process. This my not seem all that logical at first, but for people like myself (where I currently have unlimited data and wish to retain this), this is Christmas morning.

Damn.... Guess I'll just wait until my contact is up then, still really happy with the m7 so it's not that much of a deal breaker for me. Thanks for All your replies.

nty123 said:
Damn.... Guess I'll just wait until my contact is up then, still really happy with the m7 so it's not that much of a deal breaker for me. Thanks for All your replies.
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I would still trade in the iPhones now, though. It's possible to get a bit more than $200 for each, maybe like $250 depending on the device's condition and all that, but their $200 credit is actually pretty good for a 4S now.

T-Mobile dealer wanting to start financing a phone for two years

Not sure where to post this but I thought this was the best section, please move if you have to.
So I've had the luck of never having to pay an exorbitant amount of money for my cell phone bills, thanks to my dad being a T-Mobile (previously Voicestream, previously Omnipoint/Aerial) dealer for the past 25 years. All my phones have been hand me downs from my older sister or a used phone from customers who've sold their phones to us.
I now want to take advantage of the great phone plans offered by T-Mobile. Particularly the S6 Edge/M9 for two years. I was wondering if anyone was in the same boat and could explain to me the process of doing so? (My dealer plan was recently upgraded from the MyFaves 2000 to Simply Prepaid.)

Bumping up.
Is it just the same process as a regular customer? Sorry if it's a dumb question lol.

Trying to escape from Sprint

Alright so. Here's the deal.
I'm on Sprint, under my father's account (I am 18 years old) and we are trying to get away from Sprint. Sprint's connection in our area is typically ranked about 3rd or 4th when compared to other major carriers. The connection from Sprint where I live in terrible and we would like to switch.
My father isn't the best with technology so he's left it up for me to decide the best way to go about this. We don't have enough extra money to pay off all the lines and just switch by throwing tons of money at the problem. So I'm posting on XDA first to see what the wonderful people here have to say!
We have 6 lines on our Sprint account. Each line has a Smart Phone, 2 devices are entirely paid off. We have also 2 tablets Sprint convinced us to get for some "great deal" but they really just locked is in even more because each tablet is an extra $95 to cancel. Lame.
T-Mobile has the best connection in our area, and the company seems to be growing. I am also aware they have a deal going on right now where they will apparently pay off ALL your early termination fees. How well does that work? Will T-Mobile surprise us with several random hidden fees that all of a sudden add up to $600 to finally switch? Do AT&T or Verizon have better deals?
This post is filled with random question. and I wouldn't expect a single person to be able to answer all of them. But! If you do have some insight and some simple answer to anything at all that may help me out or change my mind about something, please just let me know!
This is a pretty stressful problem my family is trying to get fixed before college comes up.