[Q] Possible Sprint ETF Loophole? - General Questions and Answers

So towards the end of June I was planning on leaving Sprint and heading over to At&t with the girlfriend. I had a plan with my brother to swap lines, his being off contract, allowing him to continue using my GSII and having me leave Sprint without any ETF worry. However now it seems that my brother is backing out of the whole idea which is leaving me at a whopping $300 ETF that doesn’t look too pretty.
I figure by selling the SII I am still looking at a big chunk just to get out of Sprint and buying a new phone until I realized something. I noticed that the difference between smartphones and basic phones half the ETF fee, $150 in my case. So what if I were to downgrade my plan with a basic phone, pay the ETF, sell the SII for around $200, and have some left over to put into the new phone. It all just seems too good to be true and I might just be overlooking something just in the thought of a somewhat loophole but what do you guys think? Could it be that easy? Should I read the terms and conditions instead of writing a thread out of shear excitement?
What do you think?

Generally speaking, it is much harder to downgrade than it is to upgrade. When you entered the contract for the smartphone you agreed to pay for service for a full two years in return for a subsidized phone. Legally they can (and odds are they will) tell you to either keep the phone & plan or pay the etf.

Please use the Q&A Forum for questions &
Read the Forum Rules Ref Posting
Thanks ✟
Moving to Q&A

If your rooted get roam control.
They will drop you after a while.
Sent from my MB855 using xda premium

Related

[Q] Early Termination Fee at&t

What would be the Early Termination Fee for a Skyrocket if canceled in the first 30 days. Per at&t policy i read it would be 0. I plan on buying a White Skyrocket and cancel the contract on the first week of purchase. But most importantly to Keep the Phone.
Will at&t allow me to keep the phone? I would like to keep the phone,unlock it and finally use it in my main country. I was thinking of buying a Galaxy Nexus but it is still expensive and the Skyrocket strategy plan B would be a cheaper solution if possible.
Feel free to comment. Thanks
less then 30 days you pay a restocking fee at most unless you damaged the phone, then not sure.
you have to return the phone or pay for it outright.
handheld google device
No, AT&T or any other US carrier for that matter will not let you keep the phone if you plan to cancel within 30 days. You will have to bring the phone back to the store to cancel if still within the 30 day period. They will issue a refund for the phone first, then will they cancel the contract.
Is there anyway i can keep the phone without paying the full off-contract price?
In 2007 i brought a couple of iPhones to my country. They were not activated in store and i could keep them. I dont remember much, but i did get to keep my iPhones and then unlocked them myself
Only way I know how is to look on craigslist and find someone selling theirs. That is what I did. I was able to get a skyrocket for $300. It is not as good as as paying $150, but I did not have to sign a contract.
mvtm said:
Is there anyway i can keep the phone without paying the full off-contract price?
In 2007 i brought a couple of iPhones to my country. They were not activated in store and i could keep them. I dont remember much, but i did get to keep my iPhones and then unlocked them myself
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you want to cancel the 2 year contract you signed, keep the $600 phone that you only payed $150-$250 for as incentive for signing the contract, and pay no termination fee?
Good luck with that!
mvtm said:
What would be the Early Termination Fee for a Skyrocket if canceled in the first 30 days. Per at&t policy i read it would be 0. I plan on buying a White Skyrocket and cancel the contract on the first week of purchase. But most importantly to Keep the Phone.
Will at&t allow me to keep the phone? I would like to keep the phone,unlock it and finally use it in my main country. I was thinking of buying a Galaxy Nexus but it is still expensive and the Skyrocket strategy plan B would be a cheaper solution if possible.
Feel free to comment. Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
per at&t policy u must give the phone back during the 30 days if u cancel or change mind trust me if this was not the case people would do this all the time and i would have about 10 new devices right now
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda premium
AT&T will bill your account the $325 Early Termination Fee, and will only remove it once you return the device. If you don't return it. I imagine they'll continue to add late fees to the bill, or eventually send you to collections if it remains unpaid. You're better off trying to find a used one on CL or eBay. Otherwise save yourself the hassle and buy it outright.
Here in Cincinnati, Cincinnati Bell will buy out your current contract with competitors, maybe you can do the same with a carrier near you. It will require a contract signed with the next carrier, with termination fees probably including the cost to buy out original contract. CBell is GSM, it might work here dependent of frequencies. Thats the only way out as I see it and keeping the device.
"Sticking it to the man" threads are not looked too good upon here.

[Q] T-Mobile eliminates Post-Pay Non-Contract Plans?

Anyone experienced this?
I was looking to upgrade my "Even More Minutes" Plan (that was started late 2010) to a higher tier version of the plan (needed extra minutes since I went dangerously close last time), but I learned that they actually completely discontinued non-contract Post-Pay plans. I got grandfathered in, but once I leave this plan, I can't go back. I CAN convert to a *contracted* Post-Pay plan, but nothing along the lines of what I have now.
I verified with a guy I've made good relations with at the local T-Mobile store and a customer representative on the phone that this was the case.
Has anyone recently had luck going to a post-pay plan or did T-Mobile eliminate them all? Granted, the contracted post-pay plan that they're offering offers unlimited minutes (though the data is tiered and is actually less than what I have now), I still find it kinda crappy that they're no longer offering flexible options for different types of customers.
Please use the Q&A Forum for questions &
Read the Forum Rules Ref Posting
Moving to Q&A

[Q] Sprint contract workaround?

Hi all, this is my first post here. I'm relatively tech-savvy but mobile development isn't my forte. Anyway, I've tried many search strings on the site but I haven't found a directly relevant answer.
Essentially the issue is I have a grandfathered service plan from approximately 2004 where I'm getting data for $5/month. I was using a lame HTC Touch Pro until it shattered. Unfortunately, to purchase a new smartphone (figuratively anything that isn't a flip phone), I would need to enter into a new contract on their exponentially more expensive terms. Additionally, I'm going to get nailed with all kinds of new bull**** fees (a 4G fee when it has barely been developed in NYC). Obviously I'm hoping for a more cost-effective approach.
Furthermore, I saw someone briefly mention in another thread that the OP could just buy a phone outright. I'm wondering if purchasing a phone unlocked and then somehow activating it on Sprint's network or some other hack would be possible. Price is a significant constraint; it's not feasible for me to drop $750 on an unlocked smartphone, so it's preferable if I can find some kind of workaround that's subsidized.
Thanks for reading through this, hope you can lend some advice on the optimal solution.
Sprint won't accept unlocked phones. I don't think there is a such thing as a unlocked cdma phone.
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
Please use the Q&A Forum for questions &
Read the Forum Rules Ref Posting
Moving to Q&A

[Q] Verizon's Plan Changes

Verizon is making some changes to their plans starting tomorrow (as everyone already knows).
I understand that one of these changes is that if we are currently on the grandfathered data plan, the only way to keep this is if we pay the full price for a phone upgrade.
Since the full price upgrade will not put us in a 2-year contract or use a currently available upgrade, would it be possible to upgrade a phone and sell that new boxed phone to try to offset the price of a full upgrade (since I'll eventually pay the full price to upgrade my phone sometime).
I'm not expecting to break even, but I was just wondering if it were a possibility.
cylic said:
Verizon is making some changes to their plans starting tomorrow (as everyone already knows).
I understand that one of these changes is that if we are currently on the grandfathered data plan, the only way to keep this is if we pay the full price for a phone upgrade.
Since the full price upgrade will not put us in a 2-year contract or use a currently available upgrade, would it be possible to upgrade a phone and sell that new boxed phone to try to offset the price of a full upgrade (since I'll eventually pay the full price to upgrade my phone sometime).
I'm not expecting to break even, but I was just wondering if it were a possibility.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you know verizon you know that wont happen. But I'd be happy to pay full price to keep unlimited
Sent from my Incredible 2 using XDA
I don't really know much about Verizon's marketing habits. I'm just reading stuff like this and this!
I hope it doesn't cost the full price
Verizon Blows
I've been using 40 gigs avg a month going back 4 years because I'm on the road a lot. Nothing good lasts forever. As a grandfathered subscriber my plan is to keep my Bionic until it dies and just pay full price for a Nexus or something. Getting rid of you unlimited data for a cheap price for a new phone is not worth it in my opinion.
Please use the Q&A Forum for questions &
Read the Forum Rules Ref Posting
Thanks ✟
Moving to Q&A

Please help, trying to understand AT&T new upgrade schemes

I realize this is probably not the best place to post this...and possibly this doesn't even belong on this forum at all. But if you have ATT, please I would appreciate any thoughts you have about this.
I was previously on a family share plan with 4 other members of my family. I was pretty happy with the plan we had. Now I have taken the leap to dump 3 grandfathered UL data plans, and shift over to a mobile share account, which saves me about $100 per month in service charges, and still gives me nearly double the data I need for our group.
The thing I still can't quite get my head around with this plan, is the way they option your upgrades. I have seen the math, and realize the best way to do an upgrade on this plan is to do the Next program, and basically pay retail rent over the next 18-24 months, maybe finish out the lease to own the phone I'm renting...maybe just toss it back to upgrade to a new device.
But I just don't buy into it. For some reason, maybe I'm too frugal, I can't stomach the thought of paying retail for a phone. Even though I know it's cheaper overall than doing it the way I used to do it (pay $200 upfront for a device, and pay an extra $30 or so per line per month towards my contract price).
I find myself clinging to my working phone, with no plan of attack in mind for how I will actually do my next upgrade. And my whole family of users is getting antsy for upgrades. Everyone is off contract now, but I don't even know how to explain to them all how this new structure works. If we all upgrade we pay a rental fee every month and there goes that $100+ savings, now we are paying more than before on the old family plan, so why did I switch?
Help me figure out how to make sense of it all...and where to go from here...please!

Categories

Resources