Originally posted by: HumblePie
AMD K9:
Yah, the first rep I called on *2 thought she could sign me up. When she found out that she couldn't, she tried passing me off somewhere else and the call got "dropped" somehow. Every other time I called, I was passed around a few times, put on hold forever, and always ended up being dumped to the main menu. At which point I would hang up to do some work and try back later. It took the fifth call before I called someone who was finally knowledgeable enough from the get go to tell me no one on *2 could sign me up and I had to call the SERO 888 number and how to do everything.
Aslo, AMD K9, people are ONLY getting $150 off their phones. Everyone pays the price of the phone I found out. Everything else is "credit" to your sprint account. Meaning you won't have a monthly bill for some time, depending on how much credit you can manage to grab. The only possible money you'll get back is anything from a mail in rebate and the referal debit card. Those both come later.
I really wish someone from the get go had said that in no uncertain terms from the beginning or somewhere in this or the FW thread. They do mention it somewhat in the thread... but it still seemed like they were talking about having that credit on top of the phone... meaning you paid less for the phone initially.
So, if you want to get a Mogul, it's normal price of $549. For a 2 year contract you take off $150. So it's $399 + tax. You pay that regardless.
for the Q, it's $349. For a 2 year contract take $150 off for $199 + tax.
The difference is that you get a $100 rebate AND a $75 rebate. The mogul only has the $75 rebate. So, assuming you get those rebate back, which you should if you do everything correctly, your phone out of pocket is going to be $24 + tax.
Now, all the perks and credits go to your monthly re-occuring bill. You can do these realistically with ANY new plan. Just getting sprint to honor codes however is like pulling teeth. It's not pretty or fun.
Getting them ADD perks.. well that's smooth talking. The SERO plan is laid out very well for what it gives you. People are trying to get MORE added on to the plan by threatening cancellation or what not. Again, this is something people can do with their current plan from any cell phone company. Call up, state you are thinking of cancelling for X reason, and ask if they are willing to do something to keep you as a customer.
Technically speaking, the SERO plan from sprint is a great plan. Many features for free that actually cost a good monthly chunk of change from any other current plan from any other cell phone company. That is the "deal" here. The phones... well they aren't really a deal right now. If you want a cheap phone and a cheap initial cost, then you are going to have to go to BB or Compusa because they are only allowed to do instant rebates and not mail in rebates. You can get a Q for only $99 at BB, but then again, you can't sign up for the SERO plan at BB either. Nor can you get BB to apply ANY codes.
That's the choice. Cheap initial cost... with a high monthly re-occurring bill or higher initial cost, but cheap monthly bill. The sweet spot comes in with the second option, if you can cough up a few hundred bucks for a phone, in getting credit applied to you monthly bill to the point you don't have a monthly bill for several months to almost a year.
Personally though, I do hate how everyone thus far has related the various service credits in relation to the cost of the phone. It's very misleading.
HumblePie,
I agree with you. I was with T-mobile for 3 years...
PROS:
-I am a gadget geek, so I love to switch phones... and get some of the hottest PDA and converged devices around....
-1000 minutes a month for $39.99 with My Faves was awesome too...
CONS: Internet service was an extra $20.00 a month... and no free-mobile to mobile,
free calling after hours was 9-6 (Calling from 9pm to 6am, I do believe) which
was crappy and the Speed on EDGE, was just plain horrid...I survived, but
once I plugged into Sprint's EVDO network, its like a whole new world... When you are surfing a 1.0 megs on your laptop, via BT or USB connection to your phone, you
realize, at that moment, that you don't even need your built-in 802.11G wi-fi. T-mobile's Texting was expensive too...
After I started getting a few $100.00 and $200.00 bills for calls going over, due to free calls only starting at 9:00, I was ready to cry Uncle. You see, I had take a job, where I travelled between Lex.Ky and Cincy.Ohio every day. So I would have to do interviews and stuff on the road... that was a killer. I hated it... I even cancelled my wife's plan, and got her a Pay-as-you-go phone from T-mobile...figuring I would save money, by getting her 1000 minutes... but that sucked too...
Sero plan, is all good. I pay $97.00 a month for two phones, 1750 minutes between them (1250 for my phone, 500 for my wife's) unlimited internet access, (free, ie Phone-AS-MODEM\tethering with the PPC-6700, free Sprint to Sprint and Nextel phones, free calling on weekends and afterhours starting at 7:00pm and ending at 7:00am (remember T-mobile, you would have to pay an extra $6.99 for EITHER Free weekends or free nights to be added to the My FAVES plan), 500 texts a month, Sprint TV on my handsets.
SprintPC's customer service is horrible, and their bill procedures are rather millitant... but I love my service, because pay about $25.00 less for twice as many features...
No if I can just get my hands on a Mogul... I will be 100% ok...
The only thing I miss about t-mobile, is the WIDE VARIETY of PHONES... (I just know who ever makes the program to unlock the I-phones is going to make a lot of money, and will also be in court on a regular basis). Other than that, I am all good...