My Sprint contracts are about to expire and I am wondering if anyone has had experiences trying to squeeze a good deal out of their cancellation department? I am expecting better rates and a better phone... possibly a PDA phone.

As I'd bet you've found out by now, Sprint isn't very customer satisfaction oriented, so don't be alarmed if they don't offer you anything.

However, if you get the right customer service person, you may be able to work something out. I've never experienced them handing anything out for free though.

My ultimate suggestion, switch to Verizon and get the new Q or the Palm 700w.

Long (sorry about that I know your name but for some reason when I was typing the message I thought the original message came from Lil pino - I just noticed that it didn't),
Check out www.sprint.com/sero put in my email address robert.reuscher@sprint.com and your zip code. See if any of those plans and phones meet your need.

Or go to a store, there supposed to be a big emphasis on lowering churn going on now, not sure exactly what they are doing about it, but it lowering it is a high priority right now.

I heard that I need to talk to the cancellation department and act like I am actually going to cancel. I also heard that if the person isn't very receptive to retention incentives, then just hang up and call back and speak to someone else...

check out the forums at http://www.sprintusers.com

People there take scamming discounts to new heights

thanks!

Thanks guys for all of your tips... I will review these options and I will see what deals I can get!

-Long

Hopefully I'm not "too late" on this thread.

My "I'm going to cancel!" experiences with Sprint have been very good, and they've always cut me a deal. I must add I've been a customer with Sprint/Nextel for almost a decade, and at times I've had monthly bills as high as $120 so it is in their best interest to keep me as a customer. In addition, I've noticed that now that I'm averaging less than $50/month in cell phone usage, I don't seem to have as much leverage for things like I did in times past. I don't think that's a coincidence

One thing:

Above all, be nice to the customer service person. These people basically get bitched at all day by pissed off customers, and everyone wants the same things - some kind of credit or a free phone or something. Aafter all, no one calls their cell phone company if things are running smoothly!

Anyway, I'm not kidding - if it's a chick with an accent or something ask where she's from. If it's some dude ask where the call center is, like, "You in the Dallas call center? How's the weather down there?" 20 seconds of chit chat will get you WAY better service than if you call up and just start bitching.

Thanks for the tip. I haven't done anything yet; although my fiance's phone contract has expired, I am kind of tempted to wait until my contract expires in November to do anything...

I found the mother-lode of dirt on how to get the best possible deal from Sprint . Be sure to skip to the last page (p143 when I read it), and go backwards from there. Its a long thread. 700wx, here I come...

Thanks again everyone for their guidance...

After doing a lot of research on working the retention department, I finally called retention early this Saturday morning.

1) I called Sprint retention direct at 1-800-658-7564, and I immediately spoke to a nice old lady... She was very cordial, and I was VERY polite in explaining how my contract is about to expire. After nearly ten years as a Sprint customer, I have been tempted to switch to Verizon.

1a) Note: my phone contract expires in November and my fiance's phone contract has actually already expired...

2) After looking at my current usage and plan (which was a Family Fair Flexible Plan for two phones, $70 a month, 800 minutes anytime, 9PM nights, + 10 vision picture pack + $5 unlimited text messaging), the nice old lady told me that they have new family plans that are much better.

3) She then proceeded to ask me what kinds of phones am I interested in... I told her that I wanted a PocketPC PPC-6700, which is a $600 phone minus the random rebates that Sprint offers...

4) I told her that Verizon is offering their Motorola Q for $199 without any rebates...

5) After sounding uncertain about getting that low, she decides to ask her supervisor what they can do for me...

6) After a few minutes on hold, the lady comes back on and says her supervisor has offered to lower the price of the PPC-6700 to $299...

7) Keep in mind that all this time, I am making sure that I am as polite as possible, thanking her often for all of her help and effort. I think that somehow it got out that she was in Alberquerque, so I made some small talk about how many of my friends have gone to ski in New Mexico and how lovely it is there...

8) The conversation then turns to the phone plans... the standard plan that she can offer to me is $69.99 for 700 minutes, $89.99 for 1400 minutes, but she can give me 10% off of the bigger plan, making it $81.99... the current plans include free roaming, PCS to PCS, 7PM nights, long distance, and as a bonus, she can give me 500 free text messages on each phone on the family plan...

9) We now turn to Vision plans, starting at $15 for the data plan, $20 for the data + pictures + video, and $25 for the data + pictures + video + SprintTV channels; if I get two phones, then I would get Vision onthe second phone at half cost.

10) I ask about whether there is anyway she can go lower on the vision plans... she responds by saying that if she does so, then she would have to increase the price of the phone... she tries to sell this proposal to me since lowering the cost of Vision would save me in the long term... (ie, two phones, $30 per month for two years for web, pictures, and video = $30 x 24 = $720).

11) Since I am in the market for two phones, I tell her that it is tempting, but the numbers are still troubling to me and that I am still uncertain...

12) Finally, after some time of uncertainty, I propose to her this... since I am interested in two phones, if you run this offer by your supervisor... I am ready to sign a new contract today if you throw in the vision plan with web, pictures, and video for free, and you let me buy two PPC-6700s for $299 each... I will agree right now if you can get that offer approved...

13) She tells me that she isn't sure if her supervisor will approve that deal, but she goes off to discuss it with him anyways... after a few minutes, she comes back and tells me her supervisor has agreed to the deal...


Bottom line:
Two PPC-6700 phones for $299 each (even less than employee cost!)
$69.99 for all of the following
700 minutes
7pm start
free roaming;
m2m
long distance
500 free txt on both phones
AND free EVDO web pic video pic

needless to say, I was smiling all day today...

thanks everyone!

Excellent work, Long.

I'm going to be talking to them sometime this week. I'll probably be going with the LG Fusic myself, wife's not sure what she wants yet.

Hell, I still got the A660 by Samsung. What a piece of shit.

I'm holding out until the 700wx shows up on SERO. Until then, Cingular gets my money (as much as I hate giving it to them).

Congratulations Long, good to see your still a customer.

Somewhat on topic...Has anyone made the switch from Nextel to Sprint? I heard they make it really easy to do so and still give you deals. Has anyone done it yet?

Hey Robert, what are the chances that I can get my current contract (about 5 months left to go on a 2 year) cancelled for no fee to switch to the Sero program? Do you think Retention will go for it?

Did mine tonight. Called Sprint's no-wait retention line at 1-866-881-9571, and true to its name, there was no wait. Absolutely awesome customer service rep.

I got the Sanyo M1 for $99, and my wife got the "Red Razr" for $59.




Got the 69.99 plan, plus fees and taxes. Because we were already customers, she was able to throw in a 10% discount on our monthly plan.

We also got unlimited Power Vision and 500 Text Messages a month for free too. Plus the usual Nationwide Long Distance, free roaming, Mobile to Mobile, free night and weekends after 7 P.M. and the 700 Anytime minutes.

All for $63 bucks + fees and taxes, which are pretty cheap here.

Nice. I'm definitely MUCH happier with Sprint right now!

Congrats man!

Thanks.

How you liking the 6700, Long? I've heard good things about it, I just didn't want anything with that much bulk to it.

The M1 kicks ass. Feature-laden, with all the standards. Camera's a 2.0 MP, so it takes pretty good shots for a cam phone. Plus the 1 gig internal memory is sweet.

It's got so many features I've been playing with the phone nonstop for the last 4 days and still don't know half the shit on here.

You on SprintUsers? Good site, learn alot of shit. I'm Mofo on there as well.

I have to say that the M1 is unbelievable also. The camera is the best I have seen on a phone. the built in 1gb memory is a first for phones. I love the feature where you can minimize the media player and use other features on the phone. The flashlight on it comes in useful all the time too. It is without a doubt the best phone sprint has even though I am not that crazy about its looks but I can deal with it. I had an LG before the M1 and it had so many bugs and a horrible camera. The M1 is the best phone I have ever had, nothing comes close

I have a question along the same lines, maybe someone here can offer some advice.

In Nov. of 2005 I transferred my service from Sprint to Nextel and, in doing so, signed a 1-year contract over the phone (I already had the phone). Flash foward a year and a half to today when I called Sprint to change my billing address. The rep make the requested change and then gives me the "well I can offer you such and such upgrades, new plan, etc.". I stop him and advise him that I'm waiting for a phone due out at the end of this month with another carrier (ATT). He laughs and then comments that it's going to be kind of hard since my contract isn't up until November. Now I KNOW for a fact that I didn't sign a two-year agreement. There's nothing in writing (according to Sprint), as I did it over the phone.

So am I screwed here? Is Sprint extending contracts without consent in order to retain customers? I'm going to check my records this evening for anything that refers to a one-year service agreement and, barring that, call them next week to cancel my service ($200 ETF or otherwise).

Has anyone else run into a similar situation? Thanks in advance for any responses.

Sprint customer service ranks up there with used car salesman and Nissan consumer affairs = pretty crappy IMO!!!

They gave me shit about canceling my contract early so I reminded them that under the Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act legally they have to....that shut the SOB's up but not after some fight from them!!! Good luck.

Tim

I think I am about to extend my sprint contract and pick up my upgrade (maybe an M610) but for anybody trying to get out early, I found this on a deal website.

"Sprint is changing the rates on roaming min. from .50 cents to .69 cents a min. as we know when there is a change of contract you have a right to decline & break the contract.
Change goes into effect on August 1"

I dont know how well this works but it is worth a shot.

While I have no issues with Cingular service in my area, I would like a more robust plan featuring data access. What sort of deals do other carriers offer that might compete, price wise, with what I have.?

I currently have the FamilyTalk 450 plan (no longer offered - it's now the FamilyTalk 550). This plan includes 2 phones sharing 450 anytime minutes with roll over, unlimited nights and weekends, unlimited in network m2m, no roaming. The plan they offer starts at 59.99 both now (as the 550) and before as the 450. So after taxes and fee's the monthly cost *should* come out to like 75 - 80 dollars per month...

In my case, after tax and fee's I pay 60.21 per month. I complained 5 years ago when I set the plan up (back then it was the 350 plan w/o in network m2m or free roaming, and the 2nd line was in state only) that my bill was way higher than I was led to believe when I signed up at Best Buy and that I was mislead on the 2nd line being in state coverage only. The next bill I was charged 59.99 -4, -4, -4, -4, -4 for a grand total of 39.99 plus taxes and other fee's = 60.21.

The -4's are lifetime rebates to the plan. When I upgraded phones about 2 years ago our plan automatically upgraded to the 450 minutes, but our rebates stuck.

While this is a great price (I think) for cell phone service for 2 phones for voice coverage - we've never gone over our minutes, and in fact have arouond a 1000 anytime minutes because of roll over - it sucks for data access and I've reciently been hit with higher bills due to text messages and checking the weather channel or my email from my phone (I have a Cingular 2125) which brings the monthly bill up to a ghastly 62 - 65 dollars...

Should I just stick with what I've got? Is there anything out there that would suit me better, and not break the bank? I don't need these minutes (even 350 was over kill with us, esp with the free in network and m2m).. Thoughts?