Existing customer upgrade vs new customer line

[AcctDeleted_jerthorne]

I called Sprint to find out the in store prices for phones and how they compare. The rep said their online prices are lower due to online savings and then said those prices are also only for new customers and don't apply to existing customers. I've had store reps give me incorrect info before and wanted to see if this was the case. 

 

Does Sprint truly cater toward new customers with deeper discounts more than existing customers? This seems very backward as Sprint should want people to stay with them. 

 

Your thoughts?

[dedub]

its common practice among all the carriers.

 

they value new customers more than old.

 

its all about 'maximizing shareholder value'.

 

while possible, existing customers are less likely to churn

 

and new lines added = big bottom line

[AcctDeleted_jerthorne]

That being said, I'll probably wait until the Black Friday sales to find the phones for a lower price. Pretty ridiculous. 

[koiulpoi]

At the moment, Sprint.com is running a $100-off-a-smartphone deal. You have to sign a 2-year contract, you need to start up a new account, and you need to port your number in from another carrier.

 

We've had... issues... with people coming in to stores, not realizing that the online prices are for new port-ins only (despite the GIANT POPUP AND BANNER EXPLAINING IT as well as ALL THE FINE PRINT EVERYWHERE), and then getting rather angry at us that we can't honor it.

 

The idea is to entice customers from other carriers. After all, wireless service in the USA is reaching a saturation point; your new adds have to be either from add-on devices like tablets and mobile broadband, or stolen from other carriers.

[Rocket87]

Because the web allows upgrades do a WEB ORDER to pay online and pick up in store corporate stores have to honor it until its fixed. This is because at the store level we have no way to reverse the charge. We do not honor RESERVE IN STORE upgrades since they haven't paid or extended their contract yet. The memo i saw last week said the online team was working on a fix.

 

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

 

 

[SWMich4G]

At the moment, Sprint.com is running a $100-off-a-smartphone deal. You have to sign a 2-year contract, you need to start up a new account, and you need to port your number in from another carrier.

 

We've had... issues... with people coming in to stores, not realizing that the online prices are for new port-ins only (despite the GIANT POPUP AND BANNER EXPLAINING IT as well as ALL THE FINE PRINT EVERYWHERE), and then getting rather angry at us that we can't honor it.

 

The idea is to entice customers from other carriers. After all, wireless service in the USA is reaching a saturation point; your new adds have to be either from add-on devices like tablets and mobile broadband, or stolen from other carriers.

 

You have to admit automatically deducting $100 from the price for anyone viewing the webpage is misleading.  I'm totally fine with giant banners all around saying "ADDITIONAL $100 OFF FOR NEW CUSTOMERS!"  As it is, you go to the phones page and they display a price that ONLY new customers can get with NO indication that that is the case.  You have to click through to the device details to see that you're actually paying $100 more.  People planning on buying in store aren't likely to get that far.  And with ad-blocking, you don't ever get a pop-up indicating the limitations of the pricing, either.  Blame whoever designed the webpage for those angry customers.  They intentionally chose a design that misleads. 

[koiulpoi]

You have to admit automatically deducting $100 from the price for anyone viewing the webpage is misleading.  I'm totally fine with giant banners all around saying "ADDITIONAL $100 OFF FOR NEW CUSTOMERS!"  As it is, you go to the phones page and they display a price that ONLY new customers can get with NO indication that that is the case.  You have to click through to the device details to see that you're actually paying $100 more.  People planning on buying in store aren't likely to get that far.  And with ad-blocking, you don't ever get a pop-up indicating the limitations of the pricing, either.  Blame whoever designed the webpage for those angry customers.  They intentionally mislead. 

You claim malice for what can adequately be explained by incompetence. I disagree.

 

---

 

Anyways, I logged out of my Sprint account, and went to the homepage, then Shop->Phones, and I got this:

 

 

 

Seems pretty clear to me. It puts it right there, in black and white. Save $100 by bringing your number, with a new line of service.

 

And yes, I have a pretty extreme adblocker running. Everyone else should be getting this, too. If you're not, it might be time to upgrade past IE 6

 

If you're logged in to your Sprint account, you get upgrade pricing applicable to you, because it's your account. So no, it does not get shown to "everyone". 

 

If you don't know the difference between upgrade and new line pricing, it's best to read the fine print - or even better, ask someone, like the OP did. Getting angry at it solves absolutely nothing, and makes you appear insufferable and entitled to not only the store employees, but to other customers around you. It's a bad time all around.

[SWMich4G]

You claim malice for what can adequately be explained by incompetence. I disagree.

 

---

 

Anyways, I logged out of my Sprint account, and went to the homepage, then Shop->Phones, and I got this:

 

BIG IMAGE

 

 

Seems pretty clear to me. It puts it right there, in black and white. Save $100 by bringing your number, with a new line of service.

 

And yes, I have a pretty extreme adblocker running. Everyone else should be getting this, too. If you're not, it might be time to upgrade past IE 6

 

If you're logged in to your Sprint account, you get upgrade pricing applicable to you, because it's your account. So no, it does not get shown to "everyone". 

 

If you don't know the difference between upgrade and new line pricing, it's best to read the fine print - or even better, ask someone, like the OP did. Getting angry at it solves absolutely nothing, and makes you appear insufferable and entitled to not only the store employees, but to other customers around you. It's a bad time all around.

 

You may need a better ad blocker if you're getting that banner. 

 

And without that there's no indication on the phones page that it's already included in the price unless you scroll all the way down to the bottom and read the one tiny line of text.  I'm not saying it's not what 95% of businesses would do, I'm just saying it's their fault when people come in expecting that pricing.  Not everyone reads the fine print, and even if you don't, a lot of people instinctively close pop-ups without reading them. 

 

I understand it's frustrating dealing with those customers, but we both know there would be fewer of them coming into the store if they listed the upgrade price, put a more obvious indicator right under each price that it's including a special discount, or if they simply put a price range that covered both groups of customers. 

[koiulpoi]

You may need a better ad blocker if you're getting that banner.

No, I don't. I run Adblock+ in Chrome, and have a mass adblock hosts file on my system. That wasn't blocking it. Which means, a limit close to 100% of people who visit sprint.com will see this. Stop being disingenuous.

 

And without that there's no indication on the phones page that it's already included in the price unless you scroll all the way down to the bottom and read the one tiny line of text.  I'm not saying it's not what 95% of businesses would do, I'm just saying it's their fault when people come in expecting that pricing.  Not everyone reads the fine print, and even if you don't, a lot of people instinctively close pop-ups without reading them.

It's also the first part of the rotating "infobox" on the homescreen. And it's also there when you try and check out.

 

Yes, it would be better if they showed upgrade pricing separate. I agree with that. However, that wasn't your original argument. You said it's intentionally misleading. I'm saying they provided the information in a fashion that is accessible to the customer. Not everything in life can be "bright colors hold your hand" easy.

 

I understand it's frustrating dealing with those customers, but we both know there would be fewer of them coming into the store if they listed the upgrade price, put a more obvious indicator right under each price that it's including a special discount, or if they simply put a price range that covered both groups of customers.

This honestly reminds me of when people talk about activation fees. "I was never told about activation fees!" - when, in fact, they were told (often multiple times), it was printed (twice) on the contract they signed, and it's posted on documentation in the store. If you do not listen and pay attention, the only one you can blame is the man in the mirror. If you don't know how the pricing works, you assume and then you get angry. And then you think Sprint has a massive conspiracy to throw "hidden charges" at you and "mislead customers" and other such rot.

 

Do your due diligence, ask questions, and read things involved with the hard-earned money you'll be paying.

[SWMich4G]

No, I don't. I run Adblock+ in Chrome, and have a mass adblock hosts file on my system. That wasn't blocking it. Which means, a limit close to 100% of people who visit sprint.com will see this. Stop being disingenuous. 

 

I'm not.  I was trying to jokingly respond to your (joking?) attack so it wouldn't escalate (I do have a lot more scripts blocked than even most advanced users).  I guess I'll just leave it at that and leave the thread. I'm sure this subject affects you a lot more than me anyway.  I just wanted to present the other side of the situation cause even I have been caught for a second thinking the prices were cheaper than they actually are. 

[The Dave]

I haven't seen the pop up adds while browsing the Sprint site using my iPad. Even with the Web page saying "Welcome, David" it shows the new customer pricing when you do a quick browsing over the phones. If someone wanted to quickly look over the lineup to get a feel before going to a store to buy, I can easily see the issues you'd see. 

[Steven800]

I got the pop up on my iphone