Any Updates on Rumored End to Phone Subsidies?

[yellowman82]

I see so much complaining about the new plans being expansive i mean seriously how much are the bill for you guys that are complaining? I had 4 lines and for the 4 lines the bill was around $260 plus tax me and my cousin would pay $95 each since me and him was splitting the cost for my little brothers line so it was $95 each and i had a good female friend also on the plan and she was paying $70. Now i had all 4 lines joined into a framily plan with a good friend and his family its 9 of us in the family tree. I went and got the lg g flex put $150 down and owing $500 since we are at the 7~10 range amount of ppl in the tree my bill is $25/month plus an extra $20 for unlimited data and $20.48 i think it was for my phone so im looking at 65.48 and thats not including tax. My little brother bill is only the $25/month with the 1gb data since he's always on wifi my cousin the same he's only staying with the 1gb data now im putting maybe what an extra $13 bucks that each from me and my cousin for my little brother line im still looking at it as about $80 bucks a month but mine you i can pay off my phone off 1 week check so my bill would be about $60 bucks a month i mean seriously thats like a metro pcs bill i'll take that any day over and its no contract heck yea i'll take that over 2yr contract any day i don't see nothing wrong with the framily plan at all.

 

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[kojitsari]

I see so much complaining about the new plans being expansive i mean seriously how much are the bill for you guys that are complaining? I had 4 lines and for the 4 lines the bill was around $260 plus tax me and my cousin would pay $95 each since me and him was splitting the cost for my little brothers line so it was $95 each and i had a good female friend also on the plan and she was paying $70. Now i had all 4 lines joined into a framily plan with a good friend and his family its 9 of us in the family tree. I went and got the lg g flex put $150 down and owing $500 since we are at the 7~10 range amount of ppl in the tree my bill is $25/month plus an extra $20 for unlimited data and $20.48 i think it was for my phone so im looking at 65.48 and thats not including tax. My little brother bill is only the $25/month with the 1gb data since he's always on wifi my cousin the same he's only staying with the 1gb data now im putting maybe what an extra $13 bucks that each from me and my cousin for my little brother line im still looking at it as about $80 bucks a month but mine you i can pay off my phone off 1 week check so my bill would be about $60 bucks a month i mean seriously thats like a metro pcs bill i'll take that any day over and its no contract heck yea i'll take that over 2yr contract any day i don't see nothing wrong with the framily plan at all.

 

Sent from my LG-LS995 using Tapatalk[/qmoney]

Honestly I think people hear, oh you mean I have to pay $800 for my shiny iPhone now? What the heck it used to only cost me 200(a lot of the general public don't understand the cost is factored in, or are willing to realize that buying a quality phone and using it until you need a new one and not just upgrading to the same phone with a new gimmick each year will save you a lot of money). It boils down to those who don't upgrade non stop save money, those who do it may or may not.

 

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[kojitsari]

 

Honestly I think people hear, oh you mean I have to pay $800 for my shiny iPhone now? What the heck it used to only cost me 200(a lot of the general public don't understand the cost is factored in, or are willing to realize that buying a quality phone and using it until you need a new one and not just upgrading to the same phone with a new gimmick each year will save you a lot of money). It boils down to those who don't upgrade non stop save money, those who do it may or may not.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

 

[jamisonshaw125]

My bill is 60 bucks a month with everything data and text, 1500 shared minutes among 3 lines. I've done comparisons across all the carriers. Sprints is the cheapest and best bang for your buck.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 5s using Tapatalk

[caspar347]

Yeah, prepare for the public shell shock when everyone finally starts having to pay full price for their iPhones. Hopefully this will drive prices down a bit, as I'm pretty sure smart phones are extremely high margin products now. Unless you're HTC of course.

[marioc21]

Yeah, prepare for the public shell shock when everyone finally starts having to pay full price for their iPhones. Hopefully this will drive prices down a bit, as I'm pretty sure smart phones are extremely high margin products now. Unless you're HTC of course.

 

My guess is that eventually every retailer that currently sells phones on contract will replace those with an installment plan option.  I'm sure best buy, walmart, target, radio shack, etc. will have their own program for financing the phone you want.  That's when you'll finally get market pressure on phone prices as consumers start shopping around for the best "full" price on the phone they want.  

[bigsnake49]

My guess is that eventually every retailer that currently sells phones on contract will replace those with an installment plan option.  I'm sure best buy, walmart, target, radio shack, etc. will have their own program for financing the phone you want.  That's when you'll finally get market pressure on phone prices as consumers start shopping around for the best "full" price on the phone they want.  

 

I'm never going on contract again. Ever!

[MacinJosh]

Ok. I did the math.

 

To get an iPhone 5S 64GB on Easy Pay vs 2yr contract works much better if you are on a Framily with a maximum discount. If you want, I can work on the rest of the Sprint line of 4G LTE smartphones sometime tonight.

 

[kojitsari]

Ok. I did the math.

 

To get an iPhone 5S 64GB on Easy Pay vs 2yr contract works much better if you are on a Framily with a maximum discount. If you want, I can work on the rest of the Sprint line of 4G LTE smartphones sometime tonight.

 

That might be a decent thread, a comparison of phones/plan cost/total cost on each. Considering the whole framily thread was just people complaining phones will cost more lol

 

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[MacinJosh]

That might be a decent thread, a comparison of phones/plan cost/total cost on each. Considering the whole framily thread was just people complaining phones will cost more lol

 

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I'll start working on it tonight sometime, and lets see how far I get. At least Sprint still has the 2yr contract pricing online.

[Ascertion]

Ah crap lol I just posted this in the wrong thread. It belongs here. Looks like it may end March 31st.

 

 

Sent from my LG-LS980

 

 

[utiz4321]

Good point, but my bill would still go up $20/person (assuming $15/month phone financing).

Sorry dude can't feel sorry for you, those plans are ridiculously low.

[utiz4321]

Ah crap lol I just posted this in the wrong thread. It belongs here. Looks like it may end March 31st.

 

 

Sent from my LG-LS980

That really doesn't mean anything. Could just be a marketing ploy.

[chgoguy80]

I see so much complaining about the new plans being expansive i mean seriously how much are the bill for you guys that are complaining? I had 4 lines and for the 4 lines the bill was around $260 plus tax me and my cousin would pay $95 each since me and him was splitting the cost for my little brothers line so it was $95 each and i had a good female friend also on the plan and she was paying $70. Now i had all 4 lines joined into a framily plan with a good friend and his family its 9 of us in the family tree. I went and got the lg g flex put $150 down and owing $500 since we are at the 7~10 range amount of ppl in the tree my bill is $25/month plus an extra $20 for unlimited data and $20.48 i think it was for my phone so im looking at 65.48 and thats not including tax. My little brother bill is only the $25/month with the 1gb data since he's always on wifi my cousin the same he's only staying with the 1gb data now im putting maybe what an extra $13 bucks that each from me and my cousin for my little brother line im still looking at it as about $80 bucks a month but mine you i can pay off my phone off 1 week check so my bill would be about $60 bucks a month i mean seriously thats like a metro pcs bill i'll take that any day over and its no contract heck yea i'll take that over 2yr contract any day i don't see nothing wrong with the framily plan at all.

 

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Because you are currently overpaying Remember the current plans are unlimited versus only 1 GB on Framily if your Framily holds together and 7 or lines for that $25/line/month.

 

Our current 5 line plan is 212.50/month before taxes after corporate discount which is 42.50/line for unlimited data. phone subsidy, no hassle of making sure someone doesn't leave your Framily (who you don't know) that would greatly increase monthly cost. Framily not even close in value. To get down to 42.50 range with easy pay ($25+ 17.50 monthly toward phone) you'd get only 1GB data and the hassle of Framily risk of people leaving and trying to replace them.

 

If someone in our situation wanted apples to apples plan it would be $25 (or more if <7 people) + $20 unlimited + $17.50/mo approx for phone = $62.50/month/line. And you still have the issue of finding replacements when Framily members leave which they can at any time because they are not under contract.

[rdcrds]

I would make a post on this subject again but it would get taken down for speaking the truth so why bother right?

[WiWavelength]

I would make a post on this subject again but it would get taken down for speaking the truth so why bother right?

 

Yeah, why bother?  Consider this your ultimatum.

 

You seemingly have an agenda to preserve your discount laden subsidy plan in perpetuity.  If you can jump through hoops or raise hell and do so, good for you.  Guess what?  We do not care.

 

S4GRU is not a Sprint exploitation site.  Unlike other sites that you are reportedly familiar with, S4GRU is primarily a technically astute Network Vision tracking web site.  But, apparently, you do not care about that info, as you have not bothered to sponsor the site.

 

We have Sprint employees sharing official communications about the retirement of equipment subsidies.  And you, then, are countering with something that some manager or Best Buy employee told you.

 

Nope, not good enough.  We will take internal communiques over your hearsay every time.  If you do not like that, too bad.  Take it elsewhere.

 

AJ

[utiz4321]

I don't understand people who expect to use a service more and Payless. People are using cell service as their primary telephone replacing landline service, they are using it to connect to the web more and more. We are using and relying on mobile telecommunicationmore now than we did 7 years ago, the networks are better with more capabilities and people complain about spending more on a service they are using more and getting more utility out of. I simply don't understand, the cost of wireless is going up because demand for wireless service is going up, deal with.

[S4GRU]

Just to remind everyone, Sponsorships are good for six months from your last donation date. You cannot be angry if you lose your sponsor privelleges after six months. This is something we communicate clearly in the Sponsor thread. Only Premier Sponsorships do not expire.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

 

[jamesinclair]

I am pleased to see that the GS5 has launched with the traditional subsidy model intact.

[jamisonshaw125]

I am pleased to see that the GS5 has launched with the traditional subsidy model intact.

I don't think they're going anywhere with that. There are still a lot of people who will prefer to sign a 2 year contract than pay a monthly subsidy. I am one of them.

 

 

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[ahecht]

My latest bill included a note that they're changing the upgrade eligibility for subsidized phones from 20 months to 24 months. Honestly it seems pretty stupid to me, they should have at least changed it back to 22 months. Getting people to renew BEFORE their contract expires is a great way to keep people from jumping ship, and Sprint needs all the help they can get with retention.

 

Think about it like the average customer: currently a customer gets a notice that they can get a new phone. They might look at other carriers, but they'd have to wait four more months or pay an ETF to get a new shiny phone. That's a pretty big incentive to stay. Under the new plan, when a customer is eligible for a new phone they could either stay with Sprint or port to T-Mobile (which they keep seeing all these blogs raving about how great they are) or Verizon (which is offering a $150 credit to port in your number). Suddenly Sprint doesn't seem like such a hot deal.

[utiz4321]

My latest bill included a note that they're changing the upgrade eligibility for subsidized phones from 20 months to 24 months. Honestly it seems pretty stupid to me, they should have at least changed it back to 22 months. Getting people to renew BEFORE their contract expires is a great way to keep people from jumping ship, and Sprint needs all the help they can get with retention.

 

Think about it like the average customer: currently a customer gets a notice that they can get a new phone. They might look at other carriers, but they'd have to wait four more months or pay an ETF to get a new shiny phone. That's a pretty big incentive to stay. Under the new plan, when a customer is eligible for a new phone they could either stay with Sprint or port to T-Mobile (which they keep seeing all these blogs raving about how great they are) or Verizon (which is offering a $150 credit to port in your number). Suddenly Sprint doesn't seem like such a hot deal.

If you problem is sprint making you wait two years for your upgrade your statement doesn't make any sense. T-Mobile doesn't do contracts and is more expensive, VZW is more expensive and if you are on a contract you have to wait two years to upgrade... So get over it. Contracts are on there way out and can't come soon enough.

[Fraydog]

It wouldn't shock me if such a change was made in an effort to push people from contracts to leasing or device financing.

[greencat]

Everyone wants the shiny new triband network, but doesn't want to pay for it.

 

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We've been paying for it for years but Sprint hasn't done crap, which is why they're 3 years behind Tmob, ATT and VZW. Sprint has some of the highest revenue per user in the industry so again, we've been paying for it.

 

If you problem is sprint making you wait two years for your upgrade your statement doesn't make any sense. T-Mobile doesn't do contracts and is more expensive, VZW is more expensive and if you are on a contract you have to wait two years to upgrade... So get over it. Contracts are on there way out and can't come soon enough.

 

The bolded might be true, but those companies don't have as much of an issue with customer retention as Sprint does. So get over it. (Man, it does feel good to type that. I might end all my posts with that.) The rest of your post is your opinion and you're entitled to be as wrong as you want.

 

 

 

It's a bit unrealistic to think that new plans will be as cheap as old plans. As time moves on things get more expensive, it's the way our system works. Think about it, food is more expensive, so is gas, and houses, and cars, and even sodas, even minimum wage is higher. Why shouldn't telecommunication companies do the same? They are not offering you the same services as the legacy plans. Now you have more advanced phones that use more data naturally, you have faster data, and a more reliable network. If you think that you'll be getting the same services at the same price on a different plan then I'm sorry to inform you that the system just does not work that way. Now if you were to tell me that on your legacy plan you still have the same phone and don't take advantage of any of the new features of the plan, then I'll just say more power to ya. But don't expect to get more, and take advantage of newer things without coughing up the dough. Sprint needs to make money, and this is one way they will make it.

 

Also, this is not you personally, but I've seen this rationale many times on this site... So with that said: /rant

 

 

-Luis

Could you please provide me with all your info? I'd like to supply everything to you for the rest of your life. I could retire on just a few customers like you.

[Fraydog]

4G data services are more complex. That's a big reason costs go up. These massively redone networks are set so everyone has better coverage and data everywhere. So prices go up. So does quality of service. Sprint is exponentially better than it was and people still rag it. It is what it is.