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2 year subsidy phone upgrades early warning info


dkyeager

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Ok, I'm going to clear up some misconceptions I've seen here on this page, because they're bugging me and I can't keep biting my tongue:

 

1. On the compressed video - Sprint used to compress video on the ED plans, including ED1500. I know, I had this plan at one time. They limited streams to something like 500k or 600k. This was in the fine print. So the fact that video is compressed on the new unlimited plans really does not matter - it's just like the original ED, even if ED is no longer compressed. What Sprint is doing to help you out above and beyond the ED plans is giving you an option to stream higher rate video if you so choose. Of course it comes at a higher cost!!!

 

2. There is an assumption someone made that the ED plans were at least at one time profitable. Of course, there is absolutely no proof of this. Sprint has never reported their profitability by service plan. Sprint has not been profitable for several years, and this situation accelerated after the introduction of the ED plans - in fact, one could reasonably conclude that the ED plans contributed to ARPU and net income declines.

 

You should have stopped at "Sprint has never reported their profitability by service plan."  So many factors.  Even more so if you go down to the individual or location level. A lot depends on how you allocate your overhead costs.

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The word is Costco still does until around the end of the year. Not verified so report back. Best  Buy also ending this month: https://www.reddit.com/r/Sprint/comments/52m56e/according_to_a_post_at_rbestbuy_you_can_no_longer/

 

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You should have stopped at "Sprint has never reported their profitability by service plan."  So many factors.  Even more so if you go down to the individual or location level. A lot depends on how you allocate your overhead costs.

 

That was my point. :) One could skew this however he or she wants because not all of the facts are present. Likewise, one cannot claim that the ED plans were profitable as there is absolutely no evidence of this and nothing to support the assertion. 

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Did a 2-yr upgrade at Best Buy last Saturday. They tried to get me to switch to a different plan but I firmly said no.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Someone said that as of Oct 1st Best Buy will stop the 2-yr upgrades but it's still available as of a minute ago. Hope that info was wrong & it's not really going away at Best Buy.

 

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Someone said that as of Oct 1st Best Buy will stop the 2-yr upgrades but it's still available as of a minute ago. Hope that info was wrong & it's not really going away at Best Buy.

 

It is a one week stay of execution.  Then, die, subsidy, die.

 

AJ

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Someone said that as of Oct 1st Best Buy will stop the 2-yr upgrades but it's still available as of a minute ago. Hope that info was wrong & it's not really going away at Best Buy.

 

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I did a 2 year upgrade at Best Buy yesterday.

 

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It is a one week stay of execution. Then, die, subsidy, die.

 

AJ

Are you a Sprint shareholder? Why do you hate the subsidy model so much?

 

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Does anyone here have news on if they are getting rid of SERO plans? Sprint users has a thread where people are reporting plan changes bumping them up to a $70 plan. I'm on SERO and just tried to swap a phone yesterday and was told my plan isn't available anymore. If contracts are gone and my plan is gone, that bumps my plan from $50 to $95 per month between plan increases and installment payments. I understand some changes, but that nearly doubles my plan costs and makes many other Sprint alternatives including project fi and tmobile (and even my brother's Verizon family plan) cheaper for my family.

 

Side note: I really don't get why Sprint doesn't offer leasing and installments on cheaper phones like Moto X, Moto G, and Nexus phones. It would be less of an ouch than the flagship phones that are all that they offer that are not crappy phones.

 

If you do it right, you can remain on $50 SERO-P 500. I did a normal upgrade to my iPhone 7 and activated through chat and was not required to do a plan change.

 

But, if you are told you can't activate a device in chat, try in-store. And, if you try to activate a 3G device on SERO-P after having an LTE device on it, (rare case) you will have to move to $60 SERO Unlimited. (Some technical limitation)

 

I'm happy to be locked in @ $50/mo for the next two years, though.

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Ok, I'm going to clear up some misconceptions I've seen here on this page, because they're bugging me and I can't keep biting my tongue:

 

1. On the compressed video - Sprint used to compress video on the ED plans, including ED1500. I know, I had this plan at one time. They limited streams to something like 500k or 600k. This was in the fine print. So the fact that video is compressed on the new unlimited plans really does not matter - it's just like the original ED, even if ED is no longer compressed. What Sprint is doing to help you out above and beyond the ED plans is giving you an option to stream higher rate video if you so choose. Of course it comes at a higher cost!!!

 

2. There is an assumption someone made that the ED plans were at least at one time profitable. Of course, there is absolutely no proof of this. Sprint has never reported their profitability by service plan. Sprint has not been profitable for several years, and this situation accelerated after the introduction of the ED plans - in fact, one could reasonably conclude that the ED plans contributed to ARPU and net income declines.

 

 

A few counterpoints to supposedly our misconceptions:

 

1) Don't know where you are but I'm on ED1500 and never seen my video or audio compressed or throttled down to less than HD for video and and smaller bit rate audio stream.  I pay attention to stuff like this, and I have never seen that happen.  Now I have seen on a congested tower area the video or spotify buffering over and over again sometimes to the point where I say the hell with it and just quit streaming, but that doesn't happen often.

 

2)  The ED plans made them more money.  I think the bigger misconception is that the 2 year subsidies were costing Sprint more money than now, but I would like to give you and example right now apples to apples how that can not be true.  This is based on the new unlimited freedom plans for 2 lines vs the ED1500 plan I have with my 2 new Note 7's on contract I just got.

 

Sprint Unlimited Freedom for 2 lines:
 
$40 + $30 = $70 per month 2 lines
Note 7: $349.99 per phone 2 year contract
Note 7: Retail $849.99
Subsidy Charge: $25/month
 
$70 * 24 = $1680
($25*2)*24 = $1200
$349.99*2 = $699.98
 
Total 24 months: $3579.28
 
 
Every Data 1500 2 lines:
$110.00 + $19.99 + ($10*2 premium data charge) = $149.99/month 2 lines
Note 7: $349.99 per phone 2 year contract
Note 7: Retail $849.99
No Subsidy charge
 
$149.99 * 24 = $3599.76
$349.99 * 2 = $699.98
 
Total 24 months: $4299.74

 

 

So actually if you do a 2 year contract on the new plan even with the $25 month subsidy charge for each line you save $720.46 on the new plans.  That saves a person $720.46 on the new plans versus the ED1500, so whether or not either plan is profitable, obviously the ED plan gives Sprint more money over a 24 month period when someone does a 24 month contract.

 

Now I had several reasons why I didn't go with a new plan over the ED1500.

1) My corporate discount saves me $480 a year versus a lot less with the new plans.

2) I worked a better deal for the upfront cost of the Note 7's I got, so I didn't pay $349.99 a phone.  I won't say what I did pay, but I worked a deal, lets just say that.

3) I have not seen them throttle or compress ED1500 on my phone yet, so the new plans are garbage to me on that aspect, and you can't really put a price tag on getting non-compressed video/audio.

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Sprint Unlimited Freedom for 2 lines:

 
$40 + $30 = $70 per month 2 lines
Note 7: $349.99 per phone 2 year contract
Note 7: Retail $849.99
Subsidy Charge: $25/month
 
$70 * 24 = $1680
($25*2)*24 = $1200
$349.99*2 = $699.98
 
Total 24 months: $3579.28
 
 
Every Data 1500 2 lines:
$110.00 + $19.99 + ($10*2 premium data charge) = $149.99/month 2 lines
Note 7: $349.99 per phone 2 year contract
Note 7: Retail $849.99
No Subsidy charge
 
$149.99 * 24 = $3599.76
$349.99 * 2 = $699.98
 
Total 24 months: $4299.74

 

 

So actually if you do a 2 year contract on the new plan even with the $25 month subsidy charge for each line you save $720.46 on the new plans.  That saves a person $720.46 on the new plans versus the ED1500, so whether or not either plan is profitable, obviously the ED plan gives Sprint more money over a 24 month period when someone does a 24 month contract.

 

Your Unlimited Freedom plan costs appear to be off.  Where/how do you get the $40/mo and $30/mo rates, respectively, for the first two lines?  Published rates for Unlimited Freedom are $60/mo and $40/mo, respectively, for the first two lines.  With those corrections, add $30/mo x 24 months to your calculations.  That comes out to $720.  Wow, looks like it is a wash, almost to the penny.  And your counterpoint is invalidated.

 

AJ

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Your Unlimited Freedom plan costs appear to be off. Where/how do you get the $40/mo and $30/mo rates, respectively, for the first two lines? Published rates for Unlimited Freedom are $60/mo and $40/mo, respectively, for the first two lines. With those corrections, add $30/mo x 24 months to your calculations. That comes out to $720. Wow, looks like it is a wash, almost to the penny. And your counterpoint is invalidated.

 

AJ

Ok here is the screenshot of Sprints current page. I didn't see that it said you have to activate 4 lines to get the $40+$30 for each additional. So it would be $130 for 4 lines.

 

Which means correct they are exactly the same if only adding 2 lines which makes me not changing plans even better for me based in the other things like corporate discount.

 

While it invalidates that they make less money on one rather than other, it does not invalidate the point that if ED1500 is a bad plan like the poster I quoted says then the Unlimited Freedom plans are equally as bad.

 

So the people complaining on here about old plans being a money loser for Sprint are only assuming the opposite of me(non-profitable) with no proof to back up their point either.

 

I can't see how a company like sprint (if in the monetary bind you all make it out to be) that Sprint would decide to offer 2 year contracts still and not get rid of them. Since they don't release their profit levels of plans, we will never know for sure, but it's hard for me to believe they would continue to offer these contracts if it was hurting them too badly.

 

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While it invalidates that they make less money on one rather than other, it does not invalidate the point that if ED1500 is a bad plan like the poster I quoted says then the Unlimited Freedom plans are equally as bad.

 

So the people complaining on here about old plans being a money loser for Sprint are only assuming the opposite of me(non-profitable) with no proof to back up their point either.

 

I can't see how a company like sprint (if in the monetary bind you all make it out to be) that Sprint would decide to offer 2 year contracts still and not get rid of them. Since they don't release their profit levels of plans, we will never know for sure, but it's hard for me to believe they would continue to offer these contracts if it was hurting them too badly.

 

Losses can be attributable in many different ways, such as goodwill and opportunity cost.

 

For example, legacy contract subsidy plans can allow users continued access to subsidized upgrades and "unlimited" data without video optimization.  Since video traffic is one of the biggest network congestion offenders, that can put a greater burden on the network.  Some legacy "unlimited" data users even will eschew home broadband and run all household HD video via the macro network.  The greater burden on the network can hurt Sprint's network performance ratings.  That, in turn, can harm Sprint's reputation, thereby increasing churn and reducing additions.

 

AJ

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Ok here is the screenshot of Sprints current page. I didn't see that it said you have to activate 4 lines to get the $40+$30 for each additional. So it would be $130 for 4 lines.

 

Which means correct they are exactly the same if only adding 2 lines which makes me not changing plans even better for me based in the other things like corporate discount.

 

 

It is $160 for 4 lines.

 

The small prints says you must active 4 lines at $40/ea, and then each additional beyond 4 is $30. 

 

(While it works out to $40/ea, it's actually $60+$40+$30+$30)

 

https://www.sprint.com/landings/unlimited-cell-phone-plans/index.html

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It is $160 for 4 lines.

 

The small prints says you must active 4 lines at $40/ea, and then each additional beyond 4 is $30.

 

(While it works out to $40/ea, it's actually $60+$40+$30+$30)

 

https://www.sprint.com/landings/unlimited-cell-phone-plans/index.html

Well if that's the case I don't know why anybody on a legacy plan would ever switch to the new plans. Especially if they're getting two year contract phones. It sounds as if the new plan plus the subsidy charges for each line would cost a lot more. That's the one thing so far that I have disliked about the new way the carriers are doing this. They present the plans as being cheaper than the old ones when they really aren't. You all do the same thing. At best they break even. At worst they cost more over a 24 month period.

 

My bigger issue with Sprint right now which is going to hurt them in the long run is that the salespeople are not even telling customers that end up getting 2 year contracts on these new plans that they're going to be hit with a $25 subsidy charge per line. I've read the fine print and the contract language and that amount and number is not in any of them. Most of the complaints on the Sprint forums is that of customers complaining that they were not informed in fine print or by the salesperson that those $25 charges were going to happen. So it seems that Sprint needs to be training their salespeople better, or it's a deliberate tactic just to get their foot in the door and hope that the majority of people don't complain about it.

 

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Well if that's the case I don't know why anybody on a legacy plan would ever switch to the new plans. Especially if they're getting two year contract phones. It sounds as if the new plan plus the subsidy charges for each line would cost a lot more. That's the one thing so far that I have disliked about the new way the carriers are doing this. They present the plans as being cheaper than the old ones when they really aren't. You all do the same thing. At best they break even. At worst they cost more over a 24 month period.

 

My bigger issue with Sprint right now which is going to hurt them in the long run is that the salespeople are not even telling customers that end up getting 2 year contracts on these new plans that they're going to be hit with a $25 subsidy charge per line. I've read the fine print and the contract language and that amount and number is not in any of them. Most of the complaints on the Sprint forums is that of customers complaining that they were not informed in fine print or by the salesperson that those $25 charges were going to happen. So it seems that Sprint needs to be training their salespeople better, or it's a deliberate tactic just to get their foot in the door and hope that the majority of people don't complain about it.

 

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You're kinda missing the point... which is the 2-year options are going away, thus no subsidy charge. I don't know why you would switch to one of these plans, and keep that subsidy, considering the Easy Pay or Installment Billing for many devices is less than that $25 charge. 

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You're kinda missing the point... which is the 2-year options are going away, thus no subsidy charge. I don't know why you would switch to one of these plans, and keep that subsidy, considering the Easy Pay or Installment Billing for many devices is less than that $25 charge.

Not missing the point at all. It seems sprint went into some kind of "let's please everyone" mode. Which is biting them in the butt cause the salespeople aren't properly trained on how to tell the customer everything. They have had to enact these $25 subsidy charges to recoup costs but are not conveying this info to their customers that still want 2 year contracts.

 

Whether you all like it or not 2 year contracts are still an option with sprint, and just glossing over that fact with a "2 year contracts are going away" comment doesn't change the fact that they are still there and will likely be available for customers through sprint (maybe not 3rd parties) I would suspect for at least the next year if not longer.

 

In the meantime they are ticking off old customers by doing the following:

 

1) Talking customers off of legacy plans and onto the new plans.

2) Customer still wants their discounted phone up front and wants a 2 year contract and the salesperson doesn't let them know of the $25 charge per month nor does any contract or fine print. I realize that no one really ever gets a "discounted phone", but the average consumer doesn't know this or is too stupid to realize this.

3) Customer gets angry after 1-2 months and complains and bad mouths Sprint to everyone, thus hurting sprint's brand and reputation as well.

 

So looks like sprint needs to cut the 2 year completely with no grandfathered accounts to get rid of the confusion to the average customer or make sure they disclose the fees better until they do get rid of contracts.

 

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I'm pretty sure ED1500 plans bring revenue to sprint. The bigger question is how sprint gets any revenue from companies like ring plus which I'm sure adds a lot of network congestion. I have four of my old Sprint phones activated on Ring Plus and pay zero monthly charges. One of the lines even has 4GB of data a month.

 

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