GoBigRed79

The sprint buy back website is now showing the same prices as T-Mobile. It's showing $203 for my wife's 5c. That is up from Friday and now matches T-Mobile.

Has anyone used SquareTrade for their devices? I've been an AppleCare purchaser for a long time, but SquareTrade is giving me a least a little pause for thought.

I used them for my first iPad. They did a screen repair for me about two years ago. Pretty good turnaround time. I use AppleCare now. If you live close to an Apple store you can't beat the convenience of just being able to take it there for service. Plus I have always received excellent service from Apple.

Woah! That needs to be highlighted in thousand-point-font somewhere.

 

If that's true, then Sprint is making you to pay 2x to 3x the normal ETF cost if you bail on the iPhone for Life plan. I thought Legere was just talking crap during the Chen interview. But his comments seem extremely fair now.

 

Finishing the lease payments seems fair (same as everyone elses device plan). Buying the remainder of the device seems fair (similar to the ETF's of subsidised pricing).

 

Making people do *both* is entirely unreasonable. This Sprint plan is basically just as bad as T-Mobile's old pre-Legere Value Plans (which also had 2X ETF fees).

Keep I mind if you pay the remaining lease payments plus purchase option you are basically just paying off the balance owed on the device. You will own it. Not much different then early termination of an easy pay plan. The reason there are two fees is the total lease payments don't cover the entire price of the device. The purchase option makes up the difference.

Right, well I wouldn't expect existing customers who are already familiar with sprints service to be cancelling the lease...

 

I am just thinking about the new customers that come and think oh the lease looks like a great deal I will try out sprint, then if for whatever reason they are unhappy, they are going to be *really* unhappy to find a giant bill for all of the remaining lease payments + whatever other fee's were specified in the lease.

I can understand that.  The return trial/return period does apply to the lease so the phone can be returned during that time.

Like I said in my previous post, these phones are expensive.  I see the lease option as some outside the box thinking that we have not seen from Sprint in awhile.  My guess is overall it will be a success for Sprint.

Wow also, per gobigred's quotes above the lease has the worst cancel penalties.. instead of contracts and ETF's, now you have lease termination costs, unspecified 'purchase option price', and doesn't specify if you even keep the phone!

 Obviously if you are likely not going to keep a phone for 2 years the lease is not the best option.  Thats why it is great we have several options to pay for our phones. 

I just ordered a standard 6, via the lease. Technically it seems sprint will charge $200 at the end of the lease if you wanted to buy your device.

 

Totally agree if sprint wants to float me for zero percent loan via easy pay, or the simplicity of the lease I'm okay with it. I understand its not very everyone.

This.  I don't care how anybody pays for their phones.  Whatever works best for you is fine.  I think the only thing we can all agree on is phones cost way to much.  iPhone 6+ 128GB is almost a grand!

There is really only one reason to go for the lease, and that comes down to living above your financial means, you simply can't afford the extra ~$50 down and $7 a month for easy pay (or putting it on a credit card).

 

That, and you don't care about paying for 3/4 or more of something and not keeping it.

I guess I just don't see a huge difference between easy pay and the lease deal.  If you are going to keep your phone past the two years then yes you should buy but most people upgrade every two years.  When you finance something you don't own it until you pay it off.  And with the lease you are basically paying down the balance as there is an option to buy the phone at the end of the lease that is the difference between the lease price and the sale price (The $170 on the 6 model).  Most people don't like the hassle of selling their old phones and just throw them in a drawer anyway.  Personally I think it is a creative alternative to easy pay.

The same argument could be made that easy pay is just for people living beyond their means also.  Just because I have the cash to buy two iPhones outright does not mean I want to lay $1500 when somebody is giving me financing options that are interest free.

Also, you seem to think you would have to pay the full price if you have to break the lease early, like if you lose the phone regardless of how many lease payments have been made.  This is not the case.  The price of the phone is $649.  You are paying $20 a month.  If you lose it after making 6 payments you would owe the balance of payments due ($360) plus the payoff balance due at the end of the lease ($170) = $530.  Really no different then easy pay.  You owe the balance due if you end the agreement early.  With both easy pay and the lease insurance would be prudent.

What happens if I cancel my service prior to completing my 24 month lease?

If you cancel service during your lease term, you will have to pay the remaining lease payments plus the device purchase option price set forth in the Lease Agreement.

What happens if a customer on an Installment Agreement cancels service prior to completing their 24 device payments?

If a customer on an Installment Agreement cancels service prior to completing their 24 device payments, the remaining unpaid balance on the device will be due on customer’s next invoice.

 

Yeah, I preordered two, had to do two orders. We are on Framily.  Not really a big deal. 

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-09-11/sprint-says-it-won-t-take-part-in-u-dot-s-dot-airwaves-auction

Just confirmed at a sprint store the buy back matching the price from t-mobile. $350 buy back for my iPhone 5s here I come! Thanks Tmobile for providing me with a way to not only get the $299 64gb iPhone 6 for free, but to make $51  which will cover my activation fee. I essentially only have to pay $150 for my early upgrade fee. This is awesome lol. 

Do you know if you preorder online and have the new phone shipped to your home if you can still go to the store to do the buyback?

The difference between the lease and the buy (either easy pay or subsidized), is that on the LEASE, you must pay the full replacement price for the device if you lose or break it.

 

If you are BUYING, you can instead buy a CHEAPER or USED replacement phone.

 

So, if you are LEASING, its probably much better if you get INSURANCE, versus if you are BUYING, you can probably save money buy not getting insurance and then just deal with a cheaper or used replacment.

I understand the difference between buying and leasing, I was comparing FINANCING to LEASING.  For sure if you are on Easy Pay or any other carriers finance plan and lose/break a phone or leave the carrier before the phone is paid off, you will owe the balance due.  So Johnny trying to say Sprint's Lease is a "contract" while his financing is not is a lie and he knows it. 

Johnny is correct, iPhone 4life is a 2 year contract scam ...

 

... Except that you don't pay anything up front, pay less for hardware, oh and the service plan is also less (buy about 35 bucks) than a contract price.

 

So yeah :-/

If a lease is a contract scam then a financing plan is also.  I really don't see much of a difference except at the end of the lease you give the phone back and at the end of the financing plan you can keep the phone, but most people upgrade anyway. 

It does not matter if you lease or buy, if you leave the carrier before the phone/lease is paid off you owe the balance.  If you break a phone it does not matter if it is leased or financed you have to pay it off.  It's not like we are talking about cars where after you pay off a 5 year loan you can likely drive it for 5 more years.  Most people upgrade on a 2 year cycle, so what is the downside to the lease option? 

Sprint's buyback website says you must go to a store if you want Sprint to match a competitors buyback quote. 

I understand that.  I am just wondering if you can order the phone online and have it shipped to your house but go to the store to do the buyback.  Basically do you have to buy the phone in store to do the buyback or are they two independent transactions?

I think the lease deal is a good one and works well for apple devices in particular since they do a pretty good job of keeping them up to date for at least 2 years.  I see Sprint doing very well with this.  I don't really see why you would do easy pay for an iPhone 6 since both are basically a two year contract and if you break it you have to pay it off (unless you have insurance of course). 

I wonder with the lease if you could do the applecare plan.  They usually just replace the phone if broken.  Do you have to turn in the exact same phone (IMEI match) to be within terms?

Question about the buyback.  If you order online and have the new phone shipped to you can you still take your old phone into a sprint store for the buyback part of the transaction once you get the new phone.  The whole idea of shipping it and waiting forever for the credit to be applied does not sit well with me.

Yeah there are some places in SA and Austin that remain simply AWFUL. Like my post above all it takes is a single upgrade to improve the experience for everyone. By getting my Nexus 5 onto B41 they not only make the experience better for me but it also relives the non triband users of my congestion. 

Hence my idea a few posts back that Sprint needs to put some type of program in place to encourage subs to upgrade to B41 devices and make it as painless as possible for them to do so.  

Question.  With the buyback program and easy pay, can you turn in a device and apply the credit to the phone reducing the amount of the easy pay payment? Or is it a gift card they send later?  For example say my wife wanted to trade for a new iPhone and they give $200 for her current one, would it be $649-$200=$449/24=$18.70?  Basically I want the phone credit to reduce the price of the new phone.

Once they get B41 going strong, I think they need to offer a one time early upgrade to a B41 phone for subs that don't have them yet.  With the iPhone 6 supporting B41 that would be a great chance to start getting folks on a better experience.  There needs to be a priority to get folks on hardware that takes advantage of the new network and make it as painless as possible.  But only when it is substantially ready. 

It sounds more like you can use the GoGo Equipped Wifi to send/receive SMS/MMS in-flight if you're on a TMO device.

 

The Wifi calling is pretty great, though. I get little to no reception in parts of my office, so i have a lot of calls go right to voicemail. We have a personal device wifi network, so if I had the ability to make & take calls, that'd be huge.

You are correct about the GoGo being only text/MMS, overlooked that.

Gotta admit, I would like to have these offerings.

http://bgr.com/2014/09/10/t-mobile-wifi-unleashed-announcement/

The WiFi Calling and InFlight WiFi is great.

Has there been any mention of off contract pricing yet?  Wife is going to want this.

http://bgr.com/2014/08/28/4-7-inch-iphone-6-price/

This will be interesting if true.  Raising prices at a time carriers are trying to move people off subsidies could blow up in Apple's face.  There will always be the crowd that buys anything Apple at any price, but as it becomes easier to compare actual phone prices, how many folks will think twice if they see a $700+ price tag?

I use Apple products but my current mobile device is a Nexus 5. No way the iPhone is $400+ better.  Phone prices should be going down, not up. 

Good to see Sprint do some bragging.  Need to shed that loser mentality.

Just a hunch but I am guessing Softbank/Sprint does not make acquisition decisions based on a thread on a message board.  I am sure they look at all possible acquisition targets and if everything makes sense (synergies, financials, regulatory issues, ect) they will pull the trigger.  

Sprint's $60 is still better value to me. 

http://bgr.com/2014/08/25/t-mobile-vs-sprint-price-war/

Agree.  I would like to see Sprint add some tiered individual options.  I could see sprint offering a $45 2GB plan.  Getting your data cut off is not very uncarrier though.  Sprint would get roasted by the blogs if they tried that.