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Sprint Intros $60 Unlimited Plan with Hardware Hitch

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glad for one thing

Jellz

Aug 21, 2014, 3:24 PM
Phone subsidies are going the way of the dinosaur. No more free phones. Of course, this could be called a marketing trick: "Our plan is $X" but then you pay $650 for that shiny iPhone you want.
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Shakezula84

Aug 21, 2014, 3:55 PM
As a phone salesman I am glad contracts are going away. I just wish we would finally just drop it all together. On the new family share plans it makes no sense to not do easy pay instead of contract. Just not when compared to the old contract plans sometimes.
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keitaj

Aug 24, 2014, 7:46 PM
Shakezula84 said:
As a phone salesman I am glad contracts are going away. I just wish we would finally just drop it all together. On the new family share plans it makes no sense to not do easy pay instead of contract. Just not when compared to the old contract plans sometimes.

As a consumer, I find it hard to believe the costs of subsidies was wholly responsible for the rationing of data over the last few years...

Like every other industry, cellular providers have now decided to bleed us dry through the magic of financing, rather than incentivizing...
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T Bone

Aug 24, 2014, 11:14 PM
The real reason for the end of the cell phone subsidy, and contracts, is that phones have gotten really expensive over the last few years, and consumers have gotten whiner and whiner, demanding more and more free phones.


Carriers are getting sick of giving someone a $700 phone for $50 and then watch them walk away after 6 months, leaving them holding the bag, losing hundreds of dollar, often even getting a waiver of the ETF as well, essentially getting the phone for nothing. And carriers are sick of customers demanding hundreds of dollars in credits they don't deserve, and demanding free phones every year.

When I worked for at&t, we gave away phones like they were candy, I probably gave away at least 3-4 phones every day, usu...
(continues)
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DarkStar

Aug 25, 2014, 9:26 AM
Isn't it still the same way. You can get a financing plan and then after 6 months just walk away leaving the carrier holding the bag still.
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haggard2.0

Aug 25, 2014, 11:24 AM
All costs will become due immediately if you cancel service 6 months in. If you don't pay it, it will hurt the customer more (credit wise) than it will hurt the carrier. Also, that device becomes a paperweight until it's been paid off. It cannot be activated on another account until all fees are cleared.
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DarkStar

Aug 25, 2014, 11:42 AM
So the exact same thing with a contract. Except that its an ETF fee rather than the rest of the phone. And it hurts your credit if you don't pay it off. And you can't use the phone until its paid off.
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thebriang

Aug 25, 2014, 1:00 PM
How would they stop you from using the phone? There is no mechanism in place to stop you from using the phone with someone else, an unpaid bill doesn't put the device on the lost or stolen list, which is the only intercarrier notification system. They have no way of stopping you from using it with someone else once its unlocked or prolly even locked with an MVNO. They dont care if you pay for the phone or not, if not they ding your credit, and the carrier will write off the loss of the handset and admin fees and then sell the debt to the collection agency, who will add to that amount owed, and if its not paid they just write that off as well. They often make more moeny on a write off than a completed sale.
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DarkStar

Aug 25, 2014, 1:09 PM
Actually they do put the phone on the lost and stolen list. And most phones are locked to that carrier.
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T Bone

Aug 26, 2014, 11:38 AM
Well truthfully, if you got a phone without paying for it, and without fulfilling the contract obligation, then as far as I'm concerned it basically is stolen.
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haggard2.0

Aug 26, 2014, 9:49 AM
The ESN for starters will be blacklisted. You don't know Sprints unlocking policy. Most devices aren't able to be unlocked period, and Sprint is working to change that in 2015 so any phones purchased before they change the policy won't be able to be unlocked for use on another carrier in the states. That doesn't change the fact that if the phone is bought through Easy Pay and the balance isn't paid off, Sprint won't do anything to help you unlock that phone until it's paid off. Sprint won't take an additional loss and send it to collection and forget the device, it's still their property until it's been paid for and they can do what they want with it.
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T Bone

Aug 25, 2014, 11:37 PM
1. The ETF is significantly lower than the cost of the phone, if a customer gets a $700 phone for $50, and then the customer pays and $350 ETF,then the carrier is still out nearly $400.

Moreover, in my experience, ETF's are almost always waived. Few people ever really pay it.
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DarkStar

Aug 25, 2014, 9:28 AM
Subsidies never had anything to do with the rationing of data. It has to do with how many people share a cell tower at a time and how much of a backbone the carrier has to that tower. The more people on a cell tower the less amount of bandwidth everyone has. That is why T-mobile and Sprint can still have unlimited data. Their customers hardly have to share with anybody else. That is why I don't understand why people try and talk up T-mobile and Sprint. The less customers on the network the more internet speeds you get.
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DarkStar

Aug 25, 2014, 9:29 AM
Are financing plans the exact same thing as contracts?
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Brad K

Aug 25, 2014, 2:14 PM
For the customer, basically yes. For the carrier, in a legal sense, it is easier to go after a customer for the balance on a financed phone than it is for the balance of the plan with an ETF.
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DarkStar

Aug 25, 2014, 2:17 PM
In a legal sense they would go after the customer the exact same way. And wouldn't a signed contract be even more legally binding?
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