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So my Tmobile bill has been $150 ever since I bought it back in Aug 2011. When I signed the contract they told me it would be $70 per month, + $15 starting in Oct, and + $25 incl my wireless broadband. That totals $110, and somehow, they have managed to tack on an additional $40 EVERY MONTH since I bought the damn thing! Not one month since I bought the phone has my bill even been close to $110. So last month, again, I called at payment time, and they said there was a $10 charge on my account because they added a feature to my phone monthly, that I did not ask for. They removed it and said they would credit toward my account on my next bill.
So heres the thing, this month I hear about this prepaid $50 per month plan! Thats all I have to pay and I get unlimited-- everything is the same! To get that plan though I have to pay $200 to get out of my current contract, and STILL pay my $50 for the first month!
So after I have been practically robbed ever since I joined Tmobile, now they want me to pay $250 for a plan that they should have offered me in the very beginning!
Is there any loop holes here that I can get out of this contract and switch plans without paying $200??? Your answers are very much appreciated, my bill is due 2 days from now.
Call and threaten to cancel
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Call BBB
Sent by accident from my Amaze using Tapatalk
I don't understand. What do you mean "threaten to cancel"? I actually have told them I was going to cancel for previous issues. I spoke to a manager and she was very rude to me, and told me "fine cancel that will cost you $200". Also what is BBB?
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BBB= the Better Business Bureau
Keep in mind that if you signed up for the $50 plan initially, you would have paid a lot more for the phone. The pre-paids and value plans don't provide a phone subsidy.
You should be able to switch to a number of different plans of the "classic " type without paying a fee, but not the value or pre-paid type.
But there does seem to be something odd going on. I can honestly say that I've never had any problem or even rudeness from a T-Mo rep. Although I understand things changed somewhat during the ATT debacle.
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Find out the lemon law for cell phones in your state. In Illinois, if we do 3 or more exchanges on our cell phones, we can break the contract for free and legally.
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/23444.php
The Illinois House has passed a "cellphone lemon law" which would enable consumers to break their contract without financial penalty, if their handset develops a fault on three or more occasions.
I had replaced my Amaze about 5 times within 3 weeks because of blue lines in my LCD. You can just tell them you have blue lines in it over and over until you get a third or fourth replacement, then threaten to break your contract and you won't have to pay an ETF (Cancellation Fee)
This is my 2nd replacement. I had to get a new MyTouch 4G, and then they replaced that with the Amaze. That only counts as 2?
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Okay, let's start with the not being close to $110... Have you been dinged for roaming on AT&T's network perhaps? And did you factor in state sales tax? And those unwanted features, yeah. That's them screwing you.
But the moving down to the lower 50/month price plan? That's a rate for people that have bought their phone outright instead of getting the $300 or so subsidy on the device in exchange for 2 years service. Honestly, while I hate contracts, I think they have every right to charge you 200 bucks to recoup the cost of the subsidy. You can cancel your extra features to drop down to 70 a month. But that's the minimum eligible rate you agreed to for the subsidy that you received when purchasing your device.
Accophox said:
Okay, let's start with the not being close to $110... Have you been dinged for roaming on AT&T's network perhaps? And did you factor in state sales tax? And those unwanted features, yeah. That's them screwing you.
But the moving down to the lower 50/month price plan? That's a rate for people that have bought their phone outright instead of getting the $300 or so subsidy on the device in exchange for 2 years service. Honestly, while I hate contracts, I think they have every right to charge you 200 bucks to recoup the cost of the subsidy. You can cancel your extra features to drop down to 70 a month. But that's the minimum eligible rate you agreed to for the subsidy that you received when purchasing your device.
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Ok, heres how it went down at the sale. I went into Tmobile as a new customer. At that time they told me only the prepaid plan of $50 was available to customers who had been on the plan for already a full 2 year contract. $70 I thought no biggie, and then tack on a $25 charge per month for my Internet, and then $15 after that for the phone. Cool I can deal with that. My first bill $150, oh well we had to pay to start your plan. My 2nd bill, Oh we had to charge you for this fee (I dont remember anymore). Literally every month I have called to complain and it was always a new excuse. A couple months was legitimate because I ordered an $8 battery, and it was another $5 for something else that same month. But that was only one out of 6 months. And every month seems to be something new. Last month was the first month they said "well we added this $10 feature. It sends you news updates, and blablabla.." Wtf, I never ordered that. They removed it. I never was asked and they still charged me $150 last month.
Yeah they were very very rude to me. I called because I had a very important text message that would not switch from the old MyTouch to the new MyTouch. And this text message was incriminating evidence on someone who had robbed me. I called maybe 2x previously I think and they were not able to help me. I went into the Tmobile store on 2 separate occasions and they were not able to help me. I wanted to talk to a manager to get better assistence because this just wasnt making sense. I heard I could transfer my text messages, all the other text messages, but this text message which turned out to be an MMS, would not transfer!
She told me they had tried to help me, and there was nothing she could do, and she didnt even let me reply before she said have a nice day. (How the conversation went exactly I dont remember) but it was rude. I called the Tmobile Corp office and she said the same thing and said there was no one she could transfer me to, and basically hung up on me.
Literally all I needed to do was send the text messages to my Gmail account. All the messages sent. I sent in my old phone. It was that easy. She wouldnt give me the time of day and that was really a point to me that discouraged me from liking them. Besides the $40 over charge per month, besides I had trouble with their phones from the very first month I had one, besides I would be on the phone with customer service we would get disconnected and they didnt call me back, having to wait on hold again, once over an hour on hold.
So I really hated tmobile for while, but with the $50 prepaid plan I will just take it. I was going to switch though as soon as I could if my $150 was not going to stop. $40 doesnt seem like alot but when you are counting on that money every month, that seriously is just about half my groceries for the month if not all of it for some. I never crossed with any AT&T coverage. That was never an issue.
If you want, PM me your # and I will call you from work and go over everything on your plan and either explain or fix it.
BTW the $60 prepaid is the equivalent plan to yours,not the $50
What I am not getting is where you say you have a $70 plan and $25 for web, is that a hotspot? web for your phone?
Just PM me, Im not rude
What you guys think? Did Google just ...... all the carrier's?
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samomamo said:
What you guys think? Did Google just ...... all the carrier's?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda premium
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Not really. People will still need data plans. At most, Google might be snatching the small percentage of people who don't mind paying more for an unlocked device rather than the majority who tend to buy subsidized devices on contract.
Well If you go to a carrier with a phone that is yours outright. They cannot make you sign up for a data plan.
If you brought an unlocked Iphone to Tmobile, they have no reason to charge you for a monthly data plan..
However if you decide to use it with out a plan the price would be costly..
but you can just use Wifi..
that is how I had my Iphone working a few years ago on the tmobile service..
I never had any issues.
You get a cheaper phone through them. how ever they make up the money in the data plan.
So Google did sorta screw the carriers..
Actually the customer gets screwed and the carriers benefit. If you buy a $200 phone, you pay $100 a month for a data plan. It's $100 a month because instead of paying full retail for the phone, you are paying a little bit of it each month via your plan. So roughly $10-$15 of your bill each month is covering the cost of the phone.
The problem with buying an unlocked phone from someone else, is that the carriers don't discount the price of the monthly plan for you. So you still pay $100 a month, but you paid $400 for the device instead of $200. So you've been screwed $200 basically.
Now from the carriers perspective, they love this. Instead of taking $10-15 a month to recoup what they lost on the phone, they charge you that money anyway and it's pure profit.
When the original iPhone was released it was unsubsidized and people laughed at the $600 price. But, for $20 a month you got unlimited data and texting. so yes you paid more upfront, but your bill was $20 a month less than a comparable subsidized phone. So over the course of 2 years it was a good deal.
Unfortunately, I don't know of any carriers that will discount the monthly plan when you bring your own phone.
EvoXOhio said:
Actually the customer gets screwed and the carriers benefit. If you buy a $200 phone, you pay $100 a month for a data plan. It's $100 a month because instead of paying full retail for the phone, you are paying a little bit of it each month via your plan. So roughly $10-$15 of your bill each month is covering the cost of the phone.
The problem with buying an unlocked phone from someone else, is that the carriers don't discount the price of the monthly plan for you. So you still pay $100 a month, but you paid $400 for the device instead of $200. So you've been screwed $200 basically.
Now from the carriers perspective, they love this. Instead of taking $10-15 a month to recoup what they lost on the phone, they charge you that money anyway and it's pure profit.
When the original iPhone was released it was unsubsidized and people laughed at the $600 price. But, for $20 a month you got unlimited data and texting. so yes you paid more upfront, but your bill was $20 a month less than a comparable subsidized phone. So over the course of 2 years it was a good deal.
Unfortunately, I don't know of any carriers that will discount the monthly plan when you bring your own phone.[
Or the customers could just be smart and get a monthly 4g without a contract...(T-mobile)
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EvoXOhio said:
Actually the customer gets screwed and the carriers benefit. If you buy a $200 phone, you pay $100 a month for a data plan. It's $100 a month because instead of paying full retail for the phone, you are paying a little bit of it each month via your plan. So roughly $10-$15 of your bill each month is covering the cost of the phone.
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Realy?! My data plan is $30/month 6gigs regardless of the phone I use. If I get a new phone from them ,on say a 3 yr contract, I don't have to get a new plan. How does what you say make any sense?
If i was to change carriers (why would you unless you are cconstantly moving?) every time I got a new phone and was always getting a new contract to reduce the purchase price of the phone, then yes, the price of the plan would probably be higher to subsidise the cost of the phone.
Iphony89 said:
Actually the customer gets screwed and the carriers benefit. If you buy a $200 phone, you pay $100 a month for a data plan. It's $100 a month because instead of paying full retail for the phone, you are paying a little bit of it each month via your plan. So roughly $10-$15 of your bill each month is covering the cost of the phone.
The problem with buying an unlocked phone from someone else, is that the carriers don't discount the price of the monthly plan for you. So you still pay $100 a month, but you paid $400 for the device instead of $200. So you've been screwed $200 basically.
Now from the carriers perspective, they love this. Instead of taking $10-15 a month to recoup what they lost on the phone, they charge you that money anyway and it's pure profit.
When the original iPhone was released it was unsubsidized and people laughed at the $600 price. But, for $20 a month you got unlimited data and texting. so yes you paid more upfront, but your bill was $20 a month less than a comparable subsidized phone. So over the course of 2 years it was a good deal.
Unfortunately, I don't know of any carriers that will discount the monthly plan when you bring your own phone.[
Or the customers could just be smart and get a monthly 4g without a contract...(T-mobile)
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You're missing the point. The monthly 4G plans are the same price as the contract plans, at least last time I checked. I looked at buying the international Galaxy Nexus when it first came out and putting it on T-Mobile and that is what I discovered.
---------- Post added at 09:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:20 PM ----------
sprecker said:
Realy?! My data plan is $30/month 6gigs regardless of the phone I use. If I get a new phone from them ,on say a 3 yr contract, I don't have to get a new plan. How does what you say make any sense?
If i was to change carriers (why would you unless you are cconstantly moving?) every time I got a new phone and was always getting a new contract to reduce the purchase price of the phone, then yes, the price of the plan would probably be higher to subsidise the cost of the phone.
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You're misunderstanding what I said. You pay right now $30/month for your data plan (in my example I chose $100 to represent minutes, data, and texts as an example). If you were to buy an unlocked Galaxy Nexus right now and put it on your plan, you'd still pay $30 a month, but you'd be out $400 for the phone. However, if you are due for an upgrade, you can could get a phone for $200 (subsidized) and still pay $30 a month.
In both cases you are paying $30 a month, but in the former you are paying more for your phone. The only advantage to buying the unlocked phones is not being stuck in your contract if you hate the service.
But my point was that US carriers base their monthly rates on the fact that they have subsidized your phone. When you bring your own non-subsidized phone, they don't discount the phone accordingly. So you end up paying more and they ending up making more money.
Doesn't T-Mobile have lower monthly plans when you use your own phone or buy one at full price?
Most people would want a data plan on their smart phone. So its cheaper to get it on contract since they require smartphones to have a data plan regardless of where you bought it. Data plans are not cheaper if you brought your own, its the same. The only good thing about buying a phone off contract is you can jump to another carrier without ETF. IMO, the only.phones I would buy off contracts would be unlocked international ones.
-Once you go NOTE, you'd say 4 inches a Joke
captivated said:
Doesn't T-Mobile have lower monthly plans when you use your own phone or buy one at full price?
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Not when I last checked.
http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/Packages/ValuePackages.aspx
I didn't read up on it, I'm going by the first few sentences at the top. I have a few friends that use this plan.
Since this phone is not carrier specific, does that mean you can use it with AT&T using the $15 unlimited data plan?
captivated said:
http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/Packages/ValuePackages.aspx
I didn't read up on it, I'm going by the first few sentences at the top. I have a few friends that use this plan.
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That must be new, when I looked into it a few months back it was not an option. Or else I had an uninformed sales rep at the time.
---------- Post added at 10:05 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:04 AM ----------
silvscorp said:
Since this phone is not carrier specific, does that mean you can use it with AT&T using the $15 unlimited data plan?
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I'm not aware of that plan, where do you see it?
EvoXOhio said:
That must be new, when I looked into it a few months back it was not an option. Or else I had an uninformed sales rep at the time.
---------- Post added at 10:05 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:04 AM ----------
I'm not aware of that plan, where do you see it?
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I am referring to the unlimited data plan for "non-smartphone" from AT&T. As long as you are using a phone that's not sold by AT&T then they won't recognize IMEI and treat it as "non-smartphone".
For the samsung galaxy, AT&T has its own branded one and there is also a "world" version which also supports AT&T 3g band but AT&T don't recognize it. I assume the this is the same with this phone sold directly by google?
samomamo said:
What you guys think? Did Google just ...... all the carrier's?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda premium
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GNexus doesn't do LTE does it?
jpg71 said:
GNexus doesn't do LTE does it?
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The GSM version does not.
Has anyone switched to the new Framily plans? It seems like a decent value, but I'd like to hear from someone that has seen the expected bill.
The wife and I have a plan a few years old - 1500 min + unlimited mobile calling + unlimited text and data. We do have a discount on the account (for several years now), but the discount is only applied to the primary line ($110 * 20% = 22 credit) and not the Add-a-line. After taxes, fees and insurance our bill is about $170 a month.
The Framily plans information indicates $70 per line (for two phones + unlimited data). I am wondering if their accounting scheme would remain the same, so that they only apply the discount to the primary line (thus a $10 credit) rather than to both.
I rather expect that those who switch to the new plan scheme will not be able to view the new accounting changes until after Feb 10th, but I thought I would float this thread until someone with info pops up.
Or if there is a secret Sprint insider that could fill us in, that would be good too.
Also, I'm curious about the new annual upgrade scheme, but I don't think that enough information is out there.
Thanks for the feedback peeps.
Update: I saw that some are posting their Framily codes on other threads. This seems like it can only help you, especially if you are a two-person bill, like myself. There is a place on Sprint's Framily website to check the discount rate of the Framily ID.
If you are willing to share your Framily ID, I encourage you to post it below, along with the number of people currently in your group.
Update 2: I got responses from @sprintCare regarding NVP discounts and the Framily plans, confirming what AFSOC_Commando said: NVP discounts only apply to the data plan on a Framily account.
I also confirmed that only 1 NVP discount per account, and they are treating the Framily ID as the account. Therefore if my wife and I are on one bill, I get the discount, she does not. Take this into consideration when it comes to upgrade time.
So You're at $140.00 before taxes and fees? Aren't you paying 129.00 before taxes and fees now?
Dredz said:
So You're at $140.00 before taxes and fees? Aren't you paying 129.00 before taxes and fees now?
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I neglected to specify the things that would not change if I altered my plan [TEP+Repair] nor did I include the $10 per line premium data fee. I don't think it can hurt to post this image, but maybe it will help someone else to choose an optimum plan. By treating secondary [tertiary] lines as add-ons Sprint justifies not applying the corporate discount.
Before taxes I'd say I'm about $150 including insurance.
On the Framily plans I estimate that I would end up paying maybe $2 more a month
Personally, based on what I see, I don't see an advantage changing your plan unless you're forced to. I have a very similar plan except I don't opt-in for the TEP/repair cost. And not to hijack your thread, but when was the last time you actually used the TEP/repair service? You'll save about $260+ ever year, that's like a new phone in savings. And if your phone happens to break (not obvious abuse e.g. cracked screen) Sprint would replace it for $50 without insurance. (I did this with my wife's phone when her S3 was acting up). Anywho, I think it's great that you bring this up as I'm in the same situation and my upgrade is coming up next month so I might want to change plans if their is an advantage (which I can't readily see). I'll keep an eye on this thread
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puhiniho said:
Personally, based on what I see, I don't see an advantage changing your plan unless you're forced to. I have a very similar plan except I don't opt-in for the TEP/repair cost. And not to hijack your thread, but when was the last time you actually used the TEP/repair service? You'll save about $260+ ever year, that's like a new phone in savings. And if your phone happens to break (not obvious abuse e.g. cracked screen) Sprint would replace it for $50 without insurance. (I did this with my wife's phone when her S3 was acting up). Anywho, I think it's great that you bring this up as I'm in the same situation and my upgrade is coming up next month so I might want to change plans if their is an advantage (which I can't readily see). I'll keep an eye on this thread
Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2
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Oh, hijack all you want. I've replaced my EVO LTE twice, the EVO 4G once, the Touch Pro was replaced with the TouchPro2 - which was cool at the time - and that was shortly after I enrolled in TEP. My wife has replaced her EVO LTE once, and maybe her EVO before that. So we've gotten a value out of it, but I know that they are soaking us, it's really ridiculous.
I don't think that there is much chance of us Framily saving us much money, but I think I would like to be locked in to the annual upgrade perk before they do away with it again.
I called today about the Framily plan as I'm out of contract right now. I was under the impression that the framily plan acted just like the web-site seems to lay it out...55 for me, 50 for the next person, 45 for third....so on and so on. It sounded pretty good since, once you're enrolled, you get a group id that you can give to people and when they sign up, they join your group.
So, here's what I actually found out when I called *2 and talked to a rep...
First off, there's no contracts, so you can have people join and leave at any time. However, when someone joins, it can take up to 2 months for the billing to be adjusted to show your "multiple people group savings". So basically, if two people join in January (they should be at $50/mth) but you might not see the savings until March. When person 3 joins in March, you might not see the additional savings until May/June. If one person drops, everyone's bill will increase to account for that loss of a person on the plan.
It's an additional $20/line for unlimited data.
Only people NOT currently in Sprint can join. When I brought up that the website says there's options to allow others in Sprint to join, the rep said that there have to be certain circumstances, which after going round and round, basically mean that whoever joins your group needs to be out of contract. If they're not, they'll have to pay an additional fee (a pro-rated fee??) based on the cost of their device.
There's no phones or upgrades or discounts or anything else when you go to the framily plans. If you want a new phone, you have to pay full retail price for it or you can do a 24 monthly payment for said new phone. Also, when you want to purchase a new phone, there's a deposit that must be paid in addition to the 24 monthly payments, which include monthly tax on the full cost of the device. I asked for an example, supposing I wanted the new S5 when/if it ever comes out at a price of $500. So my monthly bill would be 55/mth service (1 person) + 20/unlim data + 25 (500 phone charge + 45 in taxes divided by 24 months) plus an UndeterminedDeposit for switching to a new phone and a 15 upgrade fee. If you leave the framily plan, you owe a fully payment for rest of retail cost of phone.
Personally, it's not worth it for me. I want a new phone, and I have the two year discount to use. If I were to switch to the framily plan, I'd lose that discount, and most of the people I know that would join are in areas where sprint is piss-poor, or they're jumping ship for Tmobile. The rep I was talking to said that I could probably use my two year discount for a new phone THEN switch over to the framily plan. Trouble with that is that if after two years I'm still on it, and want to change phones, it'll be a heavy cost.
BTW - I was on the 450min+unlimited everything else plan which doesn't exist any more. So the rep moved me to the Unlimited minutes + Unlimited4LifeData for $80/mth (change to my bill was .01¢ increase). Didn't extend, didn't change contract, etc...just gave me unlimited minutes for a penny more per month.
sindawe said:
I called today about the Framily plan as I'm out of contract right now. I was under the impression that the framily plan acted just like the web-site seems to lay it out...55 for me, 50 for the next person, 45 for third....so on and so on. It sounded pretty good since, once you're enrolled, you get a group id that you can give to people and when they sign up, they join your group.
So, here's what I actually found out when I called *2 and talked to a rep...
First off, there's no contracts, so you can have people join and leave at any time. However, when someone joins, it can take up to 2 months for the billing to be adjusted to show your "multiple people group savings". So basically, if two people join in January (they should be at $50/mth) but you might not see the savings until March. When person 3 joins in March, you might not see the additional savings until May/June. If one person drops, everyone's bill will increase to account for that loss of a person on the plan.
It's an additional $20/line for unlimited data.
Only people NOT currently in Sprint can join. When I brought up that the website says there's options to allow others in Sprint to join, the rep said that there have to be certain circumstances, which after going round and round, basically mean that whoever joins your group needs to be out of contract. If they're not, they'll have to pay an additional fee (a pro-rated fee??) based on the cost of their device.
There's no phones or upgrades or discounts or anything else when you go to the framily plans. If you want a new phone, you have to pay full retail price for it or you can do a 24 monthly payment for said new phone. Also, when you want to purchase a new phone, there's a deposit that must be paid in addition to the 24 monthly payments, which include monthly tax on the full cost of the device. I asked for an example, supposing I wanted the new S5 when/if it ever comes out at a price of $500. So my monthly bill would be 55/mth service (1 person) + 20/unlim data + 25 (500 phone charge + 45 in taxes divided by 24 months) plus an UndeterminedDeposit for switching to a new phone and a 15 upgrade fee. If you leave the framily plan, you owe a fully payment for rest of retail cost of phone.
Personally, it's not worth it for me. I want a new phone, and I have the two year discount to use. If I were to switch to the framily plan, I'd lose that discount, and most of the people I know that would join are in areas where sprint is piss-poor, or they're jumping ship for Tmobile. The rep I was talking to said that I could probably use my two year discount for a new phone THEN switch over to the framily plan. Trouble with that is that if after two years I'm still on it, and want to change phones, it'll be a heavy cost.
BTW - I was on the 450min+unlimited everything else plan which doesn't exist any more. So the rep moved me to the Unlimited minutes + Unlimited4LifeData for $80/mth (change to my bill was .01¢ increase). Didn't extend, didn't change contract, etc...just gave me unlimited minutes for a penny more per month.
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Careful with this part. If I read it right, if you do that (get a new phone using your upgrade, which would put you into a 2yr contract), and THEN switch, I think they will charge you an additional 15/mo since you are on contract, for a max of 12 months, additional 180$ (15$ *12mo)
sindawe said:
I called today about the Framily plan as I'm out of contract right now. I was under the impression that the framily plan acted just like the web-site seems to lay it out...55 for me, 50 for the next person, 45 for third....so on and so on. It sounded pretty good since, once you're enrolled, you get a group id that you can give to people and when they sign up, they join your group.
So, here's what I actually found out when I called *2 and talked to a rep...
First off, there's no contracts, so you can have people join and leave at any time. However, when someone joins, it can take up to 2 months for the billing to be adjusted to show your "multiple people group savings". So basically, if two people join in January (they should be at $50/mth) but you might not see the savings until March. When person 3 joins in March, you might not see the additional savings until May/June. If one person drops, everyone's bill will increase to account for that loss of a person on the plan.
It's an additional $20/line for unlimited data.
Only people NOT currently in Sprint can join. When I brought up that the website says there's options to allow others in Sprint to join, the rep said that there have to be certain circumstances, which after going round and round, basically mean that whoever joins your group needs to be out of contract. If they're not, they'll have to pay an additional fee (a pro-rated fee??) based on the cost of their device.
There's no phones or upgrades or discounts or anything else when you go to the framily plans. If you want a new phone, you have to pay full retail price for it or you can do a 24 monthly payment for said new phone. Also, when you want to purchase a new phone, there's a deposit that must be paid in addition to the 24 monthly payments, which include monthly tax on the full cost of the device. I asked for an example, supposing I wanted the new S5 when/if it ever comes out at a price of $500. So my monthly bill would be 55/mth service (1 person) + 20/unlim data + 25 (500 phone charge + 45 in taxes divided by 24 months) plus an UndeterminedDeposit for switching to a new phone and a 15 upgrade fee. If you leave the framily plan, you owe a fully payment for rest of retail cost of phone.
Personally, it's not worth it for me. I want a new phone, and I have the two year discount to use. If I were to switch to the framily plan, I'd lose that discount, and most of the people I know that would join are in areas where sprint is piss-poor, or they're jumping ship for Tmobile. The rep I was talking to said that I could probably use my two year discount for a new phone THEN switch over to the framily plan. Trouble with that is that if after two years I'm still on it, and want to change phones, it'll be a heavy cost.
BTW - I was on the 450min+unlimited everything else plan which doesn't exist any more. So the rep moved me to the Unlimited minutes + Unlimited4LifeData for $80/mth (change to my bill was .01¢ increase). Didn't extend, didn't change contract, etc...just gave me unlimited minutes for a penny more per month.
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Based on what you describe it seems like I'd better stay in the boat that I'm comfortable in. I didn't realize that they would no longer subsidize the cost of the phone. If the new HTC One 2014 is $650, and my wife and I both got one, then we would end up paying an additional $27/month each on top of the Framily plan. That sounds an awful lot like a $225/month arrangement, and that sucks.
Yeah so I'll keep my existing plan probably.
Thanks for the input.
I actually just went through this yesterday I upgraded to the note 3 through easy pay and was switched to the framily plan the advantage of the framily plan is dependent on how many people you have on a line it goes down 5 dollar increments every person you add starting at 55 dollars plus 10 for 3 gig of data or 20 for unlimited the lowest you can pay is 20 dollars per line plus data if you have 5 people which is a GREAT deal BUT if your like me with only 1-2 people then there is not point in changing and if you have a discount it's is now applied to the data plan rather than the whole plan so you get less taken off HOWEVER this is such a new plan there is MASS confusion among sprint everyone will tell you something different I actually upgraded with easy pay switched to framily in the store and then called customer service and switched back to my everything data 450 that I was grandfathered into since 2009 some will say you can switch it and some will say you can't depends who you talk to*
Sent from my SM-N900P using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Yeah. I agree that there's a lot of confusion about it. It does seem like it is only really worth it if you either don't want to upgrade phones with a discount OR you have a lot of ppl to join right off.
Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk
sindawe said:
Yeah. I agree that there's a lot of confusion about it. It does seem like it is only really worth it if you either don't want to upgrade phones with a discount OR you have a lot of ppl to join right off.
Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk
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I converted my current contract to a FRAMILY and went from $151 a month after taxes to $130 since I have 2 lines and only kept mine on unlimited data. Wife uses under 500MB a month.
I then posted my Framily code and last 4 of my number on Fatwallet, Slickdeals and Framilycodes.com and had 10 people under my account within 12 hours and now have a bill of $70 per month plus taxes.
You can locate Framily codes on Ebay and craigslist as well for free.
I am expecting most people to stay for at least 2 years due to the fact that most people will finance their new equipment for 2 years and must pay it off immediately if they cancel service. Sort of an ETF if you will. I expect more service to go this route. All your MNVO's and T-Mobile use this model of paying for your own equipment non subsidized like the rest of the globe.
If you must swap phones regularly then you could swap every 6 months if you desire and recover some of your phone value on Swappa and buy your next device. The math does come out cheaper for many people.
I got this response from @sprintCare on twitter:
If you currently receive an NVP discount of any kind, if you convert to Framily that discount only applies to data.
Previously, on one NVP discount could be applied to a shared account. Since they are now discounting only the data of the user that gets the discount I have asked if each Framily user could apply an NVP discount. When they respond I will update this thread.
Another update from @sprintCare
SPRINT FRAMILY ID F00193227hd friends and family id code save $ - $45 (ANYWHERE)
go to the sprint website
sprint.com/framily and click on framily, enter my ALL LOWER CASE
F00193227hd or call sprint for more details 1-888-211-4727
Everyone has a seperate account and get their own bill, only thing we share and enjoy is the discount.
here is my Framily ID if anyone is looking to join. We have few more spots left so just call in and give them this id. You don't need any other info just the framily id. By Friday I will have 5 lines on this plan. ALL LOWER CASE
F00193227hd
The pricing tiers are as follows
1 People in my group $55 Per month per phone
2 People in my group $50 Per month per phone
3 People in my group $45 Per month per phone
4 People in my group $40 Per month per phone
5 People in my group $35 Per month per phone
6 People in my group $30 Per month per phone
7-10 or more People in your group $25 Per month per phone
F00193227hd
you can also reach me via Google hangouts windst.88
Sprint Customer for 4+ years
Framily ID# L00291411xv
My number : 925-354-4555
Name: Frank
Will be trying to save 4 spots for my co workers family. Currently just me and my wife on the Framily plan. Get your spot now.
Hey! My sprint framily code is L00099258oy Use this code to reduce your monthly bill!! There are 8 spots opened
Framily
I tried yesterday and only had the Framily ID. This was via chat and they wanted the primarys phone number to attempt and give me a quote. Please contact me if you would like an extra draw on your framily and I will try again.
My framily ID is n00678551Wc. I have 2 lines now, and my in-laws are supposed to go next week. Also, I am posting in other forums, hopefully we can save some money and be down to 25/month within a few days!
4 lines, need at least 3 more for $25 month
4 lines, need at least 3 more for $25 month
Framily plan id E00767761Gk (those are zeros and lower case k) Last 4 numbers of phone number is 7088. Have four lines on it, just signed up today. 6 lines left, let me know if you sign up so I can update it here. Thanks!
Sprint plan ID
I currently have 6 spots open on my Framily Plan
plan ID# I00765014kQ
the first letter is a capital "I" last 2 are lower case k and capital Q. The rest are numbers.
Not sure if anyone really cares or not but I just knocked $105 off my AT&T Family plan bill with their new Mobile Share Value Plans.
I'm not a sales agent for AT&T, I'm just letting my fellow XDA users know.
https://www.att.com/shop/wireless/data-plans.html#fbid=K-dU-76XrWB
This is a real deal if you have a large family plan like i do with 5 lines and all smartphones. I was able to lower my bill to $192 a month from $306 the previous month with one phone call. And even better we are getting 10gigs a month now vs the 6gigs i was on.
I know I'm going to take some heat for spamming the board but if one person saves some money I'll be happy
ok flame away
Not sure if its worth giving up an unlimited data plan for this plan.
Ya, I saw those plans, heck, it's even worth it for just 2 lines and 10Gig, $100+$15+$15=$130. I am paying 70 for my single line and only 2gig of data. I know, everyone will tell me to go to a prepay, but I HAVE to have the microcell so I am stuck.
lemonz23 said:
Not sure if its worth giving up an unlimited data plan for this plan.
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yeah .. unfortunately we lost are unlimited plans back in 2009 when we all got iPhone's
clsA said:
yeah .. unfortunately we lost are unlimited plans back in 2009 when we all got iPhone's
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Unl plans are caped at 3 GB... Then u get the slowest speed...
10 GB = $100 + 15 per device
15 GB = $130 + 15 per device
Completely worth it. Now if you do an upgrade after moving to the plan instead of paying 15 for that line you will pay 40... they are trying to cope somehow how T-Mobile works.
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app
I went ahead and jumped on this. I had to give up 1 unlimited (LTE) data plan, which was throttled after 5GBs anyway. I think it's worth it to save $90/month.
We went to the value plan. Only two lines, so no massive savings. Went to from 6 to 10 GB for $10 cheaper
I was under the impression that once you switched to one of these plans, you no longer would get subsidized phone upgrades. Correct? In other words, the next time you want to upgrade you basically are on the AT&T Next setup (full unsubsidized price of phone broken out over x payments)
chp said:
I was under the impression that once you switched to one of these plans, you no longer would get subsidized phone upgrades. Correct? In other words, the next time you want to upgrade you basically are on the AT&T Next setup (full unsubsidized price of phone broken out over x payments)
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This is correct. Also, if you have currently been in contract for 6 months, they will allow a switch to AT&T Next. I feel it will not be long before they completely go to this method, especially with T-Mobile and others doing much the same.
Ive held on to my 2 line unlimited everything plan for years, paying about $185 before taxes and fees. I think it makes sense to go for this new plan, which drops the price down to $150 while sharing 10gigs. i've only ever gone over 3gigs in a month two times.
codejunkie83 said:
This is correct. Also, if you have currently been in contract for 6 months, they will allow a switch to AT&T Next. I feel it will not be long before they completely go to this method, especially with T-Mobile and others doing much the same.
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Okay, so if that is the case, it seems like you will only save money if you do not intend to take advantage of subsidized upgrades in the future (assuming still available).
chp said:
Okay, so if that is the case, it seems like you will only save money if you do not intend to take advantage of subsidized upgrades in the future (assuming still available).
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From a purely monetary standpoint, yes - however, when you compare the data that you receive (10 GB vs 4/6GB), you are still saving money if you use that much data. But without taking advantage of the subsidized upgrades, you would most likely even out.
chp said:
I was under the impression that once you switched to one of these plans, you no longer would get subsidized phone upgrades. Correct? In other words, the next time you want to upgrade you basically are on the AT&T Next setup (full unsubsidized price of phone broken out over x payments)
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Do you remember where you heard this? It's the first I've heard about this aspect to the new plans, which means I may regret making the switch.
joshfalk said:
Do you remember where you heard this? It's the first I've heard about this aspect to the new plans, which means I may regret making the switch.
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My understanding from the AT&T rep (and my bill) is that each smartphone in the value plans are now $40 per month with a $25 monthly credit, so net $15.
If I upgrade using a Next plan, the $25 credit remains. (Next = a 0% interest loan to purchase the phone over 20 months.)
If I upgrade using a 2-year subsidy, the $25 credit is removed. (Making for a really expensive upgrade-- 24 * $25 + $200 up front = $800 for an iPhone 5S that I could purchase outright for $650.) Not that I'd purchase a 5S, but just an example of how an already overpriced phone just got even more expensive.
Basically, they really do not want people buying subsidized phones, and that's fine with me. I'd rather purchase the phone I want on my own timing and pay for it outright.
Up until the value plans it made sense to do 2-year upgrades because AT&T was already padding their rate plans with the subsidy cost, whether you upgraded or BYOP you paid for it.
Now, it makes more sense to just BYOP.
Yes you have to stay on the next plan, ability to get a new phone yearly or 18 months, to keep the $15/month. I also saved 50% on my phone bill.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
ronf1011 said:
Yes you have to stay on the next plan, ability to get a new phone yearly or 18 months, to keep the $15/month. I also saved 50% on my phone bill.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
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This is good news, I was worried that when i upgraded with NEXT it would go from $15 to $40. I guess I should have read into it a little more, but yeah, my family is saving close to $100 since we switched to the value plan.
Love this plan. Switched to it immediately.
The Next program is basically a phone leasing program. So if you pay $30/month for Next18, that $540 is gone when you trade in for the new one. It would be cheaper buying the phone out right then sell it when you wanted to get a new one.
HTCm7One said:
The Next program is basically a phone leasing program. So if you pay $30/month for Next18, that $540 is gone when you trade in for the new one. It would be cheaper buying the phone out right then sell it when you wanted to get a new one.
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+1 and you are still dealing with the bloat. Going unlocked from here on out. These value plans are nice. Thanks @t-mobile! ? and AT&T for falling in line..
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk
Upgrades?
I changed to the shared plan two months ago, losing my useless unlimited plan. I moved 5 phones. Two of them were eligible for upgrades at the time, but I was holding them for when I really wanted them. I need one now. I went to the ATT website and checked upgrade-ability. The two phones seem like they have subsidized plans available to them. I can also do the Next plan for any of my phones for the same price. So I can pay zero interest for 20 months, have no plan commitment, and pay in full for my daughter's new iphone over 20 months, or I can pay $199 for the phone, a one-time $36 upgrade fee, and commit for another two years of my shared plan. There is no change to the basic rate.
So I've been with Sprint for years. Currently have a unlimited data family plan with 2 lines and like 1000 or 1500 minutes and also get a 25% discount as my girlfriend who has the other line used to work at a company that gave us the discount.
I upgraded my EVO 4G to an EVO LTE 2 years ago at Best Buy and had no problem keeping my same plan with the discount by signing a new 2 year contract.
Question is will I be able to do the same if I upgrade through Best Buy or maybe another place? I don't want to be transferred to their new plans, lose my discount, or pay monthly for a new phone. Would rather pay the $200 or whatever upfront. Please provide me with as many details regarding this as possibe and thanks in advance.
Sent from my EVO using xda app-developers app
Starzboy77 said:
So I've been with Sprint for years. Currently have a unlimited data family plan with 2 lines and like 1000 or 1500 minutes and also get a 25% discount as my girlfriend who has the other line used to work at a company that gave us the discount.
I upgraded my EVO 4G to an EVO LTE 2 years ago at Best Buy and had no problem keeping my same plan with the discount by signing a new 2 year contract.
Question is will I be able to do the same if I upgrade through Best Buy or maybe another place? I don't want to be transferred to their new plans, lose my discount, or pay monthly for a new phone. Would rather pay the $200 or whatever upfront. Please provide me with as many details regarding this as possibe and thanks in advance.
Sent from my EVO using xda app-developers app
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you can keep your same plans, however they will do a check to see if you are still eligible for the employer discount. They will request to send an email to the @domain.com of the place she worked, and then click on the link in the email sent, to re-verify for the discount. If she has a friend still working at the company she have the email sent to them, they can forward it to her and she can simply click on the link. There is no other association or follow up to verify for the discount. I have not worked for MSFT for years but still get my discount because I have a few friends with @Microsoft.com email addresses that I can have sprint send the work discount email confirmation to. They may talk up new plans to you, but you can politely refuse and tell them you want to stick with the same plan.
Thank you for the reply. She worked at a daycare and never had an email account so not sure how we can do that but do I have to go through Best Buy or could I go somewhere else? Even a Sprint store to keep my current plan and pay for the new phone upfront after the discount?
Sent from my EVO using xda app-developers app
Starzboy77 said:
Thank you for the reply. She worked at a daycare and never had an email account so not sure how we can do that but do I have to go through Best Buy or could I go somewhere else? Even a Sprint store to keep my current plan and pay for the new phone upfront after the discount?
Sent from my EVO using xda app-developers app
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in that case, they might need a form filled out or something - I was assuming a larger corporation, my bad.
you should be able to go anywhere - sprint store, best buy, amazon.com, etc. but you may need to talk to a real person to do the keep the same plan. I have never purchased a phone online from a place like wirefly or amazon yet. Perhaps someone else could chime in on how that works.
tommy_riley said:
in that case, they might need a form filled out or something - I was assuming a larger corporation, my bad.
you should be able to go anywhere - sprint store, best buy, amazon.com, etc. but you may need to talk to a real person to do the keep the same plan. I have never purchased a phone online from a place like wirefly or amazon yet. Perhaps someone else could chime in on how that works.
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I purchased my upgrade from Amazon and was never pressured to change my plan. I could have kept it if I wanted to. I did change to the new "my way" plan however because for my two lines, it was $20 cheaper than my old unlimited data plan which was similar to the OP's.
Sent from my EVO using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
@op I've been leaning on sprint and tmo the last few days, asking questions, as I'm thinking of finally switching to tmo. That said, if you go to a sprint store , they have the pay monthly plans they're being pushed to sell by corporate. I, too, would prefer to pay a few hundred up front and be done with it....screw increasing my monthly expenses. If you buy online, you don't pay monthly and you keep your plan. Rep told me that even if igo to best buy or target or something, they still have the normal upgrade with contract and without changing plans. They have N5 and HTC One each for only 100, no monthly payment and no plan change.
Sent from my EVO 4G LTE using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Sprint Discount Program
You can always go to this address and see you are available for a discount either through your own employer or your girlfriend's current employer.
http://mysprint.sprint.com/verify/?ECID=vanity:verify
Sprint offers a lot of discounts to a lot of companies, especially entities like public universities or state employees.
If you just want to see if your company or some association gets a discount, go here:
http://now.sprint.com/save/?ECID=vanity:save
SimianJones said:
You can always go to this address and see you are available for a discount either through your own employer or your girlfriend's current employer.
http://mysprint.sprint.com/verify/?ECID=vanity:verify
Sprint offers a lot of discounts to a lot of companies, especially entities like public universities or state employees.
If you just want to see if your company or some association gets a discount, go here:
http://now.sprint.com/save/?ECID=vanity:save
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The only issue with the discount is that if they approve it, part of the clause is another two year contract...as well as that with the new Framily Plan styled contract, the discount is only applied to the data costs of the phone, not the entire plan cost. *smh about that*
So with say a 20% discount and it only being applied to an unlimited plan, you'd save maybe $4-6 a month.
Yeah, but the OP was talking about upgrading and maintaining his current plan, not switching to Framily.
Framily plans may be marginally less expensive than a Family Share plan, but they don't subsidize the cost of upgrade hardware. For about the same cost of a Framily plan over 2 years you can have the standard family plan, discounts net about $20 off instead of 5, and phone upgrades are subsidized. I think he's on the right track.
MFOsaka said:
The only issue with the discount is that if they approve it, part of the clause is another two year contract...as well as that with the new Framily Plan styled contract, the discount is only applied to the data costs of the phone, not the entire plan cost. *smh about that*
So with say a 20% discount and it only being applied to an unlimited plan, you'd save maybe $4-6 a month.
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