T-Mobile pays Up to $650 credit to switch.none if you're without contract.could u...

[Tmashadi]

In case you don't want to read my venting here is my question:

What would stop me to go and get 3 new phones from sprint for free and bring it to tmobile and now they have to actually spend $650 per line on me.

Hello- I hope someone here helps me understand this. So T-mobile would give me up to 300 credit on phone from other provider and up to 350 early termination credit if I switch to them but nothing if I'm contract free. They don't even allow me to use my credit from my 3 sprint handsets toward one t-mobile handset if I want to buy the 2 other handset I need from eBay for instance. What would stop me to go and get 3 new phones from sprint for free and bring it to tmobile and now they have to actually spend $650 per line on me. I'm only asking this due to being upset with the whole industry so those who want to immediately worry about being unfair to poor companies... Well just don't. I have been with sprint for over 4 years, and haven't even got new phones which I could have at 2 year mark from them. I've been so busy with life I haven't updated my planes either and paid far more than I should have for past 2 years. So I've been far more profitable than other average private customers. Now when one of my phones finally breaks they wouldn't even give me the same incentives they give to new customers. Furthermore, they wouldn't unlock the phones that I've paid for more than twice already ( same phones for 4 years with high price plans). And tmobile, well, it seems they rather pay $650 per line as oppose to letting me to use my credit the way I want while still getting 3 lines. Could someone tell me why I couldn't do what I asked at the beginning of my rant? ( sorry, venting I guess

Moved from OT to MD&G
-ViRGE

 

[Rakehellion]

Because you have to pay AT&T a cancellation fee for breaking contract.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Its because you have to pay for the new handsets from them. They'll reimburse you $650, and hey, look at that, you'll pay $650 to buy a phone contract free from T-Mobile.

Who did you contact at Sprint? I don't see any way they wouldn't offer you subsidized phones (I assume that's what you meant when one phone broke, you wanted to get a phone cheap/free via subsidy?). Phone unlocking is fucked up, but it should be changing. The carriers have all agreed to make it much easier, although not until 2015. The recent updated law I think just makes it legal for you yourself to unlock it and doesn't actually do anything as far as the carriers go.

 

[Tmashadi]

How I look at it is I could sign a new 2 year contract with sprint get my phones almost free and then go to tmobile and they not only pay my termination fee but take my new phone and give me $300 credit toward a new tmobile phone. While if I go there without an existing contract they save the ETF they now don't pay and I would do this if they allowed me to use my credits out of my 3 sprint phone toward one tmobile handset and buy the 2 other handsets I need from eBay. I'm still getting 3 lines just not wanting to buy 3 handsets from them and still get credit for my 3 sprint handsets. As far as sprint goes they are offering me discounts but after not having upgraded for 4 years on a higher than usuall plans I feel they should at least give me what they offer to new customers.

 

[Ichinisan]

Free iPod?

 

[DCal430]

You are confusing the two different T-Mobile programs.

The their is a program to trade in your phone for credit from any carrier. This does NOT require you to have an existing contract.

There is a program to pay for your ETF if you switch to them, but you must also paticpiate in the phone trade in program to qualify.

So no your thinking is wrong.

 

[DCal430]

You are also confused about the 300 per phone trade in. It is up 300, those free phones will be lucky to get 40 bucks

 

[Tmashadi]

Thanks for replays. I understand the up to 300 part and the expensive phone, lets say a galaxy note 3, would cost 240 with contract from sprint and that should get close to 300 from tmobile. I'm not actually confused about any of the parts you mentioned. I think it might take reading through my whole long post to see what I meant. I know it's too long and I apologize. Again, thanks for responding

 

[Raduque]

You are not going to be pocketing $650.

T-mobile gives you a bill credit of that much for porting lines and trading in phones, and it's assumed that you will use the money you would have spent on the T-Mobile bill yo pay your ETFs or equipment finance charges from your previous wireless provider.

 

[Tmashadi]

Let's say it this way. I have no contract with sprint. I go to tmobile and trade my old phones and get a few dollars toward tmobile phones. Now if I extend my contract with sprint get an iPhone 5c for free and go to tmobile, they give me more credit for my new iphone and pay the ETF too. No?
As for the reason I'm so immoral, u should look at my original post
Thanks.

 

[Tmashadi]

I wish one person could actually read the whole post or ask if I'm not clear before thinking I'm trying to pocket $650. I do appreciate you all taking time to respond but ... Hey maybe it's my communication skills that is problematic... So I apologize

 

[DCal430]

A galaxy note 3 from sprint will cost you 250 plus sales tax and activation fee so about 350 total. Tmbile will give you 140 for it not 250 and not 300.

 

[DCal430]

T-Mobile does NOT give you more than the contract price of a phone.

 

[Tmashadi]

Well, I guess no one gets my point exactly which is tmobile could save themselves more money if they allowed me to use the credit out of my 3 Sprint phone toward one tmobile phone and buy my 2 other handsets from eBay for instance. I'm still getting 3 lines and they are giving me the same credit as if I was buyin all 3 phones from them ( I understand that they really don't make much money on handsets) so that shouldn't make a difference for them. But they say no. So I could theoretically go extend my Sprint contract which gives me iPhone 5c for free on 3 lines. Go to tmobile and get more credit than I would have on my old banged up phones plus the ETF. So I'm not loosing anything and might even gain a bit ( more credit from newer phones) while tmobile has to spend a whole lot more on me now. I know I might be wrong for instance if Sprint asks for return of their phone on top of ETF and that's why I brought this up. But as far as I heard the phone return plus ETF might not be the case.

Again, as for why I'm such bad person u should read my post and I really don't want to pocket money. Just hoped I could use my credit on a single phone in a scenario I explained above. I probably don't go through all this hassle anyways....

And I do understand that all major companies have professional bloggers and forum surfers to protect and promote their interests so if there are some around here, I understand that you are just doing your job.
Thank you all.

Ps. Would you kindly tell me which phone gets the full 300 and there is no activation fee on upgrades

 

[Tmashadi]

K, just talked to sprint. And you don't have to return phone if canceling contract as long as you pay ETF. So I got my answer anyways. I guess I should have called them first thank you all anyways.

 

[DCal430]

If you are in California you have to pay 50 sales tax on the 5c, plus 35 activation fee. You will get 120 from T-Mobile. In the end you will make around 35 dollars for your trouble. You must not value your time.

 

[Engineer]

If you are in California you have to pay 50 sales tax on the 5c, plus 35 activation fee. You will get 120 from T-Mobile. In the end you will make around 35 dollars for your trouble. You must not value your time.

Who says he/she lives in California? Maybe he wanted to switch services anyway and by playing the system, he'll get up to a few hundred depending on how many phones he gets through Sprint and trades them in at TM.

Oh, and this should have been posted in Mobile Devices and Gadgets.

 

[Tmashadi]

Dcal, I tried not to offend you. You have no idea how much my time is worth and I don't want to go on that tangent. Let's keep this classy. As I said before I understand if you were making a living by doing this for a company, considering how invested you are on deviating from my point to protect the interests of so and so company. If not, well, that says something about value of your time.

 

[Tmashadi]

Plus if everyone was to use their valuable time to do something that hurts the bottom line of a company with unfair practices, I'm sure it would help the company in the long run to correct their mistakes. Bottom line, because that's all that matters to companies now a days. Peace

 

[Raduque]

I see what you're asking now. You weren't being really clear in your first few posts.

IMO, you won't be saving or making much money by doing this. If you're not under contract, just port your numbers to T-Mobile. Spend a little bit to finance the phones you want (or buy them outright from wherever), sell your Sprint devices on CL and move on.

You could always call T-Mobile and ask them which phones are worth the full $300 trade-in credit, as well.

 

[Engineer]

I see what you're asking now. You weren't being really clear in your first few posts.

IMO, you won't be saving or making much money by doing this. If you're not under contract, just port your numbers to T-Mobile. Spend a little bit to finance the phones you want (or buy them outright from wherever), sell your Sprint devices on CL and move on.

You could always call T-Mobile and ask them which phones are worth the full $300 trade-in credit, as well.

Would you get a clean ESN from Sprint once paying the ETF for selling on CL/eBay?

 

[Raduque]

Would you get a clean ESN from Sprint once paying the ETF for selling on CL/eBay?

Probably. They generally start as clean ESNs and get blacklisted when the bill is unpaid for X amount of time

 

[cmdrdredd]

You are also confused about the 300 per phone trade in. It is up 300, those free phones will be lucky to get 40 bucks

Some phones are worth $0 and you have to pay off the entire cost of the device through them. For example a S5 is $650ish. You either pay it all up front, or pay monthly. Even if you have a phone worth $0 they will reimburse your ETF fee.

 

[cmdrdredd]

You are not going to be pocketing $650.

T-mobile gives you a bill credit of that much for porting lines and trading in phones, and it's assumed that you will use the money you would have spent on the T-Mobile bill yo pay your ETFs or equipment finance charges from your previous wireless provider.

Just to clarify. T-Mobile sends a pre-paid Mastercard to you once your ETF reimbursement is approved. When you trade in your device, that credit is applied toward your bill or if you owe a down payment on the device because you didn't pass with A+ credit, you can apply it toward that. T-Mobile does not subsidize the device cost and offer you a device for $200 when you sign up. You either pay the entire retail cost or pay it off monthly. You can use the Jump program to upgrade before your device is paid off. After you pay off half of the device's cost, you can trade that device in and upgrade to a device of your choice. Then you pay monthly for the new device, $0 down.

 

[DCal430]

I don't know who told you sprint doesn't have an activation fee for an upgrade, but it does.

The reason you can't use 3 phone credits for 1 phone is because they make money selling you the phones. It makes zero sense for them to let you trade in 3 phones for 1 phone.