An Incentive to Stay: Sprint's Existing Customer Rebate
By Jonathan Berohn
Like everyone else, when the government made cell phone providers let consumers take their numbers and go to another company, I thought this was great news. A few months later, I wasn't sure-at least for me. Sure, if you're fed up with lousy cell phone service and can't wait to bid your current carrier a fond farewell, then you're all set. Discounted phones, free phones, huge rebates on phones-new customers got the red carpet treatment. But what if you liked your cell phone service? What if you just wanted-or needed-a new phone? You were out of luck.
The Forgotten Existing Customer
My wife and I both found ourselves in the predicament. We like the service we got from Sprint, but, after three years, we needed new phones. My wife's phone wouldn't hold a charge anymore, and neither one of us got any kind of reception indoors. Sprint's answer? We could close our existing accounts, then open two new accounts and go through the whole rigmarole of transferring the numbers over-and, oh yeah-there's the small matter of an activation fee. No thanks. So we started looking around at other companies' plans, but we kept running into the same issues. We were finally ready to bite the bullet and switch companies (Sprint wasn't going to get my activation fee again), when somebody over there must have realized that I wasn't the only customer thinking along these lines.
The Rebate
Enter the existing customer rebate. Sure, you have to re-up your contract for 2 years-but that's standard with any new phone program these days-and we wanted to stay with Sprint anyway. For our continued commitment, Sprint actually came through with something substantial-$150 toward any new phone-each. Yep-that's right, we bought 2 new color flip phones for $30 each. Now this is a rebate program so you have to actually jump through the typical photocopying hoops, but I'll even fill out a rebate form for $150.
The Service
In addition to the rebate, we actually managed to save money on our cell phone plan. While before we had two separate accounts so that we wouldn't get killed by occasional overuse fees. Sprint's new Fair & Flexible plan allowed us to make our second phone an additional line on the first, and out plan will simply increase in small increments if we happen to overuse our minutes.
You can buy the Sprint Phones virtually anywhere these days at those little stands you see at every mall. You can also buy them from places like Best Buy, and Circuit City.