5GB Limit and Other Key Provisions of the Terms & Condit

Jim Quan · Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 7:29 am Post subject:

Thanks, another great idea!
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Jim

paulie888 · EVDO User Joined: 14 Jun 2008 Posts: 37

Jim,

I'm pleased to hear that you were put on month-to-month. As for thinking you're part of the targeted group, I kind of doubt it it as my experience with retention leads me to believe otherwise.

When I called retention requesting to cancel, they put me on hold for a couple of minutes, after which they authorized my cancellation. I am pretty positive they were checking my data usage - I typically consume 15-20 gigs a month (non-roaming though.)

When I asked if it was possible to get on a month-to-month contract, I was told in a matter-of-fact tone that there was no month-to-month option available, which directly contradicts your experience with them. This leads me to believe that they are targeting the heavy users like me (anyone consistently hitting over 5 gigs per month), and not the people using excessive roaming data like you. Why else would they offer you the month-to-month option, which was not possible for me even though I mentioned that I'd be willing to explore that option?

Paulie

paulie888 · EVDO User Joined: 14 Jun 2008 Posts: 37

Jim,

My experience with Sprint ecare was much more positive though. Immediately following my talk with Retention, I emailed ecare requesting email confirmation that my account was canceled with no ETFs. I believe I received a reply within 24 hours confirming this, so I was pretty pleased about how smoothly everything went.

Paulie

Jim Quan · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 12:19 pm Post subject: Success!

I asked ecare for an e confirmation of account change to month to month and got it. It is already reflected in the account status on the web site.

The retentions rep I spoke to (who put me on month to month) said in closing "I'm just glad I didn't have to do a cancel." I'm guessing it's their job to avoid cancellations / churn at all costs and one way to do that is to pass the buck and offer month to month. Maybe they will do a review later on snd reslly terminate their icky problem customers like me. Rolling Eyes

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Jim

paulie888 · EVDO User Joined: 14 Jun 2008 Posts: 37

Jim,

Good for you. As I mentioned before, my hypothesis (which seems to be confirmed the more I read various posts in here) seems to be right. Sprint's no. 1 priority right now is to get rid of customers consuming too much data off its EVDO network (ie anyone using over 5 gb!) so that the network can be freed up for its Smartphone users, and especially its new Samsung Instinct subscribers, who are just now coming online.

This will be their main priority, so that the network will stay reasonably fast for its phone users. It is nigh impossible to exceed 5gb on a smartphone due to the fact that you'll be streaming much lower resolution video (if at all, for the life of me I can't fathom why anyone would watch much video on such a tiny screen), and you'll also be downloading a lot less. Tethering (Phone As Modem) is expressly forbidden as of now, so that pretty much gets rid of any heavy users on Sprint's network. I doubt that their policies are going to change at all in the medium term 1-2 years...

The Retentions person revealed something very important when he/she breathed a sigh of relief that your case was not ending up in termination. Again, my hypothesis is that they really want to get the heavy users off the network, and they must have had to do a fairly significant number of terminations this month for excessive network usage. You're one of the lucky ones who have not used the network too much to be on their "radar"......

Paulie

byan · EVDO Newbie Joined: 29 Dec 2007 Posts: 7

[quote="paulie888"]ebiz,

There is a simple solution to this. I spoke to a couple of CS reps that had no idea about the cap. Just mention that you want to cancel, and insist on talking to Retention. They all pretty much know about this issue, and they offered to put me on a month-to-month contract, and I got on it immediately. This way I have the option of terminating anytime I want to without having to worry about the ETF.

Paulie[/quote

how were you able to do this?
I called and said I wanted to cancel talking to an "account manager" and her supervisor and he said that there was no way I could switch to a month-month contract.

paulie888 · EVDO User Joined: 14 Jun 2008 Posts: 37

Byan,

This is a very touchy issue with Sprint, and your ability to switch to month-to-month is largely governed by your recent data usage, from what I can see. Do you know how much your data usage has been in the past 3 months? Have you stayed under 5gb each month?

People who have exceeded the 5gb cap by an appreciable amount have not been offered the month-to-month contract, so it all depends on how much of the network you have consumed recently.

Paulie

ebiz · Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 12:01 pm Post subject:

rtfm · Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 10:03 am Post subject: usage cap

I looked at a friend's bill yesterday. I didn't spot the actual gotcha in the fine print, but it did list his usage in KB, and his "cap" [but in both cases using language that was clear as mud...]

He'd used 3.5 GB; but his "included in the plan" cap was listed as 23 GB. It was not a round number at all, rather it was like "23875424" or such.

How does this compare to others?

ebiz · Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 4:40 pm Post subject:

Here is what the notice looked like on Page 2 of the PDF of my May bill. It was not on the June bill so Sprint only notifes you once.

Note the lower image indicates Sprint has not removed the word unlimited from the blls or the account section of www.sprint.com, but for those of us who have been notified, the word "unlimited" doesn't mean anything.

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Vista64 & EX720

rush · EVDO Newbie Joined: 14 Jul 2008 Posts: 1

ebiz. i cant PM you due to my post count but can you PM me or contact me on AIM - battingbox or skype - mattppc

ebiz · Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 11:50 pm Post subject:

paulie888 · EVDO User Joined: 14 Jun 2008 Posts: 37

ebiz,

I think that your experience with Sprint's customer service is largely dependent on how they size you up and assess your knowledge/business savvy over the phone. I was polite but firm with the ignorant CS person who kept insisting to no end that there wasn't a cap, and that I would be charged an ETF. After repeatedly pointing out the material change in the TOCs in my bill to him, he finally relented and passed me on to a higher up (Retention.)

Retention obviously knew everything about the change and processed my cancellation smoothly and promptly after checking up on my usage (which they must have surely deemed excessive!)

So in summary, I suppose you have to be firm and appear knowledgeable and confident to the ignorant CS in the frontline when bringing up the cap/ETF issue, enough to be able to get passed up to Retention where they know everything.

Paulie

paulie888 · EVDO User Joined: 14 Jun 2008 Posts: 37

ebiz,

I forgot to mention in my last post that I just checked my Sprint bill for this month, and my mobile broadband is gone...no ETF or spurious charges that I couldn't account for, so I'm happy with how everything went.

I guess the moral of my story is that you should be armed with all the knowledge you can possibly get before trying to confront Sprint on any contract changes where they sort of have the upper hand!

Paulie