Sprint may be losing the carriers game, but it is not about to give up anytime soon. The third biggest wireless carrier in the United States has a new weapon that it hopes will help it lure customers away from AT&T and Verizon Wireless.
Starting Dec. 5, customers of the two biggest carriers can switch over to Sprint and have their rate plans cut in half. Sprint calls it Cut Your Bill in Half, and it is certainly an eye-catching new deal for anyone not happy with their AT&T or Verizon service and is looking to pay less for their wireless plans.
The new promo, which will provide old AT&T and Verizon customers unlimited talk and text to anywhere in the U.S. with a Sprint network, will offer new customers the same data allowance provided by their old carriers at half the price. For instance, Sprint says a person who used to pay $140 for four lines on AT&T will receive the same four lines on Sprint but will only have to pay $70 every month.
Sprint says sign-up for its Cut Your Bill in Half promo is on a "limited time offer," but customers who sign up during this period get to pay half their previous bills for as long as they are with Sprint.
"It's as simple as this: Bring Sprint your Verizon or AT&T bill along with your phone and we'll cut your rate plan in half," says Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure, who has since instituted aggressive pricing changes to the company when he came on board earlier this summer. "That's 50 percent savings on your rate plan every month. And this great deal is not just a promotion. This will be the customer's ongoing price."
It is not as simple as Claure would have customers believe, though. First off, anyone who wants to switch over to Sprint will have to upload their AT&T or Verizon bills to sprint.com/halfprice before bringing their bill and phone to the Sprint store, where a customer representative will find a service plan that most closely matches the customer's previous plan. That means, for some customers, they won't really end up with half their previous bill and they could end up having less or more data allowance than before.
Moreover, the promo also requires customers to turn in their old smartphones to Sprint, and they have to pay for their new Sprint-enabled device up front or in installments. For those who refuse to turn in their old phones, Sprint charges $200 in extra fees per line. The deal also does not include taxes, surcharges and other fees, which the customer will have to pay for as soon as the bill is received.
However, Sprint has waived activation fees and promises to offer $350 in rebate per line for customers' early termination fees. That amount is the maximum fee extracted by AT&T and Verizon from customers who opt out of their contracts early.
The rebate is qualified, though, and customers can receive their $350 as a Visa prepaid gift card if they keep their account in good standing and register for a rebate until March 15, 2015.
