So.... this does no one any good who already has a plan with Sprint. Thanks again you f'tards for screwing me over once more...

annoying since I just resigned with them(I hate verizon's BS, T-mobiles network sucks in the chicago subs and AT&T is a joke. Plus sprint had a good deal on teh HTC touch which was a good buy IMO. oh well I knew what I was signing up for.

@logicalnoise:

Why is this annoying if you clearly have no desire to go to any other plan?

@superhumanben: Well, it makes no changes to your EXISTING contract if you're already a Sprint customer. However, if you renew your contract (by getting a new subsidized phone, for example) you'd be under the new, prorated-ETF terms. Paragraph 2 sentence 2: "This applies to both new customers with new contracts and existing customers with renewed contracts."

Lets say I have Sprint service that has 3 lines. My contract expired a long time ago, and I go into Sprint on Nov. 3rd to upgrade my phone. I have 3 lines on this contract, but I only want to upgrade one phone.

Now lets say I purchase just this phone for myself, and my contract gets extended. Does this now mean I'm on the hook for $600 ETF if I decide to cancel within the 5 months?

@GearheadGeek: But what would be the point if I'm wanting to get out of my contract early... to sign a whole new contract with them? I've got 1 year 1 month left. It would be like shooting myself in the foot by signing a new contract now.

Too little, too late, from a company that should have gone out of business years ago.
I simply can't believe that Sprint's idea of rewarding customers that have put up with their horrible service is to exclude them from a policy that FINALLY brings Sprint in line with other carriers.
Yet ANOTHER reason to drop Sprint as soon as you can...

What a dick move to not make it retroactive.

Realistically, the chart shows that they make all the money back on phone subsidies within 18 months. Trying to get $50 for the last 6 months of the term of the contract reeks of kicking you in the ass on the way out. Either slide it down by $10 per month over the last 6 months until it's $0 or stop an ETF @ 18 months. I guarantee the last month, they'll try to get the $50 first, and then only let it go if you complain.

Let me sum up - service contracts are crap, and people shouldn't stand for it. Buy an unlocked phone and activate - and don't use Sprint.

if you don't want a contract, BUY THE PHONE AT FULL PRICE. Simple. No ETF's. No headaches. Leave when you want. You can't expect a company to give you a phone at a significantly lower price and then let you duck out of the contract without them making some of their money back. It's business.

@es ay eL from en jae: How's buying a phone at a full price immunes you from paying ETF? You still have to get a plan. It's a plan that features ETF, not the cell phone.

Nice ETF setup by Sprint. The first 5 months are at the same $200 level and the last 5 months are at the same $50 level. Not much savings :(

Whatever happened to the idea of just taking the $200 divided by 24 months = $8.33 a month and taking that off the beginning ETF each month. Or taking $10 off each month, $200 to $0, no games.

@superhumanben: I'm in the same boat as you are. I cannot wait to get out of this contract; better just bide our time.

That picture is the ancient Sprint phone that I still use!

Should've been retroactive for 6 months.

Sprint - fix your notoriously shoddy coverage and then we'll talk.

@es ay eL from en jae: True, buying the phone at "full price" to avoid a contract is an option, one that many people overlook. However, the problem is (at least, I think) the providers put these artificially high prices on the phones so that they can tell you they are giving you a deal in exchange for signing a contract. For example, they charge $280 for a phone that should retail for $100. This bogus price is there to push you into a contract and make it seem like they are giving you a great deal. If you look at buying the phone for $280 as $180 over what the "real" retail price should be, you might as well risk paying an ETF, as paying their bogus price is essentially paying a "NCF", no contract fee.

Doesn't Verizon already do something like this? I recently had to cancel my contract with them, but I only had to pay around 1/2 of the ETF because I had been with them for a year.

@superhumanben: Then it's best to wait for an "adverse material change" in the contract, such as a text message rate increase and then pursue an ETF-free contract release.

@es ay eL from en jae: Sounds fair -- once they allow all unlocked phones onto their network and won't discriminate against any devices. Also they would have to allow all their plans to be used contract-free as long as you brought your own phone. (Currently, as bnosach noted, virtually all plans require a contract, regardless of paying full price for the hardware)

Cuts both ways.

My contract with Sprint expired back in September. I would have dumped them in favor of ATT and a new iPhone but reception for ATT isn't very good at my house.

I guess I'll just be satisfied in making Sprint earn my business everyday from this point forward. I'm not going to sign any new contracts unless they have something that is comparable to the iphone.

@SgtBeavis: Get used to waiting... it's going to be a while.

@Elvisisdead: Seriously. This is pants. At five months, it holds at $50? If they wanted to be honest about it (ha) they would prorate the ETF at the rate it actually takes them to recoup the cost of the subsidy.

I have SEVEN glorious days left until the end of my Sprint contract. Tick, tock mothereffers!

@stacye: stacye, if you upgrade your phone then only that phone will have a new contract. The others will stay the same. The only way you would be on the hook for a $600 ETF would be if all three of the phones were still under contract when you cancel. Otherwise contracts are on each line, not the account as a whole.

@Red_Flag: Actually several providers besides Sprint do allow for ETF free activations if the customer already has the phone/device.

@stacye: No you would be liable for the ETF only on one line.

Wouldn't this change kind of be an "adverse material change" by not allowing current customers to be a part of this. They're clearly excluding a large majority of their subscribers by not allowing them to be a part of this. Imagine the Sprint customer who joined on October 1 who isn't made aware of this deal until November 2. How pissed would that person be?

Nice, I just signed with sprint a whole month ago. Already hate them. This is just my luck.

OMG. the Cell company BUYS the phone from the maker for the FULL amount!
say the Moto w385 it costs us(the dealer) 299.00 for the phone, you want it on a 3 year plan the cost is $0.00 so they "give you a discount" but make it up through the term.
if you dont want a term buy the phone for 300.00 and get a month to month plan, then you can do what you want and stay as long as you want ther is NO ETF on M2M contracts!!!!!
put it this way you DONT GET SOMETHING FOR NOTHING!!!!
your lower price is paid back.
If you already have a phone and com in to me i will set it up on a M2M plan... and charge you 25.00-50.00 set up fee, our dealership does not work for free and i get commissions for the set up.

@waystland:

PS im NOt sprint but TELUS same thing and same stupid customers that want something for nothing.