Any gotcha with Sprint 1 year 'free' unlimited service?

PEW · November 29, 2017, 2:37am

https://www.sprint.com/en/shop/offers/free-unlimited.html?ECID=vanity:1yearfree

So can we cancel after 12 mo with no penalty? Or will Sprint lock your unlocked phone? Hm...

Savings until 1/31/19; then $60/mo. for line 1, $40/mo. for line 2 and $30/mo./line for lines 3-5. Reqs. AutoPay (discount applied w/in 2 invoices), new account, bring your own eligible device & Sprint SIM card. Savings claim compared to Verizon Unlimited rate plan for 1 line as of 5/31/17. Streams video up to HD 1080p, music up to 1.5mbps, gaming up to 8mbps. Data deprioritization during congestion. MHS, P2P and VPN reduced to 2G speeds after 10GB/mo. Other monthly charges apply.**

Plan Terms:
Unlimited - Bring Your Phone
Unlimited Talk, Text and Data.
$5/line/mo up to 5 lines. ($60/line value free with AutoPay until 01/31/19)
10GB Mobile Hotspot.
International Text from US.
Requires $5 per line/per month AutoPay discount.
Savings until 01/31/19; then $60/mo. for line 1, $40/mo. for line 2 and $30/mo./line for lines 3-5 with AutoPay.

deleted · November 29, 2017, 3:07am

Other than delaying your ability to upgrade via lease, I'm not aware of any "gotchas." You can leave any time. Sprint can't lock your unlocked phone.

jamielih · November 29, 2017, 3:10am

Would Sprint require that you buy SIM, say for the G5+, from them, or could you buy from Best buy or Ting?

zubrin · November 29, 2017, 3:11am

No contract. I have used the free plan for 5 months and have no complaint. I might consider 5 lines for $100 unlimited plan when 1 year is up. Otherwise I will leave during the 12th month.

112059 · November 29, 2017, 3:18am

No strings attached. Free to leave anytime, or stay, which is one of the reasons they gave the promotion. I thought this promotion was over but it is still going on.

PEW · November 29, 2017, 3:22am

Follow up question, can I put my CellNuvo account as source of payment for autopay? :silly:

deleted · November 29, 2017, 4:03am

Highly unlikely.

deleted · November 29, 2017, 4:04am

https://www.sprint.com/en/shop/bring-your-own-phone.html

ajzwilli · November 29, 2017, 4:09am

I just signed up for this a few weeks ago, I was able to use my existing 2 year old SIM that I used most recently with CN. I think I had purchased it from Ting 2 years ago. I told Telesales I just got it from a local sprint store.

mmfacemm · November 29, 2017, 4:15am

If you call you can use your own sim. If you do it online you have to order one.

No gotchas. This is the deal of the year. Assuming sprint works for you of course.

PEW · November 29, 2017, 4:18am

As luck would have it, I live in the only Sprint deadspot in the city. Works fine outside the house, though. :blink:

mmfacemm · November 29, 2017, 4:21am

Yes I know what you mean. I'm not in a deadspot but it isn't good at my house. 5 minutes down the road and I was clocking 70Mbps down and at my house I am lucky if I get 1. Glad to have wifi calling.

mark · November 29, 2017, 5:15am

I have 2 sprint phones. Are these eligible?

PEW · November 29, 2017, 5:20am

... those are not the phone Sprint's looking for...

Alcatel IDOL5
Apple iPhone 5c (Verizon only)
Apple iPhone 5s (Verizon only)
Apple iPhone 6
Apple iPhone 6 Plus
Apple iPhone 6s
Apple iPhone 6s Plus
Apple iPhone 7 (Verizon only)
Apple iPhone 7 Plus (Verizon only)
Apple iPhone 8 (Verizon only)
Apple iPhone 8 Plus (Verizon only)
Apple iPhone SE
Apple iPhone X (Verizon only)
BLU S1/VIVO S
Essential Phone
Google Nexus 5 (16 & 32 GB – black/white/red) (Verizon only)
Google Nexus 5X (all versions)
Google Nexus 6 (32 & 64 GB – black/white)
Google Nexus 6P (all versions)
Google Pixel
Google Pixel XL
Google Pixel 2
Google Pixel XL 2
HTC One A9 (Sprint Version only)
LG X Charge
moto e4
moto e4 plus
moto g4
moto g4 play
moto g4 plus
moto g5 plus
moto g5s plus special edition
moto x pure edition
moto x4
moto z2 play
Orbic Wonder
Samsung Galaxy S7 edge Special Edition
Samsung Galaxy S7 Special Edition
Samsung Galaxy S8 Special Edition
Samsung Galaxy S8+ Special Edition

PEW · November 29, 2017, 5:22am

It could also be the protective energy field, AKA force field, I have around my house.

PEW · November 29, 2017, 6:10am

Actually, looks like I should be able to! I see a "Pay my Sprint Bill"... so if I disable autopay (and accept the $7.99 penalty), then I can pay off each month's $7.99 + tax/fees with CN gold!!!

PEW · December 1, 2017, 6:48am

OK, got a line signed up.

Plan Terms:
Unlimited - Bring Your Phone
Unlimited Talk, Text and Data.
$5/line/mo up to 5 lines. ($60/line value free with AutoPay until 01/31/19)
10GB Mobile Hotspot.
International Text from US.
Requires $5 per line/per month AutoPay discount.
Savings until 01/31/19; then $60/mo. for line 1, $40/mo. for line 2 and $30/mo./line for lines 3-5 with AutoPay.

PEW · December 1, 2017, 7:18am

Oh, almost forgot... Sprint Global Roaming included...

Afghanistan
Aland Islands
Albania
Alderney
Andorra
Anguilla
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Aruba
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Azores
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belgium
Belize
Bermuda
Bolivia
Bonaire
Brazil
British Virgin Islands
Brunei
Bulgaria
Cambodia
Canada
Canary Islands
Cayman Islands
Chad
Chile
China
Colombia
Congo, Dem. Rep. of
Costa Rica
Croatia
Curacao
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Democratic Republic of Congo
Denmark
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Easter Island
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
England
Estonia
Faroe Islands
Fiji
Finland
France
French Guiana
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Gibraltar
Greece
Greenland
Grenada
Guadeloupe
Guam
Guatemala
Guernsey
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Ireland
Isle of Man
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jersey
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Latvia
Lesotho
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macau
Macedonia
Madagascar
Madeira
Malawi
Malaysia
Malta Republic
Marie Galante
Martinique
Mayotte
Mexico
Montenegro
Montserrat
Mozambique
Myanmar
Nauru
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Nigeria
Northern Ireland
Northern Mariana Islands
Norway
Pakistan
Palestinian Territories
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Reunion
Romania
Russia
Rwanda
Saba
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Martin
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Saipan
Samoa
San Marino
Sark
Saudi Arabia
Scotland
Senegal
Serbia
Seychelles
Singapore
Sint Eustatius
Sint Maarten
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Sri Lanka
St. Barthelemy
Suriname
Svalbard
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
Tonga
Trinidad and Tobago
Turkey
Turks and Caicos Islands
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
Uruguay
Vanuatu
Vatican City
Venezuela
Vietnam
Wales
Zambia

One · December 1, 2017, 7:56am

So, looking there I see this:

Free service for 1 year for new customers who switch to Sprint and sign up on sprint.com/1yearfree. Save until 1/31/19.

You'll save more than $900 (compared to Verizon’s one-line unlimited rate plan) in the first year
Switch your whole family and save even more!
A standard $1.99 admin fee, $0.40 regulatory fee and other taxes and fees apply
Your $30 activation fee is waived as part of this promotion. The fee will appear on your first bill and a credit will appear within 2 bills.

Requires a Sprint SIM card, eBill and Sprint AutoPay ($5/mo./line discount applied within two invoices)

If AutoPay is cancelled, you’ll pay $5/mo./line
If AutoPay and eBill are removed, a $7.99/mo. charge will apply for Account Spending Limit customers
    Your Spending Limit is the monthly maximum amount of spending per phone on your account based on your credit decision
    For accounts with multiple phones, the total spending limit is calculated as the number of phones on the account multiplied by the spending limit per phone

You must own the phone(s) you're bringing to Sprint.
After 1/31/19, pay:

Line 1: $60/mo.

Which tells me there are some fees & taxes despite it being 'free' - and if I goof & miss the 1/31 deadline the billing starts at full price...which IS a bit scary !!
(Even a single billing of $60 + fees & taxes would be HUGE 'gotcha' for us.)

At the same time I see that Red Pocket will provide 500 of everything for $10/month as long as I could choose which of their GSM or CDMA networks might work for this area and/or my phone...

And then I'd have to consider IF it may be possible to trust the CN stuff which has yet to appear, or:
Use Tello which is as cheap as Red Pocket, OR=>

Just stay with Twigby & let all this hoopla pass by with great access via both the Sprint & Verizon networks for our low usages at acceptable pricing.

Why bother even saying this, you may ask ??

The cellular industry has been sort of unwittingly teaching us consumers some things...
For us it started with being treated very badly by (what was then) H2O Wireless - then Consumer Cellular which are both child concerns of AT&T - which left us with no working phone between us.

Then, there was all the time & effort used to get services from Ringplus before it croaked;
Then getting openly ripped off by Ting when they broke pretty much ALL their promises.

The central lesson we got was one of distrust towards these concerns - and right now the thing with CN=>Red Pocket strikes us as being too much like the old RP=>Ting baloney.
(And Sprint had showed itself to be untrustworthy even before AT&T messed with us cellularly.)

Conclusion: No warm fuzzies to be had in these offers.

The CN phone I have now has s/w version 2.72.
Many options are showing in the 'store' now - but frankly I've seen nothing to indicate that they actually function.
Amazon is missing from that list & most likely that would be the best way to 'spend' the credits from CN.

Anyone having any better news or great suggestions to share ??

Thanks.

deleted · December 1, 2017, 2:15pm

I can only think of a few reasons someone might pass on this offer:

Avoiding the credit pull,
Lack of an eligible device to start line(s),
Poor Sprint service in area (Magic Box might solve this issue).

Aside from that, taking advantage of this promo is a no brainer.