Yep it sure is, handled one tonight at the VZW store (although not getting one with VZW) definitely want one - just gotta decide what carrier if Sprint doesn't come around on honoring a misstatement their rep apparently had made to me. (Wife and I switched to framily with her parents - while on the phone to set it up I made damn sure eligibility for ANY of the options wouldn't go away, and he made it clear that all options would still be available plus an additional one with the $20/mo extra for extra data if you're doing that Easy Pay scam shit - now they're trying to claim that Easy Pay scam shit is the only option, which I'm willing to believe but the rep before lied to us... so they're expecting me to be happy paying $1200 for the phones vs. $400 we were promised which is complete fucking horseshit, I've got the money - but fuck flushing two PS4's worth of cash that we were promised wasn't necessary. Only thing they're willing to do is reprimand the employee, ZERO meeting me in the middle, in fact most of their options they gave would cost substantially more [One option they gave was $1440 more over the term to save the $800, a loss of $640 and the woman seemed confused why I was perturbed...])
Well, I guess there's no real "deciding" to do, AT&T sucks, VZW is a ripoff - so I guess I'll be looking at T-Mo. But fuck man, I actually liked Sprint - even after they lied to us about the wife's eligibility last time. [When we switched to a family plan for everyone pre-framily we went in to upgrade her when hers was due and they said she wasn't eligible until they same time as me, then when we start gearing up for the 2 year mark for upgrades we find out she could've upgraded all the way back then and they lied to us before...]
I read your PM's and Easy Pay isn't a scam at all, it's a model you're going to see literally every single carrier go to within a year or two. Carriers are losing money on phone subsidies and easy pay allows them to not be in that position. Also you aren't paying the full price of the phone up front, also you get upgrades every year instead of two and you owe nothing if you still have a balance on your previous easy pay device....oh and no contract.
Anyways....
As a consumer it's easy to hold a company accountable for a bad rep but it's not realistic, at least not in the cellular business. Our guidelines and ability to discount is severely limited, even some of the highest level center supervisors don't have the ability to much more that a $50 credit without it taking weeks to clear from people who's pay grade is quadruple their own. If a rep was wrong in something one of two reasons were behind it, either they purposely told you the wrong thing which isn't likely, or they made a mistake. Now depending on which department you talked to and which rep told you this, if they told you that this rep was going to be reprimanded and you really went into it as deep as you did, that rep is no longer with Sprint. I'm not telling you this for any other reason then to let you know they take that stuff very seriously and they will not be liable for bad reps misrepresenting their brand. I'll assume it was a corporate rep you talked to, if it was a preferred retailer then they'll probably still be around, a corporate one though? They're gone so telling them what a rep told you at this point wont mater because that rep is no longer there.
That being said, there are two upgrades available, Sprint, for the moment still does two year upgrades. If you were at or beyond your 20 month mark since you previously signed a contract then you're fine and you can upgrade under the two year model. Honestly though, their Framily Plan is the better route and that's not just Sprint jargon or a lie, it literally is the better deal with an easy to to lower your bill to $45 a month with unlimited data per line. All you literally do is put your code on facebook or craigslist and you start saving pretty quickly.
Anyways, I'd need to take a look into your account to let you know if you qualify for a 2 year contract upgrade. Some corporate doors are in fact walking new lines and upgrades because Sprint corporate is really ramming home the need to sell framily because again, it's going to be the only thing available in the future. T-Mobile is already there, we're going there and you're going to see ATT and VZW go that route eventually as well.
If you want to PM me some info I can look for you tomorrow. I'll need your name, phone number and pin number or answer to your secret question. I'll see what I can do for you.
