Fair & Flexible Plan - Why Not?

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Well, I was browsing the plans on the Sprint PCS website and I notice
that they have upgraded their Fair & Flexible plans. It seems to me
that if anybody would normally have the 700 minute plan or greater that
it would be in their best interest to just sign up for the Fair &
Flexible plan. The prices seem to be the same as the higher minute
plans except that you don't pay for the minutes unless you use them.
That seems like a pretty good deal. The only way I see this as not good
is if you either have a retention or legacy plan that is cheaper for
your average usage or if you don't use 700 minutes per month.

So .. am I missing something? I am currently on the 500 minute F&CA
plan and for the most part, it works for me, however over the last 4
billing cycles I have run close and once exceded teh 500 minute plan. I
tend to limit my calling to avoid going over. This option might better
suit me, especially if I add a phone on later for my Daughter.

- --

Thomas T. Veldhouse
Key Fingerprint: 2DB9 813F F510 82C2 E1AE 34D0 D69D 1EDC D5EC AED1

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.6 (FreeBSD)

iD8DBQFBaseu1p0e3NXsrtERAjcpAKCcZBNQyTHierbLtHrEjS 7mm2XpnQCeOBT8
0v1BCJdUEvbo6BGzVNLKIKU=
=nuH8
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Thomas T. Veldhouse wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> Well, I was browsing the plans on the Sprint PCS website and I notice
> that they have upgraded their Fair & Flexible plans. It seems to me
> that if anybody would normally have the 700 minute plan or greater that
> it would be in their best interest to just sign up for the Fair &
> Flexible plan. The prices seem to be the same as the higher minute
> plans except that you don't pay for the minutes unless you use them.
> That seems like a pretty good deal. The only way I see this as not good
> is if you either have a retention or legacy plan that is cheaper for
> your average usage or if you don't use 700 minutes per month.

Actually, the Fair & Flexible plans do look tempting now. I may switch.
However, I notice that the page is lacking in any details about night
and weekend minutes, or even whether long distance is included in these
plans. I guess these are just assumed features, but considering that
someone went through the trouble of enumerating "caller ID," "call
waiting" and "voicemail" as features, it seems kinda fishy that
unlimited night and weekend minutes and free LD aren't thrown into that
same feature list.

The only reason I'm exceptionally suspicious about this is I know
someone who got burned by T-Mobile when they were allowed to assume that
long distance was included in their plan package. Turns out the free LD
was in effect only during the length of the contract; once it expired,
they still had the same plan, except long distance was now 13 cents a
minute, which they dutifully charged without any warning on that 13th
month's bill. Yikes.

I guess I'll give *2 a call later this afternoon and ask about this.


--
E-mail fudged to thwart spammers.
Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Isaiah Beard <sacredpoet@sacredpoet.com> wrote:
>
> The only reason I'm exceptionally suspicious about this is I know
> someone who got burned by T-Mobile when they were allowed to assume that
> long distance was included in their plan package. Turns out the free LD
> was in effect only during the length of the contract; once it expired,
> they still had the same plan, except long distance was now 13 cents a
> minute, which they dutifully charged without any warning on that 13th
> month's bill. Yikes.
>

I did sign up for the plan and was assured everything is the same,
including Free & Clear America (apparently renamed Fair & Flexible
America). Vision was reduced to $10 for me, but she did not indicate
why other than I said I was not interested in the plan change at $10
more / month (over F&C 500).

At the bottom of the page, it has lots of stuff. In particular:

- - Hours for Night & Weekend Minutes starting at 9 p.m. are Mon.-Thurs.
from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m., and Fri. 9 p.m. to Mon. 7 a.m.

- - Except with Sprint PCS Free & Clear AmericaSM and Sprint PCS Fair &
Flexible AmericaSM, domestic off-network roaming calls are $0.50 per
minute with an extra $0.25 per minute long distance charge where
applicable.

However, there is no direct reference to long distance calling for users
not on the Fair & Flexible America plan, but the implication there is
that it is the same [the AA should indicate this]. Certainly, with
F&FA, it is indicated that there are no long distance charges. If you
look at the Free & Clear plans, they have the same options and do NOT
list long distance any differently than they do for F&F.

Incidentally, if you notice the link in that area, you can get a view of
the digital roaming maps!
http://www.sprintpcs.com/common/popu...etworkMap.html

- --

Thomas T. Veldhouse
Key Fingerprint: 2DB9 813F F510 82C2 E1AE 34D0 D69D 1EDC D5EC AED1

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.6 (FreeBSD)

iD8DBQFBbC9h1p0e3NXsrtERAlwsAKCxciK/RdDPgDN+x+8xwUFaSR/EqACgrS1P
q3R2Kc+fsJTQ8EeXQwTq56w=
=9FOl
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Isaiah Beard wrote:
> Thomas T. Veldhouse wrote:
>
>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>> Hash: SHA1
>>
>> Well, I was browsing the plans on the Sprint PCS website and I notice
>> that they have upgraded their Fair & Flexible plans. It seems to me
>> that if anybody would normally have the 700 minute plan or greater that
>> it would be in their best interest to just sign up for the Fair &
>> Flexible plan. The prices seem to be the same as the higher minute
>> plans except that you don't pay for the minutes unless you use them.
>> That seems like a pretty good deal. The only way I see this as not good
>> is if you either have a retention or legacy plan that is cheaper for
>> your average usage or if you don't use 700 minutes per month.
>
>
> Actually, the Fair & Flexible plans do look tempting now. I may switch.
> However, I notice that the page is lacking in any details about night
> and weekend minutes, or even whether long distance is included in these
> plans. I guess these are just assumed features, but considering that
> someone went through the trouble of enumerating "caller ID," "call
> waiting" and "voicemail" as features, it seems kinda fishy that
> unlimited night and weekend minutes and free LD aren't thrown into that
> same feature list.
>


I changed our plan from the $35 Fair & Flexible to the new $50 Fair &
Flexible, option 2, plan when we added our two kids to our account. Details of
the plan are at

http://www.sprint.com/business/produ...ndFlexible.jsp

The only place it seems to be described at the moment is in the business section
of Sprint PCS's website. We found out about it on the 8th when buying the kids'
new handsets at our local Sprint store.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Bill Kirkpatrick <noshooz@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> I changed our plan from the $35 Fair & Flexible to the new $50 Fair &
> Flexible, option 2, plan when we added our two kids to our account. Details of
> the plan are at
>
> http://www.sprint.com/business/produ...ndFlexible.jsp
>
> The only place it seems to be described at the moment is in the business section
> of Sprint PCS's website. We found out about it on the 8th when buying the kids'
> new handsets at our local Sprint store.

It is definitely available in the regular non-business area of the
website. Here is a nice link.

http://www1.sprintpcs.com/explore/se...xiblePlans.jsp

- --
Thomas T. Veldhouse
Key Fingerprint: 2DB9 813F F510 82C2 E1AE 34D0 D69D 1EDC D5EC AED1
Spammers please contact me at trap@veldy.net.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.6 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQFBbfRY1p0e3NXsrtERAmkdAKCCTZYsvFTKnu87YSSPqD yXl8M3hgCglK1I
lO/+yjpE1LUBTOQcuO7bVIY=
=nW6K
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----