Re: Penalty to switch plans during billing cycle?

"jp" <jp@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:1115465312.04d47a652e23c8124890fd3cae477b7a@t eranews...
> I'm on a month to month plan on a single phone, and I want to switch
> to the $70 shared Fair & Flexible plan by adding a second SPCS phone
> which is currently inactive. Because I want the second phone to be
> available immediately, Customer Service told me that, since I was in
> the middle of a monthly billing cycle, I would have to pay for *both*
> plans 'til the current month ran out on the existing plan. This would
> incur an extra charge of more than $40! I'm willing to sign up for a 2
> year contract, at a higher rate than I'm paying now, and Sprint wants
> to gouge me an extra $40 because they can't make a simple date change
> on their computer, or pro-rate the two plans? Does this sound right,
> or are they just trying to screw me out of $40? Also, will they be
> asking for an activation fee for the second, currently inactive,
> phone? (I was so pissed about the $40 I didn't get far enough in my
> conversation with CS to ask.) Thanks for any input.
> --
> jp

It all has to do with your billing cycle date. You could try to ask for your
current plan to be pro-rated, but you could end up spending some additional
money, once SPCS divided the number of days into the minutes used, to the
monthly amount of minutes for your plan. Or, you could just wait two weeks
to add the phone and change your plan the day before your billing cycle
date.

Here's some other points to consider. Considering that you would be adding a
new line of service to your account, you would qualify for an instant $150
credit on buying a new phone (the secondary phone on the account). You could
keep the inactive phone as a back up, if needed.

If your current phone is over 18 months old, and has had the same phone
number, you can update your primary phone to a new one as well, and get a
$150 mail in rebate (usually takes between 6 to 8 weeks). In each of these
cases, you will have to commit to a 2 year agreement. You can check to see
whether you qualify, go to this site. http://pcshandsetupgrade.sprint.com/

If you do get new phones, I'd recommend doing the phone purchases and plan
change in person at a local SPCS store. Outline everything you want to do
before the sales rep starts ringing up the register.

If you do get new phones, you want to make sure that this happens at the
same time you change plans, so that you will only have a 2 yr commitment on
both phones, instead of a 4 year commitment. 2 yrs for the plan and 2 yrs
for the phone ...

If you don't want to update to newer phones, then the above 3 paragraphs are
moot and don't matter and the transaction could be handled via their 800 or
#2 telephone number.

Bob.