Confessions of a Sprint Sales Rep

Confessions of a Sprint Sales Rep

Original article here ... 6 Confessions Of A Former Sprint Sales Rep - Consumerist

Sprint has joined the ranks of cell phone providers whose former (and current) sales reps are beating down the Consumerist's door, eager to tell all. Let us move without delay to the confessions of a former Sprint sales rep:

•Get the Sprint Employee Referral Offer: "Get on the SERO plan! Sprint Employee Referral Offer. It's a nice little plan designed specifically for friends and family of Sprint employees. They require that you have an email address of a Sprint employee, but that's simple to get. Remember that business card the sales rep gave you, or should have given you if they're were good. Take that name and use it, [email protected]. To see the plans themselves or sign up, go to Sprint Employee Referral Offer ($50/1250 minutes/7pm nights/unlimited vision)"

•Play the Extended Service and Repair Program Game: If you've lost your phone or dropped it in water, you can buy a new "broken" phone on ebay, activate it, and take that one into the store for ESRP benefits, according to our tipster. "Phone doesn't work? Water damage? What are you to do! Buy a phone on ebay, it doesn't have to work so long as it hasn't been flagged as lost or stolen. Get the phone activated and take it into the store. They'll fix or replace it usually on the spot because you have ESRP. Now keep in mind, if you do this excessive times, we'll refuse to service you (the system counts how many times you've had a phone replaced/serviced)." (This might be illegal somehow, we don't really know.)

•Buy your phone at the end of the month when the reps are desperate for commission on activations. " Reps will always discount phones, they don't make commission on the price of the phone, they make it on everything else. They're also desperate for activations (best time to go activate is near the end of the month when they're truly desperate). Add a few accessories or get that 2nd line, just return them later, you still get the awesome deal on the phone.

•Cancel without ETF By "moving" to the middle of the desert: This is an old trick, but the tipster says it works with Sprint. "Want to cancel but are stuck in a contract and don't care about keeping your number? Change your billing to e-billing (to avoid a paper statement), call customer care and have them change your address to an address not covered by the network (go on the website, find a hole, do a google earth search and find an address around there). Then say, "oh my, well if you can't provide service to me there, I'll have to cancel." Sprint is now obligated to cancel your contract without a termination fee because if they can't service you, how can they charge you for service? Usually they want to cancel your number, but you might be able to convince them that Company B has coverage and you would like to port.

•Retention Specialists have power: Cancel everything that's not required in your contract. There's a retention offer waiting for you. Example: "there are retention offers for things such as text messaging (unlimited for $10 I believe), plans, services, etc. Just ask! "

•Get a big discount for working for a big company (or saying that you do): "Get a discount because you work for the man! Are you an employee of a major organization? Tell Sprint you work for them then! You'll get anywhere from 7-28% off of your monthly bill. Tip, Chase bank employees get the highest discount (I believe it was 28%). Even if you don't work there, they don't ask for proof that you do."

Thanks to the Sprint Guy for these excellent tips! Where are you Alltel? U.S. Cellular? We're listening if you want to confess... tips [at] consumerist [dot] com.—MEGHANN MARCO

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Good tips, but there have been some changes, primarily on the ESRP front. You can only put the service and repair plan on new equipment. When you call in to swap a unit on a service with ESRP, the CS rep is supposed to verify that the equipment is new and not used. You might be able to slide it by them, but most times they will catch it.

Getting a corporate discount applied to an account now requires proof (usually a pay statement) that you are employed by the company. Your account will be attached to the corporate hierarchy and has the potential to be audited by the corporation.

You also have to provide a copy of a utility bill or something like it for proof of address to cancel due to moving out of coverage areas.