Tip - How To Get Out of Sprint Contract without Termination Fee

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Tip - How To Get Out of Sprint Contract without Termination Fee

Sprint is making changes to their contract as of January 1st 2008 and because of this Sprint customers can cancel their contracts without an early termination fee :)

"On Jan. 1st 2008 Sprint customers who have been affected by the fees, [consumer and IL customers], will have their ETF waived if they wish to terminate their contract. There will be no post-dating of cancellation where the ETF will be waived as only customers affected by the new surcharges will be eligible."

- Link to Instructions (Thanks MidwestDrummer)
- Link to Article Detailing this from consumerist.com
 
This is from MidwestDrummer detailing how to do this step by step

----------

For those looking to contact Sprint about this issue (and attempt to cancel your contract sans the ETF), here's a step by step on what you should do.

DISCLAIMER: By no means am I making an sort of guarantee about the results of your attempt. Sprint CSR's interpret many situations differently, so while one may be extremely lenient and grant your every wish, another might be having a very bad day and shoot you down. If you don't get the response you're looking for, try again. Don't write them too often though. Excessive contact/demands will lead to notes being put on your account.

Step 1: Contacting Sprint Customer Service

One could log into their Sprint account online, and shoot a note to E-Care, but the online message box has a character limit. I find that it's much easier to log into my own email account, and compose my own note, with a length of my choosing.

But I don't know Sprint's email address! That's alright. I've got them for you right here:

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

What I like to do, is use [email protected] as the main recipient address. Then I add the last 3 on a Bcc's (blind carbon copies). Doing this sends the same email to each Sprint E-Care email address, without letting each different recipient know you send it to another address.

Step 2: Wording Your Email

There's really no perfect way to word your email, when wanting to get out of your Sprint contract. Simply be firm, explain your intentions with relevant facts, and most importantly, be polite about it. Here's what I sent to Sprint: It's recommended that you slightly change it.

Customer Name: Zach XXXXXXXX
Sprint PCS Handset Phone Number: 402202XXXX
Account Number : XXXXXXXXXX
Account Email Address: [email protected]
Billing Address: XXXX XXX XXXXX Road, Lincoln, NE XXXXX

Dear Sprint E-Care:

It is my understanding that effective January 1st, 2008, Sprint will discontinue FPCR, E911 and Federal WLNP surcharges, and introduce new Administrative and Regulatory charges. As it is, this constitutes an adverse material change in my current contract. Sprints current policy (as read by Account Services) is as follows:

"On Jan. 1st 2008 Sprint customers who have been affected by the fees, [consumer and IL customers], will have their ETF waived if they wish to terminate their contract. There will be no post-dating of cancellation where the ETF will be waived as only customers affected by the new surcharges will be eligible."

After reviewing my options, and carefully taking everything into consideration, I have decided to terminate my existing contract, while maintaining my current line of service. If you have any questions regarding this situation, please write back to me, or contact me at (402) 202-XXXX.

Regards,
Zach XXXXXXXX
Click to expand...
 
I stick with Virgin Mobile. Thhey have very compettive monthly rates now with no contracts or hidden fees. The coverage is the same as Sprint since they piggyback on their network. May not be cost effective for averyone, but works for me.
 
I used to have 2 employees but now only have one. I have put the other one on vacation but I would just as soon cancel the number. Will this work to cancel just one number on vacation or should I reinstate the number first?
 
This spoof is golden. I spoke to Sprint Customer Service over the phone an hour ago and read the first paragraph and they told me that I have the option to leave or they could sweeten my current sweet deal. They shipped me a Blackberry 8830 for $150.00 and lowered my monthly plan by $10.00. I like Sprint's voice service and internet service. I am not a fan of their phone policy. I would call them now and either leave or pressure them into a sweet deal Unified Billing 877-541-5705.
 
There seem to be two excuses that Sprint CSRs are using for not allowing cancelations.
1) The fee does not adversely affect the customer because other fees are going away. The problem is the old fees are government regulated, the new fee is not. They can add the new fee and by paying the bill you are accepting the new fee. They do reserve the right to raise fees so next month they could increase the fee to $5 and there is nothing you can do where as they could not do so with the government regulated fees. Consequently, this does significantly change the contract.

2) At least one CSR claimed that the fees are not listed in the original contract and thus do not constitute a change. That holds absolutely no water. If thats the case they could add a $500 "Make Sprint Rich" fee to everyones bill and people would have to live with it. That is a crock.

If you get denied, write down the time, date, and CSR you spoke with. Ask them to fax/email a the reason for denying to terminate the contract. If a lot of people are denied, there will be a class action.
 
Anything for getting out of Verizon Wireless? I just started a job at Unicel, and I need to get out of my Verizon contract so I can take advantage of Unicel's Employee plan...
 
Does this work for business plan?

If I am on a business plan and I have several lines on this plan could I still get out of my contract from these fee changes? The reason I ask is really because I just want a new phone....so how should I go about doing this?
 
Sprint no go

I called about 30 minutes ago and couldn't sweeten up my deal. They did confirm that I can cancel on the 1st, but until then im **** out of luck
 
That is the problem with Sprint. I called back 2 hours after I sweetened my deal to do the same for a co-worker and the best I got was "you can cancel after January 1st" but before then you will get a fee. I tried to sweeten his deal for him bit I got the CSR that felt like she owned the company and would lose money for sweetening his deal. I say try another CSR at a different time. The ones from the midwest and Florida are super nice.
 
Spoofee said:
Sprint is making changes to their contract as of January 1st 2008 and because of this Sprint customers can cancel their contracts without an early termination fee :)

"On Jan. 1st 2008 Sprint customers who have been affected by the fees, [consumer and IL customers], will have their ETF waived if they wish to terminate their contract. There will be no post-dating of cancellation where the ETF will be waived as only customers affected by the new surcharges will be eligible."
Click to expand...

Do you know whether Sprint Mobile Broadband plan can get out of the contract by the fee change mentioned above?
 
To sweeten or not to sweeten

je2340 said:
That is the problem with Sprint. I called back 2 hours after I sweetened my deal to do the same for a co-worker and the best I got was "you can cancel after January 1st" but before then you will get a fee. I tried to sweeten his deal for him bit I got the CSR that felt like she owned the company and would lose money for sweetening his deal. I say try another CSR at a different time. The ones from the midwest and Florida are super nice.
Click to expand...

I can definitely call back. Only problem I might run into would be that I've called maybe 5 times in the past week because of $100+ worth of overages I accrued last month and I KNOW they have notes on me. So how did you ask them to satisfy you? :p Did you give them an ultimatum?
 
I have been with them for over 8 years now, thus I am sure they have notes on me. I have a 25% employer discount, and a 5% sprint loyalty discount already on my phone, thus I get 30% off. Everytime I have signed up for a 2 year contract with them I make them sweeten the deal by leveraging what other cell phone carriers offer and they don't.

I got an extra 400 minutes when Cingular offered rollover and sprint did not.
I got 500 text free when other companies had plans including unlimited text for under what I was paying.

Sweetening the deal depends on the CSR you speak to, some of them being sweet will get you more than you thought you would have ever been able to get out of them, and for some of &%#Y^# ones love a good argument over the phone. For them you threaten to report them to supervisor and ask to speak to retention and that is where you make your money. While at retention they will go to other websites and look up plans and then you will be able to get a plan better than other cell providers and on top of that you will be able to hold the fact that you can leave in January over their heads :playingball:
 
Thanks! I reposted this on my MySpace for my friends. I had Sprint years ago and hated their service so much I paid the ETF so I could get out of the contract with them.

If anyone knows how to get out of Verizon I'd love to know it, my hubby and I want to switch to T-Mobile.
 
Thats great

I hope I can get out of sprint as well there good for some things and really bad on other.First of the month I'm calling.:claps:
 
For anyone wanting to use this to sweeten their existing deal - I'd suggest calling Sprint CSRs between 10pm and 1am EST - that's when their Florida call center is the only center taking calls and the CSRs in that call center are well known as being in the giving mood. That's when I always call and they're always super nice and I never have to do much haggling to get add-ons or upgrades.
 
Sprint contract changes

I spent 2 hours on the phone this evening and Sprint said that I could not terminate my account without incurring the early termination fee (I followed all of the below suggestions). I finally ended up writing the following. Maybe if enough of us complain something will be done:

Customer Name: Danielle XXXXXX
Sprint PCS Handset Phone Number: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Account Number : XXXXXXXXX-X
Account Email Address: [email protected]
Billing Address: XXXXXXXXXXX


Dear Sprint E-Care:

It is my understanding after spending 2 hours on the phone with your customer service representative "Derek"(zz611606), of the account service department, that effective January 1st, 2008, Sprint will discontinue FPCR, E911 and Federal WLNP surcharges, and introduce new Administrative and Regulatory charges.

My issue is with the fact that the new "fees" are not subject to any regulation, as confirmed by Derek in our discussion. He informed me that "Sprint would never raise these fees to an outrageous amount because it would upset alot of people and Sprint would probably lose customers, and they would not want that to happen". When I asked if he could send me something that confirmed this belief, that "Sprint would not raise this amount unreasonably", he denied my request saying he could not legally do so and that he did not have access to e-mail.

Instead he offered me a $15 per month credit to help offset any future costs derived from these unregulated fees. This to me seems over generous, almost to the point that he thinks these new fees would, at some point in time, raise above that credit (that's just good business sense). I declined the credit and asked what my options were if I did not want to accept these new "changes to my contract" and he then informed me that they were not changes at all. This is all very confusing. Sprint is changing my monthly fees and it is not a change to my contract!? I have dealt with many contracts in my life but never one that was so one-sidedly open-ended.

My options, as he described them were to accept or terminate my contract, of course paying the termination fee. So, to rehash, my options are accept or be penalized $400!? These are not options. I just wanted to keep my contract the way it was when I signed up because of the other problems I have had with Sprint including overcharging, dropped calls, no service at my house, and being charged an extra $9.99 a month for something I didn't sign up for. I didn't want to open myself up for yet another disappointing experience, in the form of ever increasing fees, by accepting new terms.

The postcard I received in the mail clearly states the following:

"Notice Of Charges To Sprint Terms And Conditions Of Service- January 1, 2008

The terms and conditions for Sprint and Nextel have been updated, but not limited to, the following paragraphs:

Your device, number and Email address; caller ID
Surcharges
Your Privacy
Location Based Services

These new terms and conditions are effective January 1, 2008 and are available at sprint.com or upon request. Please carefully review these terms as they apply to any future use of service."

These are a change in contract terms then. Being so, if I do not accept these terms and my only other option is to terminate I cannot be held responsible for an early termination fee. It's not my decision to leave, you are forcing me out because I have to accept the new terms in order to keep my service!

As it is, this constitutes an adverse material change in my current contract. Sprints current policy (as has been quoted from Sprint Account Services as posted on numerous websites) is as follows:

"On Jan. 1st 2008 Sprint customers who have been affected by the fees, [consumer and IL customers], will have their ETF waived if they wish to terminate their contract. There will be no post-dating of cancellation where the ETF will be waived as only customers affected by the new surcharges will be eligible."

After reviewing my options, and carefully taking everything into consideration, I would like to terminate my existing contract, but maintain my current line of service. If you have any questions regarding this situation, please write back to me, or contact me at (XXX) XXX-XXXX (if I don't pick up it's because I do not get service at my house).

Regards,
Danielle XXXXXXX
 
Ok, so this is no joke.

I am typically skeptical about this kind of stuff. But this one is the real deal.
I followed the advice about reading to the CSR the first paragraph. (i changed the wording) but emphasized my knowledge of the E911, the Federal WLPN etc etc... which i dont have any, but just kept talking about it.

I was transfered to two people, who said they cant do it, followed by being transfered to the person who handles people wanting to cancel. (i cant remember the name of the department)

My biggest advice is to be very courteous, and firm with what you say. I kept telling her that "according to my contract, if sprint makes any changes to my contract, including charges or fees, i am eligible to terminate my account with no early termination fees" I walked her through the whole thing.

"Do these fees and charges exist in my current contract"
"Yes"
"Will these fees and charges be discontinued on the first of January"
"Yes"
"Therefore there are changes in my contract, and i am eligible to terminate"
Feel free to also talk about the "New" fees sprint will introduce as well, to add to your aresonal, but i did not have to.

After several minutes i was greeted again by the CSR and she told me that she was notating my account, to waive my early termination fees, if i cancel AFTER the first of Jan.

I would suggest trying a combination of things, but be very courteous and firm of what you are saying. Make small talk...these people have a ****ty job, and love when people treat them nicely. That is apparent. They could care less if you leave.

Good Luck all!
 
Well Sprint is telling me that ONLY accounts whose taxes increase will be able to waive the EFT. I keep telling them that the changes to the terms represent a "material" change regardless of whether more money is involved or not. The contract will be materially different than the one I signed. Of course, these are the same guys who raised text messaging rates and then said that messaging and those rates were not part of my contract. I wonder how long before they'll send me to time-out in arbitration over this.

Here's my emails back and forth, starts at the bottom of course

-------------------------------

Excuse me, but the change to the terms of the contract is a material change
to the contract. It is "materially" different from the contract I signed.
Material contract changes are not restricted to monetary changes.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sprint Customer Solutions - eCare2" <[email protected]>
To: "Scott Strange" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2007 5:11 AM
Subject: RE: (KMM43426284I80L0KM)


> Dear Scott Strange,
>
> Thank you for writing back to me.
>
> After checking the account I noticed that the latest invoice has been
> billed for the bill cycle November 15, 2007 to December 14, 2007. The
> invoice for the month of January 2008 will be generated in the next month.
> I understand that you wish to cancel the services due to changes in the
> regulatory charges, which will effect on the taxes, which may get
> increased or decreased.
>
> I again want to share with you that if the changes in regulatory charges
> effect on the taxes on the invoice, it means if the taxes get increased
> then without any early termination fee the services will be cancelled with
> the customer's confirmation. But if the taxes get decreased then no early
> termination fee will be waived off.
>
> I have discussed this case with my supervisor. I request you to let the
> January invoice be generated and if the taxes are increased then with your
> confirmation we will cancel the service without any early termination fee.
>
> So I request you to write back to us after generating the January invoice.
> I have also put the appropriate note on the account regarding this.
>
> Thank you for contacting us. Have a great time.
>
> Andy R.
> E-Care
> Sprint
> "Where our customers come first!"
>
>
> Refer someone to Sprint and get $25.
> Visit www.sprint.com/referralprogram for details.
>
>
> Original Message Follows:
> ------------------------
> That is fine, however I do not agree to these material changes to the
> terms of my contract. With these changes, it is not the contract I originally
> agreed to and therefore I wish to cancel it. Since the changes are of
> Sprint's initiation and choice, I am not subject to any early termination
> fees. Please cancel my accounts.
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> From: Sprint Customer Solutions - eCare2 [mailto:[email protected]]
>
> Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 4:12 PM
>
> To: Scott Strange
>
> Subject: RE: (KMM43356603I80L0KM)
>
> Dear Scott Strange,
>
> Thank you for your reply.
>
> I understand your concern regarding the regulatory charges. I apologize
> for the inconvenience. Let me assure you that Sprint makes every effort to
> provide the most convenient products and services with the lowest possible
> rates and fees. Sprint is charging the Administrative Charge to help
> defray various costs imposed on us by other telecommunications carriers. The
> Regulatory Charge is being charged to help defray costs of various
> federal, state and local regulatory programs.
>
> Thank you for contacting us. Have a great time.
>
>
> Andy R.
> E-Care
> Sprint
>
> "Where our customers come first!"
>
> Refer someone to Sprint and get $25.
>
> Visit www.sprint.com/referralprogram for details.

>
> Original Message Follows:
>
> ------------------------
>
> Regardless of whether there is a monetary change in my bill, I do not
> agree to the new terms you have added, as I indicated below, regarding the
> Administrative and Regulatory charges.
>

> -----Original Message-----
>
> From: Sprint Customer Solutions - eCare2 [mailto:[email protected]]
>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2007 6:23 PM
>
> To: Scott Strange
>
> Subject: Re: (KMM43323408I80L0KM)
>
> Dear Scott Strange,
>
> Thanks for taking the time to email Sprint today. My name is James and I
> would like to assure you that not only can I help you with your concern, I
> would be happy to do so today.
>
> I reviewed the details of the information provided in your email and I
> would like to make you aware that, effective 01/2008, customers who receive a
> Net Increase in surcharges and fees due to the new Regulatory and
> Administrative Charges applied to their account, are eligible for
> termination of Service Agreement with a waiver of Early Termination Fees.
>
> For additional information, please go to: sprint.com/taxesandfees. If you
> wish to cancel services as a result of this change and your fees result in
> a net decrease, from your current charges, the Early Termination Fee remains
> valid and will apply.
>
> Regrettably, until your January 2008 invoice has been issued, indicating
> that you have been negatively affected by this change, we cannot wave any
> applicable Early Termination Fee at the time of cancellation of your
> account.
>
> If you would like to keep up with the latest phones, exclusive savings
> offers, breaking news, and much more, sign up for Sprint email updates at
> the following link:
>
> http://sprint.p.delivery.net/m/p/nxt/reg/gen/customer.asp
>
> If you have any further questions or account needs, please reply to my
> email. It was my pleasure to assist you today. As a valued Sprint
> customer, we appreciate your business.
>
> James D.
> E-Care
> Sprint
> "Where our customers come first!"
>
>
>
> Original Message Follows:
> ------------------------
> Customer Name: Scott Strange
> Sprint PCS Handset Phone Numbers: 913-XXX-XXXX
> 913-XXX-XXXX
> 913-XXX-XXXX
>
> Account Number : XXXXXXXXX
> Account Email Address: [email protected]
> Billing Address: XXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXX, KS XXXXX
>
>
> Dear Sprint E-Care:
> It is my understanding that effective January 1st, 2008, Sprint will
> discontinue FPCR, E911 and Federal WLNP surcharges, and introduce new
> Administrative and Regulatory charges. As it is, this constitutes an
> adverse material change in my current contract. Sprints current policy
> (as read by Account Services) is as follows:
>
> "On Jan. 1st 2008 Sprint customers who have been affected by the fees,
> [consumer and IL customers], will have their ETF waived if they wish to
> terminate their contract. There will be no post-dating of cancellation
> where the ETF will be waived as only customers affected by the new surcharges
> will be eligible."
>
> I also do not agree to the change in terms of the contract where Sprint
> will be collecting new Administrative and Regulatory charges, which are fees
> not required by law, but will be collected by Sprint and that the components of
> these fees and the calculations of these fees will be solely determined by
> Sprint, may change at any time with out regulatory oversight.
>
> After reviewing my options, and carefully taking everything into
> consideration, I have decided to terminate my existing contract and all
> three phone numbers. If you have any questions regarding this situation,
> please write back to me, or contact me at (913) XXX-XXXX.
>
>
> Regards,
> Scott Strange
>
 
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