Sprint this weekend discontinued its Sprint Employee Referral Offer (SERO), and in its place launched new Everything Plus plans.
The SERO plan line was an attempt to lure high-tech and savvy customers over to Sprint with 500 minutes and unlimited data for only $30/month. In many cases, this was significantly cheaper than other carrier’s data-only offerings. Sprint was criticized recently for attempting to dissuade such users from using these plans, and instead force them into more lucrative.
Reporting by PhoneNews.com helped turn the tide, and PDA and Smartphones are still permitted on SERO. However, plans were already under way to cancel SERO completely.
The new Everything Plus, while replacing SERO, are not significant plan savings over the typical Sprint Everything plans. And, similarly confusing, they do not offer “everything” that Sprint provides, such as Phone As Modem. Specifically, these plans add Sprint Navigation into the included offerings. However, the cost savings is typically between $10/month and $20/month, far lower than the nearly $40/month savings offered by SERO.
Also changed is Sprint’s marketing of SERO. Sprint created several paths to offer SERO directly to consumers, even if they did not know a Sprint employee. Worse, Sprint later denied offering those programs, claiming SERO was exclusively an employee-only referral program.
Now, Everything Plus will require not only a Sprint email address, but part of an employee’s login ID. Sprint has also better trained employees that Everything Plus is not to be offered to existing Sprint customers.
Digg This: http://digg.com/gadgets/Sprint_Pulls_the_Plug_on_SERO_Launches_Everything_Plus
Add some new customers with instinct, deter just as many by killing SERO. Once again we see the powerful minds at Sprint fully at work.
The crying and whining can start now, Sprint put more thought into this offering. If old SERO subs leave because of change they’ll just pay more for the same elsewhere
what does this mean for current sero users? i have been trying to get out of my contract for a while (6 months left) and would love if sprint gave current sero users the option of leaving without paying an etf.
SERO was great from day one for the customer, and it made sense years ago, but I have thought for the last couple years that it was silly for any major carrier to give “anybody” access to such cheap rates. Sprint doesn’t even give these types of discounts to businesses that have thousands of lines of service (except one or two I can think of) but most of them get a max of 15-25% off their bill, and I don’t think SERO should be any different.
To make it easy to understand they set a rate for a few plans instead of making it a percentage discount, but I think it is a step in the right direction. Sprint needs to get back to higher ARPU per customer, and this is a way to do it.
BTW, does anyone have specifics on the plans for those of us that don’t have address to the credentials?
From what is said elsewhere, everything the SERO plans has the SE Plus plans have with nav included. The only way out of the ETF is using those new caps, think the period to cancel has good and gone as far as I know. Turn the phone to roam only and they will kick you off if leaving w/o the fee is what you want. Plan changes are not a reason to waive fees, if it’s that bad just pay the fee
Sprint needed SERO. Even if they were low margin customers, SERO gave people a reason to go to Sprint. When you lose a million customers in a quarter (Q1 2008) that should tell you something about the level of quality care and service you provide. I’m still shocked to see people posting that they have left their SERO plans to pay more than twice as much with another carrier. That’s how bad Sprint’s service/billing can be.
The new plans don’t make any sense. I would rather go to a non-SEP and use things like my corp discount (which isn’t supposed to be an option with SERO) to lower my price. I’m all for tightening the reigns for new sign-ups but why make it harder and provide lousy prices at the same time?
@Don Louie
I just had my contract ended 18 months earlier today because of the 5GB cap so the window is still open (I even kept service no less!)
Also the roaming thing is no longer true…if you check the new terms and conditions if Sprint kicks you for using too much bandwidth or roaming too much you are still responsible for the ETF…
So does this mean existing SERO customers are getting switched, or just that no new SERO accounts will be allowed?
Also, what are trhe details of the new offerings? How much does it cost and what do you get?
this may make sense for sprint but what doesn’t is not lettin you use your corp disc on any of the everything plans. not even the ones that weren’t on sero. why give me a disc if I can only use it on a couple of plans..
I work for Sprint in one of their corporare retails stores. Woohoo Sprint! I applaude my employer for tightening the reigns with discounted wireless plans like the shooting the SERO plan in the behind the head with a 9mm SERO and making people have to have a certain part of an employee’s CID as well as the employee’s Sprint corporate e mail address. Mine is bitemeyoudillweeds@sprint.com and CID is 000666. Thank God no one in my store will be giving up their stuff. We want sales and if someone comes in looking for sales, well by the power of the flying turd, they will be walking out the door with an new phone.
Hey sprint employee, your mentality is the same mentality that is making sprint the worse cell phone company. Your the kind of employee that is forcing customers to leave sprint by the millions. I can’t wait to what othet stupid choices sprint makes. Im all for rate increases if it means better customer service but sprint employees just keep getting dumber by the minute. Now i’m just waiting to see who is going to buy out sprint before they die a slow and painful death, when loyal customers are no longer sticking by.
> Sprint has also better trained employees that Everything Plus is not to be offered to existing Sprint customers.
Not true. Just like with the old SERO plans, existing customers can add an Everything Plus line to their account. They just can’t — like with SERO — convert an existing line of service into an Everything Plus line.
Directly from the Everything Plus page which you linked: “Available to new Sprint customers or existing customers adding a new line (no migration from existing lines of service)”
@Dan H./SaltyDawg:
There are two plans, one with 500 minutes for $59.99 and another with 1000 minutes for $79.99.
Both plans include unlimited texting (including picture and video mail), unlimited data, unlimited navigation, music premier, tv premier, BIS (for blackberry phones), unlimited long distance, roaming included (subject to the same limitations as non-EP plans, I would imagine), unlimited sprint-to-sprint calling, and unlimited nights/weekends starting at 7pm.
@James:
This has no impact on current SERO users. Your plan will not change. Unless you want to switch to an Instinct, in which case you’ll need to switch to one of the current plans.
They will walk out, forget the new phone
To Jaz, don’t let the door hit on the way out. It is quite nice to see someone like yourself who probably pushes on the pull doors. I guess that’s the price you pay for eating lead chips at as a child. Sprint retail employees now are empowered to take care of customer service related issues and apply justifiable monetary credits to the account accordingly. BTW, learn to use a dictionary. Your is not the same as you’re and Im is actually I’m in the context you used in your poorly written attempt of a response. Why should potential customers be entitled to a discount plan like the Everything Plus? They don’t help retail employees reach their monthly goals at all. Yes, it benefits Sprint in the big picture, but guess what Jaz? The big picture doesn’t keep you employed.
Bjn, our reporting was correct. Sprint employees are trained that existing customers are not to be offered Everything Plus. You are not allowed to have two open accounts with Sprint, unless there is a technical restriction (such as having a data card and voice line). Thus, you can’t add an Everything Plus line without the entire account originally existing as an Everything Plus or SERO account.
Come on Sprint employee why don’t you stop worrying about my spelling and start worrying about how you will actually help the customers. If sprint employees are NOW “empowered” to take care of customer service then what have they been doing all this time? Come on! The SERO plan was made available to everyone not just customers that help employees monthly goals. This just shows how sprint is only focused on making sales, not helping the customer after the sale. If sprint was worried about who was allowed to get the SERO plan then they should have been stricter or actually hire more knowledgeable employees or fire the ones they have now. Maybe now that they are charging more for their plans they can actually focus on hiring better associates that can actually handle complex issues that don’t require you to ask for a supervisor who is just as dumb. I really hope sprint employees like you start going through some type of training program to help with the horrible service.
There are a lot of Sprint employees and representatives who are very knowledgeable , and then there are the ones like the poster above who gives the whole company a black eye. SERO was a good thing and I like many will be sad to see it go and with the economic situation of this country the way it is. It wasn’t a matter of if it was a matter of when. Sprint has been taking on water quicker than the Titanic and new plans and phones such as Simply Everything, and the Instinct have helped slow the number of exiting customers and gain some new, however at the same time taking away the SERO plans which though they bring a lower amount of revenue per customer they were still helping to refill the gap left by the customers they lost at this point and time makes no since. It would have made a lot more since to have raised the SERO plan pricing structure by $10.00 per plan and delayed the termination of this plan until they could show some growth and once again rebuild some strength and confidence in the company. Lastly to the employee above if this is how you act and perform then don’t be surprised when you get your layoff notice because Sprint once again had to lay off employees because of the continued loss of customers, well that is if you even work for Sprint. It’s the attitude of people like your self who continue to provide the fuel needed to continue the destruction of what at one time was the best wireless provider in the US.
@Christopher Price:
Ok, well, I can’t tell you how Sprint employees are trained, so if you have some inside knowledge on that, I’ll defer to you.
What I can tell you is that Sprint’s official policy is to allow non-SERO/EP customers to get a new line of service on SERO/EP.
On the Everything Plus site (once you enter the employee address/ID#) you can click on a link for program details. This is a portion of the text:
Adding to an Existing Sprint Account
The Everything Plus program is open to current Sprint customers that are activating a new line of service. Please note that due to the exclusive plans and discounts involved, Sprint is only able to add a Everything Plus purchase to an existing Everything Plus account. If you have an existing non-Everything Plus Sprint account, a new Sprint account will be created for this discounted Everything Plus line of service. We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause, but hope you will appreciate the deep monthly discounts this allows us to provide to you. For new Everything Plus accounts, you may proceed through this online store or call 1-888-882-4030. If you would like to add a new line to your existing Everything Plus account, you can do so through an Everything Plus phone rep at 1-888-882-4030.
We’ll look into it, we were told the opposite, but it’s quite possible that SERO collateral was updated incorrectly. I have no reason to doubt what was posted on the Everything Plus store, though I don’t see why someone would want to open a second account on Everything Plus in addition to their existing account. That would cost more in just every situation than having a shared Sprint Everything family plan.
@ sprintemployee
How many SERO customers are there today that would still be with Sprint if not for SERO? Very few is my guess. By offering SERO Sprint was hardly cannibalizing their business. SERO customers represented (for the most part) a new customer base. These weren’t people who walked into your store to buy retail and then changed their mind and went with SERO.
While you are worried about your commissions you should be worried about your job. At the rate that people are fleeing Sprint the company is on a short leash. Having the attitude you exhibit is just one more reason why people are bailing out. Absurdly poor call center support is another.
RIP SERO. I sure hope I keep getting grandfathered in. If not, then it’s off to a new carrier.
One of the biggest reasons why SERO was pulled was because of people looking for a cheap plan and used whatever sprint email address they could find clearly abusing the process. Because of those few bad apples, they ruined it for the rest of us. But to be honest, the Simply Everything plans are in my opinion a lot better than some of the other carriers plans.
BJ, well put. Maybe other sprint employees will see this and make positive changes. In regards to the Sero Luckily i just spoke with a sprint rep and they told me our plans are fine as long as you don’t switch them. They also told me if you want to make changes within the SERO plan you have about 75 days to make any changes before they don’t allow anymore changes.
@Christopher Price
That’s probably true in most cases, especially where the customer wants all features (voice, data, texting, gps, etc) on all lines. But I bet there are some instances where it would benefit the customer to get a second account on Everything Plus.
At any rate, I’m not trying to argue the logic of Sprint’s decisions. I’m just trying to make sure that everyone understands the rules as Sprint has set them up.
Jose you make a good point. People did abuse the SERO plan. But you have to remember most of the people that I know that have the SERO plan just called sprint and they got it that way with no questions asked. It is not the customers fault if they allowed this. I think sprint put that savings at emi address out there on purpose to gain some new clients. Also sprint does have some great employees but those employees like some of the ones that post some inconsiderate comments on this site ruin it for all those employees that do a good job.
I switched to Apple today… My SERO plan runs out in Sept. ’08.
THE 3G IS NOW CHEAPER FOR ME!! NOT TO MENTION A FAR SUPERIOR PHONE!!
1- Sprint would not add me to the new “Everything Plus” plan. Claimed they didnt know it even existed. Spoke to a half dozen people on the phone & store. Just a huge run around.
2- Spoke to the CS Manager Brian. I have his ID #….HES CLUELESS TO AN EVERYTHING PLAN EVEN EXISTING. I CALLED TODAY, JULY 14TH!!!
3- Went to the store found out I qualify for a 15% government credit. I said great sign me up for the discount. I’ll finally get the phone. The store Manager said, “THEY CANNOT COMBINE DISCOUNTS TO THEIR EVERYTHING PLAN?” Called *2 in the store to verfiy this. They concurred. I was stunned.
Went accross the mall to the AT&T store. IT WAS PACKED. Told me with my government discount, they’d have the phone in 2-3 days AT $54 and change for their 450 min. plan.
I told them I would call Sprint one more time just to confirm that they are selling their POS Instinct for more then the IPhone. ( Not exactly those words).
Im stunned to think Sprint thinks they can get more $$$ then the Iphone. I have always hated Sprints/ Nextel phone coverage as it is crap in the Philly metro. The SERO plan was the best thou.
Tomorrow, I sell short Samsunng and Sprint (Nextel ) stock. STICK A FORK IN THEM.
To the Sprint employee above….Your attitude is typical. I work in the Network/Telecom business. We’ll see how glib you are a year from now….Dont send your resume my way unless your looking for the Janitors job.
Wow. Had a bunch of friends that were using that. Oh well. All good things must come to an end.
Wow, I had so much frustration with Sprint lately. On Thursday I called to make a new sero line, and I was supposed to get a call back on Friday form a sprint representative to finish up the order. No surprise that call never happened. To make the story short I now can’t get that plan since it is no longer available I have tried so many time. Called every department, it’s clearly the sprint’s fault. And nothing, no one at sprint is willing or able to help me. It’s been a big frustration. I guess I am not getting that plan afterwards. ïŒ Maybe if there is someone who is looking to get reed of his/her plan, if he can transfer that plan to me it would be so great. Anyways, just had to share my disappointment with someone about sprint. Maybe sprint employee can explain me what happened at sprint. If so email me at lutzik@gmail.com
Sorry things didn’t work out for you, if you knew about SERO beforehand maybe you should have tried to enroll sooner, don’t know your circumstances. The SE Plus plans are still a deal
I will say this Sprint Employee is right in some of the things he is saying in that he doesn’t feel sorry for people that try and get on SERO and what not. Real fast I do not work for Sprint my company issued me a Sprint phone. I think many Sprint reps have the attitude that some people are worthless and they dont care because they come to these sites and read on them and almost any post that has Sprint in the title is a “Lets trash Sprint” post/thread. I am not taking up for corporate policy, but the employees that have to see this stuff everyday and I am sure it makes it hard to go to work and be the best employee out there. In my mind it is jsut a circle of site posters trash Sprint so some employees take it out of customers who in turn trash Sprint on site. I know this comes off as a rant and is off topic, but I cant go to a cellphone site and read any actual informational stuff about Sprint without it jsut becoming a trash Sprint thread. I can go all day and read most of the hofo thread on the verizon/at&t section with almost no no informal post. I like to here about LTE/Wimax and as soon is that is in a Verizon section nothing negative is posted and as soon as it is in a Sprint section its becomes a trash Sprint section not a hey cool thingss about LTE/Wimax. Sorry long rant just tired of the lack of actual information in post even though some posters here had some good enough.
let me get this straight. Ive been on sero since the beginning of 08. I have a 2 year contract that was actually just renewed again not more than a month ago.
My question is…can I keep extending my sero contract if 2 years are coming to an end?
Once your contract expires, you can simply stay on your SERO plan. You don’t need to change anything.
cool thanks
ive been reading that of people asking what would happen to their sero plan after their 2yrs contract is up, well the from experience i could say that the only thing theyll end up doing is just keep it the same or just renew it if you would like to take advantage of any discounts they might have for extending your contract. i use to work for a nextel 3rd party store and i was able to get an employee plan which give you 3000 anytime minutes and unlimited 2way for your ready only $15 yeap and ive had the same plan for about 9 years now something like that so i dont think theyll take your SERO plan away after the 2 yrs is up . you just keep paying the same the 2 yrs is only so they can end up charging you the early termination fee if you were to get ou the plan before the 2 yrs thats about it
Thomas,
I cant speak for everyone but I think people bash Sprint for…
1- Terrible customer service. Waint on hold for an hour then being transferred from person to the next that can barely speak English is very frustrating.
2- Their infracture is extremely poor. Atleast were I live. My wife has Verizon and some friends hav T. I have the worst coverage of them all
3- They are inconsistant in there plans and uneducated. They seem to not be trained properly on the basics of their products. For instance, I was told by several people that I wont qualify for the Everything Plus plan at $59, even thou I had a legitimate referral with email & ID. They said since I was a prior SERO plan holder, I couldnt qualify?? THAT IS DUMB BUSINESS. I AM A CUSTOMER WILLING TO UP MY PHONE BILL BY 100% AND THEY DENT ME, SO I STAY AT $30 A MONTH UNTIL MY CONTRACT ENDS IN A MONTH. And finally to top it all off, I qualify for the Corporate plan since a am a Fed. I get 15% off, which would have put my 450 min. everything plan at $59. It states that right on the website. Yet, I couldnt find a single sales rep to give the discount. Finally, I was able to talk to a higher up and they said theres no reason I shouldnt have qualified for the 15% off corporate discount. He said they dont allow that on the “$99 All Everytyhing plan” but all other plans like the 450 min w/ everything, it certainly is allowed. I made myself crystal clear to a dozen sales persons on the phone and in person that I wanted the 450 min everything plan and they all stated that they could not combine a Corp. discount with any Everyting plan, WHICH IS TOTAL B.S.
ITS TOO LATE THOU, I picked up the IPhone and love it! My bill is only $54 a month and its a beautiful thing to actually talk to a knowledgeable customer support staff that is consistant and most of all, I CAN UNDERSTAND THEIR ENGLISH!
Rant over…..The grass is greener on the other side…. I am through with Sprint for good.
What iPhone plan do you have for $54?
SaltyDawg, that would be the GoPhone PYP plan for $29.99 + the $20 iPhone data plan.
With $4 in taxes, that would add up to $54. And, that is officially supported by Apple, no jailbreaking or hacking required.
So that’s only a first gen iPhone plan then, or a second gen (with 3G)?
A second gen iPhone for $54 per month is sounding pretty good if that’s what he’s talking about…
I’ve had SERO since March ’08. The plan I have seems fine to me. When I got the plan, I also bought the HTC Touch Phone. What I would like to know is if the SERO plan allows me to use the AIM programs on my phone. I’ve looked at it and it seems I have to download the program through the internet on my phone in order to use it. If I did download it and used it, would it cost anything?
So far, I’ve viewed my account and I have the following:
* Sprint Fair & Flex
* Caller ID
* Adjustable Anytime Minutes
* Call Waiting
* Three-way Calling
* $30.00 Minimum Monthly Charge
* Voicemail
* Nationwide Long Distance Included
* Unlimited Night & Weekend Mins. Included
* Nights: M-Th 7PM-7AM Wknd: F 7PM-M 7AM
* Unlimited Mobile to Mobile (pcs to Pcs)
Monthly Charge for SERVICE PLAN: $0.00
I also have unlimited text even if it doesn’t say so in my account, so it makes me wonder why Sprint would exclude information that pertains to me? By the way, I’ve also used my web browser many, many times to view facebook, myspace, pictures (sent from SMS & is only viewable through the web browser), email, and other websites, and I haven’t seen any jumps in my monthly bills.
Currently, I pay about $33/monthly.
Does this mean I also have unlimited messaging and data?
I’m on a SERO plan and I don’t give an F about employee sales….its cheap and that is the only reason I have it. I’d like to get a Palm Pre but if they try to force me into a more expensive plan to do it then I will leave and go to AT&T to get an iPhone. Why?
1) Sprint’s customer service is absolute crap. It took them nearly a week to transfer my number when I signed up and get my phone activated. Every time I called I got a new moron who didn’t seem to be able to do anything but read off of boiler plate whenever I tried to explain the simplest requests. They literally had no clue what they were doing. I’ve been with 3 other cell phone companies and never had anywhere near as difficult a time getting my phone working with any of them.
2) Sprint’s network coverage sucks balls compared to my previous plans, with frequent annoying echoes and garbled data.
3) Sprint’s website seems to not be working about 40% of the time I log on to do anything, like pay my bill.
Why do I put up with any of this crap? Because its cheap…I get what I pay for. So if they try to charge me more for this kind of service the value will be gone and I will go elsewhere.
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[…] was first launched in 2007, then sporadically being offered throughout the next year before being systematically eliminated in 2008 for less attractive Everything Plus plans due to incidents of abuse, a focus on increasing […]