Re: Need advice re: new phone and plans.

schrodinger's cat wrote:
> Here's the situation:
>
> My wife and I are currently on a 2 line family plan contract which
> expires in September. The contract is in her name because a couple of
> years ago when we decided that it would be cheaper if we gave up our
> individual plans, my contract ran out first and I joined her plan. We
> have both been SPCS customers for more than ten years. I have Vision at
> $10.00/month on my line because I use email and text messaging for
> business (and checking sports scores). My wife has voice only because
> she just uses her phone for, well, telephone conversations.
>
> Recently, my wife has started to be bombarded by Sprint reps calling her
> on her SPCS phone to try to talk her into extending her contract, even
> though it still has several months remaining. They seem to be offering
> nothing more than what we already have in the way of price and features,
> except for the offer of two free new phones. Coincidentally, her company
> has been pressuring her lately to upgrade her phone to one on which she
> can send and receive email, because she is part of an emergency response
> team.
>
> My LG LX350 does everything I need in terms of email and texting. The
> text messages are mainly incoming to notify me of voice calls, emails,
> or faxes that have been received at my unified message center. I can
> read the emails using Opera Mini, and I can respond either by a phone
> call or by waiting until I am back in my office and can send a reply
> email from my computer, so I rarely have to deal with typing a message
> on the phone's keypad. My wife, on the other hand, may need to respond
> to emails immediately, at any time, from wherever she happens to be, and
> her messages are by nature long and complex, so she will need a phone
> with an easy to use full QWERTY keyboard. She does not, however, need
> much in the way of bells and whistles, because she uses the phone to
> communicate and nothing more. She has no interest in games, TV, music,
> applications other than email, or web browsing on the phone. (In fact,
> Sprint has told her that she has to replace her ancient Sanyo SCP-4500
> if she ever expects to need to roam again, because it only supports
> analog roaming, and apparently they will soon offer only digital
> roaming).
>
> So here's what we need:
>
> Myself: Fine with the phone and options I have now.
>
> My wife: Simplest available email capable phone with full keyboard and
> decent screen size (her eyesight is not the best).
>
> I would also like to leverage Sprint's eagerness to extend our contract
> to try to get some concessions on plan pricing. The current family
> plans, it seems to me, are very limited in what they include and force
> you to pay full price for add-ons like internet access. I see no reason
> why we should have to pay $25/month for Power Vision with a PDA phone
> when Vision at $15/month will suffice for our needs, but Power Vision is
> the only option listed for those phones.
>
> Questions:
>
> What phones should we be looking at for my wife?
>
> What kinds of 2 line plans might be out there that are not easily
> discovered on the Sprint web site?
>
> Are there any current long time customer reward incentives being offered
> by Sprint?
>
> Thanks for any feedback.

I too, have been with sprint for 10 years.

I now have a family shared plan...750 anytime...8pm start..unlimited
n&w...new phones every 1 1/2 years...$40 month+the ridiculous taxes..We
use our 2 phones for voice and email only.

My plan expires next month and I hope to get a better rate, but am
looking around in the meanwhile.

Since they replaced our awful A640 phones about 8 months ago for M300,
the service has been great.