Curious about the rumors I’ve heard on the internet regarding the Palm Pre and SERO activation, I sent an email directly to Sprint eCare asking if the Palm Pre can be activated on the SERO plan. Here’s the answer I received:
Dear Eric Nguyen,
Thank you for contacting Sprint regarding the handset.
Plam Pre cannot be activated with SERO plan. The Palm Pre will require
1 of Sprint’s Everything price plans with Data or a Sprint Business
Essentials Plan with Messaging and Data. You can get the detail of plan
detail by visiting www.sprint.com.You can check out http:www.sprint.com/palmpre for more information on
this exciting new device and to register to be notified when it is
available.We value your business and appreciate the opportunity to address your
concerns. Visit Sprint.com/mysprint if we can be of further assistance.Sincerely,
Marc G.
Sprint
SERO owners, you got . . . screwed.
From the sounds of the email, even if you purchase a Palm Pre from a third party (Ebay), they won’t let you activate it on your account.
W. . . . . T . . . . .F!!! What a lame attempt at phasing out a HUGE mistake. I mean, I know I should have seen this coming, but still, this is no excuse.
The SERO plan, for those who don’t know, is the holy grail of all cell phone plans. For $30/month – 20% discount, I’m getting:
- 500 Anytime minutes
- Free Nights/Weekends starting at 7PM
- Unlimited Text Messaging
- Unlimited Data
With the release of the Palm Pre, Sprint is trying to force everybody over to the “Everything” plan, which is the exact same thing as the SERO plan, but costs over twice as much with 50 less minutes.
Ironically, the old SERO page redirects to the new “Employee Plus Referral Program”, which is the SERO replacement. However, the cheapest plan runs $60 versus the old $30 price.
Right now, us SERO users have two options: keep the phones we have now OR try and sweet talk Sprint into activating our Palm Pre’s. I’d think the latter would be “do-able” because that’s how a good number of us got the SERO plan in the first place 
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If I have to leave SERO, I’m leaving Sprint. I’ve been a customer for 10 years, on SERO for the last 2……if they won’t be loyal to me, why should I be loyal to them?
I hear ya, Rob. I’m shocked that they’re doing this as well, but we all should have seen this coming, unfortunately. The $30 plan was such a steal that there was no way it would fly in the future. Now that the future is here, the ass hats at Sprint threw up the “OH SHIT” flag and now we’re all getting screwed
.
However, I’m going to ride this one out and see if I can somehow get Sprint to activate the Pre. Even though Sprint’s making a bad move, it’ll still take a lot of push to get me to give up the $30 SERO plan since nothing comes close to it.
I wouldn’t leave without trying to get the Pre on SERO, but if they absolutely won’t do it, screw ‘em. iPhone 4g will be out soon enough.
Yeah, but iphone data cost triple what SERO provides, around 80-90 dollars a month.
If you want the Pre, upgrade your plan and shut up and pay a price for an all inclusive plan that is still competitive.
If you want to keep your grandfathered $30 SERO plan, then I don’t blame Sprint at all for not letting you have the latest and greatest. They don’t need your business, and would be happy if you left. 10 years ago $30 a month was okay revenue. I don’t blame them for shutting you out if you wanted a new device, because it is not worth it to them to provide you their sevices for $30. Good riddance.
SERO was a special case & time to stop or slow the customer migrations to other carriers. Stop whining because your amazing deal won’t continue forever if you want Sprints hottest phone. It was nice of sprint to let you have SERO at all originally. And they are just using their hottest asset to earn more money, I hardly fault them. You either pay to play, or you just don’t play for now…
Sprint is still cheaper than every other carrier and you can’t fault them for wanting to make more money. That’s life in capitalism guys, all of you folks here are working because businesses make profit…which sprint doesn’t btw…
, and would be happy if you left. 10 years ago $30 a month was okay revenue. I don’t blame them for shutting you out if you wanted a new device, because it is not worth it to them to provide you their sevices for $30. Good riddance.
Hardly good customer service. I doubt even Sprints crappy customer service would be happy if a customer left. $30 a month is better than zero a month.
No one should be forced to change plans just to buy/upgrade a phone. Are you guys listening to yourself? If they want to make more money just don’t offer the plan anymore and do what they can to acquire new customers under their revised plans. Those who do feel it’s ok either work for Sprint or just have money throw away.
Listen, I worked for Nextel then Sprint for 5 (as a Store Manager for 3) years. When I left I was offered the SERO plan from Employee Customer Care. For all of those saying play or pay, I can understand your point, but there are many former employees who put in their time and that is why they are offered SERO. There is no real reason the SERO plan cannot work with any device except the Blackberry b/c of the Blackberry BIS. The $69.99 with n/w @ 7pm is better than anything out there but like another post pointed out, it is more than twice as much. Mr. Hesse wants more revenue from people Sprint should take care of to be advocates of their products, that is what SERO was all about in the first place.
I admit the SERO plan was a steal and i’m thankful every month that I had a chance to jump on the ship. I understand buisness and I can understand Sprint not wanting to sell me a “subsidized” Pre. Not letting me buy a full price pre however at no cost to Sprint is just bad buisness. It was pointed out earlier that $30 a month is better then $0 a month. I was pretty excited about the Pre but nothing could possibly come out that would move me off of my $30 a month plan.
Sprint needs to learn how to keep current customers happy instead of trying to come up with ideas to make them mad. Lets face it the Pre will come out on other carriers at some point. Sprint needs to give us a reason to stay with them.
To be honest, I agree with Sprint. I don’t think it would be good business practice for them to make it easy on existing customers to continue taking advantage of a plan that couldn’t possibly be bringing in any substantial revenue. That said, I myself am on SERO at the moment and I love my phone and plan more and more with each passing month. I could care less about the Palm Pre, as personally I’m more a WinMo fan, and I’ll continue on with my grandfathered plan until my “upgrade” procedure ceases to work out. I would assume most of you interested in the Pre already have Palm devices, yes? Well lucky you, as a reward for reading this far into my post, I’ll let you in on a little secret: Total Equipment Protection Plan. If you own an old Palm device, just wait a few months after the initial release date of the Pre (until you can be sure your device is unquestionably obsolete) and then maybe you drop your phone in a puddle. Call up Asurion (Sprints THIRD PARTY insurer) and they might not have any more of your exact model, which is a real shame, but I can guarantee you they’ll have the more than “comparable” Pre
John, I’ll do you one better. Instead of the Total Equipment Protection Plan (TEP), which is basically insurance, get the $4/month Equipment Service and Repair Program (ESRP) plan.
The difference? TEP costs $7/month and there is a $50-$100 deductible per claim. ESRP is $4/month, no deductible, but it does not cover being lost, stolen, or water damaged. So, to remedy that, have an “accident” with your charging port and bring it to the Sprint store saying you can’t charge the phone anymore. Of course, they won’t be able to fix it, so they’ll issue a replacement. Tada! New phone without paying a dime.
BTW: I did the above with 3 Treo 650′s and once with my Touch Pro. I had to brick my Touch Pro before bringing it in. I just said I woke up one day and the phone was jacked up. Of course, they couldn’t figure it out, so I got a replacement
@ Eric:
LOL. I was not aware of the ESRP, although now I’m considering it. TEP was actually how I acquired my current Touch Pro, as my old Mogul decided to take a little swim in the Gulf of Mexico over spring break.
I am on the Sprint Sero plan since 2007.
Two months ago, I upgraded my phone from a Centro to the old HTC Touch (when it appeared briefly on the Sprint website).
I was allowed to extend my Sero plan ($30 / month) by 2 years.
I think that as long as you are not trying to get a blackberry, or pre, you can extend your Sero plan
I’ve talked to executive services. If you can get a hold of a Palm Pre, outside of the sprint store, or have someone get it for you and then reactivate their old phone back onto the account to give you the Palm Pre. You can have it on an Everything Plus Plan which is the new SERO.
They don’t even offer the $30 SERO plan to anyone anymore. If you think it’s worth paying double for the Pre (which i think it is) because ATT for the iphone still costs twice as much as even an Everything Plus 500 plan through sprint to be able to get the same stuff that plan has. 60 dollars a month is not a rip off for what you’re getting. It’s over 100 dollars through ATT and you still get almost crap for it.
As far as when the phone is available for SERO customers to buy directly online, I haven’t been told anything yet. All I know is that that if we can get our hands on one, we can get it activated on Everything Plus.
I bet you could talk Sprint into activating your Pre, especially now that iPhones are $99. I mean, it’ll be nothing to pay $175 termination fee when the new phone is only $99. Hell . . . I may do it anyway.
Brandon, sorry, but I already tried. No way in hell could they do it; their system simply won’t let it go through. When I was trying to get my SERO number switched over to my Pre, they gave me all sorts of crap because they were trying to swap ESNs and thus tried putting my Pre on my old SERO account. Wouldn’t go through.
Folks, let’s cut right to the chase here. Sprint doesn’t have its act together on many levels. I believe the more salient of these issues are principally the lack of the basic application of common sense, politeness, and a detailed understanding of Sprint’s business model–ergo, that what it actually needs to be is far, far away from what it is currently–that each and every person, from the CEO down to the sales floor rep., needs to memorize, understand, and implement flawlessly to attract–and keep, new customers.
Not allowing BlackBerrys on an employee discount plan? I wonder how Canadians would take that, considering BlackBerry’s origins? BlackBerrys are the backbone of the corporate world’s wireless data systems for their employees, managers, and board room members. I prefer BlackBerry for many things, WinMo/PocketPC/CE for others, and PalmOS (the original) for yet others.
Sprint is #4 for a reason, followed by T-Mobile (who is getting better and larger every day and is still the best overall value in worldwide cellular service), then Verizon, then AT&T. We all know the last carrier is also among the priciest. They also have pretty much the most phones and available features for both their network *and* their handsets.
Sprint Corporate: WAKE UP! Stop nixxing basic features like tethering and giving lame excuses why it can’t be included in a ‘Simply Everything’ type package for the Pre. Until you get your act together, I think I’m just going back to T-Mobile; at least there I didn’t have customer service issues the way I did with Sprint three years ago.
I am hoping for better for the Pre and the Pre’s customers. I would expect nothing but the best for Sprint’s employees, including the inclusion of BlackBerrys with the employee discount plans.
Warm Regards,
Firefishe
This Is a Reply To Eric, Above:
All the more reason to use the R-UMI (spelling?) cards that are available for CDMA carriers. If CDMA doesn’t do something like the GSM’s do with the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards, I think CDMA is going to go the way of the dinosaur.
When your computer won’t allow a simple phone switcheroo because of company prejudice to only certain ESN’s, it’s time to change the entire CDMA framework. CDMA carriers still think they’re living in the old A-B Analog (AMPS) days, at least so far as giving their end-users control over what handsets they can use on the network.
It’s time for change, and I expect to see it or watch CDMA die out at as a protocol–which it already is, anyway.
Warm Regards,
Firefishe