Sprint: Phone Replacement, Urgent PLease help!

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Hey guys, I ran into quite a predicament today. As I was walking to work, I fell something fall out and slide half way across the parking lot. I felt me phone case (the crappy one that came with the phone), looked down on the ground and noticed it was my AWESOME Sprint Touch Pro. With the site of my phone moving in a hockey-like manner, I finished cursing and decided that I don’t want to have such an amazing phone looking like a piece of crap.

So here is where I am at. I need to get this phone fixed. I think that I might have a few options, but I want to know what you guys think. Originally, I bought this phone from a guy of Craigslist; it was $240, if you can believe it. Now, the phone had never been activated, so it was as if I was the original owner. Additionally, I never got a phone from sprint, but I am under contract. That means, according to sprint, that I am eligible for a new to get a new phone at anytime. Thus, I reach my questions and request for opinions.

Option 1 (least likely): Since the phone was never activated, can I still claim the 30-day phone guarantee from sprint? Meaning, can I return the phone as if it was defective?

Option 2 (What I will probably have to do): Should I buy a phone, get the equipment protection plan, and then process my touch pro as a defective phone. This seems like a relatively good idea, because I can get a phone pretty cheap (like the rant) and sell it on Ebay. So in the end, I make money off of this idea. The only down side is that my contract restarts, but I have only been with sprint for about four months. Also, I was going to save my free phone upgrade for next year so I could get a brand spanking new phone.

Option 3 (Don’t want to do this): Suck it up, and get a silicon case that covers the scratches. The scratches are only around the shiny part on the perimeter of the screen, which, by the way, says a lot about the quality of the screen.

Option 4 (Too much trouble): Sell it on eBay for as much as I can, and since it’s probable less than $300, put the rest out of pocket and buy a brand new touch pro from sprint.

Option 5 (Does it exits?): look for replacement housing. Since the phone is new, I don’t know if it’s even out there yet.

Thanks for all your input guys. I really hope to hear from some Sprint Reps or something. Meanwhile, I am going to try to sucker Sprint into helping me out.

P.S Yes, I know what I am doing is unethical, and that the phone is not really defective, thus I should not be returning it as defective.

I think I am having trouble understanding what happened. You have scratched your touch pro that you bought from someone else, I got that.

You never activated the phone on sprint? You should go ahead and put the phone one your account and get insurance immediately!

If you have only been with Sprint for 4 months how are you eligible for an upgrade?

If it is only chrome scratched my TP came like that. Look at the chrome around the keyboard section. At all 3 corners, excluding the Stylus one check for a "Seam" in the chrome, if it has this you can take it in and exchange at a Sprint store.

A scratched phone on Ebay will go for MUCH less than a regular one.

I am not here to tell you whether you are ethical or not, but you should exhaust all options that seem less unethical first before trying to make someone else pay for your mistake. That being said, I think everyone in the world would try to get a new phone for free, so I wouldn't feel too bad.

The phone is activated on sprint, but the person that sold it to me never activated it. It has been only a few days since I activated, can I still add the TEP? And are they going to charger a deductible, cuz they'll charge me $55 to fix it.

I am eligible for an upgrade cuz I never got a phone from sprint.

So if it has some defects I could take it back, even though I have no TEP? Unfortunately, the phone is flawless other than my stupid scratches.

TBH, I don't fell doing this to sprint. They have screwed me over many times over. This would just even it out.

If it is activated just go ahead and get insurance. You can add it anytime. They will charge deductible normally, but instead of telling them its because of scratches tell them you are experiencing poor battery life and that you can't hear anything in the speaker because it sounds like a tin can.

Oh, you never purchased a phone when you switched. I was confused. Thanks for clarification.

Look for those seams, almost every TP has them and they will switch for free without TEP. They are hard to notice but mine has em and I am going to switch soon.

They have screwed me repeatedly and I would be doing the same thing. Haha, I wasn't trying to preach in my post before.

Is there a grace period to get it? I thought it was like 30 days. Yea, I can lie to them, no problem. Though my bat life is amazing. play with it all day and never has died on me.

Can you direct me to a link to where this seams thingy is being discussed, or where the sources where u got this is at. I want to read some on it. Or maybe some pics, I didn't really know where to look.

Yea, well, they decided to renew my contract, and it said they had returned my deposit...I'm definitely going to use that against them.

To be honest, they have messed up so many times, I have only paid my full bill about 2 times.

I Heard my Sprint Rep. say that the insurance can only be added within the first 30 days.

So here is the rub....How do they know when you purchased it? Unfortunately logic would say that the insurance only applies to devices purchased directly from the carrier, but I hope I am wrong.

Originally Posted by ramiss

I Heard my Sprint Rep. say that the insurance can only be added within the first 30 days.

So here is the rub....How do they know when you purchased it? Unfortunately logic would say that the insurance only applies to devices purchased directly from the carrier, but I hope I am wrong.

Unless they changed the policy, that's not true. I had a phone for 6 months before I added the insurance online through the My Account feature.

But it's possible that has been changed and no longer do able.

Guys Thanks for all your responses, they are very informative.

So Basically here, I am leaning towards trying to see if I can get insurance added. I don't know how hard of a task this will be, but I hope that they can be persuaded into helping me out.

If not, I will just get a cheap phone and sell it.

Again, I am aware of the ethical lines being crossed, but wit sprint, those lines seem almost unreal.

update (Sorry about the double post):

So to my surprise srpint sent this in an email:

Regarding the call from the technical department, I have forwarded your
concern to the appropriate department.

The handset on the account is under 30 day return period. You can visit
the nearest Sprint store and replace the handset.

Thank you again for contacting Sprint. Have a great day!

its 30 days from the day you activate the phone...so you can go to a sprint store or call customer service and add insurance


as a tech in a sprint affiliate store i WOULD NOT swap you out for free because of cosmetic damage. So you are looking at paying 50 through Asurion(the insurance company)