Sprint today announced that the wireless carrier is now offering a thirty day money back guarantee for users who sign up for service with Sprint. Sprint actually started offering 30 day trials back in 2008 after being sued by Minnesota's Attorney General for sneaky contract extensions. However, while the offer allowed you to escape paying an ETF if unsatisfied within 30 days, you still had to pay for any services used during that period, in addition to having to pay taxes and a restocking fee. Now, Sprint says they're refunding the full thirty day amount (with the exception of ringtones or other third-party services purchased):Beginning tomorrow, the Sprint Free Guarantee gives any customer opening a new line of service the chance to try Sprint for 30 days. If a customer isn't completely satisfied, they can get reimbursed for the device purchase and activation fee, get the early termination fee waived, get a full refund for service plan monthly recurring charges incurred and get all associated taxes and Sprint surcharges associated with these charges waived. In addition, Sprint will waive the restocking fee for new customer exchanges as part of this policy.Sprint offers up a handy chart (above, right) highlighting how they're the only carrier currently doing this. Several operators recently began offering 30 day trials allowing users to escape paying ETFs within thirty days, but it had nothing to do with altruism. It was in response to settlements over ETF practices, or to fight off proposed laws aimed at ramping up wireless industry consumer protections. Verizon briefly offered a money-back guarantee, but then subsequently backtracked.
Sprint of course needs all the additional subscribers they can get after weathering their botched acquisition of Nextel, and the resulting customer fallout. Sprint's earnings last quarter indicate that their subscriber losses are slowing, and the company clearly hopes giving a little love to consumers may help improve things even more.
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Sprint Offers 30 Day Money Back Guarantee - Improving upon their previous 30 day free trial (where you still paid)
Posted: March 31st, 2010, 2:28pm MDT