Lost SERO customers

I signed up for SERO when it first started. My bills showed my plan as, "SERO 500" for about a year and then changed to, "Fair and Flexible" but still had all the SERO perks and the SERO rate charged. I called customer service when it changed and was told it was just how their systems displayed the plan after an update - my plan was still SERO and not to worry about it.

My trusty Touch Pro 2 died a sudden unexpected death in December so I called Sprint customer service to find out what my options were for getting a new phone. The rep said that I'd need to upgrade to SERO premium if I wanted a smartphone, so I agreed to upgrade. He then told me he couldn't upgrade me because there was no record of me ever having a SERO plan! I tried going to a corporate Sprint store - same thing. I tried calling customer service and asking for the SERO department or Sprint Employee customers service only to either be told that the regular customer service rep handled that and they would offer to, "help" me or they would transfer me to another regular customer service rep. Either way I was told that I was never on SERO and I'd need to get their regular $80/mo. plan.

It turns out that regular customer service folks don't have to the ability to see if a SERO account was transformed into another account by Sprint. After many hours of searching on the internet I found the solution! Only Sprint's employee customer service has the power to see if your account was ever on SERO. If you call 1-888-603-7981 they can help you. I got my account changed to SERO premium in under 2 minutes. This won't work if you're trying to create a new SERO account or reclaim a SERO plan that you gave up or sold - but if you're on a SERO plan that morphed into something else it's the quickest way to get back to the promised land.

My TP2 died recently as well and I am looking into options. When you renewed and got a new phone did you end up paying $20 more or $10 and what phone did you choose? I read if I get a 3g phone (HTC Arrive) I should only have to pay $10 more. But I also read conflicting info and when I called the normal customer service he said I would end up paying $20 more for my SERO plan. Any advice would be appreciated.

Over Christmas I updated my wife's SERO phone to a Marquee. HUGE HASSLE. First I called the Sprint Sero number to upgrade to SERO P. A very nice rep said that the $10 data plan was added to my wife's SERO account and that I should call back when we got the phone. (FREE AR from BB) When we ordered the phone from BB, they said they could not access my Sero account and therefore I could not order the phone from BB, only Sprint. So, we ordered the phone from Sprint SERO for $100 AR. I ordered the phone directly from a SERO Rep who said to call back when I got the phone. (Call the same SERO number...)

When the phone arrived, I called the same number. This time they said that the Marquee was incompatible with my obsolete "Friends & Family" plan and that I would have change to a $80 per month plan or get a "feature phone" vs. a smartphone. She said that no Smartphones would work with my old plan. I said that we already have Smarphones (Touch Pros) and therefore what she said was not true - we have ALWAYS had some type of Smartphone with Sprint... She then said that I was never on Sprint SERO. I volunteered to email or fax my invoices which all said Sprint SERO. She said she had no way of receiving my emails or faxes and that she had to follow the data on the computers.

I called various Sprint SERO numbers & talked to various reps. Every time one said I did not have a SERO account, I hung up and called again. After over 3 HOURS on the phone I finally got a SERO account manager to manually change my wife's plan. It was a HUGE hassle and now we are paying $50 for her plan and $30 for my unchanged plan (I still have a Touch Pro...) Even though the Marquee is only 3G & we live out in the country where they do not even have 4G, we had to pay for the $50 plan.

I have already decided that when my contract is up I am switching away from Sprint. Only 2 out of 10 customer service reps were nice and helpful. The rest kept telling me that I would have to pay $80 for the same features we had with a $30 plan. It's sad that in the USA the only jobs left our service-related and we can't even do that right.

I THINK the big problem with SERO was that, several years ago, a lot of different plans were classified as SERO. As a matter of fact, the acronym SERO also morphed over time. Someone at Sprint finally put his foot down and came up with the final definition of what SERO was and all the plans under SERO were either converted to something else or kept as SERO. My plan used to say SERO Fair & Flexible or something like that. Now it says SERO 500.

I haven't converted my plan to SERO-P yet because, based on my usage, I just can't justify paying the extra $120 to $240 a year to get a more modern phone. I am working from home now, so having a cellphone is not as vital as it used to be. Plus, I have a tablet, so my data usage on my phone has dropped tremendously as well. I am still using my antique HTC Touch converted to Android. As a matter of fact, I'm considering ditching my SERO and going with some prepaid plan. As it is now, after taxes, I'm paying $36/month for my SERO plan. There are a couple of $30 prepaid plans that would still give me enough minutes, text, and data and I can switch to a newer phone.

To Spiffy: It was my understanding that the LG Marquee was the last smartphone that you could use on the SERO-P ($40/month) without having to add the extra $10/month Premium Data fee. So you shouldn't be paying $50/month. I'd double-check on that.

Thanks OP! worked for me. The rep tried to deny it at first that i could transfer to the SERO-P, She tried very hard, and when I told her I am quitting Sprint, she said she was somehow able to change it after looking at some additional paper work.
I dont understand why they play these games. But 1-888-603-7981 is the only place you can make this happen.

I would stay away from the Transform. I was thinking about getting one a year ago and it felt like a toy and was extremely laggy. It was upgraded to gingerbread and the comments I read indicated that it didn't improve the performance. The Marquee's best feature is its bright display and thinness.. Its worst is the battery life, plus it does not have keyboard and its also plasticky. The Arrive has received mostly positive reviews and has a keyboard. It's running Windows Phone 7.5 - that is either good or bad. It's a typical HTC design - so that's either good or bad depending in if you like it or think it's boring.

HTC arrive has an update for it. Windows 7.5 aka Mango. It takes care of all the glitches and is a major improvement. I just ordered the htc arrive. i have the $30 sero plan. they forced me to do the extra 10 and extra 10, but they threw in unlimited mobile to mobile. gonna call em up and raise hell. how the hell does this phone use more data if its not 4g?

hooked said:   brklynexpress said:   HTC arrive has an update for it. Windows 7.5 aka Mango. It takes care of all the glitches and is a major improvement. I just ordered the htc arrive. i have the $30 sero plan. they forced me to do the extra 10 and extra 10, but they threw in unlimited mobile to mobile. gonna call em up and raise hell. how the hell does this phone use more data if its not 4g?

You better raise hell. You are only supposed to pay the first $10 addition for going from regular SERO to SERO Premium. And that upgrade comes with the unlimited mobile to mobile. They did not "throw it in."

Wow, unbelievable. (I'm brklynexpress from the quoted post above). Just got my phone, called Sprint, and used this link:

McGuire's Law

That link clearly says that unless its 4g, it should only be $10 more per month. I called the 888 number for Sero, a rep picked up instantly, and said that the rep last week made a mistake. He apologized and fixed it instantly. So now instead of 30 pre tax, the total will be 40, but i have unlimited mobile to mobile.
THANK YOU FATWALLET. FATWALLET SAVES THE DAY WOOHOO

Yep, except that I had 6 pm nights since 2008 when I complained that my palm treo pro can't be activated on the same plan as my old treo 700wx. I needed to finally reach a competent rep, I complained, and asked for nights at 6. They gave it.

gl215 said:   Anyone had luck getting the iphone on your sero account? Working on that now, reps keep telling it is possible but when I go to the store they are telling me it isn't possible.It is possible in SERO-Premium + $10 fee.. so $50 per month. Many people have done it.

i did it threw the Sprint chat

Hey Papertrader, regarding your post above dated Jan. 20, 2012 @ 7:19p and titled "CURRENT (as of 1/09/12) requirements for SERO premium data charge:" I've have a couple of SERO-P accounts, one with an XPRT. I am being charged the $10 premium data add-on the XPRT ($50 total). I called the 888-603-7981 number a couple of times and I've not been able to get them to remove that $10. Any additional advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

FiveTalents, great suggestions and thanks for your input. Unfortunately I don't have an account number with SERO/XPRT/$40 that I can have them use as a template. I tried pointing to McGuire's blog but they didn't go for it. I'll try to do the chat though. Thanks again.