Last month I bought a Sanyo VM 4500 at Fry's for $150 (Fry's was closing out some of their discontinued phones) and was expecting to be charged an $18 activation fee like I had been reading on the forums. But I was not changed this fee. My latest bill just came out online today and they didn't charge anything for the the esn swap. So either this fee doesn't exist anymore or I just got lucky.
Sounds like you got lucky there Larry. I never said anything when Cingular was posting verizon customers as M2M on my bill...
I hope this means that Sprint has decided to quickly do away with this charge rather than me just being lucky.
I just went to the Cingular store over lunch & was told that it wouldn't cost anything to port my Verizon number over. Is that what you mean by the swap? I thought there was a charge to port the number.
A lot of times carriers charge an "Upgrade fee" when customers switch handsets. If you're on a GSM carrier and you don't buy a phone thru your carrier you can avoid this fee though by switching your SIM card and not telling them. -Jay
I was never charged an activation fee in October, but when my GF added a line to my Sprint acct I got hit with an $18 charge for that line. So I guess the activation fees are sorta still there lol. I did an ESN swap so in a couple days when my bill is available online I will see if there is a charge. Maybe the fee for an ESN swap only applies to in-store activations?
If that were the case anyone would be stupid to let the store activate a phone for you. I would insist on calling in and doing it myself.
Someone on another forum just mentioned that it could take 2 billing cycles for the fee to show up. So I guess I'll have to wait another month and see but I don't think it should take that long.
Well I've had 4 bills now, no initial activation fee for $36 has ever shown up. So if they charge me for my ESN swap I guess I still come out ahead.
I think it all depends on who you talk to. When I added a line to get my 6600 at the store in Vegas they didn't charge me the $18. Also when I switched my phones around a few week later they didn't charge me again. I don't remember if I was charged when I signed up.
Remember that this new activation fee for upgrading didn't happen until sometime in early December. Before that all activations were free.
I know that in my store we charge a $36 upgrade fee, and activation fees arre $36 for the 1st line and $18 for each additional. I think you just got lucky with a customer service rep that didnt know what they were doing yet. Happends alot from what I've experienced so far at work. Sometimes I wonder if theyre all being trained, then they start with all new reps after the finally get it. lol
