[Sprint HTC EVO 4G LTE] JTOLOGY:
Good Business Sense

Just my nickels worth of free opinion here. It occurs to me that Sprint should not charge a fee to customers who require a repair or replacement of a defective product sold by Sprint. First off, these aren't local mom and pop shops, these are corporate conglomerates who collaborate their efforts to analyze all factors of the loss and gains of their operation and who's pricing reflects those factors along with their built in profit margins. Charging customers for processing the repair or replacement of defective phones is the equivelant of double dipping in my opinion. The manufacturers warranty covers the repair or replacement, quite often repairs are done right at the corporate store and billing for the repair most likely billed to the manufacturer who has no choice but to absorb that loss as part of their stamdard business practice along with their contractual agreement with the carrier. As far as shipping goes, the cost is nominal as it is common practice for manufacturers who ship large volumes of their products to pre-ship a predetermined amount of replacement products for storage in a local centralized location to avoid repeated and expensive overseas shipping costs. Sprint as companies across a wide range or products and services simply capitalize on consumer ignorance to increase their profits. That may be good business sense, but it doesn't make it right.

Let's consider that Sprint, like all other carriers (thanks to price fixing) will charge you about $299 for the latest smartphone so long as you sign a 2 year contract with them, which let's face it, is highway robbery in itself considering the nominal cost to mass produce these phones. If you aren't eligible for an upgrade or are trying to avoid the two year committment to the carrier, you'll have to pay a whopping $699 on average for a new smarphone. This over pricing isn't just limited to their phones, they do the same with the accessories they sell as well. For instance, when I purchased my Evo LTE, the Sprint sales person tried to sell me a 32GB SD card for $59.99 and a cover/belt clip combo for $44.99. Even the sales person had to embarrassingly laugh at their prices as I declined their sales attempt. I ended up walking a few doors down and purchased the same exact 32GB card at Radio Shack for $24.99 and a better version of the same phone case for only $24.99 at a BestBuy. Aside from pricing issues,let me also remind you that over the last few years, while Sprint has increased the cost of their service plans, they've also been reducing benefits to their customers. Remember the NFL service Sprint used to have? That's gone and is now an exclusive feature with Verizon. Remember the yearly phone upgrades for the primary accounts on our plans? That's gone too. Remember when we just we only had to pay for our service plan? They introduced a $10 cough cough.. "data fee" for each smart phone on your plan. Sprint has done all it can to increase profit margin and in return, aside for a lucky few, we can't even get the 4g signal we're paying for never mind an LTE signal. Yet despite all of this, some of you find the processing fee Sprint charges for repair or replacement of manufacturer defected phones justifiable? You imply we should pay for insurance and not make Sprint responsible for a defective phone they contractualy sell with a manufacture on the basis they aren't the actual manufacturer? No offense intended but some of you have a lot to learn about how these businesses operate and what consumer rights are when they invest their hard earned money on a product. If it were me, on principle alone I'd be on the phone giving someone in their corporate office a headache until that processng fee is credited back to my account. You can go ahead and pay the fee if you have money to burn or don't care about your rights as a consumer.. that's up to you. All I can say is that I guess that's why so many businesses have and continue to get away with taking advantage of consumers.. they recognize that old saying.. "Stay dumb, stay happy".. lol.