[Touch Pro, Fuze General] Alpine-:
First off, this thread is a

hypothetical

. I need advice on the Sprint hardware replacement and insurance claim replacement processes and what they generally entail. This thread may traverse into the murky grey area between the black and white of right or wrong when it comes to insurance phone claims and defective hardware replacement. Please don't waste your time informing me of this or criticizing any possible manipulation of the hardware replacement techniques Sprint will employ should the necessary trigger be made.

I have a Sprint Mogul. I have a SERO account. I will be approaching my 2 year resign and upgrade date this summer. I pay the full $7 total equipment protection/insurance. The Sprint Mogul is now at End Of Life (EOL). Apparently, according to some reports I have seen, reps are telling customers with failed hardware replacement tickets that they can get a refurb'd Mogul (if supply allows) and if not they will get a TP. In addition, now that the mogul is EOL, an insurance claim should technically get you a TP for $50 because the Mogul supplies are dwindling and who really wants a phone that's discontinued anyway.

The question is: What is the cheapest -or- most likely to be successful method for getting a touch pro replacement? I have a ticket open on my phone (with no action taken by me to take the phone to a store for inspection) for some potential radio issues. Thus, there is some past documentation for my phone which lends credibility to some potential hardware issues having been experienced and documented. In all honesty, I have been having some issues with my phone recently but they don't rise to the level of dead ear piece or broken keys which usually equal a traditional hardware replacement. If I call Sprint and say my data speeds are not where they should be and my phone drops and lot of calls, behaves erratically, and loses a charge very quickly - what will the Sprint rep's next course of action be? Send in the phone for testing, at which point a free replacement will be sent ONLY if legit hardware defects are found? Replace with a TP regardless of legit hardware issues being found? Will they send the replacement immediately and then charge you according to results of inspection of old phone? How does this process work? Anyone with experience, please chime in. Conversely, if I would happen to lose the phone I could make a claim and pay the $50 premium. This would most likely result in a TP replacement and I probably would not settle for less.

Finally, there has been some recent litigation against lock-line for its rather shady practice of filling claims with refurb'd phones. Hopefully, the publicity and heat will end this practice.

Has anyone had experience with this? They have already settled some class action suits based on these practices. I am hoping they have started shying away from refurbs until new bull**** documentation is drafted to get around ripping people off.

Thanks in advance for your experience and/or inside information on how this process works. Please don't reply if you have no valuable information to share and I also don't want to hear any opinions or general thoughts on the undertaking this hypothetical proposes.