Sprint has made some changes to the way the
warranty program works for Sprint Prepaid and
Virgin Mobile customers. Effective as of Nov. 9,
consumers will be charged at $25 warranty service fee to replace phones, which Sprint claims is to “off-set the increasing costs of the warranty replacements.” The fee will be charged when the warranty claim is filed/processed and can be paid via account balance, debit/credit card or via PayPal.
There are two ways that consumers can avoid paying this fee:
- Customers enrolled in Virgin Mobile Phone Insurance or Sprint Prepaid Phone Insurance can have the $25 fee waived once every 12 months. This insurance costs an additional $7 per month
- Go through the phone manufacturer for the warranty instead of your carrier
PayLo customers on Virgin Mobile will not be charged this fee, but no other Virgin Mobile plans are exempt. Boost Mobile customers also will not be charged this fee. As a side note, iPhone warranty exchanges cannot be made through Virgin Mobile or Sprint Prepaid and must be filed through Apple, so this isn’t going to effect Apple customers in the slightest.
This new warranty fee, to me, seems like total nonsense and simply one more way to get a little bit more money out of prepaid customers. I’m more than a little disappointed to see this change, but I suppose that going through the manufacturer is probably the better bet anyway.
Source: Page 17 of this newsletter]]>
