Sprint SERO Plans (Sprint Employee Referral Offer) have been the staple of affordable wireless service on the Sprint network for the past few years.  Many problems ensued when the general public was able to access the plans and finally Sprint has decided to eliminate the problem by increasing the $30 | $50 | $100 per month plans to $59.99 | $79.99 (the $100 plan is eliminated, just sign up for the Simply Unlimited Plan instead).  A lot of questions have been asked about the future of current Sprint Customers and whether or not they would be allowed to keep their plans (commonly referred to as ‘grandfathered in’) and continue under the SERO 30 | 50 | 100 offerings.  The short answer is yes, but after numerous reports of people trying to purchase the Samsung Instinct and Treo 800w and activate their phones we have decided to piece together a FAQ of sorts to get you the answers you need.

www.sprint.com/sero = Everything Plus Referral Program. You now actually need to know a Sprint employee because you need their Employee # in order to sign up (Last 3 of their CID). Looks like you will need to befriend some Sprint buddies unless Sprint decides to release an open access password like last time ‘savings@sprintemi.com’.

To make a long story short: Sprint SERO is done. The new plans start at 59.99 a month for 500 minutes or $79.99 for 1000 minutes. It’s the same plan as before but they have added the following:

Unlimited GPS with sprint navigation
Unlimited Sprint TV premier
Unlimited Sprint Music premier
Unlimited video messaging (picture/text messaging are still unlimited)
Unlimited 7pm nights and weekends
Unlimited BlackBerry Internet Service

Basically it’s the same as the Simply Everything normal plan that sprint has, but $10 cheaper per month. They have phased out the 30 and 50 dollar SERO Plans and the new program is called Everything Plus Referral Offer (it’s the Simply everything plan, 10 bucks cheaper).

Existing SERO customers can keep their plan, but watch out if you try to upgrade or buy a new phone at retail price
If you have the SERO plan right now, you can keep it as long as you want. New customers cannot get it anymore since the plans are cancelled and no longer exist in the system. If you try to upgrade your phone through telesales or buy a phone outright in a Sprint Store the representatives try to get you onto the new Everything Plus Referral Program Plans starting at $59.99. This includes buying the Instinct, Treo 800w and any upcoming phone, but with a little patients you might be able to get around this. If you call enough times you can find a rep who will not try to change your plan when you buy the Treo 800w, but for sure you are changing plans on the Instinct and the upcoming BlackBerry Bold.

Good news if you want the upcoming BlackBerry Bold
Good news – the good news is that since it now includes Unlimited BlackBerry Internet Service… 59.99 isn’t bad to use a BlackBerry. It use to be a 34.95 add-on for BB then another 10 for GPS, now all that is included in your $59.99 plan (before it would have been 30 SERO + 34.95 BB + 10 GPS = 74.95 versus the 59.99 it is now)

Basically they want you to use the Samsung Instinct (Sprint’s iPhone 3G killer)
They also consider it a deal because the iPhone 3G is 69.99 a month for 450 minutes, 9pm nights and unlimited data. Then another 20 add on for unlimited text messages, bringing the grand total to 89.99 a month. You can get the Simply Everything Plan or the Everything Plus Referral Program and get all the same features with 7pm nights and GPS navigation for only 59.99 – savings of 30 a month over the iPhone.

Should I get the Everything Plus Referral Program?
If you plan on getting the BlackBerry Bold, yes. Although the new SERO replacement program is 10 dollars cheaper than the Simply Everything regular plans which start at $69.99 and include the exact same features. If you can find a good corporate discount it might be better for you to just go with the regular Sprint plans and use the savings. If you have a corporate discount of 14 percent or more the $69.99 Simply Everything Plan will end up being $59.99 or less.

UPS gets 25% off their monthly bill so it is cheaper to just use the regular Sprint Plan and add the corporate discount. Also if you have been with Sprint for 2 years they are willing to give you a monthly discount (recurring discount off your monthly bill) between 10 and 20 percent that you can use in combination with your corporate discount.

What would I do?
I would call Sprint if your contract is about to expire on the SERO plan and tell them that you are looking at upgrading your phone. When they tell you that you can no longer keep your existing plan tell them that you are not willing to pay 100% more for the same service and ask what type of discount you can get for being a valued customer. Accept nothing less than 10 percent off and have them put you on the Everything Plus Referral Program. If you cannot get back on the Everything Plus referral program and you must get the standard Simply Everything Plans then do not sign up unless they can add a corporate discount AND the discount for being a valued customer (10 percent or more).

I want to get the Sprint Everything Plus plan now but I do not know a Sprint Employee, how do I sign up?
If you want to sign up today thank Russ McGuire, Vice President of strategy for Sprint, who revealed his email address along with the last 3 digits of his employee ID number: Russ.S.McGuire@Sprint.com and employee number of 383.  It is not surprising that the Vice President of Strategy would release his information so that the masses could sign up for the Sprint Everything Plus Program, but be warned that the previous SERO plans had a limit to the number of sign ups under one employees email address.  If you find yourself unable to login, a trip down to the Sprint Store to talk to a rep might help for the email address (ask for a business card).