Too good to be true? Probably is. Just a day after Sprint announced its 'Cut Your Bill in Half' promotion, promising to bring down the bills of AT&T and Verizon customers by a whopping 50 percent if they switch over, a prominent company executive said the net saving won't be even close to what's being advertised.
Talking at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Leveraged Finance Conference, Sprint's Chief Financial Officer Joe Euteneuer said that those who take advantage of the promotion will get around a 20 percent net discount coming from their old plan.
That's primarily because the promotion requires you to purchase a new phone either through the company's leasing program, their Easy Pay installment plan, or simply buying it outright, something that will add to your monthly bill. Plus, it only covers the calling, texting, and data portions of a bill, which means that your taxes won't be reduced in half.
Euteneuer also said that new customers may find that the company's service plans are actually cheaper than the promotion. When asked about why the offer doesn't target T-Mobile customers, he said that most of the potential customers are at AT&T and Verizon, which together account for around three-fourth of the US wireless market.
Indeed, if you can see how the CFO's message contradicts what Sprint's marketing is trying to accomplish, that's because his statements were aimed at investors who may worry about the company's bottom line if they cut down too much profits to gain new customers.
"The whole idea is to attract people back into our stores, to get an opportunity to talk to them about the benefits of the new network, these tri-band phones, and getting them to experience something that over the past 18 months was maybe not the best experience", he said.
The Cut Your Bill in Half promotion goes live tomorrow.