Sprint lets you trade in phones during online checkouts, easier than ever to rip you off
Yesterday, Sprint announced that it is integrating its buyback program into its online checkout process, making it easy for customers to get credit for their old devices applied to new phone purchases. Sprint is framing this as a customer-friendly, eco-conscious way to help people save money and keep old phones out of landfills. And Sprint has quite ambitious goals for this program, as well: according to the director of the program, Chad Lander, “Not only does it save our customers up to $300 at a time; it’s helped us achieve an impressive collection rate of 39 percent – that’s almost halfway to our goal of a 90 percent collection rate by 2017.”
This all sounds good, but is this actually a good deal for customers?
According to Sprint’s buyback website, an original HTC EVO 4G will get you $60. But depending on the condition of your phone, you might be able to get as much as $200 from eBay. An EVO 3D will only get you $16 more than an EVO 4G, but that device is selling for over $150 right now on eBay.
In fact, after searching around for a few minutes, it seems like only the most recent Apple products (iPads and iPhones) will net you anything over $200 on Sprint’s buyback website.
Is this a good way for Sprint to encourage recycling and keep electronics out of landfills? Yes, most certainly! But are there much better deals out there? Of course – and hopefully, savvy Pocketables readers will take the time to find out what the best solution is for their particular device.
[Sprint]
