Sprint encouraging WP7 HTC Arrive users to dump their phones for an iPhone 4

October 16, 2011 | By Surur

sprintarrive

The HTC Arrive is less than 6 months old, and Sprint has already decided to throw the device under the tires of the oncoming iPhone 4. The device’s page on Sprint features a pretty large Windows Phone 7 display, encouraging users to recycle their “old” phone for as much as $240, presumably to buy the iPhone 4.

Of course the HTC Arrive was introduced little more than 6 month ago, which would make for a very interesting definition of old.

The ad is still there to be seen, but if I were Microsoft or HTC I would get on the blower straight away and see about getting the ad, which is rather disrespectful to both the OEM and the OS, removed ASAP.

Via WPCentral.com.

Thanks Figure 8 Dash for the tip.

Update: Adriel asked Sprint what’s going on, and got this reply:

Original Question: Enter what you are looking for

Question: Why did you guys use the HTC Arrive as the poster child for your Go-Green program? Why not one of your countless Androids. I only just purchased the Arrive and I love it and want more people to know about it but I believe what you did will retard it’s growth.

Sprint Customer Solutions [email protected] [email protected] responded:

Dear [Name Removed],

Thank you for contacting Sprint.

It is our policy at Sprint to make advertising decisions based on the demographics of the audience and not on the nature of the associated event or media broadcast, provided it does not promote racist, sexist or other offensive views. Our goal is to reach our current and prospective customers through this venue; our advertising is not an endorsement for or against any particular cause, candidate or political viewpoint.

Your feedback is important and we appreciate you taking the time to contact us.

We value your business and appreciate the opportunity to answer your questions. Please reply to this email or visit sprint.com if we can be of assistance.

Sincerely,

Scottie G.
Sprint

So basically a form letter response, but I suspect a few more complaints on their contact page will get things moving.

Thanks Adriel for the tip.

About Surur

Site Admin and Windows Phone enthusiast, he has been using Windows Mobile devices since before they were called PocketPC’s. He is currently sporting a HTC 7 Trophy.

Tagged cdma, htc arrive, sprint, windows phone 7.5

http://www.facebook.com/people/Milad-Bazzaz/100000479683479 Milad Bazzaz

There is a reason Sprint sucks.

Now that they have finally bet the house on the iPhone, they are getting deep into Cupertino’s ass.

Anonymous

whats funny is the HTC arrive isnt even old, so not this ad doesnt apply to any arrive owners

http://www.rwalrond.com RWalrond

The ad might be bad, but at least Windows Phone is in an Ad. Here in Canada, we haven’t seen a Windows Phone ad in over 8 months. My local rogers store didn’t even have one of those plastic fake phones on display the last time I went in.
http://voguishtech.com Wemberg Carlo Estil

Fuck you sprint…. Sincerely a T-mobile user

Anonymous

i short sell sprint stock and buy put options. that means i think their stock price will go down, and it has …

sprint sucks.

Anonymous

Can’t you see, they couldn’t use a picture of the iPhone here because the new iPhone looks exactly the same as the old one.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ZWIQU6F5MNQWGAIOKNHSCSJFDE Brian

Actually they wouldn’t use an iPhone picture here because Sprint probably sold more shiny new iPhones last weekend than they’ll sell WP7 phones in a year.

http://www.searingarrow.com AlienSix

Because we all know there wasn’t a POS Android phone they could have used in the ad instead

/s

Truly Pathetic Sprint

Anonymous

It’s just photo – the ad doesn’t say ‘Hey folks, trade in your Arrive for the iPhone’.

How many people actually have an Arrive, as opposed to say, a Blackberry or a EVO 4G/3D on Sprints network ? I’d wager, not very many. If anything, Sprint is probably trying to get rid of their Arrive stock, not take it back :)

Lotta overreacting to this! Hilarious!

http://www.searingarrow.com AlienSix

Its the implication of the picture, not what the ads looks like
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/34BEU6VWT4XLUJUMN3BZ2IZQTI Eric

if that’s the case then they could’ve been more clear in the ad. u don’t have to be a dumbass.

Lawrence of Arabia

Probably customers are having a bad experience or complaining about the phone to Sprint.

This ad will catch their attention.

http://twitter.com/APSN910 Aaron Stark

Read the reviews of the Arrive on Sprint’s own website, it has better reviews than any Android device.

eric12341

this is very disturbing and I was reading their descriptions of the features of the iPhone 4S and nearly gagged. I posted a thread in the arrive section of the sprint community giving them a piece of my mind and I even threatened to leave my contract if this wasn’t changed and if the 3G speeds in my town don’t improve which they have been between EDGE and dialup since February!
Anonymous

Do you know what the ultimate irony is here? Any customer of theirs is unlikely to trade in their recently purchased WP7 for the iPhone (given the cost/experience discrepancy), and it’ll just prevent any new customers, that see the add, from purchasing the Arrive on their network!
Not to mention alienating their current WP7 customers, and now that they’ve experienced WP7, causing them to migrate to other Networks in search of more/newer WP7 Models!
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RKWD3U4RGB2FW32P3W25NNNC5I Agha

Fuck sprint…
http://twitter.com/majankajan majankajan

I lack all, and nobody wants me

http://www.searingarrow.com AlienSix

Shut up Translatethis27/all of your other troll names
Anonymous

Du har kul överallt, du driver ditt korståg mot Windows Phone. Trollb*g!

Anonymous

Yeah Sprint continues to piss me off with changing things and lack of WP7 models. No word of a new WP7 model and then this. I get it you got ur cash cow with Apple but there are those of us that do NOT want an iPhone. I’ve been with Sprint over 12 years and if I don’t see a new quality WP7 model in the next 2 months I’m switching carriers simple as that.
Anonymous

Extremely unprofessional.
moonman

I think everyone is misunderstaning the ad. I think they’re actually promoting the Arrive as the “new” one (see all the green leaves around it?) and encourage you to ditch your old phone for this.

Anonymous

Can’t tell exactly what they are implying here. Then again, they are suggesting trading in your old phone and the only phone they show is a Windows phone. Hey I will wait to see if they are gonna carry any other Windows Phone devices and if not, I’m out. After 8 years I will say adios to Sprint!
J A

Well, if they are promoting WIndows Phone it won’t be next to a message that says to ditch an “old phone”. Tha is not how marketing works. In this particular Sprint ad, they are actually dissing WP when they could have use any random free phone that has no name at all.

http://www.mainstreetchatham.com/ JimmyFal

I’m kinda thinking the WPH7 is the new green one too..
rsgx

I think this ad is being misunderstood, and they appear to be promoting it as the new phone.
Anonymous

Sprint is desperate. They put down $20 billion on a phone. I am sure their users would like them to spend the money on improving their coverage and service. Who knows, this could have been part of the agreement eith whinning Apple. They do share the same temperment. They are whinning at the AT&T-Tmo merge. I guess they like diversity? It appears Apple won’t deal with Tmo either which is purely a droid service anyways. I wish CDMA didn’t exist. I think the MSRP on all these phones is extreme, but they use it in what they call “subsidizing” in order to lock you into a contract. Europe has got it right, for this anyways.
http://twitter.com/big_slim750 LaMar aka Big Slim

Looks like the ad was interpreted the wrong way (or someone is going for website hits). Are we THAT sensitive about our WP7s’ that we look for people to bash it right away? Looks like they are saying the Arrive is the newer greener handset to me. Just happens to be on a page filled with “Learning more” about the iPhone 4s.

rsgx

Yep.

http://twitter.com/EJ1024 EJ

Sprint should’ve use a blackberry phone.
Ey msft can please buy sprint so they cam shut the hell up
http://twitter.com/noelitaux noël villagrana

I find this very offensive as well out of the all those android phones that are past their prime or any other phone for that matter they had to display a windows phone and the ONLY wp7 handsent that they carry, can’t microsoft get sprint’s case about this bad PR for wp7? can anyone do anything about this?
Avatar Roku

The ad is ambiguous, I honestly can’t tell if they are saying the Arrive is a new phone or old phone. It is covered in green, but the ad is saying green is good. Then again the green is ivy type weeds. So it is really unclear. Doesn’t make much sense to be asking customers to trade in a phone that is at most 6 months old. Either way unless Sprint gets some new Windows Phones soon I’m going to be leaving them for good. And I won’t be trading in my old phone, I’ll be selling it on eBay where I can actually get a decent price for it.

Anonymous

On the actual website it has to the right of the Arrive, “Upgrade Now: Ready for the new iPhone?” and the rest of the page has a dozen pictures of the iPhone 4(S). It’s not ambiguous in the slightest.

Anonymous

sprint is in the corner. they practically betted their company on iphone 4s. and since the 4s is a piece of shit, they need to do everything to sell their iphones.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_DW357PU7K6EKAKQPUOF3CURZ7A bb

just an observation. old abandoned houses are covered with tall grass and vines. could this ad mean that the htc arrive wp7 is old thats why it has vines all over it?
http://twitter.com/van_Eyck Ike van Eyck

I just checked the Sprint Buy Back website. Don’t believe the ad… they’re only offering $73 for the HTC Arrive. The only thing you could get $240 for is an iPad2, and only an idiot would sell their iPad2 for that low. Lol!
Anonymous

im encouraging sprint wp7 users to dump their carrier
http://twitter.com/devGOD Patrick

I’m not mad at Sprint as a business owner myself and WP7 owner I can see why they did it. WP7′s aren’t selling. Yeah you can believe and cling to little hope of those ridiculous WP7 forecast of microsoft taking over Android in the next year or two, if you want.

The fact is you go into a provider and you see 1 or 2 WP7′s on display (if any) and like 10-15 Android and 5 or so Blackberry devices. It doesn’t matter how great Microsoft wants WP7 to be other what the few wp7 owners want others to think. They handset choices are not there. Sorry I’m not going to purchase a handset based on the OS alone. I want to be able to choose between models and not just be forced to pick from 1 or 2. It just like buying a car, you may like BMWs but if that 1 bmw doesn’t have the sunroof or color you like you’re going to start looking at the 50 other Honda’s or other cars that have what you want.

The prices and contract restrictions don’t make it easy for consumers to jump for carrier to carrier just to get the latest phone. With the exception of the iPhone lets face it iPhone is #1 and everyone including microsoft copies from them. They set the bar, and wp7 even with Mango is still playing catch to a device that has MILLIONS of loyal followers that will update and switch providers just for that phone. Sorry Microsoft you can’t duplicated that, so the only smart approach would be to really all wp7 devices on all WP7 carriers. So they average person will have 6-10 different wp7 to choose from

http://twitter.com/MaulerX MaulerX

Of course you are not going to chose a handset based on the OS alone. Which is why those predictions of WP7 gaining huge marketshare will probably materialize…. just not on Sprint.

You look at the Titan and the Focus S for other carriers (with the Titan getting pretty good reviews) and even the Radar 4G (getting decent reviews as well) and then you look at Sprint who basically just went to bed with Apple (who just put all their eggs in one basket by giving Apple 20 BILLION on iPhones for the next 4 years)

It’s pretty damn obvious that even if your remotely interested in a good/newer WP7 handset, Sprint is definately not the way to go.

Anonymous

I’m actually thinking of paying the $700 to break my family contract with Sprint if they don’t get some more Windows Phones like the HTC Titan. Offering $73 to buy back my HTC Arrive for an iPhone is a complete joke. If I actually liked iOS, I would have gotten an Android phone since it is a copy of iOS. I got a Windows Phone, because I like Windows Phone 7. How about offering me $73 towards an HTC Titan? Sprint’s saving grace right now is unlimited data, but we’ll see how long they keep offering it once all those new iPhones get activated.
Anonymous

This is Microsoft fault they don’t promote or require hardware makes to make the best hardware. It should be 7 different model on it carrier. Nokia need to make all there phones top notch. Steve Elop get them moving asap.
Anonymous

They’re making a positive for the Arrive. Its the phone that Nature is embracing in the ad
http://www.facebook.com/people/Thomas-Milione-Lewallen/758293492 Thomas Milione Lewallen

To those saying it is saying the Arrive is new – click the link to ‘Get Started”.
And then marvel at the old POS phones that are on that page.
Anonymous

I agree they should use a different phone as the Arrive is to new. I will say the iphone 4S is far better & I never thought I would get one. The camera on the Arrive which is a main important feature is awful for a 5mp. (you wouldnt know it.) Most of the wp7 have this prob blurry shots etc because of there 2 stage shutter button which mango gave new on screen options and a self timer app. So its maybey a little better but still just read reviews bad camera, & bulky phone too. They need to up there game overall..