Sprint offering instant credits for phone trade-ins
Saying that it hopes to boost the practice of phone recycling (with customer conquests a welcome side effect, we're sure), Sprint is now expanding its Buyback Program to cover over 900 devices with an instant credit when you trade them in to any of over 1,000 participating corporate-owned retail locations. Naturally, Sprint isn't about to hand you a wad of cash for these things, but the credits -- ranging from $5 to over $300 depending on the model, apparently -- help cut the bottom line on your account balance, and you can take advantage of the service up to three times per active line every 12 months. Unfortunately, it might not be that great of a deal: in the press release, they specifically call out the Bold 9700 as having a $161.05 -- and considering you can flip a used, locked Bold 9700 on eBay for well over $300, this looks more like a new revenue stream for Sprint than anything else. And who's recycling a Bold 9700 already, anyway?
