Sprint's Cut Your Bill in Half Promotion

I switched my AT&T service to a Mobile Share Plan to lower my bill by $50/month. One of our five phones had unlimited data. I had been with AT&T / Cingular Wireless for over 10 years.

I was NOT told that once I got new phones I would be paying $40 per phone per month, instead of $10 with a $30/month data plan.

So, essentially what I was tricked into doing is instead of a $30 data plan per line, now AT&T wanted me to pay that $30 per line every month AND buy a data plan. No. H*** no!

I just switched to Sprint. They cut nothing in half, tricked me into signing a lease agreement by handing me an iPad and asking me to sign to allow them to access my AT&T account. I was not shown a contract until I was on my way out the door with new phones - after 4 hours in my local Sprint store.

What I did get was a similar, and a bit cheaper, deal - the first year, because the $15 per line per month is waived. After that the price goes a bit above the $260/month I was paying with AT&T for 5 lines.

My daughter only has 1 bar of service at her house, and can barely make and receive calls. This is in San Jose, where I was assurred the fastest 4G and data are everywhere in the city. I just got off the phone with Sprint, who assurred me that there are 5 towers by her house, the closest being 0.2 miles away. They refused to send a signal booster. They will (maybe) give/loan you one after 28 days, they say. Because I have just 14 days to return the equipment, that does me (or anyone else) no good.

The Sprint rep told me, before I signed on that Sprint would still pay my $1,000+ in ETF costs even if I left them within 14 days. But then changed the story the next day when I came back the next day with my adult son - after not sleeping all night I was so angry at all the lies and deception.

I was also told it was acceptable to turn in any AT&T phone, as long as it turns on, and that Sprint has no way of knowing if they were active on the AT&T network at the time of the switch. Can't that be tracked by IMEA and serial number? Does AT&T get the old phones back from Sprint once they are returned?

I have read about AT&T calling customers who have switched and offerred incentives to return. Is that standard practice, or are those isolated instances?