Sprint Ambassador Program discontinued

I have been a participant in Phase Three of Sprint’s Ambassador program. The program puts free Sprint cell phones in the hands of bloggers for six months. The idea is to provide feedback to Sprint about your experience. Although there is no expressed or implied obligation, I’m sure Sprint is hoping that bloggers will act as evangelists and talk up their service and the specific cell phone (mine was a Samsung UpStage).

A couple of days ago I received this e-mail from Sprint:

Greetings Ambassadors,

Thank you for your participation in the Sprint Ambassador program. We appreciate the candid feedback you have provided and are regularly using this information to offer our customers the best products and services available on the Sprint Mobile Broadband Network.

After careful consideration, Sprint has decided to discontinue our Sprint Ambassador program so that we may focus on other key initiatives for gathering customer feedback. As a thank you for your participation, the devices you have received through the program are yours to keep. However, the service on those handsets will be terminated on January 31, 2008.

If you would like to keep the existing phone number on your handset, you have the following options:

• If you have an existing Sprint account in your name, you can simply go to Sprint retail store or call Sprint Customer Care at (888) 296-8806 to transfer the number over.  You will need your phone number and account password to facilitate the transfer.
• If you do not have a Sprint account and would like to open a new one, we invite you to visit a Sprint retail store for assistance and select from the many service plans that we offer.
• If you would like to transfer your Ambassador phone number to another individual’s account, BOTH PARTIES will need to need to visit a Sprint retail store to ensure a smooth transition.
• If you would like to move your Sprint Ambassador phone number over to another carrier, you will need to have the carrier you select call our Corporate Account team at (866) 657-6843.  Typically, a consumer that wishes to port their number would just need their account number and password. Ambassadors are considered corporate customers and, as such, cannot make changes to their account without going through the Corporate Account team.

For the Sprint Store nearest you please visit www.sprint.com.

Again, to keep your current Ambassador phone number, you must act by 11:59 PM on January 30, 2008.
Once again, we truly appreciate your participation in the Ambassador program.  If you have any additional questions, please send an email to AmbassadorProgram@sprint.com or you can reach Sprint’s Ambassador CARE team at (888) 296-8806.

Thank you!

I’m not surprised that Sprint is making this move. I’m sure the program was expensive for them to support and, with Sprint’s recently-announced financial troubles, they are under a great deal of pressure to cut back.

I will not be staying with Sprint. I’ve had my account with Verizon for several years. I will try to sell my phone on eBay as I did when I was a participant in Phase One of the program.