The “Uncarrier” has been slowly chopping off bits and pieces from Sprint since the merger completed in 2020, like when they began migrating Sprint accounts to T-Mobile accounts automatically and even started paying customers to switch to T-Mobile SIM cards. Now it’s finally time to start eliminating Sprint systems all together in T-Mobile stores.
According to a slew of documents shared with us here at The T-Mo Report (and thanks to a tip from YouTuber Tech Life Channel), T-Mobile has begun removing Sprint systems from physical retail T-Mobile stores. As the document below shows, there is a detailed process employees are meant to follow once their Sprint systems are retired.
When a Sprint customer comes to the store for help, employees are to direct them to nearby stores within a 15 minute drive that still have the ability to service Sprint accounts. They’re also told to have the customer reach out to customer support directly or use self-service options when applicable.
This is likely going to be an inconvenience for legacy Sprint holdouts. However, it isn’t too surprising of a move given how far into the merger we are.
Further internal documents, shared below, note that the online store locator on the T-Mobile website will show which stores no longer support Sprint accounts. Legacy Sprint customers should use the locator to find a store that can help them.
Eventually, all T-Mobile locations will have their Sprint systems removed. That is expected to happen sometime in 2023, though no specific date has been set. It’s unclear if T-Mobile will have migrated every Sprint account to the T-Mobile biller by then, but if not, those customers would only be able to service their account online or via customer support.
There are benefits to these changes though. Stores will no longer have to maintain two separate inventories and two separate billing systems. This will allow employees to fully focus on the T-Mobile side of things, hopefully reducing confusion and mistakes along the way. Promotions will also be unified to a single list, reducing potential confusion even further.
All Sprint customers will inevitably end up on the T-Mobile billing system over time, so not having Sprint systems in stores won’t be an issue for too long. The carrier has already migrated many plan types to the T-Mobile systems automatically, and only some legacy Sprint plans remain.
From what previous info has told us, those plans will carry over to the new billing system with no issues, so customers won’t have to change their plan. Some legacy plan features aren’t quite as safe though, as was the case for the “Japan Plan” add-on.
This is yet another step towards a unified T-Mobile. It won’t be long before the Sprint name will be a distant memory, just like the Cingulars and the VoiceStreams of the past.
