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5/20/2009

So what's changes that I'm taking the time to write now?  What's changed is so far my experience trying to get a information and/or a commitment from Sprint to get me a Palm Pre on launch day has been pretty bad and I need to vent.

My experience to-date trying to get a Palm Pre on launch day:

About 17 days ago (~ 5/3/2009), I stopped in a sprint store to ask if they were doing pre-sales or had a waiting list.  The answer was no, which I expected, but the commentary was interesting.  The person said basically that the east coast would get first crack at the phones because they opened earlier.  That he was coming in at 5 the first day to fill a big order for someone and if I wanted I could come in early too.  It wasn't the store nearest my house and wasn't close to an official line, so I said I wasn't interested.

About 10 days ago (~5/10/2009), I stopped by the store near my house and asked the same question.  Still not expecting much.  This time I was placed on an 'official' pre-order list.  That's right the guy behind the counter wrote my name and number on a yellow sticky note.

Now I've been reading for a couple days the details of the release.  6/6, but I also read about a launch party for Premier customers (of which I am one).  I'm a little miffed that I haven't heard directly from sprint any information about the release.  I had previously typed in my email address into the flash animation of the spinning Palm Pre.  The 'Notify me when it available' link.  Plus being a premier customer I thought I'd get a notice about the party.  I tend to opt-out of newsletter and such so maybe they didn't want to spam me, so today I called Sprint directly....

On 5/20/2009 I called Sprint twice.  The first time I called *2 on my sprint phone.  I asked if my account showed I was a Premier customer.  The response was basically no, but in a poor round about way.  It was something like "the system sometimes says Premier when the customer hasn't yet been informed, but yours doesn't say anything".  Gee, I thought it was a yes or no question.  Then I asked about getting a palm pre, to which he said "The Palm Pre will be launched mid-June.  We don't have any pricing information.".  At this point I realized I'd be better served talking to the napkin holder on the table at lunch, and quickly ended the phone call.

I waited till I got home in the evening, logged into my sprint.com account, saw the Premier phone number [(866) 735-1879] and decided I'll give it a try.  I can only guess my account really doesn't say Premier on it because he asked me a bunch a questions about when I got my phone and it wasn't until I explained I have been a sprint customer since 1999 that moved on to offering me the 'premier' benefit access to a Palm Pre.  He took down my number, I gave him my sprint number again, the one I was calling from, and he said he would call me on June 6th to make sure I got a Palm Pre.  So that means I'd have to do a phone order on the 6th and then wait to get it shipped to me ?!?  Come on, that's not what I'm looking for.  I asked again, "I've heard that Premier customers get access to the phone a day early, is that true?"  He replied "Yes, the 6th of June".  So I'll call you then and take the order.  Again I realize talking to inanimate objects would be more productive so I didn't push the case.

Basically my feeling on this customer rep taking my number and offering to call me on the 6th is just his PERSONAL way to try and cash in on the Palm Pre launch by getting in on a commissioned sale.  I don't believe he is trying to help me one bit.

So, do I call sprint some more and try to get escalated to a manager or to I give up the ghost and just be a late comer to the iphone party?  Send me a tweet and let me know.

-scott