Same, I got shot down too.
I'm about to return this phone. It barely works in my house and I'm frustrated at how flaw-ridden the phone is. I sent an email to Sprint Exec support and they have a retention associate giving me a call at some point tomorrow. It's a long story, but between calls and my latest email, the solution I have is for Sprint to give me the Airave, I'll pay the $5/m for it and stick around with them.
The point is that when factoring the Airave price in and the inability to refund my $80, I'll save money on Verizon with my corporate discounts and can get the Erid at $100.
The math is basic for me. Common sense needs to intervene here. I'm begging Sprint to help me out here, I don't see why that's so hard for them to realize this.