Cliffs notes: Walked into sprint store, talked to a front guy and said I'm going to buy full retail because I'm not due for an upgrade yet, then asked if they would be opening early for the EVO release. He confirmed they would be opening an hour earlier.
*Another guy standing next to him said they should be getting 30-40 units in.
*I asked if they had a working model and they said no. *
*Asked if they had an HTC advocate and they walked me over to him.
*He said that the store would not be receiving the EVO till a MONTH after the release date. He said he didn't know why, but that was the case. Didn't the other guy just TELL me they'd be opening an hour early? For what?
*He told me I could pre-order it on the Sprint website or have customer service do it.
*I walk out of the store and call customer service. Lady says she can't do it for me but if I go to sprint.com/evo, I can pre-order it.
*I think i'm in the twilight zone because theres no way this can be for real.
*I pull up sprint.com/evo on my hero and sure enough its the same page as ever, no mythical pre-order page.
*I go back into the sprint store and say I called customer service and asked if I could use their computer to pull up a non-mobile version of it. We both did it and he said "There used to be a link for pre-order, I guess its over now". Am I crazy or did this actually happen?
*He tells me customer service should be able to take care of me and again they wouldn't be getting EVO till a month after the release
*I walk out of the store and call customer service and this time I go to the sales option. I tell him I want to get an EVO on the 4th. He says I need to go through the store to do that because it can't be done online or through customer service.
*I tell him the store sent me to you, you are sending me to the store, this is a complete contradiction and I'm confused about how I'm to get my EVO.
*He says I'll just have to wait till the 4th. I tell him that the store told me they wouldn't get them till a month later. The guy tells me to wait till the 4th.
*I ask him if he could find a store that would let me pre-order since this store wasn't. He says yes, by this time my lunch break is over so I ask him to call back and leave a message. No call back yet, I don't expect one.
*My brain divides by zero and I contemplate homicide.
I'm about to call customer service again and basically tell them I have hours to spend on the phone till I get some sort of real, tangible, verifiable data. I've had great experiences with Sprint but this is by far the worst customer service I've experienced from them. I don't fault the guy on the phone or in the store, they are almost certainly not to blame, someone higher up is screwing the pooch.
*Now, I went into bestbuy and asked if they had a working EVO.
*They said no but they have a dummy unit and I ask to see it. *He hands it to me and boy is it beautiful...I turn it over and the kickstand is broken off. The employee said he accidently did it and that he wasn't a fan of the feature.
*Another associate walks up and says they have more dummy units so he looks and pulls one out of the package.
*I try the kickstand and tested something i've read about: I ever so slightly tapped the upper left corner of the phone (while it's on the kickstand) and boom it falls over. The kickstand needs a redesign because plane turbulence or something else is going to knock it down if you're watching a video unless you are in a totally stable location.
*I can't imagine they can move it more to the middle of the unit because of the battery, but what I think would help is making the kickstand "L" shaped where theres an inch or so of flush contact with a surface once its deployed.
*I asked if they were doing pre-orders still, and they said yes but I would expect it to be a couple of weeks after the 4th now since they are booked up.
*I asked if he knew the price off-contract...he didn't know.
*I asked if they price-matched to the sprint store's price, and he said he didn't know but the other employee said "If we can verify it from an ad or something, we will do it." First employee looks at me and says "If she says we'll do it, then we'll do it."...interesting.
*Another guy standing next to him said they should be getting 30-40 units in.
*I asked if they had a working model and they said no. *
*Asked if they had an HTC advocate and they walked me over to him.
*He said that the store would not be receiving the EVO till a MONTH after the release date. He said he didn't know why, but that was the case. Didn't the other guy just TELL me they'd be opening an hour early? For what?
*He told me I could pre-order it on the Sprint website or have customer service do it.
*I walk out of the store and call customer service. Lady says she can't do it for me but if I go to sprint.com/evo, I can pre-order it.
*I think i'm in the twilight zone because theres no way this can be for real.
*I pull up sprint.com/evo on my hero and sure enough its the same page as ever, no mythical pre-order page.
*I go back into the sprint store and say I called customer service and asked if I could use their computer to pull up a non-mobile version of it. We both did it and he said "There used to be a link for pre-order, I guess its over now". Am I crazy or did this actually happen?
*He tells me customer service should be able to take care of me and again they wouldn't be getting EVO till a month after the release
*I walk out of the store and call customer service and this time I go to the sales option. I tell him I want to get an EVO on the 4th. He says I need to go through the store to do that because it can't be done online or through customer service.
*I tell him the store sent me to you, you are sending me to the store, this is a complete contradiction and I'm confused about how I'm to get my EVO.
*He says I'll just have to wait till the 4th. I tell him that the store told me they wouldn't get them till a month later. The guy tells me to wait till the 4th.
*I ask him if he could find a store that would let me pre-order since this store wasn't. He says yes, by this time my lunch break is over so I ask him to call back and leave a message. No call back yet, I don't expect one.
*My brain divides by zero and I contemplate homicide.
I'm about to call customer service again and basically tell them I have hours to spend on the phone till I get some sort of real, tangible, verifiable data. I've had great experiences with Sprint but this is by far the worst customer service I've experienced from them. I don't fault the guy on the phone or in the store, they are almost certainly not to blame, someone higher up is screwing the pooch.
*Now, I went into bestbuy and asked if they had a working EVO.
*They said no but they have a dummy unit and I ask to see it. *He hands it to me and boy is it beautiful...I turn it over and the kickstand is broken off. The employee said he accidently did it and that he wasn't a fan of the feature.
*Another associate walks up and says they have more dummy units so he looks and pulls one out of the package.
*I try the kickstand and tested something i've read about: I ever so slightly tapped the upper left corner of the phone (while it's on the kickstand) and boom it falls over. The kickstand needs a redesign because plane turbulence or something else is going to knock it down if you're watching a video unless you are in a totally stable location.
*I can't imagine they can move it more to the middle of the unit because of the battery, but what I think would help is making the kickstand "L" shaped where theres an inch or so of flush contact with a surface once its deployed.
*I asked if they were doing pre-orders still, and they said yes but I would expect it to be a couple of weeks after the 4th now since they are booked up.
*I asked if he knew the price off-contract...he didn't know.
*I asked if they price-matched to the sprint store's price, and he said he didn't know but the other employee said "If we can verify it from an ad or something, we will do it." First employee looks at me and says "If she says we'll do it, then we'll do it."...interesting.
