Hey gang...this is from the credit where credit is due dept. for a decent info. exchange experience. Given that I preordered the T-bolt last weekend at Best Buy I, of course, have had a huge interest in following all this hub-bub all week and surveying various BB stores to check the ever-changing status. Much like many of you, I've encountered employee responses ranging from "what's a thunderbolt?" to "it will now launch on Feb. 24."

Today I had the pleasure of speaking with a Best Buy mobile dept. guy that was a total pro and very willing to share all info. he had from internal resources. He said at this point they had not physically received the phone in the store and no stores in his district were showing any actual physical inventory. This led him to trust the delay news and obviously doubt the Feb. 14 time line. Interestingly, though, he said the next BB truck comes in on Tuesday and they also get UPS deliveries daily with cell phone devices - so he told me I could call early next week to see if they landed. I certainly asked him why he would believe getting them still or being able to sell them still by next week hadn't changed. More importantly, I asked why BB had told preordering customers about a Feb. 14 date to begin with. He said that this was the "street date" they got from Verizon and, moreover, it was still the "street date" showing in his BB system today. Bottom line is his store intends to sell the phone upon arrival based on this info. unless and until Verizon gives them the word to not do it - which, according to him, they have yet to do. So, overall, this store will be one that is on my watch list if for no other reason than to monitor their decision-making process with this!

By the way, I offer this not to get Feb. 14 hopes up, question Feb. 24 wisdom, or ignite the launch date rumors yet again. (Whew!). I just think the above info. is suggestive of a major communication glitch between Verizon and its selling partners who to this day don't have consistency on this matter. All of this, of course, trickles down to us customers who aren't just simply jumping on the gossip bandwagon in an overly needy way, but are instead paying authorized retailers $50 on preorder and counting on info. from them that should either be accurate from the outset or accurately updated when there are changes.

But maybe it's just me. One thing for sure, I'm going to the mall to shop for a Valentine's gift...and I may just have some ice cream. Enjoy your weekend all.

(fyi...kudos to the frederick, md. bb)