Straight talk nightmare and transferring sprint phone

I have had a Huawei straight talk phone for aprox 9 months. I have had problems with it from day 1. Finally I was at the point I had to delete cache every few hours just to be able to use the phone. I dealt with it for so long because it is an absolute nightmare to call their joke of a customer service dept. So finally I could not deal with it any more and called ST with the intent to demand (lol) a replacement. During the call the rep insisted I try a hard reset which resulted in my phone not working at all. Now I have to wait 3-5 days for a replacement phone. This was no fault of my own and I felt it was unacceptable. So on my 3rd or 4th call I asked to speak to a manager. I was told there was none available. I said so you are telling me you have no management? ANd was told " we do , but they are all busy" I demanded to wait and waited one hour and 27 minutes. After explaining to Norvic the "manager" that due to my job amongst other things that I can not be without a cell, and that I was going to have to go purchase a phone TODAY and wanted reimbursed. Well he said he could give me an extra 10 days service and that was it. Anyway, 3 weeks before xmas I cant afford much, so I purchased the access code from the ST website and went through steps to activate my own old sprint phone. Has anyone done this before? It says that it may take up to 3 business days for it to go through? Does it really take that long??
Any input would be appreciated.