UPDATE ON BEST BUY BACKORDER:
So, I finally spoke to customer service this morning. After explaining the situation and inquiring as to why my phone was on backorder, I was put on hold. After a couple of minutes, she came back on and told me it would be another minute. A couple of minutes after that, she came back on and said the same thing. Then I sat there for another 20 minutes, at which point I was disconnected. Awesome.
Attempt 2: Called back and got a different CSR. The first thing I did was relay my prior CSR experience to her. She apologized and said they were having some issues with disconnects and call volume this morning (doubt it). I explained my situation again and of course she put me on hold to go research. She wasn't long, thankfully. She said that Best Buy mistakenly didn't order enough phones, hence the backorders. She said they received a memo about it this morning. I asked if there was any way they could get a phone shipped out to me right now and she said no. She did say it might ship sooner than the 9/2-9/14 date range in the email, but she couldn't be sure. I then mentioned that I paid the extra $19.99 for expedited shipping, so I could receive it on 8/25. She said once it is in a "shipped" status, I can call back and they will refund me the $19.99. Then I mentioned that I haven't done a lot of business with Best Buy in the past and that this experience isn't exactly making me want to do business with them again in the future. She apologized and asked if there was anything they could do to make me happy. I said you tell me. She then offered to mail me a $50 gift card, which I graciously accepted. So, who knows exactly when I'll be getting my phone, but at least they did something to make me feel a little better about the situation.