Close....but NO cigars!

[ncbryan]

After hearing the excellent reviews from those lucky enough to pick up one of these phones, I decided to put the search on and try to find one. Everywhere I called, got no for an answer. Called a local VZW authorized retailer and the guy said yeah, we have 4 of them, come and get one. 5 minutes later I am sitting in his store with the phone on his desk. He changed the ESN in his system, popped the SIM card out of my Thunderbolt and poof, I was activated. Signed the new 2 year contract, printed them out. Everything going as planned......Set up my exchange email, google email tweaked a few settings. Enjoying the phone, etc, etc, etc. Then when he tried to do the billing for me to pay for it, the phone wasn't in his system yet....Uh OH! He called the lady at the corporate office, she said she didn't think they were supposed to be sold yet but set it up to be billed anyway. Couple more phone calls later I got shot down and he switched the SIM back to my TB and I was out the door with my OLD Thunderbolt with the Charge set to the side of his desk unactivated! Talk about ALMOST getting lucky! Oh well, back to the drawing board!

Bryan

 

[brianct1972]

Wow, now THAT sucks!!

 

[ncbryan]

Just got final confirmation that they will NOT sell me the phone today. He has it on his desk and said he will hold it for me until the official release date.

Bryan

 

[brianct1972]

What a nightmare this has become.

 

[ragdoll08]

I actually was able to buy the Charge from best buy but wasn't able to activate it. Had tech support on the line last night, the guy just told me he thought the SIM card was defective and that I should get it replaced and then no problems. He knew we were talking about the Charge and made no indication that it wasn't for sale or anything.

Went back to Best Buy today, they switched the sim, no dice. Tried a 3rd sim in a different Charge. No dice. Then they called customer support, got transferred over to tech support, and the supervisor shot it down staying it wasn't launched yet and told best buy they had to immediately refund the entire purchase because they risk a lawsuit. Soo now my Charge is gone and I'm back to my cracked screen incredible :-( The Verizon supervisor over the phone told me they noticed last minute service issues with the Charge and that's why the launch is delayed, would not give a date for sale.

 

[ncbryan]

Sounds similar for sure!

 

[davey11]

I actually was able to buy the Charge from best buy but wasn't able to activate it. Had tech support on the line last night, the guy just told me he thought the SIM card was defective and that I should get it replaced and then no problems. He knew we were talking about the Charge and made no indication that it wasn't for sale or anything.

Went back to Best Buy today, they switched the sim, no dice. Tried a 3rd sim in a different Charge. No dice. Then they called customer support, got transferred over to tech support, and the supervisor shot it down staying it wasn't launched yet and told best buy they had to immediately refund the entire purchase because they risk a lawsuit. Soo now my Charge is gone and I'm back to my cracked screen incredible :-( The Verizon supervisor over the phone told me they noticed last minute service issues with the Charge and that's why the launch is delayed, would not give a date for sale.

ARG...That must be a horrible experience to have the thing right in front of you then just snatched away.
This waiting around for the thing is bad enough, but what happened to you must be awful.

 

[ncbryan]

Yep, I feel like I am scarred for life! Any lawyers in the house?

LOL

 

[davey11]

Yep, I feel like I am scarred for life! Any lawyers in the house?

LOL

dude, I feel your pain, but ragdoll actually owned it for a few days. Imagine that feeling. You had it for a few seconds.

Me? I haven't had diddly so what do i know lol

Know whats cool about all this is in a week or two we can all have a good laugh at all of this.

 

[ncbryan]

I hope I don't have to wait 2 weeks......

 

[Cruiserdude]

I could have bought one today from Best Buy, I'm a vendor and know the people in the store pretty well. They knew it wasn't for sale yet but he wanted to sell it to me today anyway. To be honest I decided to wait based on the $300 price and the fact that I'd really like to hear more about the Bionic first. But I also didn't want to buy the device knowing my chances of actually getting it activated were fairly slim. And I wasn't about to buy it and throw it up on Ebay, as I didn't want to risk getting any of the BBM people in trouble (being that I'm friends with them and all). Still, it was cool to get to play with it, and know that I could have bought a phone that hasn't officially been released yet!

For real though, what are they waiting for? Are they trying to drive customers and device manufacturers away at the same time, or are they just that incompetent?