[wtm2w]

I need some advice from my fellow BB enthusiasts. Here's my story.

I had been a Sprint customer for about 5 years. My latest device with sprint was an 8130. Although I did enjoy the 8130, it frequently left me itching for more power and functionality. After years of dealing with pathetic customer service from Sprint I decided it was time to switch to a new carrier. When I found out about the Tour release I immediately knew I'd switch to Verizon.

The day after the Tour was available I switched over to Verizon and purchased the Tour for $282. As most of you are aware, BestBuy offers the Tour for $99 and WalMart for $49. The savings over what I had spent is astronomical so I decided to go in and get my money back. The VZW store contacted the regional manager and informed him of the situation. He promptly replied that they should disconnect my line and return my Tour. Having had the same phone number for nearly 6 years, I told them that disconnecting the line was unacceptable and asked if there was any way that I could retain my phone number. They (as well as *611 techs) told me there is no viable way for me to retain my number if I return my Tour to the VZW store in order to get the deal from WalMart or BestBuy.

As of the moment, my plan is to switch back to Sprint (hopefully they'll rescind my cancellation fee) and wait it out for the 9700. Can anyone think of an alternative?

[nyyankeefan1021]

The 9700 is a GSM phone only, unless you want to switch to ATT or T-Mobile, you can't get it.

[wtm2w]

I realize that. I'm willing to switch to AT&T when it comes out. I just don't want to be $230 in the hole or loose my number of 5 years just to hang on to my Tour....

[cooden]

I left Verizon for Sprint and I have never, ever regretted my decision. When you say that Sprint had bad customer service, what do you mean by that? If the service is good in your area with Sprint and you pay your bill on time, why switch companies? You should be able to cancel Verizon within 30 days and go back to Sprint and get the Tour with them. Go to Bestbuy and buy the Sprint Tour from them (the Best Buys up here have Sprint & Verizon). Best Buy automatically gives you the rebates, you don't have to mail them in and wait for them.

I hate Verizon btw, I had them for my business for years, I finally got tired of their overpriced plans and attitude (I am a small business, but I had 6 Blackberry's with unlimited everything), my bill was $1000 a month, with Sprint my bill is just over $600 with all the same stuff.

[howarmat]

IMO i would never trade the 230 for the ****ty ATT coverage. Having the best network is worth the extra cost. The prices for phones always go up and down and anyone buying the phone on the first available chance should realize that you are probably going to pay more for it.

[StarDestroyer]

Out of the frying pan and into the fire? Kinda ironic that you left Sprint 'cause of perceived poor customer service* and your very first experience w/Verizon is pathetic. I think they were more interested in your $180+ than in keeping you happy and hoping they could just scare you into accepting that. Maybe there is no easy way for them to do what you wanted, but I'll never believe there's no technical way.

* The last few times I called them everything worked out acceptably... the only bad experience I've had w/them was when I tried to switch to my old family plan to their newer family plan. I have one BB and one other phone that has Internet on it (out of 5 total phones) so I just wanted the Talk/Message share plan w/data added on the other two lines. The rep started to set it up, but then discovered that they couldn't put a BB on the talk/message plan 'cause they couldn't add the BB addon to the talk/message plan. Kinda silly, really. They wanted me to get the talk/message/data plan instead, but my 3 addons would have gone from $10/mo to $20/mo and they don't use nor want the Internet on them. So that was a cost I didn't want. Sprint ended up royally screwing up my plan and I got a bill for more than twice what it should have been the next month. I called and the sorted it all out... I even got 1,000 text message/mo free on the two lines that have text messaging. It irritates me a little that I couldn't just switch to the newer plan which would have had more minutes, free roaming, and unlimited text messaging.