Sprint woes

I am so mad about this I can't even relive it but the summary is that I got to the Sprint store at 4:15 to have them repair my Treo 600 which I have phone insurance for. The camera takes fuzzy pix, the speaker phone doesn't work, and lines are on the display. (Which have been there ever since I got it, to replace an older Treo under warranty, and I was just not bothered enough by the lines to return it until the other probs). Anyway, they told me to come back at 5:15 to get the repaired phone.

I spent an hour looking at local shops with Lauren, then went back to get the phone and was informed that the speaker function worked just fine for them, but they were unable to repair the camera, so they would order me a new phone under the warranty plan, BUT that my phone was unavailable, all they could get me was a Treo 650 without a camera. In other words, "your camera is broken, so let's give you a phone without a camera".

Naturally, this was unacceptable to me, so I asked to talk to the manager, had to wait behind 3 people to see him, and he told me that he has access to some queue of available phones, which changes every couple days and right now they only had one kind of Treo they could order, which didn't have a camera. If I came back next week, he might see a better phone but not today. but they told me there was nothing they could do, I had to call them in a few days to see if they had new phones.

So, I went back to my car. I got a phone call and tried to put it on speaker for Lauren to say hi. At this point, I noticed that my speaker phone didn't work. This got me mad because supposedly it was working fine for the repair people. I went back in to complain, and then they told me to call customer care.

So, I called customer care while waiting and pacing around the Sprint Store, and was on hold 20 minutes, then they transferred me to the insurance department. They told me if they sent me a new phone, it would cost me a $50 co-pay. I explained the situation, and the woman on the phone told me she would talk to the manager of the store and have him give me a camera phone of better quality than my phone. So I had to find the manager, wait to speak to him and hand him the phone. She said something to him, and he told me he would check in the back. Then he disapeared. By this time, it was after 6:00, and I had to call Ryan and explain where we were (my dad's birthday celebration was that night and we were late for it.) He went to the back of the store, then took my phone and fiddled with it for awhile (trying to fix it himself??). Eventually, he came out and told me that he couldn't do anything except give me a $30 service credit for my inconvenience. He wants me to call him next week, and he will look in the computer then to see what has come in.

This is so frustrating. I have had a Palm Phone for 7 years now. I'm addicted to it, can't function without it, and certainly should not have to *downgrade* to one without a camera, because, why have I been paying extra every month for the phone insurance? Grrrrr...

By the way, this is my 5th Palm Phone and I prefer Treo the least. Kyocera was my first Palm Phone in 2001 and it was the best, followed by Samsung. The Kyocera and Samsung let me choose different ring tones for who was calling, which my Treo does not do. And the Kyocera was efficiently designed, with a flip, and with a voice recorder and intuitive buttons. And this was 6 years ago, and I haven't seen anything better since then. I wish I still had it. Alas, only
Treo is now available through Sprint. If these phones didn't cost so much, I'd consider switching carriers over this. But I'd rather Sprint just caved in and upgraded me to the 755p, which they have TONS and TONS of IN STOCK in the store. Wah!

UPDATE: 10/16-They gave me a 755p! I love it! I took my attorney down to the store with me but he was just the "heavy", he didn't have to say a word, the manager remembered me and handed me a brand new 755p. And this time, everyone was really nice. My backup plan was to release the toddler in her all phone loving destructo glory onto their phone displays, but we didn't even have to do that. :)