An anonymous tipster from deep inside Sprint's vault sends us this blurrycam image of an internal Sprint missive ominously titled "Palm Pre Only Available in Certain Channels for Start of Launch."
Which channels? The physical ones. Sprint Telesales and Sprint's website won't have it available right away, looks like:
Palm Pre will be available through sprint.com and Telesales sometimes after the initial launch date of June 6th.
With Sprint launches of yore, we could always depend on two things. First, the launch would happen on a Sunday. Second, the Thursday before some hapless Sprint employee would sell the device to eager smartphone buyers who happened to know it was coming or know the exact SKU of the device. With the Pre, neither is the case. If you're looking to get the Pre on launch day, you're going to need to get yourself to a physical Sprint store, Best Buy, or RadioShack.
They're dealing with "unprecedented levels of pre-registrations" and they're also quite fond of their Ready Now point-of-purchase walkthough and setup, so the decision was made to "promote this customer experience." Hey, you gotta leave your basement sometimes.
Thanks, Tipster!
Comments
This is BAD news! I work on 7/6!!! I was counting on telesales!
Just confirmed via a Telesales Rep!! NOOOOO!!!!
Damn, that's a huge pain for my plans. I guess I'll be walking all over the city trying to get one, because there's no way I'll be waiting in a line.
Can you still get a Pre via retail if you plan on signing up for the EPRP plan as a new customer or is that only done online?
Yes, this stinks - I was actually hoping for preordering on Thursday or Friday - even Saturday with deliver on Tuesday would be good as I have a busy schedule that Saturday. Inventory must really be pretty low.
This is jacked all the way up. The press release stated sprint.com. Now internally they are saying no to sprint.com. Oh boy this is turning into a horrible launch. Rethinking my my plans for sprint and pre.
wow this is a bomb on ppl
This is very very bad! What happen to a first half of the year release NOT first half in some places. Palm and Sprint is both messing up BIG TIME!
it means they launched first half of the year. they never said they'd launch EVERYWHERE 1st half of the year.
Damn, looks like I won't be able to purchase one online for a while.
Quit whining, get off your moms couch, and go to a store!!!
i just purchase mine on ebay for 19.99 with a 2 year contract
I don't want this ReadyNow nonsense. Just switch my ESN and let me go. I don't need a tutorial and they better not force me!
@reeper55
No thanks, the discounts and instant rebates at my company's Sprint Private store is too good to pass up.
Exactly. I will be getting the Pre for $99 with my corporate discount. Along with a 25% deduction in my monthly bill.
I am really bummed that I will have to wait even longer now.
Sprint TeleSales says this is a bogus statement and that the Pre will definitely be available via sprint.com and call-in as of the 6th.. they said they just got this word 15 minutes ago.. Now do I believe them? Guess we'll find out in 10 days.
If this is true (*anonymous tipster*) it does not apply to business customers, my employer pre-ordered 7 Pre's yesterday. We have an order # as well. This is probably for consumer accounts only.
There is one piece of information which will help me plan my day on the 6th. Now the final piece of the puzzle for me is to find out what time these stores will open. The Sprint store I called in Westminister CA told me that they won't know what the hours will be until the 5th of Jun while the store I called in Buena Park CA said something unintelligible and even if I could understand him I doubt he knew anything. Who knows? Perhaps the new customer experience involves pretty girls in bikinis.
...which allows them to avoid making it available to the would-be customers who would make use of their Everything Plus (Employee Referral) plans as these would be a lower profit margin plans. I'm sure they hope this forces some of those customers into their full-price plan sales channels, which is kinda weak.
Not surprising, they want to push people into the stores...
I'll just be the first in line at the BBM store to get one, move out of my way PRE here I come!!!
who cares...everyone just stay at home and wait for the second shipment to come in. Do you have to have it the first day?
Yes!
anyone else get a preorder in with their employer sprint rep?
That SUCKS, big time!!!
It appears to me that no one has picked up on the fact that you can indeed delete any unwanted contacts- synced from the proprietary accounts- from the phone (according to the user manual in the contacts section). If this is rightly so, then it appears the fear of members concerning having to deal with contacts synced from facebook etc. that they don't actually want on their phones is moot. Can someone also offer their insight into this cos i think this resolves a lot of the worries concerning the perceived implementation of synergy in contacts.
From what I understand, if you link with Facebook and delete a Facebook contact on the phone, you will delete that person from your Facebook account, right?
it categorically states that you won't be able to delete contacts from the parent applications even if you do delete unwanted synced contacts from the PRE
ARGH !!! this sucks. I'm gonna be traveling and won;t be able to get to a store.
Really, we know sprint is going for a customerexperience, but is this really needed?
Pre to sync with itunes out of the box
http://mypre.com/palm-pre-syncs-with-itunes-out-of-the-box-2009281735/
Sprint is going to lose customers off of this because Sprint is doing too much over a DAMN phone. Its just a phone. Verion and ATT didn't do this when there phones come out, so why Sprint. I refuse to wait in line..for what!!! For a phone, please, its not that serious. On top of having a certain amount of Pre's shipped..Sprint and Palm are dumb and I may not even want it anymore.
I spoke with a Supervisor at Sprint's 800 number who assured me that it will be available thru Tele Sales and he gave me his email and personal number if I have any problems ordering I. I am eligible for an upgrade but i have to do it thru tele sales since they messed my account up and had to put the note that i am eligible on the account itself.
im camping out. i am not willing to wait another freakin day and if they try to force me to sit down with them and learn about my new phone im walking out in their faces. theres only one TINY sprint store in my area (60 mile radius) and i have to work the day before (6/5) til 1am so i might as well grab some food, load up my ipod, meet up with some friends and shoot the shniz for a few hours and GUARANTEE myself a pre. fudge the bs.
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