So Tell Us: How'd your Pre Buying Experience go?

Mine worked perfectly, transferred my number from AT&T without a hitch. Out of the store in about 20 minutes.

I had a similar problem with the activation... took a long while and the tech was on the phone trying to solve stuff. He got it done though, and I have been loving it ever since!

I wish I could find one. I wanted one before my vacation in 2 weeks. I never thought I'd buy the T Mobile service but at least the G1 is available.

It was very easy for me. I was out of the store in about 10-15 minutes, I went through Best Buy Mobile they were efficient and nice, thanks guys and thanks to everyone here at precentral for keeping everyone so informed. Job well done!

Went fine, in and out in 15 minutes.

It took me longer than most, but I was first in line, so I was the first activation, I'm sure that added to it. In total about 40 min to get out. But that's ok, the rep gave me her pre to play with while waiting. :)

I also had the activation issue porting my number from VZW, but I called CS and they got me working after doing a reset procedure.

The buying went fine, it was the waiting to buy.
Like I posted in an earlier message, I was there at 5 a.m., expecting an 8 a.m. opening.
The Sprint people (3rd party kiosk) didn't arrive til 8:45.
But they did bring coffee.
They only had 7 Pres.
I had to go to a parade after I got back, ran the battery down to 10 percent, so she's charging now.
I love it!

I also had some activation issues. Spent about 2 hours in Best Buy while the Sprint rep was even baffled. After a few phone calls and a hard reset (which nobody thought was possible) we were able to get my account set up. Still a fun experience. I got there a little before 9 and there was two guys waiting. They only had 8 phones and I think they were gone by the time I left. Phone is updating now, so far I love it!

Overall, the activation experience was smooth. Got phone #1 from the store and was out the door in 15 minutes fully activated.

My only gripe is the sales person telling me that I HAD to buy the accessory "bundle" which first was the TouchStone and car charger. WTF? I waited hours to be given this line of bull****? The sales guy quickly dropped the car charger part and since I was going to buy the TouchStone anyways it was fine.

Pretty sleazy sales tactics either way.

I was #18 on line in Downtown NYC @ 7:55am. I waited in line for about 45mins & after that the experience was lovely. Purchasing was a breeze. I wasn't shocked about the turn out...this was a highly anticipated lil device!

I had never stood on-line for anything "EVER" as far as a device launching is concerned but i believe this was well worth the wait. My friend & I (#19) bought the last two Touchstones too...whew, we made it just in time!

I was at my local BestBuy in Gainesville, FL when they opened and had them sell out of their 8 units with the couple directly in front of me. I quickly decided that I could live with the 100 dollar rebate and headed to the nearest Sprint store to be handed a sheet with a number on it. I was number 46 and i was told that they only had 40 units but a number of people left before claiming their Pre so I had a very good chance of getting one... 45 minutes later number 44 was called up and the manager announced that it was the last Pre they had. I franticly called all of the remaining Sprint stores locally and in surrounding cities only to find that they all hand just finish selling their stock. Currently I am eagerly await the next Pre shipment though no Sprint employee knows when that will be... :(

One store in Herndon VA denied me b/c even though I am a 9yr Sprint vet they wouldn't even sell it to me full price b/c I was not eligible for an upgrade. I had expected to pay full price from the get-go, not be denied outright!

The Sprint store in Reston VA took care of me fairly quickly, and confirmed that the other store had no clue about what they were calling an official 'Sprint Policy'.

It was really easy for me..I have a Sprint store 5 minutes from home. I arrived 30 minutes prior to opening and there was just one person in front of me also buying a Pre..staff were helpful, since I am a Premier customer and qualified for a 150 rebate I got the 199 price and the rebate was instantaneous event though it was at a Sprint Store and not Best Buy..couldn't ask for more. The only problem was that the program for syncing my contacts had not been updated for the palm pre so I have to take it during the week if I want all my contacts synced from my old phone to the new. This was in Bayamon, PR.

Hate living in europe right now....

Home by 8:30.... It was amazing!!!!

I went to the closest Sprint store around 6am. There was 10 people in front of me. At 8am a rep came out and said that they would be letting in 12 people in at a time. Gold idea!!!! I got to the counter around 8:15, dropped my cash on the counter. Got through the setup real quick out by 8:30am. No problems with any of it. Funny thing the Sprint rep pointed out. He never got to touch my phone. He put the box down on the counter and I asked if I could open the box. He said go for it. So I did, after he did somethings on his CPU for my acct, he said "go ahead and turn it on". After that I just followed all of the on screen setup stuff(palm profile & google sync) Looked up at him and ask if that's it? He said yep and I was out of there. As for the Pre it's self, al I can say is "THANK YOU PALM!!!"

They wouldn't sell me a phone without signing a contract!!!

I was willing to pay up for the phone but would not sign a 2 year agreement.

Both my local Sprint store and the local Radio Shack had them. In stock, reasonable lines. But I went home empty handed.

F. U. Sprint! I'm a long time customer, very unhappy. :-(
By Monday all of the local stores will be sold out.

Sprint broke my heart this morning. After coveting the Pre for months (mostly because I hate my Touch Pro so badly because of the God-awfully slow OS), waiting in line for three hours this morning, and starting to activate my brand new Pre, I found out that getting the Pre would increase my monthly bill by over $50 because I/d be forced to move to the Simply Everything plan (which has far more bells and whistles than my other two phones need.)

It looks like after 9 years as a basically happy Sprint customer, I'm heading off to the ATT store this afternoon to make the jump to an iPhone.

Mine was the worse ever, I renewed my contract, and didn't receive the 300 dollar price, I paid full retail, plus didn't get my full 150 dollar upgrade, settled for 75, they didn't even swap my contacts from my old phone, other then gettin screwed on the price, the phone is great, sprint needs more work on customer service.........PALMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!

My local Best Buy only got 2 units(I found this out from Best Buy.com) So I showed up at 5;40 this morning hoping to be the first in line, they open ate 10am. Amazingly nobody else showed up. The first Pre they activated made a horrible scratching sound during any call but media played fine. They ended up giving me the other unit so I feel bad for anyone showing up for a Pre because they are out!!!! By the way I love my Pre and I just downloaded the update.

i got mine at 8:30 am ;)

I got screwed... Yesterday I went to my local Sprint store, a franchise, and they were letting people pre-pay for the Pre, but the guy who walked in 5 seconds in front of me got the last one. The lady working there told me that they had additional stock that wasn't pre-sold, so I could try to get there early this morning and get one.

I did.

I was there at about 5:55a. They opened at 8.

Different employee... I was first in line, he welcomed me in, and asked if I'd pre-ordered one. No, I wanted one of the additional stock.

There IS no additional stock.

I have no Pre. He said he'd try to find me one from one of "their other stores". It's nearly 4 hours after they opened, and I haven't received a call yet...

My first phone wouldn't get passed the back swipe tutorial. I was their first exchange and the second one worked terrific. Using it now as I type this.

No problems here in Torrance, CA. Got there around 8:15am. They opened at 8am and the first group was already in. I was #34. Got in and in front of a rep about 8:45am. They had a few problems with their network, so the poor gal had to login about a dozen times, but by 10am, I was out the door. They had plenty of stock (my guess by the stack of number tags they were handing out was 100+), and only 2 people left in line outside (they were probably up to #60 or #70 from what I could tell) when I walked out of the store at 10am with my new Pre in hand. Out of Touchstones, though. I'm sure they'll sell out of Pre's by mid-afternoon. Lovin' this phone!

It went OK. I thought the clerk could've spent a little more time w/me. I'll be asking questions on the forum. I might go back to Sprint tomorrow. Overalol the phone is GREAT! I love it.

Store Type: Corporate
Location: Columbus, OH
Purchase Time: 12:30pm
Purchase Type: 2 year Upgrade
Enter=Exit Time: 15 minutes*

*switched from SERO 1250 Plan

Phone is f-ing awesome!

I went to a Radio Shack in Calif, there were 3 people ahead of me. The store opened at 9 am. They had five Pre. But the 3rd guy waiting wanted 3 Pre, so that took out the entire inventory. Radio Shack told me to go to a nearby
Radio Shack. I was first to get there, and got my Pre, no problem.

Activated and it's really amazing. Very fast. Love the multitasking and cards. Camera was excellent. Screen is beautiful.

So far very good. Still playing with it.

Got 30% off for the touchstone, car charger and the Palm Pre belt case.

Smooth here in Northern VA. Got in line at 0745, was in the door at 0800 with a card holding number 20 of 30 phones for me. Got in front of an agent at circa 0830, and was home with my number moved to the new phone by 0915. 11 years with Sprint and this may have been the smoothest transaction by far.

My experience was great. I went to the Best Buy Mobile store at the Mall of America. I got there when the mall opened at 7am and was the second in line. After about 20 minutes two guys from the Sprint store in the mall tried getting us to come buy it from them. They said they have 35 units in stock and they open earlier than Best Buy Mobile. I simply responded that I'd also be paying $100 more to take it home with me if I bought it from them. LOL

The Best Buy Mobile store was supposed to open at 9:30, and the guy opening the store was really cool. He brought us some Starbucks coffee, and let us hang out in the store at 9:00, but he said he just couldn't sell us the phones until 9:30. He also gave us him Pre Demo unit to play with for a bit while we waited. Everything processed perfectly. Couldn't be happier with my experience or my new Pre!!

Very smoothly, Sprint was as prepared as possible and as a whole things moved well for all. I got two phones one for wife and one for myself. I switched from ATT, and only gotcha is to make sure you have account # and password from old account with you. I had to call home for mine. Activation was not instant because I was switching carriers, but old phone were deactivated within 30 minutes and activating each pre by myself was a snap once that happened.

Only downside I've seen so far is that demand is exceeding supply. At my location in Irvine, CA the numbers in line easily exceeded the phones on hand. They quickly figured out where the break in line would be and got those at end of line in same order on waiting list.

Great Buying Experience.

Was in line at my local Sprint store at 6:30AM PST. I was 15th in line and by 8AM PST there were another 25 to 30 people behind me.

I came over from ATT, this was a very hard decision as I had been with them for 10 years but the Pre won me over so lets hope Sprint wins me over as well.

Thanks to all the employees at the Spring Glendale,CA store for making it such a smooth process.

Great Work!!

are you people serious? you waited on line to buy a Palm???? and with Sprint service non the less???? get real people.. this device wont save Palm... they are doomed to failure!!!!

Well they didn't ket me activate at home but other than that I had no problem. I was 10th in line and I got to the store at 7:10. Our store had 22 units.

The Sprint Store in Southlake, Texas had 60 units. The Assistant Manager Scott was there at 7:00 AM and came outsid to provide those waiting with information about the phones and service plans. He had everyone sign in and at 8:00 AM started assigning those in line to customer support staff. I was 6th in line and was out the door with an activated phone and the accessories I wanted (no pressure) by 8:20 AM. Great experience.

Love the phone!

from Wikipedia: The Castro District, commonly known as The Castro, is a neighborhood within Eureka Valley in San Francisco, California. It is widely considered the world's best known gay neighborhood having transformed from a working-class neighborhood through the 1960s and 1970s. It remains a symbol and source of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) activism and events.

So is the Pre the new phone for gay pride? The anti-Prop 8 gadget of choice?

I had an awesome experience. I was in and out like a robbery.

Offered free doughnuts water and Orange Juice.

Store was in Irvine Culver @ Barranca. Arrived about 7:35 about 70 people in front of me, store had plenty of phones. They told us the had enough Touchstones if people didn't buy multiples, which they did, so they ran out. Which was fine, they said the would call us when they got them in.

Very organized, not quick. Was amazed how many clueless people were buying phone. Much easier than buying the 3G last year.

I had activated a New Everything Plus plan yesterday on an old phone. Sales person was surprised that Sprint allowed me to do it, anyway agent couldn't activate phone so he called CS. It took so long to activate the phone ran out of batteries and then bricked. He could not reset it and would not listen to me when I todl him to pull the battery. So he gave me a new phone, which took another 20 minutes.

Manager was fantastic, whole thing very organized.

went great, I am currently in "usb mode" adding ringtones, this thing is sweet!

"are you people serious? you waited on line to buy a Palm???? and with Sprint service non the less???? get real people.. this device wont save Palm... they are doomed to failure!!!!"

you sir, are an asshole!

Went fairly smoothly for me although initially there was a hiccup when trying to setup my account. Apparently Sprint still had my information from an account I set up two years and canceled after 25 days. There was a password/pin on that account and I had not idea what it was as they couldn't tell me whether it had to be alpha...alpha/numeric or numeric and had no idea how many characters it was. I actually purchased the phone from a Best Buy store and was first in line. This location only had 3 phones so those who came after the lady who was third were sol...it was kind of funny that people strolled in to BB trying to see if they had any phones at 11am. They must not have been following any tech blogs...Anyway BB service was great and this phone is truly amazing!!

Spartanburg, SC... only two people showed up at the local Sprint Corp store (my friend and me). We both bought a Pre and TouchStone. I also bought the Palm leather case and it is really nice. I was disappointed that Sprint didn't have the Palm brand car charger, as it can double as an extra usb cable.. they tried to tell me that their Sprint branded car charger was better. I discovered after I got home that my Nokia E71 cable also works fine with the Pre so I now have two USB cables (one on computer and other on Touchstone). Great experience and everyone at Sprint was super nice!

Buying experience went well, but I actually *almost* got to speak with a War Room when my Pre froze. I called the local store and they put me in touch with a Palm ambassador who walked me through a few reset steps. He was talking about the war rooms and mentioned that they did exist. However, it sounded like they were only for Palm hardware/software problems and might not be set to handle activation issues if they were on Sprint's side. Eh, who knows? I'm updating to 1.0.2 right now and it's almost done, so I'm going back to playing with my Pre!!

I went to the Best Buy and I was second in line. They had 3 Pre in stock. When the store opened we all walked up to where they sold the phones and there were 3 kids there all ready half way done with the contract and all ready bought the 3 Pre. Seems the employees brought their friends in through the back and cut in front of all the people waiting in line. So we all lost out. Shame really.

I was in line at 5:10am and I was out the door with a Pre fully activated at 8:16am! Very painless.

I got in line at 5:30 for and opening at 7. The transaction was quite fast but to my dismay, the phone would not allow me to create a user profile... The technicians at my store tried nearly everything including both a soft and hard reset and switching to another Pre phone. Currently I'm waiting (it's 4:30, its been way too long) for the technicians in the war room to come up with a solution to fix my phone...yay...

My experience at the store was nice.

However my overall experience has not been good.

1) I called Sprint and they told me my existing plan would work on the palm pre (I had unlimited Vision data/text and 750 voice). However, I had to get a new plan for $27 more for 300 less minutes (or $47 for 150 minutes more).

So moral is, if you are a Sprint customer now, more than likely you will need a more expensive plan. People migrating from other carriers will most likely save money.

2) I have found that I really don't like the Pre as much as my Centro. Even though some of the features are nicer, the centro is easier to perform one-handed tasks. It is almost better to just leave the keypad extended.

3)Also everything does not migrate over (my texting chats for example)

4) To my knowledge there still isn't a stock voice dialing app. No LED and the charging port is hard to access (or for $70 you can inductively charge). No lanyard loop. Speaker is weak.

5) Available apps are few.

Overall it is more money and less satisfaction for me. I did not like iPhone and I just bought an iPhone-like phone with a keyboard.

Got to Best Buy in West Des Moines around 9:30. I had drove by the Sprint store down the street and there was still a line outside the building. I ended up being 4th in line. Great right? No they only got 3 in stock. They put me on the list and are giving me a call as soon as more come in. I called the sprint store after leaving just to see if they in fact had them in stock. They told me yes they had some left but then asked if I was a current sprint user and if I was ready for a full upgrade($150.00 discount). I told her yes and she told me that I would have to order one and get it on Monday. I asked her if they had a priority for new costumers and she replied that I should stop by. Wonder why people keep leaving. After dealing with their rebate program in the past I'll wait on Best Buy.

I woke up "late" and ran to catch the train to the Sprint Store at Mockingbird Station in Dallas, got there @ 8:02 AM and found a decent line snaking out of the store. A few minutes later a cheery Sprint rep handed out warm Krispy Kreme donuts (I declined :p) and asked, "Anyone buying a Touchstone charger?". I had not planned on it but after I found out she was giving away *50%* off coupons, I jumped at it.... Two hours_ and 65 peopl later, I was the 66th person to purchase a Pre at that store - apparently they had a 100 so I imagine they were gone by lunch. Unfortunately, it took almost an hour to activate as they had problems and had to consult what I heard one rep all "The War Room", but by 11 AM I left a happy Pre owner.

Unfortunately, they ran out of Touchstone chargers but I was able to order, pay for it, and have it set to be directly shipped to me.

Waited in line at 6am and everything was smooth and quick. I'm hearing from friends who just walked in midday that got a phone easily, too.

My phone was slow and crash-prone at first, but the 1.02 update appears to have fixed things.

Edmond, Oklahoma. I drove by the Sprint corporate store at 7:10 this morning and there were about ten people in line. So that we could wait inside and not have to send a rebate form in, I decided to go to the Walmart Supercenter closest to our house, which was the only Walmart in the Oklahoma City metro area that had the Pre today - and it had only three (I stopped by this store last night to check). My son and I showed up at 7:20 and we were the first ones there, but an employee told us other people had called. Two more people showed up shortly after we did. Throughout the rest of our time there, only one other person came.

They started the activation process at 8:00 and we left the store about 9:10. A Sprint rep showed up at 8 to help out, which was good because it was a difficult process. It may have been partly because I was not on Sprint prior to this morning. Between the rep and several Walmart employees, they got me up and running and the Sprint rep even waived the activation fee due to the lengthy process.

The process was okay and I am glad to the Pre today.

I had the same activation problem. My rep was on the phone with Sprint HQ for about an hour, and even hung up on him twice, which drove him nuts. Eventually a manager at the store got it working. I was very Zen about it. Just think of it as the pain of childbirth.

I had the same activation problem. My rep was on the phone with Sprint HQ for about an hour, and even hung up on him twice, which drove him nuts. Eventually a manager at the store got it working. I was very Zen about it. Just think of it as the pain of childbirth.

I had the same activation problem. My rep was on the phone with Sprint HQ for about an hour, and even hung up on him twice, which drove him nuts. Eventually a manager at the store got it working. I was very Zen about it. Just think of it as the pain of childbirth.

According to the gal with whom I spoke at the Perimeter Mall Best Buy around 1:45 pm or so, their metro Atlanta stores are currently sold out. She said the first guy in line arrived at 6:30 am! Incidentally, they only got *three* units.

I went by the North Point Mall Sprint store. They were also sold out, and had a waiting list of about seven people when I went by there around 2:30 or so. There were about eight folks queued up to test the two demo models available at that time.

I hate to sound like I'm wearing a tinfoil hat, but does anyone besides me wonder if Palm & Sprint did this deliberately to get "sold out" headlines and buzz?

Central, MA. Got to my sprint store at 8:10 (they opened at 8am - and told me the day before they were only opening to people who 'got an e-mail'). I got a sprint e-mail this morning at 3:30am - so I guess that included me. Anyhoots, staying in my car for 10 mins, only 5 other cars outside the store, saw some motion going on inside - so I figured I'd wait and finish my bagel. Another car pulled up and a guy walked in, so I followed him. Only 4 other people were at the counter buying Pres, and I was 2nd in line after the guy before me. Got to play with the manager's Pre the whole time and shot the breeze with him about the whole build up to this phone. My turn at the counter - "upgrade?" .... yes, "I'm turning in my POS Treo 650 that's almost a brick" - sure thing... "Great, you're eligible for the $199 price after rebate!". The whole process took 15 mins, I knew more about the phone than the rep did - and I even go to stare down her shirt the whole time while she leaned over and showed me a few things on the phone....

Oh... and when I got home, I got out of my car, forgetting that I put the Pre on my lap.. .and yup... it fell onto the garage floor. Now I have a nice crack on the top plastic lip (nothing noticeable, but definitely sucks!) - good thing I enrolled the Pre in "accidental damage".

I suspect this store sold out around noon - don't think they got too many.

I had planned to hit my local Sprint store in the wee hours of the morning, but had a last minute decision to risk it at Best Buy knowing that they would have only 8 units. I drove by the Sprint store on my way to best buy at 7am and they were lined up around the block. I figured that if they were this busy, so too must be Best Buy. When I got to BB, however, not a soul in sight and I knew the pre was mine. Hung out in my car until the first car that wasnt an employee showed up and booked it to the door. First in line is a sweet thing. Not to mention I was able to snag an interview for a PT job with BB wireless all in the same trip. The phone is everything I expected and a little more. As a hard-core high-end Nokia user, the switch to Sprint and Palm made me leery. But I think I'm going to be quite happy. My only issue with the phone is the damn USB cover. Really? Who gets their phone so filthy that they need a cover to protect the USB port. lol. The cover is too flimsy for my taste and I'm freaked that I'm going to snap it off. I guess the touchstone will fix that issue later.

POS - Defective phone was sold

Quality Control? Has Palm ever heard of it? My new Pre lasted all of fifteen minutes. It shut itself off at the store but we thought that the Sprint employee may have pressed the on/off switch by mistake. Turns out that the phone was defective - by the time I got it home the keyboard was inoperative. Returned it to the store and of course they were all sold out so I had to leave with nothing. All of this after waiting in line for hours. A really unpleasant buying experience. Thank you Palm!

I literally fainted in the store after I got my Pre. Granted, I had been there for 2.5 hours, skipped breakfast, and am 16 weeks pregnant. When I finally came (yes sprawled on the Sprint floor), guess what question I asked first? "Where's my Pre?"

Anyway, I told the store reps that they could advertise that the Palm Pre had folks fainting from sheer excitement!

Oh, and other than the faint and the wait, everything went very smoothly. We activated 2 Pres without incident.

Hmmm, sounds like a number of you were able to upgrade and get your phone today. Wish I were one of ya :-). I was told (at the Ames, IA store) that Sprint corporate told them that no existing customers could have any of today's stock. They ordered it for me online and told me I should get it Tuesday. Not a big deal, but a little annoying. Especially since they had 18 left in stock...

Well my experience was similar to people here. In Northen NJ here the main town for shopping is Paramus. We don't have Mall of America here. What we do have are malls about every 20 yards here. 2 Best Buys, a mobile BB in the Mall along with one corporate and affiliate store in same mall.

I figured that the ones there would be swamped. There is another Corp store on the Major Cross road by the mall. So I decided better there. As I drove by my heart sank abit they were lined up outside at least 20 to 30 deep. I got on line at just past 8 as the opened the store. Assistant mgr came out had everyone fill out a strip of paper with name number of pre and email add. Could not have made it easier. I'd say 10 reps to activate 2 in another part of the store for in depth help and on taking your name and placing you in the que for next to be helped. 2 pres on demo while we waited. Rep was knowledgeable and quick and got out by 9:30. I'm moving from Tmo if all good with coverage I'm GTG. If not within a week I will have to jump to AT&T and the new Iphone. Can't say enough though about how great the Sprint reps made it for the people in line today.

Didn't even look at any Pre info before last night. I shunned the phone.
Looked at the palmcentral video and downloaded the leaked inventory PDF.
Headed out this morning to the Best Buy close to my house with a plan, My father had just talked about getting a pre-paid phone Monday. HE was the sacrificial victim.
Got to the store at 9:20 something and got the last of 4 "appointments".
Two of the 4 activations went terribly wrong and held me up along with BB not being able to add another line automatically.
Plus ALL of my lines got screwed briefly since I needed ALL of my accounts, except one, to finagle the phone.

Got to spend some time with the Sprint general manager for the entire area and got a Pre. Good day. Took 3.5hours though.

AWESOME! My brother and I picked up 2 Pre here in Murfreesboro, TN. He arrived a little after 5:30. I took his place around 6:35 so he could get to work. There were about 10 in line when they opened the door just before 8. They allowed me to get a Pre for his account. (We talked to them yesterday to make arrangements.) They also let me upgrade even though I wasn't eligible until 7/1!! Thanks Sprint!!!!!

I went to Bestbuy in Yonkers got there 15 mins before open when 3 of the 10 customers lined up outside said there sold out. Sold out? The store wasn't even open yet. Apparently that store took $100 down payment the night before and sold all 10 in stock.

Lucky for me Radio Shack was 2 stores down and had four. I was able to do my own setup since the store was packed and the process was so long once we paid for it he let us go. That store was getting a few more shipped that day and they were sold before they could make it to the parking lot. The delivery guy was giving the sales associate the ESN # over the phone. The Touchstone and everything else was sold out too.

I'm so in love with my Pre.

I'm half way through and so far so good.

Went to a Sprint store about 11:30 and they had the demo out and four reps signing up customers. They told me they'd just sold their 20th and last for the day. I wasn't ready to buy but wanted to talk service plans. We found a good setup and a little discout that made it all work for me. They took my name and said they'd place an order and call me in, most likely by Wednesday and we'd finish the deal.

I watched the four they set up. Very friendly, took a lot of time showing the basics and importing data from all sorts of phones. Everybody was smiling like they were picking up a new Mercedes.

Went off to the mall where they have two boutique type stores. They still had Pre's and also were helpful about questions. They had a steady stream of people coming in the door, all sorts, different ages, both genders, nobody hyper or acting all image consious. Can't wait to join the owners club.

Just woke up from a loooong nap. Waited in line for six hrs was first in line, about 9 of us at opening time but they only had 5 phones. Created a waiting list. Waited about 45 mins to get phone activated bc they had to call it in. Finally ported number completely. Updating here with pre. I love it!

San Diego County Best Buys do not carry Sprint phones.
Sprint Store in Escondido had 18 people in line at 7:45 am. Drove 35 miles to Best Buy in Murrieta in Riverside County.
#8 in line.
They got their 10 Pre boxes around 12:30 PM due to shipping goof up.
No Touchstones, used instant rebate funds to order 1 from local Sprint store.

Happy Camper.

Had the same problem you had. I would have been the first one in the w.paterson BestBuy store in NJ but the rep had to call in to sprint and that took about 45 min. But i must say so far it was worth it!

I'm not up for my full rebate until September, and my buddy Mark (a Premiere member) really liked the looks of the Pre, but wasn't salivating to upgrade his phone. So we hit our closest Sprint store (on Gellert, in Daly City (just south of San Francisco)) at about 1:30 PM, to look the phone over.

The Pre specialist told us -- on prompting -- that they'd gotten 60 units in, and sold out in 90 minutes, after opening at 8:00 PM.

As beautiful as the Pre is online, it doesn't measure up to the Pre in-hand. A cheap and plasticky feel was my biggest concern, personally, so I gave the display unit a pretty strong flex-test, and got almost no wiggle from it. That made me happy.

I'm a *very* big guy -- 6'5", built like a lineman, with hands to match -- and the keyboard was fine to type on. The top row is a *smidge* too close to the body of the phone. Seriously, a millimeter further down would have made it perfect. It's a little weird, because there seems to be plenty of room on the slide-plate to have moved the keyboard down that tiny bit.

My buddy played with it for about two minutes before deciding he wanted to get one ASAP, so he got on the waiting list.

Me, I'll have to suffer through gnawing jealousy for almost three months. Bleah. On the plus side, I imagine the phone will be thoroughly bug-tested by then, and probably on at least version 1.5 of the firmware.

Raleigh, NC. I don't think I've had a better buying experience PERIOD. The staff at the store here on Six Forks was outstanding. I stopped by the store yesterday afternoon, and spoke to the manager, who assured me that as long as I was there by 8, I would have a phone. Unfortunately, I had to work at 9 this morning, 30 minutes away. Not willing to risk it, I parked outside around 5am and began my vigil. Around 730am, one of the reps was on his way in, and decided to take pictures of the 4 of us that had gathered outside the store. About 10 minutes later, they let us in, and the phones arrived about 5 mintues after that. The owner of this, and 12 other stores in the area was hand delivering Pre's to all his locations. Not only did he take time to talk to the 10-12 people that had gathered by this time, but the corporate rep for his store came in and answered questions for people as they waited. All in all, my experience was phenomenal. I was out the door by 8:10, phone activated, touchstone and car charger in tow.

The Gilbert,AZ store was terrible. Got there about 815 and there were several people in the store with a line outside. After standing outside for 45 minutes with no movement and the first buyers finally walking out of the store, I called another Sprint (non-corporate) store in the area. They had 4 left and would hold one for me. Was activated within 20 minutes. Could not sync the contacts tho, not a huge deal, just as long as I had the phone.

The lady manager at the Gilbert store would not even ask how many phones were in stock nor tell the 30 plus standing outside. (/start sarcasm) Although she did allow folks to test drive a working unit. she was kind enough to hand out forms to people requesting twitter and email info to help 'speed up the activation process'. Forget that nonsense!! Just gimme the phone! Seriously, if you need help programming the phone with your email and twitter info, the Pre is probably not the phone for you. (/end rant)

I would not recommend going to the Gilbert store (Gilbert Rd and 202) if you are in a hurry. I don't know what was going inside the store, but in 45 minutes, only 3 people were allowed in the store.

The manager did indicate more phones would arrive on MOnday. I would encourage you to not go to this store and use the Sprint store on the NW corner of Alma School and Queen Creek Rds. Very knowledgable staff and very efficient processing. Their phones will arrive on Tuesday. If you're a glutton for punishment and want to wait at the Sprint store until Tuesday waiting in line for your phone activation save yourself the hassle and go to the other store on QCR and Alma School in Chandler.

I live in the Nashville area, went to the Brentwood Best Buy to get a Pre, got there at about 5AM for a 10 AM opening, was only one girl before me. Ultimately had about 10-12 before they came out and said they had only 6 phones. Surprisingly I think that the Sprint store down the street still had phones at 11AM which was about 3 hours after they opened, something tells me it was the 100 mail in rebate. NOTICE TO ALL NASHVILLE AREA/MIDDLE TENNESSEE RESIDENTS... THERE ARE STILL HALF A DOZEN PHONES AVAILABLE AT THE SPRINT STORE IN COLUMBIA, TN!!! She will be open again on Monday morning. Sprint mislead people by saying that only Sprint corporate stores would have the phone. Around Middle Tennessee several authorized dealers got the phone, some of them, like the one in Columbia actually got more than Best Buy or Sprint Corporate. Keep in mind that there will be a 100 mail in rebate with the Columbia store... So far I'm loving the phone, would I have waited 5 hours if i had known there would be so many left over at the end of the day? Probably not, but never the less... I have it now and am so far happy with the device overall.

straightforward. my treo 755p is long in the tooth, so to speak.

in an out in record time with ported contacts, it was effortless.

the device in quite intuitive and touchstone is a must

I avoided lines my going to the Mall of America in Minneapolis. This location must be off the radar for the locals...I arrived to the Sprint store at 7:00am, only one other in line. At the 8:00 opening there was only 5 of us in line! After activating the device and changing plans from SERO to Everything Data 450, all works well.

Around 8:30 another customer came in and said he couldn't believe this store didn't have lines, he saw a couple other stores with lines 50 deep.

A very nice upgrade from the outdated "Franken-Garnet" Centro!! Overall and incredible device. A few very small shortcomings, which I hope will be solved with future updates or 3rd party apps.

Cheers,
John

Started making runs last night to my "primary" location checking for a line. Kept an eye open on plan B and C stores. I ran by the stores about every two hours starting at 10pm. At 2am I switched to hourly runs and at 4am I was second in line. 8am open netted 7 people in line in Woodlawn, MD (literally just outside the Baltimore city line). Three customer services reps on hand at the store, so I was one of the three first to be helped. I purchased two Pre's for my girlfriend and I. Ported our numbers from Verizon with no problems. Activation took a few retries, but made it without a fuss. I was on the road by 9am. Did have to go to another store to get a touchstone, but still great customer service. Well put together release. Kudos Palm and Sprint. I was actually surprised with the size. I've seen hundreds of videos and thousands of pictures, but it was still smaller than I thought and I love it. I have big hands and have no trouble typing. Still trying to figure out where they were saying about the top row of keys and fingers hitting the phone. I haven't had that problem at all or even close. Especially coming from the Storm, the touchscreen is amazing and I feel like the phone is more responsive than an iPhone and definitely a Storm. I could go on for hours but I am truely in love with the phone. My girlfriend and I spent the entire beautiful day inside playing with our phones. The only thing I'm looking for in 3rd party apps is a voice recorder and video capture if possible. All my other needs are satisfied with this phone.

I went to my Sprint Store at 10am and walked straight in and picked one of these up no problems. I sat with the sales rep for probably 35 minutes while she activated my service and got me all set up. UNFORTUNATELY MY PALM PRE WILL BE GETTING RETURNED :-( I read reviews the battery life wouldn't be great, but I expected a little more. I complete charged the phone when I got home and had it drained near 6pm. I could live it I think, but I need something better for work in case my duty radio fails (officer safety issues). Also, I don't get service and 75% of the areas I patrol, even though Sprints "coverage map" shows they have coverage there.

I'm kind bummed big time, but looks like I will be returning my phone and using their 30 day trial/return policy to end my service with Sprint. Back to T-mobile I go... Hats off the Palm though, they made a kickin' device.

I had a great experience, got to the store at 8:30 and they were all sold out, thankfully, I had been pestering one of the reps all week and he held mine there :) Activation was so fast and I was out in minutes.

Now, for everyone who is complaining about bugs, lines, sold out phones. Here is a reality check, we are ALL early adopters, we are the 1st to buy a new product and we are the ones who WILL have to deal with all of these issues. EVERY brand new product, be a cell phone, computer or a car, they all have version one issues. Some known ahead of deployment, others show up as we all use them. If you dont have the stomach to deal with these issues for the next few months till upgrades and fixes and other things roll down to us. Then you probly shouldnt be buying this brand new phone just yet. Let us all that did, work out the kinks and love it ! And for everyone who insists in comparing everything to the iphone, its been a couple years, so people forget, it wasnt all smooth sailing. But it had the luxury of being the 1st one on the block, so it captured a huge audience and now everything after is a 'perceived catch up game'.

I myself love the phone and was very aware of some initial short comings and other things I found out that need improvement. But I knew that and bought it anyway.

I came from a Treo 755p and that was a very understimated powerfull phone in my opinion. In comparing my treo to the PRE, here are the things that the PRE will most likely add in the future or so I would hope:

1) Universal search on the 'find' button of the treo was awesone, it searched EVERYTHING, memos, contacts, im, emails, google, calendar, you name it.

2)Keyboard feel nice and solid on the treo

3)Video recording.

4)Support for all texting clients, via a 3rd party apps (catalog will grow of course !)

5) Led flashing light of new msgs, emails, missed calls, etc

6) Louder speaker

And all of these things to me are actually pretty minor and when they get to it, they get to it.

There is room for a lot of cool phones out there, we just need to stop this iPhone comparison chronism. Not everyone phone is great for everybody, like anything else in life.

Anywho, those are my hundreds of cents :) I hope all you early birds on the PRE enjoy it and everyone have fun and be patient :)

i was in line at the ocala store. about 7th in line. the activation went smooth. believe i was the first out the door. did have my phone crash as soon as i got in the car but after updating it i have had no problems

11am Saturday I went to my local sprint store where *1* guy was sitting on the sidewalk. The front doors were locked and a few folks (by no means packed) were inside. Parking was available right in front. The guy sitting there said I had to wait for the manager to notice someone outside to come out and put my name on the list.

After waiting 5-10 minutes the manager comes out, acting like a bouncer at Studio 54. I asked if I could come in just to see the phone over other people's shoulder. He says "no, get on a list to buy or come back another day" and closes the door on me.

I've had every version of PalmOS treo from the original flip model (currently 755p, wife with a Centro). I migrated FROM AT&T to Sprint for the Palm devices and was so incensed that I almost drove straight to AT&T for an iphone. I know this was just one d&%chebag manager, but what a way to represent your company.

Hopefully I'll be able to see one in the next few days before Apple woos me with iphone 3.0.

went to best buy at 6am in north austin....there were four people already in line....i was fifth then another guy joined us....bb only had six pre's...got tickets around 8am...process went smooth except for the bb mobile manager tryin to push their crappy insurance and accessories...one of them being a microSD card...i laughed and kindly informed him that the pre didnt have a slot for a card.....sad to know that i knew more about the pre than the manager....lol

showed up at the best buy in Gurnee, IL...was first in line at about 9:20. Shortly after I started a line some others went ahead and came up to the store. About 15 minutes after I got there an employee came out to hand us a "ticket", he had a stack that was numbered from 1 to 10. This was the only BB store in my area that was getting more than 3 or 4. Anyway, he said anyone with a ticket, gets a phone today. BB actually opened up early (9:45) and let us in, by that time there were around 7 people in line. Upgrade went smoothly, no problems at all. I was simply asked once if I wanted to buy any accessories and I declined at the moment. No pressure at all. Overall this was probably the best experience I have ever had at BB. No gimmicks or games with the line like a lottery type deal that I've heard of, just great service all around.

I went to the Sprint store at Carmel Mountain in San Diego. I got there around 6:10am or so, and fortunately I was 9th in line. Some crazy people showed up at 3am, but I'm glad I didn't do that. Had a good time chatting it up with fellow PreCentral folk in line for a few hours and at 8am, they started bringing the first 6 people in and brought the next 6 in shortly after to play with the display model. The only surprising thing was they had a total of only 8 touchstones in store. 2 were on display and 6 in boxes. They sold off the first 6 to the first 6 people in line and the next 2 sold off before I got my chance. Either way, I'm happy, they're gonna be shipping mine and i got 25% discount on it without even having the coupon. :) Only very minor complaint is the $18 transfer charge that they had. That was kinda annoying but I'm gonna call sprint and hopefully have them remove it.

Instead of telling the long version of the story here, I will just link to the post I made in my journal if anyone wants to read it.

Short version:
Everything went smoothly for me, I was in and out of the Best Buy in Edina in 25 minutes. Not as fast as when I change phones normally, but this isn't a normal situation.

This will be the only time I will be thankful for my neighbors being total prats so early in the morning.

I was really REALLY disappointed. I had a Palm Pre at a Sprint store with my name on it, but I was told that I couldn't renew my contract for the discounts unless I changed my phone number. I have an out-of-state area code because I moved recently, and apparently only Sprint corporate can renew my contract and keep my phone number the same. But, of course, Sprint corporate/online isn't selling the Pre yet. I am totally bummed. Any news on when I can get the phone through corporate?

I so LOVE small town USA. I had to work Saturday and knew I couldn't get a pre and would have to wait for another shipment. Talk about being surprised that they had 5 left on Sunday at 12p when they opened. I got a pre and am charging/updating already. Yipee!!!

My experience was pretty good, all things considered. The customers were all talking and bonding with each other, the Sprint store was well organized and the staff was friendly and professional. All together I was there almost 3 hours. The activation went OK. I had to wait on hold for awhile for that first phone call to Sprint.

The Elise Wireless Sprint Store in Van Nuys, CA had horrible service. My wife walked out and I soon followed and they still charged our account for a Pre we didn't take delivery of and disconnected my wife's previous phone. AT&T here I come!!!!!!

Went to the Sprint store at 10 am (when they typically open), they opened at 8am yesterday though. I got number 49 and within a minute of getting mine, they sold out! Whew! No probs with activation. Had to buy an SSL cert for my exchange server so I could do AS, but I needed to do that anyway.

Sat 8:35 am. Best by Alexandria, VA Landmark. 5th in line. No worries. Looking good for getting my hands on 2 Pres. One for me and the wife. About 9:15 BB employee came out and said there were not enough phones for everyone in line. By this time the line is at 6. Really? How many phones are there? "4"

Time to bail. Fortunately had a friend who had gone to a Sprint store not far away (Manchester Lakes - Springfield/Franconia Pkwy.) He texted me to say he was holding his and there was no line at the store. By the time i got to the store there were a few more people, but I was able to get my 2 Pre. That store looked to be a reseller, they did open at 8 and had only 24 or so phones. I got the last Touchstone (display model)

Very happy so far. Phones were activated without removing from the box and Sprint and Palm made this a very smooth transition.

Having a bit of trouble getting my 700p to sync with the desktop. when i do and get my stuff ported over, i will be extremely satisfied. Wife's 650 synced and ported no problem. She is happy. Thinks the phone is quite slick. Loves the multitasking.

Battery life is the only drawback at this point. Fully charged at 4pm today, by 8 it was dead. Had BT on and wifi. But during that time i did not use it at all! I was out mowing the lawn and when i came in about 7:30 was suprised to see it at less than 10%!

My experience was great. I got to one of the local Sprint stores (I m in Louisville, KY) at 3:00 AM. There were only two people in front of me. Over the next few hours, a couple of dozen people showed up.

At about 7:55 AM, the Store Manager came out, took our picture, said they had 75 phones. Everyone that camped out was able to get one.

I entered the store at 8:00. I bought the Pre, The touchstone, a car charger, and the flip case. I was out by 8:25. When I walked out, there must have been another 40 people in line.

I was at the Sprint Store in Lombard IL. It was a Corp store. I got there around 6:30. A sprint rep came out about around 7:57. I was 8th. We got to wander around the store and play with the 2 demo units. I was helped by a rep who i had talked to a few days before. He looked up my account, scanned me in and i was done in 15 mins or less. They didn't offer to transfer my contacts, but then again, i was planning on doing that myself. I did hear some reps mention that sunday was a "ReadyNow" day or something.

Smooth transition. I changed my plan a week ago to the new everything plan.. so I went from $30/mo to $60/mo... which was sad.. but this phone is Sooooo worth it.

I bought my Pre in downtown Chicago at the Division street store. My activation went very smoothly, about 20 minutes total when I got to the counter. Total time was four hours though, as I was number 35 in line (out of 37 available phones) at 7:45 AM and a lot of people in line had SERO plans that needed to be converted to Everything plans, etc. I was also surprised that several people weren't too familiar with what they were buying so the counter folks were showing them a lot of basic stuff on how to use the phone.

One glitch was they didn't have the software to do the contact transfer from your old phone (but I did that myself later using CompanionSync), but they told people if they came back the next day (Sunday) they could do it for them then. They did have a working Pre demo phone on the counter with all the other phones for sale, so I spent some time showing people some of the features (based on what I'd read on the web all last week) while we waited, and that was fun :)

The store only had a couple of Touchstones in stock, but we were told if we ordered one that day we'd get it shipped free two-day UPS and we'd have it by Wed; I bought one and had it shipped to my office, so we'll see if it shows up in the next couple of days.

In order to keep things moving the store wasn't doing the "ReadyNow" training on Saturday, instead you could come back on Sunday at 6pm and do the ReadyNow training then (I didn't go, but I thought that was a good plan for those who wanted to, rather than tie up the staff even further with 30+ of us waiting).

Overall I think the Sprint folks at this store did a good job handling the 37 phones they had to dole out, ran a waiting list for other people (even called a few back and they got phones that day!), and still helped others who came into the store for "non-pre" related service. For "launch day", I'd say my experience was as good as I thought it could be.

My wife and I had a good experience upgrading to the Pre. We checked first at the only Best Buy in Lubbock, only to find out they already had 14 people in line for the 14 Pres they got. We then checked the Radio Shack in the mall, and found out that they didn't get any (the stores in Dallas/Ft. Worth got priority). We were ready to go to a Sprint store when my wife suggested we try the Sprint kiosk in the mall, and we ended up being the first people to buy a Pre there. Setup went fine and the representative transferred all our contacts from our old phones without a hitch.

Ok, Now I am really bitter. I was at that *exact* Sprint store at 8:30 AM on Saturday with my 2 year old. We were basically laughed at by the geeks in line and told "They already turned away 25 people" and you don't stand a chance to get one of the 25 phones that they had allocated to the Sprint store at the epicenter of technology. I didn't even make it in the store -- they were making people wait outside (maybe because the "celebrity" was in the house") and I went over to Best Buy -- where they had been given 13 handsets. Ridiculous!!!!! All weekend my two year old told people "Everyone else buy the phones. Mommy can't have one" and she'd put on her pout face.

I'm not a techno-fiend, but my microphone on my phone went out (olive oil is not a friend) and I heard buzz about the Palm, checked it out, found your website-- got psyched. Only to get totally dissed on opening day. Here it is 3 days later -- and I'm on 3 waiting lists at 2 sprint stores and at best buy, what's a simple girl like me gotta to do to get one of these things?

I think my experience was the easiest among all those who submitted.

First let me state that I live in Los Angeles, and the city runs the gamut of high class to poverty level areas; its quite diverse. After calling around in the weeks leading up to the launch, I realized that my best bet at getting a Pre would be to travel to the ghetto.

And much to my expectations and enjoyment, there was little demand in the area I was in. In fact, I arrived at a Radio Shack 30 minutes AFTER they opened, and was still the first to purchase one of the five they had in stock. The store had plenty of traffic before and during my activation process, so its not like folks couldn't see the large Palm Pre cutouts decorating the store or anything. By the time I left (1 hour in the store, talking, looking at accessories, activation, etc.) I was still the only person who bought a Pre. Oh, the employee behind the counter also helped himself to a new Pre as well.

The experience had falsely lowered my expectations of the Pre and its sellout potential, but that quickly changed when out of curiosity, I called a few local venues where they were selling the Pre. Sure enough, every store I called in Los Angeles (6-8 in all) had sold out of Pres within the first 15 minutes to 2 hours they were available.

And I did check back at the Radio Shack in the ghetto the next day; the Pres were gone in the early afternoon, likely due to folks scrambling after being turned away at their initial camp out spots.

--Eddie