I just came from a 7100i and when you were in a call waiting situation it would 1) Show both calls on the screen and tell you which one was active and which one was on hold 2) if you went to the menu it would give you the option to join the 2 calls together.

I just got a Sprint 8830 and I noticed it didn't do either of these things. I find it very weird that it AT LEAST doesn't tell you which call is currently active so I was wondering if this was just my phone. Has anyone else experienced this with call waiting on the 8830.

RIM or Sprint dropped the ball on this one, IMO. I also have the 8830 and support a LOT of them, so I recently sent this tip out (pulled from the 8830 user guide):

Initiate a Conference Call
You cannot add more than 2 contacts to a conference call.
1. Dial the 1st person for the call to get them on the line.
2. During the call, press the Menu key.
3. Click Conference Call.
4. Type a phone number or highlight a contact from your Address Book.
5. Press the Send key to imitate the call with the 2nd person (this will put the 1st person on a silent hold).
6. After you get the 2nd person on the line, you can do a couple of things:
A. Press the Send key to join all callers together into 1 call (a conference call).
B. Press the Menu key and press Flash to swap between the 2 calls.


Receiving a 2nd (incoming) call while already on a phone call
If you are already on a phone call and you receive another call on your Blackberry 88xx, you can do the following with the 2nd call:

1. Press the End key to send the 2nd call to voicemail.
2. Press the Send key to answer the 2nd call (puts the first person on a silent hold). If you do this, you can then:
A. Finish the conversation with the 2nd call, and when done press the Menu key and press Flash to switch back to the original call. NOTE: The 2nd caller's phone number may still display on your screen.
B. Press the Send key to switch between the calls.

They do not show both calls on the screen on this device, which is really a step backwards.

Yup, that's exactly how it works with mine. I agree it's a step backwards. The join feature was awesome and was very useful since i'm on the free incoming calls plan.

Does this work with a VZW 8830 as well?

It should.