I was looking at the Palm Pre *and* the BlackBerry Tour. Sprint was my carrier of choice because they didnt' want a deposit, and EV-DO coverage in my area is reasonable.
Now, I for one do not like rebates! To me, they're nothing but marketing 'gimmicks' that do nothing for the consumer but make us wait around for a debit card, check, or some type of certificate to come in the mail. This is nothing but a punch in the face of the consumer; read: ThoseWithTheMoney!
Having gone to the corporate store, and the one independent Sprint store in my area, and seeing that both had the 'weird rebate thing' going on, I waited. Then I walked into my local Wal-Mart store, and went over to the cell phone counter.
No gimmicks! No freekin' rebates! ("We don't need no stinkin' rebates!") I got the best deal in town. Signed up for a two year plan of unlimited everything at $99 bucks a month, plus a measly $7 bucks for "drop it in a lake and we'll replace it for you" insurance policy. Oh, and did I mention I GOT THE PHONE FOR FREE?
))
Didn't pay anything. Also, I initially got the gray curve as they didn't have the red one I wanted. No sweat at Wal-Mart, sir or madame! As it was within their 30-day return policy, I just waited until they had one in a couple days later. Just returned it, exchanged the gray for the red, and now I'm sporting a nice Red BlackBerry Curve 8330 with Sprint as my carrier. I couldn't be happier!
Granted, the Curve isn't as fast or powerful as the Tour, but a free 8330 CDMA device? Build quality is better on the CDMA units, and Sprint is doing well in the area of shoring up it's customer service and support issues; quite well, in my opinion.
Anyway, I'm happy as a clam, and glad to be back on the BlackBerry bandwagon! Now to get funambol working with Kontact and Evolution on my kubuntu (KDE 4.2.4) linux system, which is, of course, for another, longer thread.
Warm Regards,
Firefishe
Fact of the matter is, I first got a grey BB Curve--as they had no Red ones and I didn't want to wait.