i forgot to mention that after my initial somewhat positive experience with my danger hiptop/sidekick, things have gone decidely downhill. on a routine trip to chicago, the device stopped registering with the network. i went to my local t-mobile store and said stated that i had had the thing for about a month and that now it wasn’t working and that i wasn’t very happy with the situation. and you know what the store rep said?

“yeah, not that many people are.”

dumbfounded, i asked her to explain and she said that she really didn’t have to do any diagnostic testing on it. she’s seen enough of them come back with the same behavior to know that the only solution would be to return it and get a new one. then, within full earshot of her coworkers and other customers she said matter-of-factly,

“but really, if you want to make your life easier and reduce the number of headaches you’ll have in the coming months, i’d recommend that you just get a different phone.”

as the shock began to set in, it was also explained that since i had already exceeded my 14 day trial period that all she could do was offer me a discount on the new phone. realizing that there was a small chance that she could have just been engaging in an elaborate ruse to try to get me to purchase a new phone, i decided to take a raincheck on her offer and go home to call corporate to try to find out what was going on.

after what was a surprisingly short trip through several echelons of t-mobile support, i found myself talking with a very nice tech with a very thick indian accent. we had a little trouble communicating but eventually she determined that i did indeed need a new device which was somehow conclusively indicated by an ominous “sim card busy” message. i decided to take a chance and relay the comment that the local t-mobile rep had said about the problem only being temporarily fixed by getting a new device. after a very
pregnant pause she calmly said,

“yes, it is true. there is a known problem and danger is working on a firmware update that should be released soon.”

adding insult to injury, she went further and explained that they are backorderd due to the high number of returns and exchanges and that i probably wouldn’t see a new device for at least 16 days even though i was being put into some sort of expediated exchange queue. and as if to pile it on all at once she explained that they did have a special full-refund policy for cases such as mine, but that it expired 30 days after purchase. of course, it had been exactly 33 days since i made my ill-fated purchase so all she could do was
offer me an exchange.

flabbergasted by the ridiculousness of it all, i found myself
agreeing to have a new device shipped, knowing full well that i’d probably regret it. it’s 16 days later and the new device still hasn’t arrived.

sigh