Sprints Marketing department has ruined my day like a kid who didn’t get the Red Ryder B.B. gun he so wished for.

How you may ask? Well let me tell you…A long time ago, at a gadget convention far far away… Palm announced and showed off the very cool looking Palm Pre. (The phone I’ve kind of blogged about recently). Well as we grew closer to a release date I decided I really liked the phone and would love to have it. Being the Geek that I am I couldn’t wait for the release date to be announced.

Well they finally announced when it would be available, and how much and I was very happy and excited!!

While waiting for the Palm Pre release date (still a few weeks away), I read some things online about it here and there, and learned more of what it would and wouldn’t have. That was all fine and dandy…until I saw a sentence I couldn’t believe..

This will not work with the SERO Plans!

What is a SERO Plan you ask? A while back sprint had a Sprint Employee Referral Offer plan. It was a discounted plan for friends and families of Sprint employees. It included ALL of the following for $30 (plus taxes/fees) per month:

500 Anytime Minutes

Unlimited txt messages

Unlimited mobile data (Web)

Unlimited mobile to mobile

Nights and weekends starting at 7pm

Standard stuff, but great price. Unfortunately they did discontinue that offering a year or so ago, sorry.

So today I gave good ole Sprint Customer Service a call to check this and see what was going on.

After a few holds transfers and the like I was informed that the Palm Pre would not work on my SERO plan. To get the Palm Pre I would have to sign up for one of their Everything type plans at $60 a month. Twice what I currently pay. I complained that this didn’t seem right and I got escalated up to a voice mail. I did not leave a message and decided to check a different route to get answers.

I used their Email Us link and filled out a quick web form.

My basic question was Why and/or how could it not work on my current plan. What was the reason that I had to upgrade to a plan that has the exact same features as my current plan, but at twice the price?

After 4-5 email transactions between a support drone named Rosie, I finally got an answer to my initial question.

The first few responses I get did not specify why I had to change to a new plan, just that it was required. Then the fun response of my plan “is not compatible with the Palm Pre.”

So I asked how it was not compatible and finally got the truth out of them:

The Palm Pre Palm phone is programmed to be activated with some specific plans only. The phone is not compatible with all the plans. Therefore, to activate Palm Pre on your phone, you need to change your plan.

Being a reader of The Consumerist, I was not happy with this answer and decided to take this up the chain to Executive Customer Service.

I called Executive Customer Service thanks to a number provided by The Consumerist and got to talk to Veronica.

After explaining the situation and spending some time on hold I found out what was going on. The Palm Pre (And Extinct) on Sprint, are not allowed to be activated unless they are on certain (higher priced) plans. EVEN IF I BOUGHT THE PHONE AT FACE VALUE OF $550! This decision has been made by MARKETING, and there are no plans to reverse this condition anytime in the near future I was informed. I expressed my disapproval and how it really isn’t the best way to treat a loyal, and up to this point, Happy Customer. She apologized, let me know there wasn’t really anything we can do and the conversation came to an end.

So now thanks to Marketing at Sprint I’m left with a choice to make.

Upgrade to a new plan and end up paying $360 more a year to have a cool phone

Stick with my current plan and pray and hope someday I would be able to have the phone I’ve been wanting

Tell Sprint to fuck off and get the new iPhone like the rest of the mindless sheep later in June

I hate all three options. For the moment I’ll stay with Sprint, at least I’m saving $200 by not buying the new phone.

Bastards.