can you hear me now?

my cell phone was in such bad shape that the people at the sprint store called it both 'an oldie, but a goody' and 'the 1947 cell phone model.' ok, i got it. it was old. the top didn't flip open anymore, it just wobbled every which way, loosy-goosy.

so when i got a letter in the mail that said i qualified for $150 off a new phone for being a longtime customer, i knew it was time for the new phone. i knew exactly which one i wanted - the sprint/sanyo imitation of the motorola razr. so slim, so sleek. thursday was my first day off this week, the first of five days scheduled off for a wedding i'm in in memphis. i decided to get a new phone in the morning right before skipping town to head to memphis.

so apparently, sprint thinks it's so cool/busy that it can pretend to be the apple store. you walk in to the store and the host/hostess takes your name and phone number and puts it on the waiting list. last time i went into the sprint store, which granted was apparently 1947, the salespeople were like hawks. they ALL wanted to wait on me immediately, even though i didn't want it. this time, i had to wait 20 minutes.

when my name was called 20 minutes later, i went to the counter and showed them my phone and told them exactly what i wanted.
'oh, we don't have any of those in stock right now.'
what?
'when are you getting them in?'
'well, we have a shipment in right now, but we haven't inventoried them yet.'
'well can i put it on hold?'
'no, it's not inventoried yet.'
'well, when will it be inventoried?'
'i don't know, maybe later today.'
'well, i'm going out of town this afternoon.
'you may just want to go to radioshack or bestbuy.'

it took me waiting 20 minutes for them to tell me that?? could they have not told me that before i wasted those 20 minutes??

i went to bestbuy, which did have the phone, and i was in and out in about 10 minutes.