perseverance...

today was a good day in the petty realm of the consumer...at least in the world of this petty consumer. i decided to make the jump into the world of geekdom, bypass the cool factor of the iphone and go straight to a new smart phone called the palm centro. the decision was easy because of the cost of the iphone, the process of getting said phone was a bit of a struggle.

what started off as a simple question of whether or not i could afford to upgrade the ghetto phone i currently have, turned quickly into a quest to conquer the corporate world through convincing our fine friends at sprint to give me a phone. while i wasn't successful at the getting a phone for free thing, after speaking with 7 different sprint representatives i managed to weasel a little bargain. it is amazing what a little "those iphones sure do look nice," will get you when presented to the right people at sprint. i finally got to talk to what they called a "retention representative." i think these are the last lines of defense...sort of a "ok, you win...we'll stop trying to rip you off and actually treat you like a quality customer." in the end i think i did in fact win.

this is how i ended up... the palm centro was regularly $400...i convinced them to give me $125 over what my upgrade credit already was...now i pay only $99. in the process i convinced them to give my wife a new phone too. by give i mean "give" my wife a $250 phone for free. perhaps gloating would be inappropriate at this moment but being that this was a magical moment I can't resist.

i win.