So after my “somewhat frustrating series” of interactions with Verizon, I discovered that I could keep my Palm Treo functioning as a phone by disabling all email and SMS functions. That got me through the trip to Monterey, and when I got back, I emailed a commenter with a phone store (no one replied) and called Verizon again.

Shocking how different the experience was – I got this helpful young CSR who listened to me, look at the record, and asked me to hold while he talked to his supervisor. Five minutes later he came back and said I was approved for a Blackberry 8330, and did I want it mailed to me or to pick it up in a store?

There’s a large Verizon store near me – on Lomita and Crenshaw – so I said I’d get it there.

Put me on hold for a few moments, and came back and said it was OK to go pick it up.

So – I go to the store, and the on-shift manager – massively rudely – says there’s no way I am authorized for that change, there’s no policy for it, and when I ask her to escalate, calls her manager and gives me the ‘talk to the hand’ when I try and explain to her that she’s misstating the situation.

We chatted about that…

And when I got home, the good Verizon rep called, apologized for the confusion and said he was shipping one to me.

Which arrived yesterday, took 30 minutes to set up and synch, and has run for 24 hours without rebooting while getting email and SMS messages – far better than the POS Treo 755p that it will replace.

One step at a time…

Part of what’s frustrating about this is that the bureaucracy is fundamentally Ottoman in that what comes out of it is so variable…