The Palm Pre Saga

So here's the deal: I live in Canada and the Palm Pre was just released on August 27, I was in line and was the third person to get one. I pay for one, activate it and everything's good, I go home a happy camper. Two days later I notice something amiss with my Pre: the screen is noticeably loose from the slider key-board now I'm a little less happy. I call customer service and they said that I would be able to get a replacement Palm Pre from the store free of charge. Ok good I'll just run down there and get it, I thought. I phone the store and I am informed that the store doesn't allow replacement Palm Pres, so my only option is to have one mailed to me. A little peeved, but I can accept that, it's still free of charge. So I wait a week and the replacement comes to the door, yay, said I, as I happily open the package as if it's Christmas. I turn it on, and what do I see? "Activation Error" the words that I am now oh so familiar with.
At this point I'm a little annoyed, but no big deal, they provide a number to call to tech support to fix such issues. So I use Skype to trouble shoot the problem since I couldn't activate my phone, a tech support guy answers with a predicable foreign accent. I won't go through the intricacies here, but after 4 hours of Skyping later, the man concludes that the electronic message was sent to deactivate the first Pre and that order will take 24 hours to go through. So a whole day without a phone, not good. What can I do? I waited. 24 hours later I try to activate the phone and the same error appears. So I call again, the man tells me this time that my service plan is strangly for a WindosMobile phone. which is odd because my first Pre was working fine before this whole mess. The solution? Call customer service and have the plan switched to a Palm Pre plan, unfortunately today is Sunday and they are closed, they are closed tomorrow too because of Labour day. Oh and I find out that I have to return the first Pre within 5 days or else the "free" replacement turns into "$300" replacement. So now I have two Palm Pres sitting on my desk and neither of them work.
On Tuesday I finally get the chance to call customer service. I wake up right when they open so I can get this mess figured out before I head off to class. So I phone and I get put on hold, than something odd happens: I could swear that they hang up on me. So I phone again, than they put me on hold, and I proceed to hold for two whole hours. After two hours it's too late for me to do anything about it because I have to get to class, so two hours of my life were shot down the drain forever.
After class I phone again and get someone right away, the girl tells me that the plan I am on IS compatible with my Palm Pre. Oh great I waited that long for that precious tidbit of information. So it's off to tech support again. They tell me this time that some electronic transaction did not go through properly, so they will try to force it through. A process which could take up to 24 hours, so I have to wait another whole day. So I wait another day. Predicting something did not go right, I phone tech support without even turning on my phone to check if they fixed the problem. The tech guy confirms my suspicion and indeed nothing has been done with the problem yet. So he says that he'll get it done for me and it'll be done in one hour. So here I sit, one more hour, very annoyed and maybe even a little mad at the phone company I championed for so long (Bell Mobility). Hmm maybe I should have gotten an iPhone..
So I waited the hour, and called the tech guys again before turning on my phone, and the tech guy said that the transaction error has been resolved and that I can go ahead and turn on the phone. I do so and again "Activation error" at this point I'm more than annoyed, even past anger to the point of hopelessness, I'm starting to feel like I'll never have a phone again. So the tech guy than tells me that it's possible that I have a phone that is DOA or "dead on arrival". Meaning that I'll have to get a replacement for the replacement.
This is when Skype decides to drop my call and I have to call again because I haven't gotten a ticket number with which I need to order a replacement Palm Pre to come in the mail (Bell Mobility has no stores in my city, and it is a major Canadian city a Provincial capital even ). I call again and I try to explain the situation to the guy but he tries to troubleshoot the phone again anyway, going through steps I have already went through, he than rests the phone on the network and the process of resetting the phone takes about an hour to go through. So here I am waiting another hour, wishing I had chosen a more competent company to do business with. I haven't been able to keep in contact with friends or family for almost a whole week now. I'm also starting to feel that they don't even care about my situation, and when I break my contract and leave the company, they probably couldn't care less.
I understand that it's this way with almost all large companies, but the customer should never realize this the way I have. It sort of depresses me to be honest.
So I guess the problem stems from the warehouse where my phone originally comes from. Like any large company, not every single device is 100% perfect. Thankfully the tech guy saw this problem before and said that the only solution is to get a replacement. Not a big deal now that I know what the problem is: My phone just doesn't recognize my cell number, which is why it won't activate properly. My new Pre should arrive in 1-2 business days. Pretty fast, so I'm happy that the situation is over with. I hope. I still haven't tried activating the replacement, so we'll see.
I'm happy to report that my replacement activated without incident and I'm very pleased with my phone again. Hmm, strangely I have no grudges against Bell or Palm. Does this mean I'm growing up? or am I just lazy? Oh well.