Quote:
Originally Posted by
teckstud 
I'd rather take any stupid rebate from these companies than no rebate from Apple.
I hate rebates too but still prefer it to nothing or $100 off the company's products.
You may not get the rebate. That's why they offer it that way.
Believe me, I know. I used to be on Sprint. Half of the rebates they refused to give me, even though I was very careful to do exactly what was demanded.
With one, they said that I sent it in too late, even thought I did it online, the very same day. Another time they said that I didn't fill one out correctly, even though I had made a copy, and showed them that I did.
Another time, I was told that I would be given a new phone for one that was broken, and that I should go back to the Sprint store I bought it from, only to have the manager of the store tell me that they didn't have to do what the Sprint telephone reps said they should.
Believe me, Sprint is not a wonderful place to be at.
If they're offering this with a $100 rebate, I guarantee that a fair number of people won't get it, or will have a hell of a time getting it. That's the whole point of rebates.
It used to be that when I sent rebate info in to companies that do that for the sellers, I always got my money. But increasingly over the past few years, that hasn't been so. You really have to fight for it, and so I usually rather buy something that hasn't got a rebate, from a place that has lower prices, but not as low as it would be with a rebate. I figure that over the long haul, I'm doing just as well with a lot less frustration.
As far as this phone goes, the only possible advantage seems to be concurrent programsif it works as well as they say it does, which is something no one knows yet because they haven't allowed it out of the lab except for a couple of short, controlled excursions.
The upper row of keys is too close to the overhanging bottom of the body of the device, something that was mentioned by two reporters allowed to use it for a few minutes under supervision. The screen is quite a bit smaller that the one in the iPhone. 3.1" vs 3.5" may not sound too different, but it is.
At the same price as the current 8 GB iPhone when you, hopefully, get your rebate back from Sprint, it may not be much of a deal either. After all, despite what you say about getting rebates over Apple not giving any, you forget (conveniently, it seems) that this phone WITH the rebate costs the same as Apple's 8 GB model WITHOUT the rebate, and without the rebate (which you may not get), it costs the same as Apple's 16 GB model. Not very impressive. It's very possible that Apple will offer a $199 model with 16 GB and a $299 model with 32 GB this summer on top of that.
If so, how are they going to make money on this without having to drop the price further? If they have to do that, someone will take a big loss. Neither Palm or Sprint can afford that now, with both losing customers at such high rates, along with currently having large losses.
I wish them all best sales ever. 
