Sprint Store Cattle Call

I am a loyal Sprint PCS cellphone user. Since I've had this POS PCS Sanyo phone for over one year now, Sprint offers me $75 off a new phone. And since I'm tired of repeating myself because the Sanyo phone doesn't seem to have a working microphone, I decided to head to my local Sprint store to pick up a new phone.

Being diligent, I researched the available phones and deals online and picked out the Samsung A900, which is also referred to as The Blade. It's similar in size and slim styling to the Motorola RAZR and the upcoming Sanyo Katana. I'd like to digress here and suggest some future slim phone names: LG Butter Knife, Samsung Pancake, Sanyo Steamrolled, Kyocera Crepe, Motorola Kate Moss, Sony Ericsson Smooth Edge, Nokia Notecard, or the Audio Vox Sliced Lox.

Arriving at the 23rd Street Sprint store in the point of the Flatiron Building at around 2:15 on Friday, I gave my name to the host. She entered it and the big TV behind her said I was number 12 on line. The host told me there were 5 people working, so I figured I wouldn't have to wait long. 15 minutes later, I was still number 12, so I said screw this- the line at the Shake Shack across the street moves faster than this- I'm getting lunch and heading up to the 86th Street store closer to home.

Belly full of a Quiznos TBG, I walk in to the 86th Street Sprint store and am glad to see very few customers in the store. Then the host tells me that they can't do anything at all because "the systems are down" and maybe they'll be back up in 10 minutes, maybe 1 hour. I come back late the next day- systems are still down, the next closest store is 56th Street. This time I ask about the Sprint store directly across the street but apparently that one is still sort of mostly Nextel only or something. Now I'm getting annoyed- I just want to buy a phone- they are making this very difficult.

I come back the next day- Sunday and the systems are still down. I ask for the exact address of the 56th Street Sprint store and am told it's not open on Sundays! The next closest store is 42nd Street by Bryant Park. I head down there, see a few people being helped by the employees and get my name put on the list on the big TV- #2. As I sit in one of the 2 seats in the store waiting, the list grows to 9 behind me. 45 minutes later I am helped. After receiving my awesome new Samsung Blade A900 phone, the woman says it will take 3 hours today to transfer my contacts from the old phone to the new phone or 30 minutes on a normal day.

Screw that I say to myself; so today I go to the 86th Street to transfer the numbers. This is my 6th visit to one of 3 Sprint stores in 4 days. It's a total cattle call in there since the store's been out of commission for a few days; lines for everything. Mine moves fast. I get to the front and 5 minutes later, after a process that seemed to only involve plugging in 2 phones and clicking the mouse twice, my new phone is loaded up.
So what does this mean for you, the reader? Stealthier, more spontaneous pictures. Like the one above of an unsuspecting burger from the Shake Shack where the line today was literally shorter than at the Sprint store across the street. All those cattle call Sprint store lines got me in the mood for a tasty burger. Yum.
.category: nyc_