So I headed over to the Colorado Mills Friday afternoon, all ready to buy (and thereafter expense) my new Blackberry Curve. I couldn’t buy it through the company because it was not an Official Approved Model, but the local telcomm tech support lady indicated it would not be a problem for me to go buy the handset myself, and there’s the official Secret Password Employee Account Number to use to get your company discount.
There are, in fact, two Cingular wireless stores at the Mills, on opposite ends of the mall. One is a franchise outlet, the other (I was told) an official Company Store.
Neither provided any joy.
The bottom line (explained much more nicely and helpfully at the Company Store) is that (a) my phone number and billing is done through the company, and (b) that number is locked down for commercial/private use, so (c) even with the Super Secret Employee Discount Number, they cannot sell me a Curve with an employee discount, only at (gack) full retail (for which price I could buy a new digital camera and someone to follow me around taking pictures with it). The Company Store guy gave me the number of the Corporate Orders Place, and the Super Secret Company Discount Number to give them and, he assured me, they’d ship my Blackberry right away.
Right.
Because I strongly suspect that, no, I cannot just call them up and order a phone, even with the discount “foundation account number” in hand. I believe that only a Select Few Listed Corporate Telcomm folks can do that, and I certainly am not going to draw down the wrath of the telcomm guys on my head (I have to work with these people, among other things).
So I have a call and e-mail in to the nice local telcomm lady asking, WTF? I expect the response to be one of two alternatives.
- The Cingular people are full of crap and I should, indeed, be able to do this.
- Huh, you don’t say, I guess you’re stuck then, sorry. I guess we could transfer the number to your personal billing, let you order the phone, then transfer it back. And I’m sure that would all go swimmingly …
*sigh*
We’ll see. In the meantime, my Treo seems to be working again. Mere coincidence?
Heard back from the Nice Telcomm Lady:
And, after poking around a bit, she’s determined the easiest course is to get me as a “beta tester” for the 8800 — if I can provide some business justification for a camera on my phone.
Justifications submitted:
1. Photography of Safety Observation Report subjects.
2. Camera in case of accident while traveling on company business.
3. Photographing white boards during/after a meeting, for notes.
4. Project team information.
Vaguely lame, but …
Awaiting official word back. It’s marginally possible it might get to me before we head off to California, if all goes well. We’ll see.