cell phone troubles continue

My Sprint buddy is off the Christmas Card list. It turns out that Sprint doesn't have coverage in State College (they use other companies' towers) so they aren't able to issue local numbers. The Palm Centro phones that the guy sold us wouldn't work here. He should have known that and never sold us those phones.

I spent the better part of 5 hours on the phone with Nextel/Sprint reps yesterday. I feel like I've been broken.

No new phones. No unlimited text messaging. The "great deal" that I thought we were getting is simply the standard package.

Have you seen the Nextel line of phones? They all look the same, and nothing that they offer compares in price or style to Sprint, Verizon, or AT&T. Big clunky phones that cost a boatload of money. I asked the last guy I spoke with (for 110 minutes) why their phones cost so much, and he said something about their network and the direct-connect feature. But with free mobile-to-mobile, why would
I need direct-connect?

Argh (and that's not said in the cool piratey way. Hear my frustration...)
Talk about feeling disappointed.