today, i finally made it down to my local vzw corp store, ( same one i always goto )
they were Busy with tech problems, seemed like a lot of BB problems today
anyway after a LONG wait a young man waited on me,
i told him about the 'authentication problems' i had previously and the last time it happened i did a 'hard reset' and got this
then i put the battery in and showed him the tricolor screen, told him i had called in and switched back to my voyager, and this was the first chance i had to get into the store
he took one look and said " how about I give you a new one"
after the usual checking of account status, notations, verify serial numbers etc
I walked out the door with a brand new TOUCH fresh out of the box
IF vzw ever gets on the stick and makes the $30
data plan available for this phone, i will activate it.
for the time being i will keep using my voyager and just play with this one