oh well, couldn't wait. modified my proposed procedure and it worked so here's my suggestion for what to do if you turn on your phone before you activate it.
1) Write down your device id, MEID HEX: 123456789ABCD , either from underneath the battery or right off the box.
2) Put phone in airline mode (so network thinks its off)
3) go to
www.sprint.com/activate and activate online
4) go to settings - system - clear storage - 1234 to hard reset
5) phone will hard reset and everything worked fine, actually rebooted twice more during the process. I tested by calling it, then after calling was working, I tested the internet. ALL GOOD!!!!