No one ever said you had to read this thread, MrObvious...
To answer you, mclaser, as of recently, they are not adding ESNs from other carriers other than phones on their "pre-approved" list..period...no exceptions.
I spoke today with a supervisor after I climbed the chain up to a level 3 tech support. He basically told me there is no way he could do it, and he confirmed that the *228/3 was a loophole that apparently was not intended, etc, etc. He said the only way to do it is to do the DMD add form, which he said would for sure be denied. He said they do activate Sprint/Alltel phones, but only the ones on their "pre-approved" list of models, which I gleaned from him was a very, very short list. He also fed me a bunch of bull about how they are moving toward an "open policy" but it just takes time. I told him, yeah, you guys announced that a year ago. He said maybe in the future it can be done, but not now. He said he would love to help me out it just can't be done. He was very kind, and instead of getting upset, I'm (trying) to be understanding. I asked him about getting an Alltel phone, and he said I'm going to have the same trouble. Only Alltel customers have potential to have their phone ported, but in a lot of cases they are going to need to get new hardware.
My eventual realization thinking:
If you really think about it, there is nothing anywhere that says they need/should activate the Sprint phone. I mean really...it's a Sprint phone, so why should I even think I would be able to use it? It's not meant to be used on Verizon, even if it would work (which it would). And just because some people have been able to get it on there doesn't automatically give me a right to have that priviledge just b/c they screwed up and had a loophole open for a while. (This is what I've been telling myself to help me feel better
)
So..what am I going to do? (unless someone posts with a brilliant idea besides cloning an ESN):
I've decided I'm either switching to AT&T (get the unlocked Diamond..and have more ability for changing phones in the future) or I'm just going to bite the bullet and get the VZW Diamond (which I have to crank out about $200 more for).
Or...I could just keep my i760...