alpha-numaric dialing with QWERTY key board

[gtsps]

So on my older HTC T-Mobile Dash if I held the shift key down and hit letter it would dial the corresponding number for phone numbers. My newer HTC Sprint Snap does not. When calling Sprint noone there knew how to do it. When you have a phone number that is alpha-numaric there is not way to know which letter goes to which number unless you have it memorized (which I don't) or you have to count through each number.

Is there a way to alpha-numarically dial on this new system? Is there a patch or an app or something to download in order to be able to do this?

Thanks for your help!