Actually, there were no rebates for the 6700. She told me that SERO customers never have to mail in rebates and all discounts are instant. The price I paid over the phone was $288 (plus tax). I also didn't have to pay an activation fee or shipping.

I think with the right customer service rep, I should be able to swap the phone even if it is only available to business on the 18th. As long as I call after the 18th and before my 30 days and tell them I am not satisfied that a new phone is available. I'm willing to wait until the retail date to make the swap if I have to.

The Sprint rebates, like I said are iffy, many people including me got them with SERO. The manf. rebates are:

$150 UTstartcom Manf. Rebate (used to be $100) this must be mailed in within 15 days of purchase, so I would recommend doing it regardless, no harm.

Also if you are still within your 15 day window take advantage of Sprints $25 referral offer. You get $25 as well as the person who "referred" you. I'm sure you could contact anyone on this thread for a referral if needed.

$75 Kelloggs rebate (won't work for your price)

I think since you are on SERO that will make it all the more difficult since you may have to deal with InPhonic for returns as opposed to Sprint and they are horrible. Also SERO phones don't get updated as the same time as Sprint, so I think the 6800 will show up on SERO even later than it does on Sprint. I would recommend calling Sprint and finding out if you have to deal with Inphonic and then calling Inphonic to see what they say as well. Retentions might still do something for you of course even if your other options fail.

Actually, I don't think that they require you to deal with Inphonic for returns any more. The lady I ordered the phone from (who seemed extremely knowledgable) told me that if I want to return the phone, just call customer care and they will email me a label. She said that I can either use the label to mail the phone back, or I could take the phone and the label to a Sprint company store and they will exchange it right there (she emphasized that I had to have the phone and label to take it to the store).

I think they are starting to realize how frustrated people are dealing with Inphonic.

That is good news, it used to be that ordering from Telesales/Inphonic would prevent you from going into the store to do a return. I guess as long as you have the label the store will accept (and use it to verify) that its a valid return.

Yep, I called to varify yesterday. He said that if I am going to return a phone to the store I need to let them know because the sheet/label I print will be slightly different. He also said that it has to be a Sprint Company Store that is set up to accept returns.