Flutterby™! : Cell Phones (again)

I have ranted before about cell phones, but having missed a few people trying to connect in the city I've decided that once again I need a cute little instrument of the devil. So I wandered into the Radio Shack in San Rafael. Salesperson was great, which is a welcome change. Get two phones picked out. Then we try to activate the suckers. I have to use Sprint because they're the only company with coverage in a critical location. The phone operator tries the oldest "bait-and-switch" trick in the book on me; as we're looking at "Expires February 16^th" brochures and posters she's telling me "I'm sorry, the last date for that rate plan was yesterday, but here are two for more money that offer half the features." Store staff phone their Sprint rep, who says "yes, it's still on today". We finally get through to the operator trying to activate my phone that this is unacceptable, half an hour on hold while she fixes things, get one of the phones programmed, then the other one won't program. I end up driving up to Terra Linda, where a slightly less with-it salesdude set up the second one. Elapsed time: over 2 hours. For an operation that should've taken 15 minutes.