I just got off the phone with a couple of RS stores. Apparently if you're not eligible for the VZW "upgrade", you pay the FULL retail price of $519 AND you're not even eligible for the $70 mail-in rebate! Unreal. Sorry, the phone isn't worth that much.

 

I had my previous phone for just barely two years, so I paid $319 plus tax on the full retail price (which sucks because the tax at R.S. stores is on the $519 full price while the Verizon full retail price w/o a contract will only be $419)...I did get the $70 rebate. R.S. can do an "early upgrade" if you have been in your contract for at least 1 year.

Again, since I bought at R.S. instead of Verizon, I did not get the $100 new every two credit that I was eligible for. Total out the door was just over $360 with the $70 rebate coming in 10-12 weeks its down to just below $300 w/the two year contract.

 

I changed my mind about waiting and just got home from RS with my V710. I am an existing VZW customer (10 years) and for continuing my current plan for two years, I paid $319.99 AND am eligible for the $70 rebate. By the way, HFL works admirably, and I don't really care about the other BT functions.

 

Your R.S. person was wrong...you will get the $70 if you pay full retail... http://www.radioshack.com/images/rebates/1701971.pdf

 

As soon as I saw this forum, I bailed over to Radio Shack (good time to take a break :P ) They said they don't have them in yet but have heard about that phone coming out.. I told him that I read on this forum that other Radio Shacks have them.. He looked on his computer and was like "it says here we have 2 of them in stock!" He went in the back and brought it out.. Phone is beautiful! He says they JUST got them in... now I"m worried some other TL'ers are gonna come in and buy these two phones before I can??? I called Verizon and they told me I"m elgible for the new-every-2 right now since my contract is compeltely over in September. But I have to buy the phone on Aug 11th from a verizon store.. STUPID!!

The radio shack is willing to activate it and have me test it all out to see what works and what doesn't in the TL.. If it all works.. I will be tempted to just buy it.. If he gives me the mail in rebate of $70 and the phone for $319.99, then I'll buy it and just eat the $30 I could've saved from buying from verizon (which is still not guarnteed that I can get that deal! Verizon told me it may not be elgible with any other special offers including the new every two)

EDIT: So I'm reading that only the CallerID shows.. which is the main thing that matters .. but as it's being asked and can't find the answer to, will they have a firmware available to fix this? I hope it doesn't require getting a new phone through verizon in the future just to get the battery and signal strength to display. That would be awesome if you can dial through the NAV menu!