Wow... I can't believe Nokia is letting "Nokia USA" still handle things for them. This is the same mess that happened with the initial N900 ordering stuff, and I once again went through the ringer on it...

I figured, for $200, having a spare would be really nice. Plus then I could have one stable device for every day use, and one for hacking on. Tried to place my order, and it rejected (and my cell beeped with a "Fraud alert text" from my card company). I then figured I'd use my Amex, which is what I'd used before. Surely they would be ok with it, since I just did this a year ago... And they were, but the website said they weren't.

So I called Nokia to order it via phone instead. After 15 minutes wait, I got a sale rep. I told him what had happened, and he forwarded me to "support". Twenty minutes later someone there answers and tells me that the system had rejected both, but she's not sure why. So, I said lets start fresh, and just place a new order, simple, right?

No. Apparently since I "tried multiple times" (multiple being 2 apparently), as their webpage told me to do, the system had locked me out. And the only way they have of unlocking it is to send an e-mail to their support folks, which could take up to a week. I asked to speak to a manager...

Twenty more minutes on hold, and the "manager" comes on the line. She has no more authority to do anything than the underling. The system has locked me out, and they have not way to deal with it other than to escalate it via e-mail. And even if I call sales, I can't order a phone, because it's all tracked by name and phone number, which must match exactly the number on record for the credit card I'm using to purchase with (and all mine point to one phone number).

So in short: Avoid the online order system. It always fails. Though, to be honest, I'm not sure the sales folks are doing anything more than typing into the same web page, since they seem powerless to do anything else.

In the end, I wasted an hour and a half of my life trying to order a backup phone, and have zip to show for it. Except of course for the grand in holds on my two cards, which they assure me will disappear within the next 3 to 5 business days. (Which tells me the cards were fine with it, and the failure was on their end....)

And Nokia wonders why they can't sell phones in the US?