its coming to under $500 shipped for me. dont know if Dell will have better deals with 20% coupons..

From the moment I was an AMEX card member in the 90's, I have always done online shopping. No problem whatsoever. However, today is the first time my AMEX got declined!!! I called customer service, which then transferred me to the fraud department. Answered several security questions (password as well as last 4 SSN), and then she asked me for the exact amount. She found the charge that was declined, and had me go back to the merchant and repeat the shopping steps to the point where I can submit the order, but to hold off on clicking submit until she tells me to go ahead. A few minutes later, she told me to go ahead and hit submit. Voila, it went through.

She said that it's likely that BrightPoint (which if you look at the final page before submitting the order, the website indicates that nokiausa.com was powered by BrightPoint) has had a lot of fraudulent activities (not by the merchant, but by card holders making claims that too many stolen cards had been used to shop at BrightPoint) in the past which automatically flagged this merchant as a potential problem. Who knows what the algorithm and logic the computers use to flag potential fraud...

So just do what I did, and the charge will go through. My total in Chicago after taxes and shipping is $493.36.

Now, incidentally, when you first preordered, it gave you an option to buy an extended 1 year warranty (on top of the 1 year included) for $19 something. I checked that box, but it never showed up in the final page. I've tried doing this with Firefox and IE, and no dice. Has anybody been able to successfully add that to the cart?

Im comming in at $489.76. I tried 5 zip codes from various family members and they all came up at $37.89 in tax. This includes a city sales taxes from 8.425% to a rural zip code with sales tax of 4.325% ???? But when I put in my zip code it shows $25.52 in tax. Not complaining just ODD.

I currently have the N95 8g. like it alot, love it if I could have a card slot and easily connect to internet radio. I really like the qwerty on the N97.

Since this is a pre order it says it doesn't charge the card until it ships. Any confirmation on that?

I need to clear off some of my credit balance before I tack on another half grand to keep it from affecting credit score.

release date in July?! Good thing I already paid for my fireworks.

DUH!!! It's way past midnight, and I didn't even think about that..........

Thanks!

Edit: I thought about making another order with the extended warranty, but then realized that A) I don't want to waste another 15 minutes on the phone with AMEX; and B) AMEX's extended warranty benefit requires that you decline manufacturer's or retailer's extended warranty, as it only supplements the original warranty. Can someone double check me? I think I'm interpreting the terms and conditions correctly.

I has been use the AMEX card for only 2 years, and I had no problem to buy this phone. Lucky eh? I'm living in California, so it came up like this for me:

Subtotal: $699.00
Today's Savings: $244.65
Estimated Shipping & Handling*: $9.99
Estimated Sales Tax*: $40.63

Today's Estimated Total*: $504.97

I'm a Nokia's fan, I used their phone for so many years and I love the quality of the phone. I'm still using the N95 now, dropped alots but nothing go wrong with the phone. I love Nokia phone and looking forward to this new N series.

I've been w/ AMEX forever.... and I ran into the whole fraudulent thing. Need to call and have them manually remove the flag before I can purchase...
Funny thing is my 2nd order got declined based on website information while the lady @ AMEX on the phone told me the charge went through and got approved...
Now, I don't know if there's an order# on the 2nd one....

so that was what tripped up my AMEX! and i was thinking "thank God for helping me not buy this" as i had pulled the trigger couple times and it didnt go thru.

geotuna said:Gotta admit my real serious lack of knowledge in smartphones like this here - could someone enlighten me if the phone's functions like GPS and WiFi work without a phone plan?

Does it with WiFi kind of work like a mini netbook and can be used for e-mail and web browsing?

Does it work as a stand-alone GPS? Any way (hack?)to use non-Nokia maps? If so, which one's the best on it?

Any input or a link to some explanation will be helpful. TIA.
I don't know on the N97, but unless they change anything from all their other S60 phones (I have an N85) then:
you can use the wifi for e-mail and web browsing, even voip if you'd like.
You can turn off the cell options for GPS and have it only use its GPS unit (no data). It takes longer to get a signal but it works (you can purchase Garmin XT for it but you can also download Nokia Maps for it - it's free but they charge for extra stuff).

I must be really cheap, 'cause there is no way I would spend that amount of money on a cell phone, no matter what it does.. lol-- good deal I suppose, for those of you that want it, and can afford it these days