Alltel lost my stored phone numbers

[jrh12]

We went to the Alltel retail store yesterday and purchased 2 new LG phones. This is my first cell phone, but my husband has had an LG phone with Sprint for about 3 years. At the end of the transaction the salesman took my husband's old phone and the new phone in order to transfer all of his stored phone numbers/contacts. The store was past closing time and we went on our way. Meanwhile my husband went to check his numbers but the phone needed charging first. When we got home, he hit the roof. There are no numbers left on his old phone and the numbers on his new phone aren't his! There are a bunch of contacts from someone else's phone!
Now what? Do they do any kind of back-up on the machine they use to do the transfer or is he left with having to not only enter all the phone numbers by hand, but also trying to remember who all was in his contact list and how to contact them without his stored phone numbers?
He wants to storm back and demand a refund and never deal with Alltel again.
Thanks,
jrh12

p.s. We use a Palm PDA and some of his numbers are stored there. Is there a way to at least transfer these numbers electronically?

[eatmydust2000]

you are not the only that had that problem. when I was still with U.S Cellular a while back...stupid sales man deleted all of my 130 contact list too...man, I have to say..it is a _____ to put it back in. sorry, i don't believe they have backup for those transaction transfer device. all they really are gonna say is "sorry". they need to hired better working people who knows how to work machines..

[djjim]

I cannot stress enough to people to use a backup service. With alltel, it is Mighty Backup, Verizon has one too, not sure about Sprint. What if you drop your phone in a lake or lose it? Backup online!!!!

[KyleAndMelissa22]

My solution, keep a text file (.txt) on the computer with all the contact info from your phone.
THIS IS FREE , and it takes a few minutes on Word / Notepad, etc., but it's worth it.
Always keep it up to date as well.

If you get a new phone, you'd have to reprogram everything, but at least the info's not totally gone.

For those who don't like typing all your contact info,
(and my phonebook has 150 contacts ) Mighty Backup is a great idea for $1.99 a month.

[MrObvious]

I get MightyBackup free since I have Purple My Circle status. I don't need it though since I have a 6800 and can just back my contacts on my storage card with PPCPimBackup or Activesync. *grin*