Smartphone drama strikes! Yesterday Boy Genius castigated Verizon for refusing to allow upgrading customers to pre-order the new BlackBerry Tour. This policy was rightly seen as unfair by a lot of VZW customers. They complained loudly, and in large enough numbers that Verizon was forced to take notice.

This morning they posted that the situation was being remedied. Current customers upgrading to a Tour will be able to do so on the site starting Monday, July 13th, when the rest of the pre-orders begin. Apparently the squeaky wheel does get the grease. This is exactly why it is important to be an active and informed consumer. Your voice can have an impact if you can get enough other people to complain along with you.

Sprint apparently learned from the whole mess, and they've gone with the simpler solution of just not allowing pre-orders for the BlackBerry Tour. Their manager of social media confirmed this via Twitter today. I guess Sprint's got enough on their plate right now without dealing with the hassle of pre-orders. The Tour's a substantial launch, but it's not going to be so big that pre-orders will be necessary to ensure everyone gets a phone.