I called up letstalk on the phone today, to try and buy the N810.
Someone nice had posted a few comments on Quim Gil's blog, and stated that customer service reps at letstalk were able to over-ride the system, charge you the full $489, and then issue you a credit afterwards to get the price down to $145. (http://flors.wordpress.com/2007/12/1...week/#comments)

After 20 mins on hold while the CSR spoke to his supervisor, he came back and said that he could do it.

However, during the order process, he asked me for my SSN.
I explained that the N810 was not a phone, and that I was not signing up for a monthly phone service plan, thus, there was no need to run a credit check on me.

The CSR told me that since the device I was buying was "a few hundred dollars", that the SSN was required to protect their company against fraud.

I spoke to a supervisor, who said essentially the same thing. I replied that Amazon didn't require a SSN to purchase the N810, and the supervisor replied that if I was that concerned about my SSN, perhaps I should buy it from Amazon.

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I'll leave the rant about the N810 developer program to others. However, there is no way in hell that I'm going to hand over my social security number just to buy a piece of consumer electronics.

None of the developers in other countries have had to put themselves at risk of identity theft in order to buy the device. Why the hell should I?

My love for Nokia is fading fast.....

- you did the right thing... i wouldn't have popped for the deal even if the n810 was *free*...

- it appears that you may also have dodged a bullet by dealing with letstalk (assuming it's letstalk.com you've mentioned in this thread):

http://www.ripoffreport.com/searchre...&Search=Search

(more than 30 reports, ranging from rebate fraud to unauthorized cc charges)