The word from Cingular spokesman John Kampfe was that “the 8700c BlackBerry will start selling at it’s U.S. stores and consumer electronics retailer Best Buy starting Friday.” Over the last two days I have been to 4 Best Buys and 2 Cingular stores and no one has the BlackBerry 8700c.

As far as the Best Buys go, only one person at one store has even heard of the 8700c but didn’t know when they would get it in stock. One Cingular store sales person told me that should have it any day and the second store I went to didn’t even know that the 8700 has been released. In all fairness to Cingular, the second store I went to was one of those little kiosks in the mall and I really didn’t expect the person working there to have a clue as to when the 8700c would be available in the store. I doubt that the kiosk would ever carry a BlackBerry as they are priced out of the impulse buy range that those little mall kiosks rely on.

So, I am just wondering, has anyone seen or even bought a BlackBerry 8700c in or from a Cingular Store or Best Buy? It seems kind of like the cat the eats out of my garbage can at night. I know that it is out there, I just can’t find it.