My Newest Options: Pay full retail or cancel?

[cwalker]

I had a Droid X which I totally loved. It started doing weird things and it was 2 years old. After not having a phone I was interested in, I waited out until November. I went to the Verizon store several times to ask about different phones and features. I was told that the HTC Rhyme was much like my Droid X only smaller. I called Customer Service and was given the same info about the phone and a better deal than the store. I upgraded. After 3 weeks of having the phone I realized that this phone did NOT do half the things my Droid X did. I went to the store to exchange the phone and I was told that if I would have purchased the phone 2 days after my purchase date I could have exchanged the phone due to the extended holiday refund policy. I explained that I wasn't trying to get over, but that this phone was just not at all what I expected. I offered to pay the restock fee and the difference to get into a better phone. I was told no and that no exceptions could be made in the store. However, they ordered me a replacement phone (which never came because the rep forgot to process the order completely). After waiting another week I called and Customer Service ordered me a phone. I activated the phone and this phone does the same thing. The widgets don't update and I have to manually go into my email and refresh it. Sometimes they will update and push my emails, but most times it does not. This is exactly what the first phone did. All the settings are correct and I've done multiple factory resets. I never had that issue with my Droid X. I got so frustrated after being told to just deal with it, that I went back to my Droid X. Unfortunately the phone was ran over and I had to go back to the Rhyme. I called back to see if anyone would offer me a better solution. I was told to either upgrade one of my other lines. (Which I don't think I should have to, being that the phone I purchased doesn't do what I was told it would do). The other option was to purchase a phone at full retail. I was floored that those were my options. Both options require that I come out of pocket and reward the company. The fact that I was told that I could cancel for cheaper than staying became more appealing. I tried to give Verizon another chance and I spoke with a rep over the phone. He was pleasant, however all he did was read me policy.It was also suggested that I call HTC and find out if they can give me a different phone!! The analogy that I got was that my cell phone is like a car. The dealership (equivalent to Verizon) might sell me the phone but ultimately it's Honda (in this case HTC) that's responsible.  I've had service with Verizon for 5 years and I'm extremely disapointed. Having the best service isn't worth paying for, if I can't even enjoy it. I hope someone reads this that can actually make something happen. I'm EXTREMELY frustrated and quite frankly upset.