Verizon...Can you hear me?... NOW?

Last Sunday, I was backing up my Blackberry Storm. While this was in progress, my laptop froze up. I initiated a reboot on my laptop, which consequently stopped the backup. No problem to Blackberry at this point right. Wrong the Storm went into the flashing red led mode of death.
So I called tech support because the last time this "dead mode" happened, the in-store tech said that it was extremely rare that you would bring the phone back from this condition. So I spent an hour on the phone with a very nice technician who walked me through all the things that I already did on y own. Total waste of time, but I can understand why they must do this. After these evolution did not fix the phone the tech basically told me to try again on my own and good luck. Very polite but of no help at all.
This brings me to the second call to tech support. This time the tech was also very polite and accessed the notes from the prior call. The tech decided that they(Verizon) would send me another Blackberry free of charge. He verifies my shipping address then he says let me check your account status and hits me up for a $37 payment.
To say the least this is annoying to me and I convey this to the Verizon rep on the phone. He then explains that if I do not pay right now they will not send the phone. I asked why this is because the bill is not due til the 19th of each month and this was the 5th. This is the point where everything starts to go to hell in a big hurry.
Annoyed... but paid the requested amount with debit card. The tech tells me to check my e-mail that night for confirmation of payment and shipment would be on the way. The tech also told me that my shipment would be at my home by 12:30pm Tuesday. I checked and the e-mail was there. So I figured things were all good...I was wrong.
I forgot to mention that I have a night job in addition to working for my self in the day time. I worked from 10 pm Monday til 6 am Tuesday on the night job. I decided to stay up until the package arrived, since my two days off from night job are Tuesdays and Wednesdays. No package came Tuesday. Yeah Verizon, got my money, no service on the problem.
Called Tech support for third time on Tuesday at 2:45 pm and no package delivered. Spent a long time on hold while the tech was checking on my shipped phone. While on hold the tech hung up on me. Yeah Verizon, got my money, no service on the problem yet.
Fourth call, and I am full blown pissed off now. This time I'm talking to a fourth different tech on phone and I have to explain from the beginning all over again. I ask if maybe they can call the local store to give me a phone today. They call and of course the local store can't help because they can not...no...do not want to give me a Blackberry from sales inventory. Yeah Verizon no help with my problem and it must be my problem, but hey you got my money tho.
At this point I ask for supervisor and threaten to take my business some where else. Not only do I not get to talk to a supervisor but I'm told that they will be sorry to lose me as a customer. Like so what go ahead and go. After I calm down a tad, I tell them to send the phone and make sure( before I get off the phone) that it went through. She assured me it did.
OK, now I check my e-mail on Tuesday night and sure enough there is a problem. The shipping address for me is incomplete. What do I have to do to get a break here? But at least they got my money...right?
I called FedEx, fixed the address and they relayed yet another problem. WOW! Are they trying to piss me off! I asked FedEx to call them and confirm pickup and shipping address is correct. FedEx got everything corrected and package picked up.
I checked FedEx website late Tuesday night and the package showed that it was picked up from Verizon. I checked the website again Wednesday am and the package is in transit. All seems to be going well...no thanks to Verizon...but they got my money. FedEx is the hero of the day if they deliver the package. Hopeful that I don't get an empty box from Verizon.
Well time to finish my rant on a completely effed up effort or lack of from Verizon. If you have a similar problem you are going to have to hold Verizon's hand because they won't do anything for you if you don't. Read all e-mails(carefully) sent to you and call tech support and stay on the phone until they answer all your concerns. Be particularly attentive to package tracking numbers or lack of. Be firm firm firm...did I mention firm, but do not cuss these customer Dis-service reps or technicians out. It's not their fault that they work for a company that only wants to take your money but not service any problems. Lastly do not be afraid to call the management if you feel that the rep or tech is not helpful(I will post these numbers online soon). Thanks for reading this post and I hope you can learn from my experience.