Spending limit - what a joke!

Question

I have been a loyal customer for 2.5 years with a bill that is almost $500 per month for 8 lines on Edge plus one line that has completed a 2-year contract. That means I have paid verizon between 12,000 and 15,000 dollars on time every time. I have an excellent credit rating, and now they tell me there is a spending limit.
They let me add 8 Edge lines to my plan. I called Verizon direct to see about upgrading, and they told me that me and my husband could both upgrade if we paid 98.88 per phone.
We did that, but now tell me I cannot upgrade because there is a "hard cap" of $4,000 spending limit on the Edge program (which they extended to $5,000 to sell me two additional lines in September, but it appears to be back down to $4,000 now that I want to upgrade). They had no problem taking my money for the "Edge Up" upgrade payment. One phone was upgraded just fine, but they now say I need to put down a $300 down payment on the second phone we want to upgrade. I have talked to multiple people at Verizon because it makes no sense. I am not adding another line. I am simply trying to trade phones of equal value. If I am going to do that, I will buy one outright for $300 and add it to my plan with no contract.
Where does it say that there is an equipment cap of $4,000, and how do they think you could every have 9 or 10 (max) phones with equipment prices less than $4,000? Shouldn't that limit be associated with the number of lines on the plan or the creditworthiness of the customer rather than a "hard cap"?
I think it is unfair practice to increase it to make the initial sale, but decrease it, so they do not have to fulfill their end of the contract. Also, if they have decreased my spending limit, they did it without notifying me, and they had no reason to do so.
I guess they do not want or need my $6,000 per year. Buyer beware on Edge. It is not what they say or advertise. I was a huge fan until I tried to actually use it.

Answer 1

Failed to follow sane and safe upgrading practices and don't have either a bootable backup/clone or Time Machine backup of your previous Lion installation?
Tsk, tsk.
See these for more details:
http://www.macmaps.com/upgradefaq.html
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/installswupdates.html
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/backuprecovery.html