Stunned at lack of Support from Verizon

Question

A little over a year ago, I left Sprint for Verizon because everyone told me how much better it was. So far, the phone service has not been any better at all; certainly not worth the extra money I pay Verizon.
Today, Verizon attempted to deliver the OTA update to my phone. Because I was busy when it first came up, I declined. I used my phone for a few hours, threw it in my briefcase, and went to work. At work, I pulled it out of my briefcase, and it was totally bricked. I can guess what happened: they started the OTA update again; I got on the subway and lost reception in the middle of it; and now it won't boot -- it is just stuck on the recovery screen, where no buttons work (as has been described on other threads).
At the VZW store, they too were unable to fix it, and said they would have to sell me a new phone. Sell, not give. See, the phone is out of the one year warranty. And so even though the hardware is perfectly fine, and even though it was VZW's botched software update that bricked the phone, they don't think that they are responsible; they think I should have paid for insurance instead. Seriously? In addition to the extra money VZW charges over their competitors, now I have to carry insurance against the possibilty that they will do something to damage the phone?
The amusing part of the whole situation was when the VZW tech tried to tell me that it was my fault for not accepting the OTA update in the first place; apparently, he believes, although they screen offers you a chance to postpone the update, it is your fault if you do that and your phone bricks 4 hours later.
The silver lining in this is that I own two Fascinate phones, one of which (the one that still works....) I have rooted and installed a custom ROM on, and so I expect that I will be able to get the other phone running again rather than buying a replacement. But clearly that's not an option for the vast majority of VZW customers; I can't believe that they are all {word filter avoidance} if their phone is more than a year old.

Answer 1

Tidbits wrote:
So you didn't brick your device, and you just want to rant?  Which is it as I am confused and trying to figure out what you want.  
What I want is for Verizon to behave like a responsible company and take responsibility for their software updates, and when their software updates render a phone unusable, to remedy the situation.
I understand that you disagree -- that you feel it is perfectly acceptable for them either to require that I carry insurance to protect against their actions, or that I possess a level of techinical expertise that is greater than their own technical support department, who couldn't get the phone working. The fact that I can get my phone working doesn't really help the majority of people who will experience this problem and what I would like is for Verizon to change their policies so that these people are taken care of.
So I'm sorry if my criticism came off merely as a rant; given the time I had to waste to get the phone working again (not to mention the time without a phone), I will admit to being angry and letting that color my posting. So let me rephrase: Dear Verizon representatives who read this board, Please change this completely unfair policy whereby I am responsible for paying for or fixing problems on the phone that you sold me after you, doubtless with all good intentions, sent a buggy software update that caused the phone to be inoperable, even when services by your own technical representatives.