...My best piece of advice though, is know that you are going to be successful in your mission before making the call. I'm not saying you should be cocky, but you should definetly be confident; know that your request is entirely valid and really not asking that much, if anything they would just be exercising good business practice by agreeing with you. If you sound defeated or like your trying to get something out of them that they shouldnt be granting, then you have already lost the battle. Explain the situation clearly and make the decision for them. And if you don't succeed with the first person you talk to which is very likely, ALWAYS request to speak with their supervisor and then explain the whole situation over again, but this time even better and more convincing because you already have had test run with your pitch...
QFT
That there's some awesome advice! It has worked for me. The only other thing I would add to this is if you are denied at one Verizon store, try another. My company rep and I went to a VZW store with a reasonable request (my phone fell out of my pocket while jogging and was run over. It was literally hanging in two separate pieces, connected by two wires,
but still functioned! That Samsung slider was a great phone. Anyway, the VZW rep said there was nothing they could do except sell us a new phone at full retail or go through the insurance route and get a crappy refurbed unit of "equal" features (we learned our lesson regarding that particular insurance company). Our rep said we needed to think about it for a day and when we came back the next day, we spoke to a different VZW rep. This rep shook her head, mumbled under her breath about her moronic co-workers, told us that it was no problem, we'd been loyal customers for years, she'd switch this, swap that, clicked away for a few minutes on the computer, and ten minutes later, I walked out with a brand-new HTC Touch Pro on a two-year contract.
We made sure to get that girl's name and that's who we went to every time we needed something from Verizon (actually, back then it was ALLTEL, before VZW bought them).
Keep us informed and good luck! You should be able to find someone, somewhere, to work the system for your benefit (and, ultimately, theirs).