Verizon Wireless is a tower of babble.

You can't make up stuff like this.

I re-considered getting the new HTC Thunderbolt, overpriced at $249, because Verizon Wireless has a trade-in program that valued my current Motorola Droid at $55.  The $55 is guaranteed for 30 days.  I applied for the trade-in online.  I did get the return envelope and a submission ID#, which allows me to log in and see the $55 value but no date; the enclosing envelope is post marked 3/7/11, ten days ago.  I finally found the trade-in e-mail ... in my SPAM folder.

I called Verizon Wireless and asked that my return be contingent on my getting the new Thunderbolt.  Verizon Wireless cannot it.  Why?  Because it's a different department!  Regular Verizon Wireless can only see the public trade-in information, not anything specific to my account, not even with submission ID#, which was assigned to me by ... Verizon Wireless.

I'm on hold now with the different trade-in department, which cannot access my Verizon Wireless account.  This may be nature's way of telling me to wait for the Motorola Bionic.

Mercifully the phone call with the trade-in person has finally ended.  No resolution, of course, bu at least it's over.  It will be escalated ... at my request.  ZERO indication that Verizon Wireless will give me what I requested in the first place: assurance that the trade-in value will be honored if I order the new Thunderbolt even if  the return of my current phone is a little later than the end date, whatever that may be.

Argh!  Could Verizon Wireless make this more difficult or aggravating?  I'm asking to buy a new smartphone and lock into Verizon Wireless for another TWO years.  Verizon Wireless, what the heck?

Note: e-mailed to trade-in@asurion.com, which had sent me the e-mail and which accounts for it going onto my SPAM folder: it did not come from Verizon Wireless.  It also suggests that the trade-in person with whom I spoke was not an employee of Verizon Wireless, something that crossed my mind during our conversation.  I thought of asking her but decided against it.  I should have asked.