Verizon Wireless Going the way of Qwest? Internet

Verizon's customer service used to be such a relief compared to the nightmare of dealing with Qwest.  And, honestly, for the most part they're still easy to reach and helpful - at least as far as they can be.  The problem is, the CSR's seemed shackled by poor policy and inadequate information resources.  In trying to upgrade my phone, I've had several CSR's start to tell me that I could get one of the phones I've requested, only to have to apologize at the end because what HAD looked like it was in inventory suddenly was no longer available. 

Several times CSR's have told me that I would have to call the sales dept. to get a phone that they eventually discovered that they no longer had access to.  I just got off the phone with sales after three different phones which were recommended to me were eventually discovered to no longer be available.  I've seen this in several posts - Verizon simply does not keep enough inventory and enough selection.  This seems to hold mostly true for not having enough of the non-data plan phones.  They realized their error in going to completely data-plan phones and make a big deal out of that no longer being a requirement, but the reality seems to be that they only want to sell data-plan phones and could care less about having inventory of traditional phones for their customers to upgrade to.