I had similar problems with Verizon, called them on a monthly basis about crappy service around here. Once, they gave me 3 new phones that were supposed to be "high power". They worked decent for a while. There were 3 towers go up within 30 miles of here and not a one of them were Verizon, waited it out to see if the Alltell/Verizon merger would affect it any, but nope. They said they had no plan to put up any towers in this area in the next years plan. They said I should be able to pick up the other towers, but I could be parked right beside them and have no service. So, I was surfing their website and found the tech for this area and sent him an email saying he should grab a few members of his "network" and head up this direction and check things out. Then I emailed someone else and that kind of got things done, she had someone from inside Verizon call me and he said "we could send someone out there in our service van and check the service, but according to our map I can see what he will report back", he apologized for the crappy service and said at this point he would let me out of our contract for $0.00 if I wanted or he would send me a Network extender to try. I agreed to take the Network extended and try that out and as long as I'm in my house or around the yard I can use it and get excellent signal, so that helps. I've been with Verizon for 15 years and I told him I've been patiently waiting for service to get up to this rural area, but with my monthly bill being over $200 now I feel I should be able to use the dam things. He agreed. This Network extended is a $250 piece, so I was happy he went that far, plus he fanagled my "new every 2" renewal date and I was able to get a new Blackberry Storm for $199.
Talking with the CSR's really gets you no where except more pissed off. I've had the "we'll send someone out to check signal" crap enough that I should see a Verizon van full of geeks parked out front but have never seen anyone or anything related to Verizon in this area.
He also told me that we had a contract, between them and myself, I paid them for a service and they were contractually obligated to provide that service and since they were not able to provide me with acceptable service they would let me out for $0.00. First time I've ever heard that.... but I wasn't about to argue, I think that would be a good argument for you.
Good luck.
