Odd rules lose customers

I'm a Verizon Wireless customer. Have been for many, many years. Frankly, in my area of the world, there is no comparison to the coverage and signal of any other carrier (at least, until fairly recently). Verizon has always been reasonable, I don't have service issues, they provide a good value for my hard earned dollar.

I'm required to carry a cell phone for work, and as such, my very, very, very large company reimburses me a portion of my cell phone bill. I recently received approval to spend more money on a data plan, so I can now go get a Smartphone or a Blackberry.

My plan: Get a Treo 650, bump up my plan from 1350 minutes to a plan that is 1350 minutes and unlimited data (an additional approximately $30 per month). Our IT guy is in the office today, so he can get me up and running with e-mail on my smartphone, and I become more productive.

One little snag - I upgraded my phone in September, so I am not eligible to upgrade my phone until next September. I stop in the store, thinking this should be no big deal, since I'm adding a data plan, and I work for a very, very, very large company that spends lots of money.

Apparently, it's a big deal. I can not get the phone on my current plan. I can, however, get the phone on a new plan - so instead of having a smartphone I use as a phone and PDA, I can have my cell phone with my current plan, and I can have a smartphone on a data only plan. The cost difference - the data plan is $50 a month. Of course, that's now a 2 year deal, so I would end up in this never ending cycle of carrying multiple devices.

Now I understand why they have the upgrade time limits, but don't you think they could reason past the rule to see that I'm going to spend $350 now on a phone and $180 more on service if I get the Treo today, vs not spending anything extra until September? Are they taking more than $180 loss on the phone? I can get the phone from Palm with no service agreement for $519.