Verizon's software upgrades aren't really upgrades

I recently had the misfortune of having to replace my Verizon Wireless Motorola V3M phone. I use the phone as a "tethered" modem on my laptop computer to get internet access.

My old phone worked fine. In fact the old phone still works, except that the screen is cracked and has no display. The computer recognizes the phone and can tether as a modem.

However, the new phone that I received has Verizon's software upgrade for the phone. The tethering functionality no longer works with my computer. Neither does charging the phone with my generic car charger (worked with the old phone) or charging the phone via the USB port on my computer. (worked with the old phone)

It appears that in it's effort to control consumers' choice and force a customer to buy Verizon branded chargers, the phone's functionality has been limited.

To be fair, I am in the process of trying to resolve the problem with Verizon, and it has been a slow painful process, with CSRs not calling back when promised and constantly misunderstanding the problem. I have repeated the problem at least 2 dozen times to different CSR. When the next one gets involved, they don't understand the problem because the last one didn't note the account correctly.