I am an existing Verizon customer who has a very old Motorola phone
almost large enough to be a "bag phone".  I would like to upgrade to
the Audiovox CDM9500, but as you all know, that phone has been
discontinued.  I have had a seemingly endless go-around with Verizon,
alternatly being told they could still get me one, or that they could
not.  They actually placed an order for one for me last week, but upon
checking today, the order had been cancelled by them (with no plans to
notify me - it's a lucky thing I called them!).  This phone seems to
be difficult to acquire now.  None of the local Verizon stores have a
CDM9500.  There is a local dealer who has a bunch of them, but they
are not an exclusive Verizon store, and they tell me that since I am
doing an upgrade, they can not sell me the phone.  They said I could
discontinue my service and they re-apply and then they could sell me
the phone, but I would have to wait 90 days for activation.  Arrrgggh!

Anyway, can anyone suggest some way of upgrading to the CDM9500?  I
also am not so desparate as to want to pay $200+ for it.  There must
be some way of doing this!  If I can't make this work, my next choice
is probably the LG VX4400 or possibly the slightly cheaper VX10 (I am
not a big-time user, but I like some of the features of the VX4400 for
the relatively small extra cost).  Any thoughts?  My primary criteria
is reception.

Thanks for any help!

~ Rick