Actually you have a month to purchase insurance on ANY kind of device you purchase ANY where. Cell phone, gadget, or other item where they sell an extended warranty. Personally I don't think you should even have to buy the insurance, but now I'm glad I did, but plenty of people are technically purchasing the insurance when something already went wrong. It's one freebie you get in life but only for the first month you own something. This happened with a used car I bought at a dealership. A few weeks of having the car I noticed the transmission was slipping and I went back to the dealership distraught because I had wanted the warranty and the loan wouldn't cover it so they removed it. They said no problem, if you pay for the extended warranty they still have to give it to you for the first 30 days, something that was in my right to do since it had been less than a month that I purchased the car.
On the other hand, when I was in the mall yesterday I saw a cracked screen on the wall of some store with the words "cracked screen" no problem, and they fix them. I was surprised because I thought you had to throw away a phone once the screen cracks... I never knew it was something fixable.
ITA about the giving you the benefit of the doubt and being such a great customer all these years, it's ridiculous they won't do anything for you and I would escalate it to higher and higher unless you just take the insurance route. You can also try going to more than one verizon store, different managers react differently. $300 to you is A LOT... $300 to them is NOTHING. And I'm sure you didn't do anything unless it actually fell. I decided to insure it for the first year and then may take it off.
I also want to mention that this phone is so big that I'm afraid to keep it in my pants pocket like I usually have done with previous phones. I'm afraid it will slide out. I bought the holster where you put the phone in backwards so it's protected front and back in case of a fall. (glass completely enclosed). I like clips anyway because not all my pants have pockets. It's not hard to get out either. With this holster the case has a little easel on the back so you can rest your phone upright or sideways. Really loving that feature and it's easy to push out and push in.
Good Luck
