They actually called me back this morning. I was surprised, and she was VERY nice, but it was basically yada, yada, yada, end of the year, yada, yada. Thought she was going to divulge something, but she stuck with it and didn't really say much. She did call Costco for me and called me back to let me know their returns were 14 day and I couldn't get the extended returns to the 15th of Jan, but I really only was trying to use that as leverage to get some info anyway (as my wife loves her Razr), so no big deal.
I did impress upon her that this all could have been avoided if there was just some kind of flow of information. Even if they announced a date and had to change it (aka the charge), that if they just announced the reasons it would go a long way toward customer loyalty and the venemous attitude that is being spewed on these boards toward Verizon. She said she would pass that along, but whatever. I feel better that they at least cared enough to call me back and spend 10-15 minutes on the phone with me, but when it was all said and done I really hadn't gotten anywhere.