To Verizon and Motorola: Let me use my own goddamn property

My first cell phone was a Verizon phone, and when I moved out after college I stuck with Verizon.  The only reason I cancelled my Verizon plan was because Casady and I moved to Iceland, where our CDMA phones do not work.  (CDMA is a type of cell communications that is only really used in America so you can rarely use your American cell phones overseas).  We brought my Droid, and Casady’s Droid X, with us, planning to use them as Wifi-only computers.  This morning, I factory-reset Casady’s Droid X, since my Droid is feeling its age and Casady isn’t using her Droid X.  I powered the phone back on and was taken to an activation screen.

Except, wait, of course my phone can’t activate, because I am in a GSM country (like every sensible country) and the Droid X’s silly CDMA doesn’t work.  I can’t get past the first screen.  Ruh-roh.

So I spend a few hours figuring out how to root my phone.  Except, I can’t even get into the phone to enable USB debugging, so I can’t use it with the Android SDK.  And obviously I can’t download anything from the phone itself to do it.  After fighting for a few hours (did you know Windows Vista/7 Home doesn’t have Group Policy Editor?  WTF!), I called up Verizon Customer Support.

The nice woman I spoke to didn’t have any concrete advice to offer but gave me Motorola’s number.  I called Motorola and the guy I spoke to told me I needed to call Verizon for an unlock code.  Ah, I was trying to root when I needed to unlock.  I’m so dumb sometimes ;)  So I called Verizon Customer Service again and another nice woman gave me a number for Verizon Tech Support.  I called Tech Support, and the man I spoke to put me on hold to do a little research about my problem.  He then transferred me to Leon in Global Tech Support.  We argued for a little while because he said Verizon only activates active/programmed phones.

I cancelled my account with Verizon because I don’t live in the US anymore, so the phones are not active on my account.
My entire family (included Casady’s side) are all Verizon customers, but we’d need to bring in the phones to get them programmed.  Of course, the phones are in goddamn Iceland, so that is impossible.
He stopped short of telling me I just needed to find an unlock code but I took the hint and thanked him and hung up.

So it turns out you cannot get unlock codes for the Droid X.   I looked and looked but no one seems to offer them.  It is rare for CDMA phones at all and I have not seen a single one for a Droid X due to the enhanced security features.  I’m open to tinkering but have made literally zero progress despite trying everything I could find (on a positive note, my patience has definitely improved).

So, the next thing I’m going to do is call Motorola and talk to whoever I need to talk to until I’m satisfied.  And then, when they won’t do anything, I’ll talk to Verizon and do the same.  I paid I think $200 USD to buy the phone and then another $300 or so for early termination.  I own this phone but am locked out of it.

Any ideas or support is appreciated.  This sort of corporate shit really grinds my gears and I’m not going to take it lying down.