Please help me with these verizon !?

Ok, so verizon is super ridiculous with these data pkgs- i just upgraded my phone to the ONLY one where the data pkg is optional- the casio exilim. Let me tell you- this phone is a complete piece of crap. a $450 phone for $19.99? i know why. anyway, i got it yesterday, it worked for 3 hrs. and then completely died. Nothing to do with the battery- it was charged and it just died. So I called cust service and of course, if i want to change to another i have to pay a restocking fee? total bullshit. so i have to order the same damn piece of crap phone. i have to keep the contract and am absolutely not paynig these freaks an extra 10 a month for these services for a "good" phone- What if I would buy a used phone and switch to that? Do I have to make sure it's a verizon phone? would really love an ipod but do you have to be on a gsm network? or what about these "unlocked" phones, can i buy an unlocked ipod and have it switched to my plan even though its gsm. Or- can i buy a CDMA phone to use even if verizon has never had it in stock? if not, are there any used 3g multi-media or smartphones that will allow you not to buy the data package? please help i'm beyond and incredibly technologically impaired.