Yes, you are correct.....and I have tried that. I am on vacation and this is a work phone. I talked to the Verizon business support people and although they fully understand and have a record of the previous phone, I am not listed as one of the authorized people on our corporate account to allow such a change.
Funny thing is though, although it's not my job, I am one of the testers for corporate validation of new phones and functionality through exchange.
On a side note,

, I just flashed Vins latest pluto yesterday and since I wrote this original post, I had to hard reset my phone once again. It would dial calls but I couldn't hear anything either through headset, speaker etc. Tried pulling battery etc.
Maybe I should start a thread on creative ways to destroy your broken phones...