No, I did not pay $250. If I want to replace it with an identical phone I was told the charge is $250. It’s the LG enV3 on the Verizon contract and initially it was $49. It malfunctioned right when the warranty period was over. I just found out that Verizon has replaced 4 of my relatives’ phones due to the same malfunction I am experiencing. I took the phone to the Verizon store and asked them to update the software like the phone tech suggested and one of the workers actually said that the update doesn’t fix the problem and that I need a new phone. Other workers, through their body language, made it apparent that the phone is a POS and one told me the batteries fail on this model. A consumer at the counter told me Verizon updated the software on her daughter’s phone and it worked for a few days, then the phone kept turning off spontaneously again. So obviously Verizon knows about the problem and has continued to sell it anyway. You’ll see lots of complaints if you google enV3.