You sound a tad bitter.

Qwest is a good deal if you do the bundles. If you have wireless only, then you can find cheaper elsewhere. We go through Qwest because we also have home phone and Internet service through them. You get more and more discounts the more services that you have. One nice thing is that we don't get charged wireless minutes for calls to/from our home phone or between our wireless phones. This accounts for the vast majority of our wireless usage, which means that we can get by with a plan with less minutes (cheaper).

As far as customer service goes, I've had good luck with Verizon and Qwest and HORRIBLE service from AT&T (now Cingular). 30-60 minute hold times were the norm when I was with Cingular and that was the major factor in me switching. Their phones were great for features, but got horrible reception (Omaha).

As for "3rd party vendors", I've always gotten local customer service, so I'm not sure what the story is there. I think you may have been mislead.