I'm thinking paying the $40 to your cousin may have not turned out to be the financial savings you originally thought it was. Seems like your only viable alternative now is to go through your cousin to fix the problem. Do you honestly think it is reasonable to expect Best Buy or Verizon to make good on his screw up?
Let me throw out a wild guess here, you were born between 1982 to 1992 and are clearly part of the entitlement generation??? I'm sure this wasn't the answer you are looking for either, you can thank me for a completely unhelpful post.