Theory on the Home Button not working (iPhone 4 Verizon)

I have an iPhone 4 from Verizon and, on occasion, I've run into the problem of the home button not working. I found the trick of resetting it (hold down power button until power off slider pops up, then press and hold the home button until it resets itself). The reset would work and sometimes it wouldn't, or only temporarily.

It then dawned on me a few months ago that my home button was only flaky when my Verizon bill was past due. Last night, it was getting flaky again and this morning it wouldn't work at all... to the point of having to shut the phone down and restart just to get to the home screen. I logged in to my Verizon account via my iMac, noticed that my bill was indeed past due (but not to the point of not having phone service). I paid the bill and within 5 minutes, my home button was back to normal.

Shame on you, Verizon, and shame on you Apple for agreeing to hobble the phone like this for them!