If you head over to the Rise forums, you'll see I was the one that started the dev movement there too. HOWEVER, they're 'cheap bastards', as you put it, and won't budge for shit. They could have only 1 customer left, and they wouldn't unlock the bootloader for him.
I didn't even look up the specs for this phone until I got home. I was debating between this and the Event (Both of the $20 VM Black Friday phones) and Target was my first stop, which had this one. Took one look at it, and I had one in my hands XD I'm glad I went with this one, considering the Event is a Rise/Hydro minus the keyboard/waterproofing. All three are in the same rotting boat.
ANYWAY, this link
should work now. I tested it on my phone, and the script ran without errors.
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