How to debrand a RAZR V3?

I own a RAZR V3 (actually a V3r according to the SW version display)
with a German Vodafone branding. I thought I could get rid of it by
flashing the phone with a retail firmware for the V3(r) but this always
fails during the process with a weird error message and leaves the phone
in a broken state. After that I can use the Motorola firmware update
program to restore the phone but then I still have the branding.

What's the secret here? Shouldn't this work?
--
<insert witty comment here>

All your answers will be found at www.motox.info.

Thomas Adams wrote:
> I own a RAZR V3 (actually a V3r according to the SW version display)
> with a German Vodafone branding. I thought I could get rid of it by
> flashing the phone with a retail firmware for the V3(r) but this
> always fails during the process with a weird error message and leaves
> the phone in a broken state. After that I can use the Motorola
> firmware update program to restore the phone but then I still have
> the branding.
>
> What's the secret here? Shouldn't this work?