I have bought my last few phones through third party retailer ( Wirefly & Costco). Whenever I need service on my phone or have problems, I go directly to a Verizon corporate store.

The corporate store will service your phone and if you are past the return, exchange period ( usually 14 to 30 days), they will replace your phone with a new or refurbished one if need be.

The insurance you get through Verizon and is billed by Verizon. You can even get the insurance via logging onto your Verizon account.

My Wirefly phones i have had to have replaced and I did it through Verizon's corporate store ( after they tried to service it).

My most recent Costco phone, the Charge, I thought came without the sim card ( it was actually in the bottom of the box, duh). On day one of getting my Charge through Costco, I took it to a Verizon corporate store to get a sim card and have them activate it for me. They did all of this for free and asked me if I wanted to add insurance.

I imagine that if I was not pleased with my phone and wanted to return it within the return period (14-30 days), that I would have had to do that through Wirefly or Costco, but other than that, everything else can be done through Verizon's corporate store.

Hope this helps answer your questions.

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