Personally, I've been a Verizon (previously Bell Atlantic Mobile) customer since I was a Bell Atlantic Mobile employee in 1994. Since then, I've maintained my Verizon/Bell account with a minimum of 3 phone lines. I initially had 4 lines and all 4 were numbers were issued to me - by me as an agent, each ending in 00, and all in the same area code, same exchange and same 1st digit of the last 4, so all 4 numbers had only one digit different - and in numerical order starting with mine which is ending in 000, the wife 100, my second line 200, and my mother was 300. Now I still have 000, 100, & 200, but my son now carries 200, and I have since added a 4th line for my wife's father (recently deceased).
Since I've been a loyal customer of Verizon for over 19 years, I've seen the good, bad and ugly of cellular growth and development. In that nearly 20 years, I have been no less than completely satisfied with the service and support that Verizon has provided. They've been there in every situation and resolved all issues with courtesy and compassion. They've replaced phones as needed without question, they've advised me on changes to my plans that would save me money and in situations where I've had disputes with billing and such, they've always been able to make good on those disputes and see the errors of their ways. Nothing and nobody is perfect, but if they're willing to recognize and make proper reparations, that's all anyone can hope for. In cases where there was verifiable loss of functionality, they've been there with money applied toward phone service credits to offset future bills.
Verizon has upgraded our phones under the normal upgrade processes in the distant and recent past, and in some cases even well before the upgrade was available. They've been willing and able to provide additional incentives in the form of credits to service to make the changes, including subsidizing the costs of accessories that went with the new phones (i.e. car kits, etc.), so that the costs I paid toward similar accessories on the old phones wasn't wasted. They've even upgraded phones we've had for newer models and done so without charge. The same goes for Motorola as I've been carrying (or driving with) Motorola phones for nearly 90% of the time over the last 19 years.
I have just today gotten a free upgrade for my wife's car mount from Motorola (see below), because Verizon recently replaced my wife's Droid RAZR (after the warranty period), with a Droid RAZR MAXX, since the MAXX doesn't fit into the RAZR's dock. The phone replacement was done by Verizon over one year after purchase, because the battery on her RAZR would no longer get her through a full day. Verizon sent her a CLNR Droid RAZR MAXX, we shipped back the Droid RAZR, and now Motorola is shipping a Droid RAZR MAXX Vehicle Navigation Dock and we'll be shipping back the Droid RAZR Vehicle Navigation Dock. All that was completely free from both companies...something they both did for me several months ago as well - and yes...they were free then too. I have NEVER worked with a company like these two who would provide such extensive, generous support, and do so even after the warranty periods are up as they've both done for me. It might (admittedly so), be partially due to my loyalty to both companies, but then that makes complete and good business sense to me.
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The actual phone service in my area - a suburb about 15 miles due West of Philadelphia, PA has been superb with Verizon and nearly as reliable as a wireline. Dropped calls are non-existent. Poor service areas are now as hard to find as an Easter Egg 30 seconds into the hunt (reference to how fast those little kids can clean up 30,000 plastic eggs on the Church lawns...amazing!). The only places I find it difficult to get service now are inside a couple nearby big box stores and places like Staples, (all steel construction). In those cases, so I don't have service while I shop...so what?
In the past, where my phone would work without a hitch, friends and associates struggled to get service. Where my phone wouldn't work...nobody else's would either. I know that the build-up of infrastructure has been quite extensive in the other carriers - especially in the last few years, but given how strong Verizon has always been, and how quickly they've upgraded their system to meet the new demands of faster protocols and more powerful services, I would say that past performance is indicative of future expectations. 5G is going to be rolling out in the future and I'd rather be with the carrier that's most likely going to have a viable network of the next protocol up and running before the others.
I now the tiered plan is a big issue with people now, and frankly if I were upgrading my main two lines and didn't have the other two to "steal" the upgrades from, I'd be a bit bummed too. It would of course, require me to move the other two lines to the tiered plan, and that would bust my Family Plan and the Friends and Family, but at this point I don't use but half of the allotted minutes since nearly everyone I speak to that isn't a business is on mobile now, and most are on Verizon - so the calls are Mobile to Mobile and free. As more and more "home phones" go the way of the Dinosaur, I see the plan minutes becoming less and less of an issue. I do however intend to keep the Unlimited Data on the two main lines until they rip it out of my bloody hands.
Verizon's phone selection (as you alluded to), is - and has consistently been the best of all carriers IMHO. That said...for the teacher's pets it wasn't - but I don't and never have desired the fruit of that tree, so I couldn't care less.
For me, another carrier would have to jump through some pretty big hoops with lead weights around their wrists, waist & ankles to get me to change...and even then I might regret it.
I don't mean to sound crass, but if you were a Verizon employee wouldn't you have been the person I would come to in order to be convinced by you to use Verizon over other carriers? In other words, I would expect you might know even more about the system and reasons why Verizon would be the better carrier than the others.
Of course, if you weren't on the front line, or you didn't work for Verizon Wireless, but instead Verizon - the parent company then those questions or expectations would be mute.
I suggest you call 800-922-0204 and plead your case to the support staff. If you get no satisfaction from level one "Customer Loyalty" (formerly "Customer Retention"), ask to speak to a supervisor. Don't forget to mention you are on an employee plan as a former Verizon employee.
Anyway, I hope I've helped you.
Thanks again!