Having trouble transferring contacts with VZ Transfer App? Come in here!

Question

IF YOU DONT WANT TO READ THE ISSUE I HAD, SKIP DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST FOR INSTRUCTIONS HOW TO SYNC CONTACTS WITHOUT THE VZ TRANSFER APP.
So I think I had the most possible trouble you could have trying to get my contacts from my old flip phone to my iPhone.  I followed the steps to get my contacts onto the web at http://www.verizonwireless.com/backupassistant from my old phone by running backup assistant on there and having that back it up to the website.
All was fine on that end, and I could view my contacts online no problem.
The issue was with the app.  After I turned off Wifi, it went through and verified my phone number, then said it was sending SMS with my access code.
The problem was ... I never ever received that text message. 
I tried reinstalling the app, turning wifi on/off again, pressing the resend code button probably 75+ times ... no code.
I then called into Verizon, talked to tier1 help who couldn't help out so they transferred me to tier2 help, and they also had no clue what was the problem.  They basically said since they didn't know, and my texting was working fine, that it had to be an app problem, and that Apple developed the app, so it was basically their problem.
But he then told me that you can sync your contacts to your google email account.  Since I already had a google email account, I gave this a try, and it worked like a charm.
So here are the steps below that I followed and this worked so much easier than dealing with all of the issues I was having.
HOW TO SYNC CONTACTS WITH GOOGLE EMAIL ACCOUNT.
** NOTE - A GOOGLE / GMAIL EMAIL ACCOUNT IS REQUIRED FOR THIS TO WORK
1. First run backup assistant on your old phone and verify that the contacts actually were back'ed up to the website by going to http://www.verizonwireless.com/backupassistant.
2. Once you can see your contacts at that webpage, click the SELECT ALL button.
3. Under the ACTIONS combo box, select the Export option.
4. When asked which format to save it in, select the OUTLOOKoption, and it will save a .csv file to your PC somewhere.
5. Once this is done, follow the instructions at the link below
http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=138740&topic=14252
If you do not have a gmail or google account yet, you must create one for this process to work.
6. Now look at your contact on your iPhone, you should see all of them in the list.
I hope this helps out some people because it took me over a day to get my contacts transferred to my new phone and I know what the headache is like.

Answer 1

This user tip should be helpful. It refers to the iPhone, but it's equally valid for iPods as well…
Syncing to a "New" Computer or replacing a "crashed" Hard Drive