My Verizon Frustration (to put it mildly). Read if you live in AK

Question

Began when I ordered an iPhone 4 on August 13.  I needed to upgrade because I had an old phone and moved to Alaska, where Verizon was not established (I was on roaming).  Thought Verizon was a good enough company to stick with. Two and half years later, or August 13, my old phone finally had it and I called to get a new one.  The sales person said I could get an iPhone with my upgrade for 99 cents.  And she said could activate it up here because Verizon had towers in Anchorage where I live.
Wrong. I got the phone and it would not do anything, Had to call on my old phone and talk to tech support who said the incompetent salesperson had forgot to enter my new iPhone in the system.  But they would correct it and they would shut off my old phone and then I could activate it.
Wrong. They shut off my old phone, and the new one would not activate.  I was now phone-less.  I had go onto Verizon online to "chat" with another tech person, who after 25 minutes of research told me I could not activate an iPhone 4 in Anchorage.  She told me to send it to the lower 48 and have a friend/family member activate and send it back.  Yeah...a Verizon employee told me to inconvenience family or friends and pay for shipping to correct a mistake they made.  I suggest to her that I send it to Seattle (nearest Verizon store) and they reimburse shipping and they activate it.  She had to check and make sure this was okay.  It was.  I shipped it to the store and received it back a few days later and it was supposed to be activated.
Wrong.  Only the phone was activated, the data was not, no internet or pictures or visual voicemail.  Had to call and talk to another tech person who said they would put an order in to have the towers checked because that was probably the problem.  I got a text the next day that said my problem was fixed.
Wrong.  It was not. Called Verizon again and asked to talk to a supervisor.  They transferred me to a girl who sounded like she had no clue what was going on, I mean not even on a basic level.  I asked her if she was a supervisor and she said no.  Asked again to speak to a supervisor and they transferred me to one in North Carolina.  Guess what he discovered?  The incompetent person at the Verizon store in WA never activated my data.
Had to send the iPhone out again to get activated to the same store…I shipped it September 5th, tracking receipts show it arrived September 6 at 1000 am.  I still do not have it back.  I called the store using a co-workers phone on my lunch break on the 11th and told them I needed them to fix it and send it back (they said they were very busy).  The supervisor in North Carolina said the WA store fixed it on the 12th (probably after I called and told them to) and they should be shipping it out soon. I emailed the supervisor in NC and asked him to check and get a tracking number a couple days ago.  Still no phone and no idea when I will receive it.
So, since purchasing my iPhone, I have paid for one month’s worth of data I never got to use and to date…15 days of phone service I cannot use. And I have been without a phone for a total of 15 days.
And every time I have to borrow a friends AT&T phone to make a call, I get to tell them this story. 
I have illustrated this story for a couple of reasons.
1. Yes I have saved it and I am going to send it to the highest level supervisor I possibly can.
2. To possibly save you the frustration of this experience.
Thank you

Answer 1

I finally received my iPhone 4 back yesterday.  They overnight delivered it after I called the store for the 9th time (literally, the 9th) and told them I was out of patience.  I asked for a supervisor to call me back (on my friends phone) but that never happened.  I will not go into anymore details about how negative this experience was because I have already put so much effort and time into it that it's ridiculous. 
I also have been a Verizon customer for more than six years and had never encountered an issue like this.  I am a patient person and a pretty easy-going customer.  But this was such a bad experience I'm looking forward to my contract ending so I can go to another phone company.  Besides, I can't say I'm too comfortable with how Verizon handled the NSA probing for consumer information.
If you are considering buying anything from Verizon, like any other wireless retailer, they will do an outstanding job of selling things to you.  And in general, their coverage is good.  After you become a customer, you will take a backseat to anyone wanting to buy stuff (in all fairness, again, this is like most retailers).  If you live in Alaska, go with a local company like AT&T because right now, you are not even on Verizon's map (literally, if you put in an AK zip-code on their site it will not recognize it).  And, as I have learned, if you are already a Verizon customer when you get here your experience may be frustrating. 
When seeking out a supervisor at Verizon, here is what I have learned:  They do not always transfer you to one when you request it, so make sure if they do that you are actually talking to a supervisor (get a name and title).  They all seem to operate independently, in other words, if a supervisor tells you they will "reach-out" to another employee and ensure they solve the problem- make sure you as a customer follow-up on it.  Sometimes you have to do the job yourself and call the employee and instruct them as a customer to do the job...several times (pretty disturbing if you think about it).  From my experience, supervisors do not follow-up on instructions they presumably give co-workers or employees and they do not ensure the tasks get done (they may not be able to, in some companies "supervisor" is a powerless title, or a title handed out for a variety of reasons not always related to ability to do the job).
Well I hope this helps anyone seeking info regarding Verizon service, especially in AK.
Thank you for reading.