Verizon refuses to ship to a different address than our billing address?

Question

My girlfriend and I decided to go on a share plan.  She is on AT&T and I am on Verizon Wireless.  *I* persuaded *her* that we should choose VZW, since I've been on Verizon for almost a decade, and did not want to change.  Ever since then, Verizon's done everything it can to persuade us we made the wrong decision.  After spending hours on the phone and the website -- most recently nearly an hour and a half on the phone -- with nothing to show for it, I'm hoping someone here has a recommendation.
First, Verizon refused to honor a loyalty discount I had been offered before.  Of course, it had expired -- apparently it's a *bad* thing that they've been getting free money from me for over a year while I've been eligible for an upgrade?  The rep I spoke with was very friendly, but said there was absolutely nothing she could do about it; the best she could do was offer me a slightly less-worse downgrade from my current unlimited data plan.  (Note that she only mentioned this after I had been on the phone with her for a long time.)
Second, despite being pretty savvy about this sort of thing, neither of us could find a way to navigate the website such that we could bring her over from AT&T and upgrade my phone at the same time -- even though we *have* to do it at the same time for us to both get the contract price on our on new phones.
FInally, the last straw: after spending over an hour on the phone -- both my girlfriend and I had to be there according to the rep we spoke with, since she was porting her number from AT&T -- the second rep we spoke with walked my girlfriend through the entire credit check, plan, phone order, etc., and got to *shipping*, when he then insisted the phone could *ONLY BE SHIPPED TO THE BILLING ADDRESS.*  We can't get FedEx shipments at home because WE WORK.  Our building has no secure place for packages.  The FedEx "depot" is far away and we don't have a car.  This is common in New York City.  Verizon has always shipped phones to my work address before.  She and I argued with him for as long as we could stand it, but he utterly refused.  After ten minutes or so more of this, he admitted that we could to go to a store; they could order it there and we could pick it up.  He couldn't ship the order we had just spent over an hour on to a store; we had to basically start over.
As my girlfriend said, getting married will be simpler and faster than it has been for us to join our cell phone plans.
Can it possibly be true that Verizon will no longer ship to a work address?!  What have other people done in this situation?  I am so incredibly frustrated, and the idea of now having to find a time when both of us can go to a store (we work in different boroughs, that'll be fun), after having spent hours on the phone and the website, makes me irrationally angry.  I am this close to giving up and joining my girlfriend on AT&T.

Answer 1

Update: my girlfriend went to an official Verizon store because the sales rep on the phone had told her if she did that, the store could order the phone and she could pick it up there.  Turns out the sales rep was wrong.  Even if you order in the store, Verizon will ship it to your billing address.
This is beyond ridiculous.  What "fraud" is Verizon protecting against by not allowing my girlfriend to pick up her phone *in person*, with *photo identification*?  Answer: none.  This is a policy for policy's sake, not for anyone's best interests; a side of Verizon I was familiar with, but which this time has caused so much aggravation (and wasted time) that it's about to be a deal-breaker.
Has *anyone* else in this situation been able to talk to someone with sufficient authority to override this idiotic policy?  I'd rather not switch to AT&T, but my girlfriend is already sick to death of Verizon, and I don't blame her.  More to the point, we seem to have no reasonable way of getting her a Verizon iPhone.