We have had Verizon for a long time for a simple reason, AT&T does not have service in the NC mountains where we have a 2nd home but Verizon always has. Our friends that visit with AT&T phones do not have service and have to borrow our phones.
I think Verizon is getting better in the PR area. I have a built in Verizon air card in my laptop. I only use it on a "day pass" basis, there is no contract for service. I only use it occasionally but on a recent trip I signed up for one month of service. But on the second day my laptop went bottom up and I could not use the service any more. I just waited until we got back home in several weeks and called Verizon to see if I could get any credit for the unused service and explained the situation. The person taking the call was not cognizant of their policy so put me on hold to check with someone else. She came back and said they would give me a full refund. I almost fell out of my chair. :)
Also when I got back, I started trying to find out what was wrong with my laptop. I found a solution online that seemed to fit my problem and it fixed it. The solution, remove the clock battery and put it back in after a minute. You learn something new every day.