The people at the store are a mixed bag. You get cocky ones who just want to make the sale but don't give jack squat about customer service. They pretend to know a lot about the phone but really don't. Then you get the other half that are great- they know the product well, spend time with you, and give you solid advice whether or not the sale is made.
If you get the first type, you'll know right off the bat. The best thing to do is ask for another person to help you or just leave and go to another Verizon store. Use YELP to post your experience or to look for a Verizon store where the reviews are mostly positive. Contact Verizon and let them know when a customer service rep at one of their stores is not treating you right. I had a situation like that last week, and Verizon wrote back letting me know they would be forwarding my letter to the store manager.
Customer service on the phone seems to be pretty nice and has usually helped me with any billing problems. As for tech support, they too are a mixed-bag only because some of them really aren't as technologically-savvy as they should be, but they do also seem to be nice people.
Regarding customer service from other cell phone companies, I have had Sprint, T-Mobile, and AT&T. Sprint isn't bad, but you'll wait awhile to talk to a customer service person on the phone. T-Mobile is the absolute worst....they will lie to you about making account changes and are completely unprofessional. It sounds like they have a bunch of high-school kids working the phone lines. As for AT&T, they are as bad as T-Mobile because they know they have the iPhone customers and do not care about making you happy or if you threaten to break contract.
