PghExpat, thank you for posting your experience with this feature!
I don't doubt what you have reported about your experience or what you related that Verizon tech support told you, but I thought I would report my experience.
I have noticed that email-to-text (using {phone #}@vtext.com) has seemingly been working less well than it has in the past.
Today, after reading your post, I did some testing (from gmail) and found that, for me, the feature still works much of the time, although there is a lag of 5-15+ minutes, and sometimes the texts never arrive.
The feature used to respond much more promptly (that is, maybe a year ago).
I did a handful of testing using yahoo mail, and several of the texts arrived within a couple of seconds, but others are either taking a very long time or will never arrive (I've given up waiting).
So, the reality may be a bit more nuanced than Verizon tech support has told us. Perhaps the feature is still working, although Verizon has given up on making it work well (for example, failing to add gateway servers as demand increased), and a way of discouraging tech support for this feature is telling users that the feature has been discontinued.
By the way, to my knowledge, I do not have the E-Mag service. At least, I never requested it and I am not paying for it.
