While you've received good answers from the previous contributors, I will offer what little insight I have on this issue.
I have two personal experiences with being lied to by Verizon. The first was by a sales agent on our initial install. We were told that the install was free. Then they tried to charge us for the fourth connection. We got a special bundle deal, but they wanted to charge us extra for the 4th box. We were told that there was a $200 Best Buy gift card for signing up. We ended up calling every month for six months or more and were given every excuse in the book for why it hadn't arrived yet. "It should be on its way." "It's no longer a current offer." "We never had such a promotion." "It's too late now, you should have notified us earlier." And to top it all off, the billing was always, always wrong. It took six months of calling at least once a month and re-explaining to a new CSR something that should have already been documented as an ongoing issue on our account. After proving that we had the contract in writing, they waived the install fee, granted the bundle rate for our STBs, issued an account credit for the gift card that never arrived and finally corrected the billing errors. However the time and frustration it caused us has never been compensated.
The second lie was not from a sales agent, but from a Verizon CSR who volunteered to review our account to see if he could save us money. If you care to read about that, I'll link to it here. But to save room, and frustration on my part, I won't recount that event here.
Don't be fooled by the automated voice that says the call may be recorded for quality assurance. Verizon would not honor its word. In the end, we reached a temporarily satisfactory settlement. But I already perceive a new battle brewing when this contract runs out and they attempt to increase our rates once again.
I have heard that some people received more flexibility when getting transferred to the Retention Department. Others have said that they just got the boot.
Overall, I am still satisfied with the services I receive at the rate that I am paying. But do not mistake that for being an endorsement of how great Verizon is or how pleasant it is to do business with them. I have two VERY sour experiences that were each dragged out for months. No one has attempted to make that right. And I'm sure you can hear how upset that still makes me every time I think about it.
Good luck in getting someone who cares and has the authority to make it right and who follows through on their promises to take care of it. But if my experiences are the norm, get ready for a long uphill battle.