I forgot to mention.  It would have been easy enough to have my username@verizon.net emails simply "auto-forwarded" to my new gmail account .... BUT .... you guessed it, verizon.net's email does not allow an option to "autoforward"   and after hours on the phone with verizon's no-help center, and their agent insisting he could do it, logging onto my system remotely........ he finally talked to another tech and said that it was not a user-enabled feature, and it was not something they could override.    

My vote is to FIRE THEM.