I am a Verizon customer and know that Verizon does lock out a lot of features that are built into the phone by the manufacture. The even put their own screens and menus on the phones. So someone with Razr phone with another carrier has a much different UI (the manufactures) than I do on my phone (Verizon's UI). They do lock out the GPS functionality on many phones so you have to buy the VZ Navigator and pay $9.99/month instead of using google maps for free.

It really doesn't matter if the OP knew about this beforehand or not. It something he doesn't like about Verizon and as a customer (probably locked in a contract) he has the right the express his concern.