They are a massive company, but they should really keep all of their customer-facing employees updated on the situation. Like JKett said, when us non-employees who are not 'in-the-loop' know more than someone that SHOULD have, at least, correct and up-to-date information there's a breakdown in communication. Even at the stores, if the managers took an active role and had a weekly meeting or memo to hand out, that would be better than an employee passing out obviously incorrect info.
I used to work VZW and I'm still friends with many of my former co-workers. They tell me the DINC shipping schedule is easily accessible and it's updated on a regular basis. It's unfortunate that a lot of customers are getting so many conflicting answers.