You can choose to believe what you want. I, like others, were simply passing on what we felt was useful information. The CSR I spoke with today at my local VZW corporate store told me it was in their system for a tentative release on December 8th. I then messaged a friend of mine who works at a corporate store in the Chicago area. He told me it wasn't in their system yet, but that didn't surprise him, because system updates are pushed out by region. That doesn't make a ton of sense to me, but I don't work for VZW and don't know a whole lot about how they do business internally.
Anyhow, that's about all I have to say on the issue. Either the information will pan out, or it won't. Either way, I and others were simply passing on what seemed like credible information, and I don't regret it a bit.