Verizon has told me that the Apple voice mail servier is down and that is why I cannot activate. Is this true?

I just switched from AT&T to Verizon and traded in my iPhone 4 for an iPhone 5. I am not able to activate my voice mail. Verizon has told me that it is an Apple problem. Does anyone know if that is true? Also, before my iPhone 4 started acting up I bought a new radio with a dock for iPhone/iPod. The 5 has a diffierent recepticle. Is there an adapter to convert 4 accessories to 5?