Yes (I stated in my post that assisted dialing was turned off ).
It's got to be a difference in the way Verizon and AT&T differ in handling response calls and texts. I'm sure there is a file somewhere that dictates putting the "+" in front, but I don't know enough about the file system to even begin to look.
I'm on Consumer Cellular, which works off AT&T networks, so I'm thinking it's more likely something with you installation or something you froze or deleted? Mine works fine.