3G service issues, no text sounds, hear other people's conversations, etc..

Question

I'm having some issues with my new iPhone 3G... I wasn't having any of these issues with my old original iPhone... any thoughts?
3G reception... I live in downtown Denver. I've checked the coverage maps at AT&T's website, and I should have full 3G coverage in my area. I don't. In fact, if I have 3G turned on, I have no service at all... it actually says "no service" and I can make or receive no calls whatsoever. The Genius Bar at the Apple Store replaced the phone last week. This fixed nothing. They had no other answers and said they'd never heard of this issue before. My sister has AT&T with a Palm Treo and she lives on the same block as me. She gets fantastic 3G reception. My roommate has AT&T with an LG VU and gets great 3G reception as well.
Next problem... my phone doesn't make sound when I receive text messages. Apple support over the phone said to do a hard reset. So I did... and the sound works for a few hours... and then stops. The Genius Bar told me to do a restore on iTunes... so I did... and this seemed to fix the problem for a day, and then the problem came back. I did another hard reset, which again fixed the problem for a short while, but then the sound quit working again. This problem has been persistent on both my original iPhone 3G and the replacement 3G from last week.
Next... Two or three times a week I can hear other peoples phone conversations when I'm trying to have my own conversation, so I have to hang up and try the call again. And it's not like it's very faint... it's like they're right on the phone with me, but they can't hear me or the person I'm on the phone with. I've never had this problem with any other phone before. Both iPhone 3G's (my original 3G I bought a few weeks ago and the replacement from the Genius Bar last week) have this problem.
This next one is probably not so much a problem with the phone as with iTunes... every time I plug my phone into my computer to sync, it takes a minimum of 45 minutes to backup. I usually just end up canceling the backup because I don't have time to wait around. This is incredibly inconvenient... I don't understand why it takes this long. I have an iBook G4 and I'm running Mac OS X 10.5.4. I have the most current version of iTunes.
Quite often when I push the home button to try and do anything with my phone, the screen flashes and then goes blank. When I try to wake it again, the screen stays blank and the phone is completely unresponsive. I have to hold down the power button until the screen comes on with the option to turn off the phone to get the phone to respond. Both my original 3G and the replacement 3G have this problem as well.
Ok, I think that's it for now. Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Answer 1

Unfortunately, most of my advice is in the "hindsight is 20-20" category.
First off, I would never have purchased the peripheral accessories until the 14 day return period had expired. Second, you learned the hard way what the "14 days" really means.
Too bad you didn't do any homework, reading this and other forums and tech sites. Even word of mouth from others. That, more than anything could have steered you towards different phone choices from the get-go and I will leave that there with no further comment other than to say most of the issues you described have been discussed in this forum, ad nauseam.
Once you got into the refurbished phone exchanges, that is where things really went haywire. What someone tells you over the phone is a sketchy proposition, and when it comes down to it, it's your word against theirs.
I think Verizon tried to make it right, though. Remember, they don't make the phones. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
You stated yourself you were a satisfied Verizon customer before this. Had the first two phones performed as they should, you would still be a satisfied Verizon customer.
Doubt any of that will make you any happier, but after you went through the effort of writing such a long post, I thought I'd try.