said by TearAbite :

As the Verizon commercials say, if you're in a 3G dead-zone, you might as well blow your brains out..
..options:
Disable 3G and use EDGE
OR
Take it back to the Apple Store and tell them it's broke
OR
Take back the 3GS phone before your 14 day right-to-return expires and get your money back..

said by way2evil :

This is not a rant at AT&T.

Recently, after upgrading to a 3GS from a 3G, I have had so many problems with texts not going through, and call faileds. It seems like every phone call I make has to be redialed at least 5 times before it goes through, the same with texts. Google reveals this is a widespread problem, but is there a solution?

said by kes601 :

I have a similar problem. Seems like if I lay my phone flat or have it on a docking station I have 4-5 bars in my house. As soon as I pick it up it drops to 1 bar, it is very strange. I did not have this issue pre 3.0.

said by TearAbite :

if it's so bad that you can demonstrate it in front of them, they'll probably hand you a new unit..
if not, they'll probably give you that "this guy's a whacko look" and tell you to move along..

said by neuronbob :

No problems here. I bit the bullet and bought a 3GS over the weekend at my local Apple store, and have spent about two hours on the phone since then, in various locales in my service area. I've not had a single dropped call and the data network is rock solid. You may have a local network problem. You should contact AT&T and ask if there's an outage in your neighborhood. If not, it could be your specific phone, in which case you should avail yourself of the return clause as noted above.