So, I went to the Verizon store to take advantage of the "buy one get one free" deal to upgrade myself and wife's phones to new Fascinates.
The first thing the sales person said is "you don't want this phone", "it has signal issues" and immediately started pushing the HTC Incredible. I had read about the GPS problems but I have not read anything about the phone having zero bars and not being able to frequently place calls. The sale person was using a Fascinate as his personal phone and said the only thing going for it was the screen.
Needless to say, we left with no new phones 
Can anyone validate this claim? The phone in the store constantly had two bars.
Thanks!