My new LG VX5200 phone barely gets a signal in my apartment.
Practically every phone call gets dropped at least once, and/or
the signal fades in and out, so one can't understand what the other
person is saying.  I live on a 3rd floor of a modern-construction
(1989) building, two blocks from the center of town.  I never had
such problems with my previous phone (an LG VX10).  This problem
has become much worse in the last two weeks (right after the 15-day
grace period after I bought the phone, interestingly enough).

The short version of my question is this:  Is there a better phone
than the LG VX5200 from the point of view of indoors reception?

                              ***

I took my phone to the tech support desk at the Verizon store were
I bought it.  The children I spoke to there did not inspire much
confidence.  This one kid first said that one is not supposed to
use wireless phones indoors, adding, as if to prove his point, that
"that's why they're called 'wireless'."  Later on, when I said that
for years my cellphone had been my only phone, but if I can no
longer use it in my apartment, I may have to get rid of it and get
a land line, since I can't afford both, he tried to discourage me
from doing this, arguing that "land lines are an obsolete technology."
When I pointed out that this last statement together with his
previous statement about the unsuitability of cellphones for indoor
use meant that, according to him, there is *no* technology for
indoor phone use, his reply was "blame the gummint", for requiring
that cell phones handle less power than they used to.

In fact it seems that "blame the government" was his favorite reply.
He claimed that the reason my service had deteriorated lately was
that Verizon continues to add new customers, but it is not adding
any new towers in my area, and therefore I can expect a steady
increase in dropped calls.  He advised me to lobby my city's
government to get them to build more towers.  Furthermore, he said
that I'd have the same problems irrespective of carrier or telephone
manufacturer.

Basically he said that I'm screwed and there's nothing I can do
about it, other than perhaps shell out the $175 early cancellation
fee and give up having a telephone altogether.

Maybe all of this is true, but the kid sounded too ignorant and
stupid for me to be able to take him seriously.

After wrangling with Verizon customer service for about 1 hour on
the phone, I managed to get them to agree to let me have a comparable
phone, possibly from a different manufacturer.

The longer version of my question is: is any of what this kid is
saying true? Am I now stuck with a 3-year contract that is almost
completely useless to me?

I look forward to reading your words of wisdom.

kj