Going back to what the OP said, we feel bamboozled too..and we've had an Epic for a few months now.
I have an Evo and my girlfriend has an Epic. We've each had our share of problems with our phones...only all of my Evo's issues have been resolved through either software updates or a hard reset (my bluetooth stopped working on the Evo...a hard reset fixed it).
On my girlfriend's Epic, aside from the obvious issue with the Epic not being updated to 2.2, she has the GPS issue as well as an issue with her screen proximity sensor.
For 2.2, the only feature that she really needs is the ability to install apps to the SD card, as she's already running out of space. The GPS issue is unbelievable that it was an issue to begin with...and it still continues to be (has there been a fix for this yet? After a few months, I gave up on coming to the forums to check for one). Then, most importantly...her issue with the proximity sensor. When she's on a phone call, her Epic's proximity sensor doesn't function properly. Often it'll leave her screen on and active while she's talking, and then she'll inadvertently hang up with her cheek. This is a major issue for her, as she uses this phone for work-related calls as well as personal use. Sprint only has suggested that we try a hard reset (which we have...that didn't fix anything). Samsung claims its not an issue at all, as they haven't had widespread reports of it.
Aside from those issues, her phone constantly lags and freezes. Apps sometimes won't open at all, and often the phone just stops responding...the only way to get it to work again is to do a reboot, or even a battery pull and reboot. She needs to battery pull at least once a week and a reboot at least once every other day. I don't know if the unresponsiveness and lag are because of 2.1...but whatever the reason, I don't have to deal with them on my Evo at all (I've had to do one battery pull, ever).
Right now, we're trying to figure out a way to get rid of her Epic and get her the Shift (she loves having a hardware keyboard) without spending a lot of money. I know for a fact, neither of us will be buying a Samsung phone ever again.
Also, when did Sprint ever tout the Epic as an iPhone killer? I remember tech media saying that it could be an iPhone killer, but not Sprint. Additionally, I think it's not that difficult to see why Sprint pushes the Evo so heavily in their ad campaigns. If they are trying to bring more people to Sprint (and keep them happy to stay with Sprint), are they going to push the phone (the Evo) and manufacturer (HTC) that keeps their products updated and on par with other flagship android phones or are they going to push the phone that is woefully out of date at this point and has crippled hardware out of the box for a lot of users (GPS on the Epic?).
As of January 13th, 2011...half of HTC phone models have been updated to 2.2 with an average time of only 56 days from release to update. Only 11 percent of Samsung models have gotten the upgrade and some of its phones take an exceedingly long time to get the update (Intercept at 159 days...and then when it did come out there were widespread issues of phones being bricked by it). Does no one see an issue in this? Sprint had no problem pushing the Evo update...why would they have a problem pushing the Epic update? Additionally, this shows a trend of issues with Samsung updates across all of they android devices...not just on Sprint.
http://blogs.computerworld.com/17649/android_upgrades
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/13/verizon-wireless-and-htc-most-eager-to-provide-android-2-2-updat/
The Epic has so much potential...the screen is amazing, and cpu/gpu is blazing fast...but the software kills it for me. People can spit out benchmark numbers all they want....but if the phone is frustrating to use on a daily basis...then those numbers don't really mean anything.
