Anyone else having trouble with Sprint/Nextel phones?

I can send texts but what I receive is gibberish. I can't even tell who sent the text. I go to the Sprint store and they "refresh it through the system" which does nothing. They tell me that they've done all they can do, that it isn't the phone, (which is a piece of crap), they tell me that the Nextel system is the problem. When I call tech service, they tell me it's the phone. Bottom line, I've spent about 5 hrs. of my life that I can't get back and I still can't receive texts.
By the way, Sprint 411 can send me a readable text which tends to support the theory that this is a network problem.
The phone is the "Brute" I-680. It's supposed to be the rugged military version. It keeps breaking. As far as making and receiving calls, it's always worked fine until this. I just can't get the service center and tech support to agree. Each thinks the other should be able to fix the problem so nobody is doing
anything.