Not the case here. Mine works better than any previous phone I've owned, including in marginal areas in the national forests.
Sounds like you have some other issue going on. Kind of silly to tell everyone to avoid an entire carrier's financing arm because your phone and your dad's phone don't work for you. Sample size of two give you reason to make a broad claim for everyone across the US? Seriously?
Just curious - when LTE bands did your old phones support which the new ones you got don't support?