Comments like "this phone sucks" or it is the "worst phone ever" certainly have to be taken with a grain of salt. As others have said, what were they expecting? If they think a sidekick is the best ever, a BB is probably not for them.
Coming from a Treo for a few years I found a steep learning curve, but I believe the BB is far superior and it even works all the time, unlike the Treo.
There are so many settings it can be daunting, but I am getting there.
Perhaps they selected the device without researching it because "they heard" it was great. Or maybe their carrier has poor coverage in that area. I have found the BB to be great at delivering email reliably plus it is also a far superior phone to the Treo, at least for me.
And did I mention it works as promised and as expected?
SteveTaz