oh, re-read a fews posts up and you talk about probably being able to install update from recovery. But as there is no response to that post yet, I guess no one has tried it. If I can be pointed to the update file I will try it and report back.
My only other thought is to get a second phone, since it was only $20 and pull the firmware off it and put it on the unlocked phone, sort of like cloning one phone onto another. Not sure how to do that, but I'd be willing to try that if the update doesn't fix it. Then I'd have a backup phone in case I break mine, which I somehow do a lot (part of why I moved to a flip phone).