Interesting. I actually heard somebody on the Gallatin repeater this afternoon expressing that they were having the same issue. Was that you? I can't recall the call sign of the person that was expressing that issue.
I'll say this, I have a couple of h3's and a couple of h8's (and ive programmed several of both for other people), can I have had 1 lemon. It would receive wouldn't transmit, the programming wouldn't stick, and a few other weird issues.
So my first bit of advice to you would be order a new one and see if everything works as it should. If it does, then you simply just had a lemon.
My second bit of advice would be to unlock it. That's the way I use all of my h3 and H8 radios. See if things work right once the restrictions of GMRS mode are gone.