dane, i think you got a bad ou3. i don't know much about the concert size, but i have an ou4 and absolutely love it. i took my time to buy it, tho. i played every uke in the price range i was looking for and found the ou4 was better sounding than the comparable lanikais and ohanas that the store had. i then played every ou4 they had and picked the best sounding one. i've also noticed that all oscar schmidts are coming with aquilas now instead of the ghs pos strings.
to each his own, but i recommend oscar schmidt.
That's the thing, it's all about playing it. My OU3 is about 3 years old now I think, I also don't like the concert size though, too small, hurts my fingers for the type of playing I do. And it's also personal preference, I like a mellow sound, that's why I love my solid mahogany tenor, it's very mellow, it came with aquillas, and I didn't like em cuz they were too bright, so I made it even more mellow with different strings.
If the Original Poster could gather up some money, and say to their friend "Hey we all pitched in and got you $____ to use, let's go to the local store with lots of ukes and you can play em and find the one you want!" I think that would be the ideal situation, and then maybe while he's there he could find something he REALLY likes and then he could buy the other portion of it if it's too expensive.
EDIT: (I'm doing a lot of edits today aren't I?) If the person you want to get the uke for is someone that is really into music, most likely, they would prefer to find the instrument themselves by playing different ones. There has to be a good connection between the player and the instrument, otherwise the player won't want to play it as much, or even if they're good, it wont sound as good because that attachment to the instrument won't be there. BUT, there's loads of good ukes out there, and as you can see, many people have fallen in love with their instruments that they ordered over the internet and never played beforehand, I am one of them.