UScellular Reviews

I was then informed that I was not eligible for the phone exchange program because my phone was damaged (it was fully functional prior to the software upload except the volume button) Furthermore, if I wanted a new phone it would cost me full price and I’d have to pay an activation fee of 35.00. After being a US Cellular customer since it came to Wisconsin I felt this was absolutely unfair. I also felt that my phone was damaged on purpose so that I would commit to another two year contract.

After about three hours of arguing, they agreed to drop the activation fee just this time.... I’m not paying for an activation fee on my other two phones attached to this count either in the future. US Cellular also informed me that they no longer have the battery swap service and the insurance coverage changed under the contract (making it so it is worthless to have phone insurance because of the costs associated). US Cellular did a poor job of communicating this changes to their customers and in the end are forcing people into contracts.

It eventually took over 6 weeks. It was impossible to conduct business with the outdated phone mine was replaced with. Often there were overages I would need to call about as everything was to be blocked, credits were issued, but the process was very time consuming and several calls needed to be made as several times there was disconnection and no return call. One time we used reward points for an overage on our data on one of the lines and that user was warned no more overages.

In May 2013, the battery in one of our phones would not hold a charge. I went to the store in our town to make an exchange and was told they had discontinued the battery exchange program 1 or 2 months before. I said great communication, no email, no text and no insert in my paper bill. I would have exchanged all our year old batteries had I known. I refused to have to buy a battery for the phone and opted for an upgrade using reward points. I complained to customer service about discontinuing their programs without notification. They defended the change.

In August 2013 one of our phones was not working consistently. I contacted customer service and was told we were eligible for an upgrade the next day if we used 1000 reward points. After waiting in the store for over an hour and a half the next day, I was told I would have to sign another 2 year contract to upgrade the phone. I said no when I signed there were no additional contracts required. The rude associate said they changed that last month and if I wanted to upgrade the phone I would have to sign another two year contract. I tried calling customer service and reached a recording that said they were closed, it was Sunday.

I went to our local store to make sure when I upgraded the phone in May, my contract wasn't extended without my knowledge. They assured me it wasn't. They contacted customer service on my behalf regarding the phone that wouldn't work and the two year contract required. I requested my contract with them be terminated without termination fess. They refused but I was offered a refurbished phone for the same price as a new one, with no two year contract. I agreed because I needed something to get us through the rest of our contract with them. They said they would send it out overnight as it was Labor Day weekend. The phone arrived Thursday and they sent the wrong color. I called to complain about the wrong color and the idiot associate deactivated the old phone and activated the new phone without my requesting she do it.

I had dropped off the phone and the party had to get to work while I was on hold. He was going to take the phone to the store the next day to activate it. There were things that needed to be entered into the new phone for it to work and I had no way of reaching the person. I asked them to reactivate the old phone and she said she had. She didn't and it took 2 more lengthy telephone calls and a couple collect calls from the deactivated phone to get a phone back working. I did negotiate a half off discount on the wrong color phone as I told them I did not have the time to go in and out of their store for activation at the 1-2 hour wait. My third phone call, I was told it looked like they accidentally ordered another phone be sent, the correct color. They told me to send it back when it arrived. The phone arrived the following week and I happen to catch the UPS guy and told him to send it back. I never even touched the box.

I had called when I did not get a bill in July 2013, and heard the recording that they were in a change period and that bills would be delayed. I received a bill in Aug and paid the balance as I always do. When I got my September bill no credit for payment had been applied even though the payment had cleared our bank prior to the new bill being issued. The total of our bill was $735.85, 3 times our normal bill. I called (taking 3 attempts, as their system was updating and they could not access my bill) about the payment and they said it was updated on their records. They said we had a data overages. They also added the equipment charge for the refurbished phone but had no credit for the wrong color listed on our bill.

In the end they say our bill is $381.65, although I still dispute the data charges as we have WiFi at home. I asked about using our reward points for the overage and they said they no longer offer this option. Strike 3.... Every promotion they offered when I signed they have discontinued, worse yet without notification. I wrote a complaint to the Better Business Bureau and US Cellular defends their right to change promotions at their discretion. I asked to be let out of my contract, and they refused to waive the termination fees. I am locked into my contract but they are not responsible to at least offer the services offered until the conclusion of my contract. POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE!!! My recourse is to keep any other consumer from getting sucked into their empty promises!!!

The next day after 4 pm, my phone said "US Cellular has disconnected phones for failure to pay." I was shaking with rage. I went into that store with a clenched jaw. Here my payment was lost "in the system". The girl at the store kept telling the company she had my receipt in her hand, like they didn't believe her. Finally it was found in the archives of payment computer land and my phone was reconnected and I was told I would owe no reconnection fee... Lucky me. Of course I shouldn't. I feel trapped in a contract with a company with no laws of their own...

The 1st informed me that it wasn't taken care of and he would process it, gave me a ticket #. Of course they are unable to email to me because everything is all "internal". The other line picked up from my cell phone and she said there was nothing showing on my account but she processed a ticket # also. I asked for the ticket # and she gave me the EXACT same ticket # the previous customer service employee. So now I sit and wait.... again!! Tried to get a few more numbers for anyone else having a problem.

So I called back the next day and got the same story - they put another ticket out on my account and was told to call back the next day. Waited on the phone for 2 hours only to find out that no one ever submitted a ticket on my account so I was just wasting my time. That customer rep told me call back Monday and they gave me their direct extension. I tried calling them on Monday several times with that extension with no answer. So I finally called and waited for a rep to answer - that took an hour; was transferred to technical support, that took another hour; tech support said they couldn't help me and sent me to customer service again - which took another hour. SO 3 HOURS TOTAL ON THE PHONE JUST TO BE TOLD THAT I HAVE TO WAIT 3 WEEKS for my new line of service to be activated for some unknown reason.

So then I went to the local US Cellular store only to wait 2 hours there while their sales associate called customer service and had to wait like any other person. WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS? I had Verizon prior to this and if you wanted help they were able to directly contact help instead of waiting... Now my phone is activated, I don’t have 3G in a 3G coverage area on their map plus I’M ROAMING ALL THE DANG TIME! Please tell me what the point of this company is? I would like to get out of my contract and go to Verizon again but I don’t want to pay the $350 fee for the crappy service they have tried providing.

After waiting out our 2-year contract, we switched companies the day after we were out of our contract at which time I promptly paid my final bill. I received another bill a few weeks later stating that we owed an early termination fee on 1 of the 3 lines we opened AT THE SAME TIME! When I called and waited 1 HOUR on hold, I was told that they were so sorry for the mistake and they would take care of it. I had a credit on my account after they removed the additional fees and expected it to be handled promptly. WRONG! I called a month later, waited on hold another hour, and asked where my refund was and they said it hadn't been processed at all, would I like to do that. I was told that I would receive a check in 7-10 business days. Didn't get one, just another bill.

When I called again, another hour on hold, I was told that it was processed and I would receive it in the mail within 3 weeks. When I didn't receive a check I called AGAIN and spent another HOUR on hold for someone to tell me that it was processed more than a month after I was told it was on its way and that they credited my credit card. When I asked why it took 2 months to credit my card and why I was told I was receiving a check, Christine asked me why I was so agitated. Apparently, if you don't pay your bill, it goes to collections but if they don't pay you, it is perfectly acceptable to make you spend 4 hours of your own time calling them and getting the runaround about your refund just to be transferred over and over so you can keep telling everyone your issue.

Last week, I went into the local (30 miles away) store, only to be told that US Cellular went bankrupt. They don't know anything about BB phones and the sales person actually recommended finding another service provider because our 2-year commitment was up. So there you have it. If anyone is considering doing business with this company, don't say you were never warned.

So a few days later we both went up to US Cellular so I could get an account with my boyfriend and get a phone. While we waited 20-30 minutes to be taken care of, we waited another HOUR while the sales rep was just staring at the computer confused, when all this time, the account couldn’t be set up because of my BF’s account! First, I don’t understand what could be wrong with his account and why they don’t know what it is, but I expressed at least three times that I had to be at work. I had to set up a separate account the whole time but he didn't say that that was the problem until an hour later.

I then just left with my new phone and newly set up account in a hurry. Since then, my phone has VERY slow service, roams very often, drops my phone calls and my service cuts out very frequently. I would say at this point I am very dissatisfied with my service and was better off with paying my 60 dollar bill at Cricket as opposed to my 80-100 dollar bill that's just not worth it.

Now I panicked! (AGAIN... what I missed reading in THIS email was the "NOTE:" that basically said if the amount due has changed, the auto payment will be adjusted to process the lower amount). I double-checked with my banking account. I paid a regular bill July 10th, then there was not another payment until September 9th (and the history revealed the 9/9 payment was my 8th payment for the year)....BUT the upcoming scheduled payment for 9/28 on the "Payment History'"showed that 2 payments are to be taken. So now I really panicked ... because to me this would mean two payments would be taken earlier than usual. I then began to search online about complaints and came upon the comments on this website ... so now I'm ready to "Jump Ship".

I immediately went in to US Cellular's website and cancelled my auto payments (both the scheduled one and then any future auto payments). Before that when I tried to call a few times, there was an announcement the waiting time was 15 minutes plus, so I hung up. As I was online and just got done cancelling the auto payments (while on hold to try to call again), I got through... Actually I got to speak to someone after only about 18 minutes (but being online doing something while on hold made it less stressful). Anyway, Jose was the representative who helped me (very polite, very responsive, and knew what he was talking about). When he started to help me, he immediately said there was double-billing. I immediately felt a little more assured. He saw my last payment date was Sept. 9 and then the upcoming billing had two payments due. When he looked at another screen, it showed one payment due. He then double-checked with the other system and said the payment of 9/9 is now showing as posted...but explained that at the time of the overdue notice today (both systems were not meshing together).

The reason for the double-billing was the cross-over problem. I asked him what would have happened if I didn't do anything... and he said only one payment would have been taken out of my bank account. Yes, the next payment scheduled for 9/28 is coming earlier, but then by November, things should resume back to the normal billing dates. In the end, it all made sense to me and after Jose's help, I definitely felt reassured that everything would end up okay. I wanted to know what the problem was with US Cellular and I told him it is not looking good with all the complaints I read online; but still realizing there is only so much he could say... I didn't want to compromise him. I admitted to him that I was ready to "Jump Ship".

In regard to the billing... it turns out that the OLD billing system didn't sync with the online system. The NEW billing system will be able to fix that problem. I think just hearing some kind of explanation did give me some resolve. I'm not personally aware of the problem with the difference between the billing systems; but if it helps eliminate a problem, then it can't be a bad thing. I also realized the system problems must have created the employees a lot of extra work and headache; especially anything to do with a changeover of databases; and now customer complaints on top of that (I wouldn't want to be YOU). I then told Jose that I don't usually write anything online, but actually wanted to make sure that I posted a good review online. I let him know that his great attitude and responsiveness is what really helped and thanked him for that.

In looking at what took up all my time since I got off work at 6:00... and it's now 1:00 am... I realized that I messed up by not reading closely. That hit home too... because in my own job, our correspondence with customers involves them having to read policies, procedures and our responses to their email inquiries. SO OFTEN, someone will write back asking another question... and it's frustrating because I'm saying to myself.. uhhhh ... "We already answered that'" So now, here I am... NOT READING. Gee-Wiz ... thought I was smarter than that. I felt compelled to post a good review on behalf of US Cellular because it would really be a shame if they lost customers in trying to do a good thing by making their system better (for us and their employees). I'm afraid I wouldn't have as good an attitude as Jose if I had to deal with all the complaints. Hang in there everyone, read the fine lines, and I wish you all resolve with any problems you're experiencing.

Today, I finally received a bill and it was over $400. I call, wait around 30 minutes for a rep and am told I have $127 credit and in two weeks I'll get another bill and only have to pay $95! My monthly bill should be around $130. Lovely US Cellular added fees for me not paying a bill on time that they didn't send on time. This company is about to go under. They are spiking bills to line their pockets. They no longer care about keeping customers. This is a red flag to me. When this billing cycle is over, I'm out.

OMG... I have written certified letters, e-mails, regular letters, called. NOTHING - NO CALL BACKS - ZERO! THE WORST COMING: I sent my son to the local store where we lived hoping he could talk some sense into them. The sale person said, "Why you on with your mom, get your own," and sold him a new phone after seeing my account. OMG

To this day - 3 years later, I am getting bill collections notices for another $868.50. I will not pay it. I know it has lowered my credit rating - it's the ethics. Each time I staple my "form letter with my bank payment proof" to the credit company. I will pay my remaining $130 and that is it. I will not pay them $1600 because an 18 year-old was told "all incoming calls are free" by a salesperson who probably knew we would pay roaming fees. PLEASE SOMEONE - LAW SUIT!!!!!! THEY ARE CROOKS!

However in the meantime he said we could drive 60 miles and get a loaner phone... Yes he looked it up himself - the nearest store is 31 miles away - 1 way! Then of course we would have to return it too at some point. Monday... nothing; Tuesday, nothing... We live far from town. They left me with no way to reach him if I needed etc. In the meantime like others have stated, no bill, no service off and on, on my phone. Can't say how his service was.... They still haven't sent a phone!! On Tuesday, we became new Verizon customers. I didn't break my contract - US Cellular did!

I called their prepaid customer service (800-270-6054) first because I couldn't remember the 4-digit PIN I set up when I placed the order; and I was told that is necessary for their CSR to access my account (knowing this from online chat). Okay, what happened? I was waiting to talk to someone for 15 minutes, and listening to their damn commercials talking about how convenient their service is and how good their prepaid plan is. Finally, I was connected to some Indian accent guy. I'm okay with his accent; however, after I said I need to know my PIN to activate my account, he simple said, "I'll transfer you to our activation department, and have a good day," then transferred me, before asking me whether I think that'll be good enough! Have you guys ever felt bothered when you call 800 CSR and they say in the end, "Is there anything else I can assist you with"? Well, I started to appreciate that now!

Anyways, I was transferred to their so-called "activation department", meaning I was put on hold for another 15 minutes ,no BS! I was connected to a girl finally, namely Samantha, right after I greeted back and say, "Hello Samantha, I want to activate my prepaid phone on US Cellular". I was told, "Sorry sir, I can't hear you. Please hang up and call from a landline or real cellphone at 800-** (didn't catch) to activate your phone. You have a good day", then bang! I was hung up! WTF is this type of issue?! I called from my cell phone, and even if there was some connection or reception issue, she should try to speak or listen to me for another few seconds! She was on the phone with me for no more than 10 seconds then simply hung up on me! What am I now? A customer or a stranger she cared nothing about? Doesn't she hear of the complaints about their CSR and long wait?

This is their welcome to me! Right after I bought the phone and paid for the first month service. Now this phone I bought from them is associated and bound to that phone number they assigned to me, which means I can only use it with my USCC account which can't be activated with ease! And this is not a single case, there is not a single time I need to wait less than 15 minutes to get connected. Average is 15, I once waited to 34 minutes!!!!! WTF, WTH! No more USCC for me. Their customer service sucks, their prepaid monthly rate is higher than most other CDMA prepaid plans; their reception isn't any better than Verizon MVNOs.

Who is gonna spend half an hour just try to get connected to a CSR, who may just simple hang up their phone on you?! I consider myself a very patient and courteous person most of the time. Now I just become outrageous with them! No **! Go play with yourself, USCC!

At this point I was finished and I transferred my service to Verizon. I became my own personal Verizon broker and had the new phones sent to my house, followed the SIMPLE 10-minute instructions and ported our phone numbers from US Cellular to Verizon. I then called US Cellular and after 1.5 hours of being on hold was finally able to speak with someone. I let her know that I was cancelling all service with US Cellular. She proceeded to tell me that was not her job and she could not help me, that she needed to transfer me to the department that handles that. I let her know that she was NOT to put me back into the queue - she did. I waited AGAIN for more than an hour and spoke with someone else... This person AGAIN told me they could not assist me and I asked again not to be put back into the queue...

I was again put back into the stupid queue! I was so frustrated... Then the call was disconnected while I was waiting. I sure hope they have all my service there ended, but I doubt it since two of my three phones are still accepting and receiving calls, emails, texts. I looked online at my bill and it shows the current bill is current (my June bill). I am curious though as to WHAT they think they will be charging me for a bill whenever they get their act together!!!

Anyway.... Hello Better.... has chopped back customer perks.... Their solution to lower my monthly bill was sign up for a new plan (2 years)... yet keep your current phone for 22 months.... Way to go, Hello Better.... Anyway.... I left the store with my old phone.... my old plan.... and no resolve on whether the upgraded payment info is set for my September 1, payment.... as of September 1..... Hello Better will now be known as Goodbye Better..... Feel free to call me... I left a message for the store manager who has yet to call me back.... GOODBYE, BETTER.

4 hours later, my husband called them on our land line and told them we need our phones. We haven't received a bill in the mail, the store told us on 8-12-13 that we were current, etc. They said we shouldn't have been told that. My husband offered to pay the bill, sight unseen, and they said they couldn't take credit cards. So we had to give them our bank number which is making me extremely uncomfortable. (I bet they might be experiencing some kind of credit card hacking which is using up their resources as well as selling off the Illinois accounts.) Two minutes after my husband hung up, we got our service back.

They are so disrespectful. Instead of turning off our service, they could have called or emailed us to let us know what is going on. It makes me uneasy to not have my phone working. What if there had been an emergency? Now we have to ask them for a copy of the bill we already paid today, to make sure it is billing us correctly. I have read on this site and others that customers are getting incorrect bills and I want to stay on top of this. I don't need my service cut off again.

Today I get an email saying that my new bill was available. I just online only to see that it is the same old garbage, not the right bill. They have me not owing anything. I am so upset that US Cellular and they have always been pretty good in the past. I don't know what on earth they are doing, but they need to hire people that can do what they are suppose to be doing the right way and not taking months to repair or change whatever they are changing. This is ridiculous!

In early July, purchases two additional Republic Wireless phones and again initiated a transfer of numbers from U.S. Cellular. I have been attempting to port two numbers from U.S. Cellular to my two Republic Wireless phones for almost a month. My initial on-line request using Republic's website several weeks ago seemed to work fine and indicated "Awaiting transfer". After over a week, I contacted U.S. Cellular to inquire why the transfer was taking so long. After a very long wait to speak to a customer service rep, I was told that they were converting systems and no transfers had been able to be processed and I should redo my transfer request.

That same day my Republic account showed "transfer rejected". A new transfer was initiated and appeared to work fine once more. Again, it remained as "awaiting transfer" for over a week. I again contacted U.S. cellular (again with a LONG hold time) who seemed to agree again that their systems had been unavailable, but should now be working OK. The customer service dept. promised to credit my account for the delay in the transfer and tried to transfer me to the porting department but no one answered. I tried again to reach the porting department and after a long delay to reach customer service, was once more transferred to the porting department. The porting department NEVER answers. I have spent, literally, hours on hold with U.S. Cellular attempting to resolve this issue. Then I contacted U. S. Cellular, they said they had no record or any transfer requests for the numbers I was trying to port!!!

I was able to easily transfer from US Cellular to Republic Wireless a couple months ago with no problems and no delays using Republic Wireless's on line transfer request. It went through in minutes. I know that U.S. Cellular has been working on system changes as more than one customer service rep acknowledged that and also because often, including today, I am not able to access my account on-line. Whatever is going on, I'd like it resolved and once my numbers are ported, I'd like credit for all the intervening time.

U.S. Cellular has systems that no longer function correctly. They have horrendous wait times to reach customer support. Customer support can not help with porting and can not communicate with their own porting department, but can only suggest that they put you on hold to porting dept. The porting department does not ever answer the phone. Literally hours wasted trying to resolve and can not even get a call back, send an email or get any type of resolution. Abysmal!!!!

Well your life took over after that and I forgot all about it until my phones were suspended. So again, I get on the phone and call customer service and I am on "HOLD" from 10 to 45 minutes waiting to talk to someone. I finally get to talk to somebody and I ask them how long is it going to be before our phones are turned back on. The first time I called, they said it should be back on in about 5 minutes. Well that part was true, but the phones that were turned on were our kids' phones. So again I get back in touch with them and again I ask how long is it going to take to turn on the other 2 phones and they tell me about four hours. When the four hours were up, they still weren't on, so I again get someone on the phone.

Of course after some waiting time, then they tell me, "I'm sorry for the inconvenience but they should be on no later than 24 hrs." Guess what, they still weren't turned back on. By this time I'm more than frustrated, so I again get someone on the phone and ask them, "Okay, I've waited and have been very patient up to this point. Now when are you going to turn our phones back on?" She then tells me they are having technical difficulties with the system and that they have escalated my case to the highest priority and that it should be on in 48 hrs. Well 48 hrs. have come and passed and our phones are still not on and now they are telling me that it could take anywhere from 3 to 6 days for them to figure out what the problem is. I've had it. I feel like taking all of our phones and throwing them through the corporation's window. "FED UP with our businesses who say they care about the customer."

When I complained about the long wait, they were sympathetic and informed me that they too had to endure long waits in order to get problems resolved. Really????? I have the bill paid automatically from my checking account, so they have already captured the payment for this bill. I have resigned my self to the fact that I will have to waste 40 minutes of my day to get an issue resolved that is their fault. US Cellular's customer service sucks! I find no excuse for them to not be able to solve customer's problem at their store or without a 40 minute wait time. UNACCEPTABLE!

They wouldn't work with me. I had to pay that day to have my phone. So I had to find the money and I did. Then I find out that because my account was suspended for less than 1 day, I now had to pay $25.00 suspension fee. So basically, if they decide to shut you off for being 2 days past due on 1 bill, they will charge you $25.00. WOW, $25.00 for less than one day suspension because they wouldn't work with me to give me 2 extra days. It sounds ridiculous to me. I cannot wait to be done with my US Cellular commitment because of reasons like this and also because their rates are terrible.

3. Lose all of the ‘points’ that I accumulated while paying my bill on time each month.

This recent experience with US Cellular has, as you can expect, caused me not to believe any more. To say I’m dissatisfied with the recent experience is…well…lacking in focus. I’ve called US Cellular and my only recourse is to attempt to sell my US Cellular phone on the open market, along with the other US Cellular phones within the Chicago market that are for sale.

So…what would be an appropriate compensation for all of the grief that US Cellular has caused? I’m not sure, but I am looking at my most (and probably last) US Cellular bill that must be paid. I am considering not paying the bill, but, this is not the moral thing to do. After all, I used the service, thus must pay the bill for the services rendered.

As I sit today, I am disappointed with this callous corporate approach to a problem that I did not create. What to do…what to do…what to do???

Today, I received a bill. When I called and inquired what this was for, they informed me it was an early termination fee.

Why can't these US Cellular people get this through their thick skulls? Not to mention we deactivated our 3 kids’ phone lines because they go way over the data plan, but the company keeps billing us month after month for the "early termination fee." I mean how many months are we going to have to pay for these lines?! We deactivated them because they cost too much but it's more expensive to deactivate than to keep them. We had to renew our 2-year contract just to upgrade and get phones that actually work. Unbeknownst to us, the "insurance" on our phones (that we have to pay monthly for) doesn't cover the phones and we have to pay out of pocket to fix or replace any phones. I HATE US Cellular and would cancel if they didn't charge $350 to do that! I would recommend that NO ONE, and I do mean absolutely no one go with US Cellular... unless of course you're super rich and love being robbed of your money.

One week later, I received a bill in the mail for $350. I called customer service and it was explained that I had broken my contract on the two phones. I told her that I was told to do this because US Cellular would not honor the contract and considered them void. She said the company sent a letter out and I informed her that I did not receive any letter and my first information came only that day at the store. No one in the store or at customer service knew anything about a letter nor could anyone produce the letter. I relied on the knowledge and accuracy of the store manager and employees as well as customer service, just as any customer would do. I did not expect to be misled and forced to pay outrageous fees.

This is one thing that's frustrating, but the most important thing I want people reading is how US Cellular commercializes 4G LTE phones and service, but not everybody gets that service in your area. I've called and complained about it and customer service tells me it's my phone. They sent me a refurbished phone and the same kind of things I'm experiencing again with my Galaxy S3 is going on. In my area, I don't have 3G flashing. I get 3 scroll bars and it just disgusts me with them. I stopped calling them when they sent me a refurbished phone.

I have been with them for over 13 years. I kindly told them if they didn't do any type of compensation, I would be porting away my two current lines. They offered to send me to customer relations to cancel without any fight. Poor decisions on their part. They shouldn't be giving away my number and they should do something to fix the problem.

For all this, US Cellular must have looked at us as a bad risk (10 years of auto pay was overlooked) and as soon as they bill, they auto draft our account and take the money over three (yes, three) weeks before the payment was due. They have done this two months in a row and now I am looking for a new carrier. Too bad Sprint didn't buy all of US Cellular. They only took what covered area that seems to run along I-80. I certainly hope Verizon or other cell carriers are at least a little better.

I was going through personal family and health issues at the time, so the phone thing kind of took a back seat for a while. But about 4-5 months later, I called to complain that the service was not any better than the S3. I was told that I obviously had a defective phone and should pay $35 to send it in for repairs, or more (I forget the amount) for a replacement since it was under warranty. I didn't want this phone anyway. So since I had another line eligible for an upgrade, I went ahead and splurged on a Samsung Galaxy S4. I figured after 8 months with a phone I didn't like and had bad reception on, I deserved to spoil myself. S4 reception not quite as bad as the S3 but still dropped calls, rarely any data reception. I usually could only use data if I was on Wifi. Calls going out wouldn't go through most of the time.

I decided to return the phone and switch to Verizon but horrors... The day I was going to return it, 8 days after purchasing, it fell out of my pocket and the corner of the screen shattered. This was about a 12-inch fall, maybe less. I've dropped other phones before and have never had one shatter like this. I went back to the store to see if anything can be done but they said since I had not purchased insurance (I've never needed it before because I've never bought such flimsy pieces of ** before) and it was an accident, that they would not replace it. They said they only take a phone back if I changed my mind. I told them I DID change my mind... it's a cheap piece of garbage and I don't want it anymore! But I was told there was nothing they could do.

I decided to check out Verizon. Lower rates and full coverage in our area. Verizon rep told me US Cellular lost certain contracts that made them lose the right to use many local towers. It made sense because I went from 11 years of full blue bars on my phone to 1-2 white bars, indicating weak reception. I called 611 and told them I planned to switch to Verizon and they told me I would have to pay $350 termination fee on one of my 4 lines, the one I upgraded. I told them I refuse to pay because I barely have service and I won't pay for something they aren't providing. They told me the fee was to pay for the phone since I got it at the discounted price. But whether or not I had gotten this phone, there is still a termination fee of $350 so they can't tell me it's to pay for the phone. They said if the phone wasn't damaged, that I would have been able to return it and back out of the contract within 15 days; but since the phone was damaged, I was out of luck.

I had looked into getting it repaired and was quoted $150 for a new screen. I told them I would give them the phone and $150, thinking that sounded reasonable, but they refused. They said I could send it in for repairs myself. But then by the time I got it back, the 15 days would have passed and I wouldn't be able to return it anyway. When I was talking to customer service about my options, she told me warranty doesn't cover accidental breakage but only covers lost or stolen phones. What??? What would stop me from tossing it in the bushes and claiming it was lost? But I am too honest a person to do that. In the store when I mentioned that, the salesman told me that was not correct. I am getting conflicting stories from different employees, and when I call, I am being passed from person to person and am having to repeat my story again and again. In the end the response is always the same: "There is nothing we can do."

I have been with US Cellular for almost 12 years, have referred at least a dozen people to them, and this is the way it ends up. I have a broken phone, $350 termination fee, and nobody gives a **. I suppose I will have to pay the termination fee, but I will count it as a loss that is well worth it to leave them forever and switch to Verizon. I am absolutely disgusted beyond belief for the runaround I was given between the 3 phones in the last 10 months. I'm angry that they led me to believe the phones were defective rather than to admit that they had issues with towers. I asked about it and they flat out denied that it was true; however, they have no explanation for my loss of service. I found out it's not just me too - it's everybody I know in this area who have US Cellular - and they made me feel like there was something wrong with me.

Rude employees who don't know their product, condescending reps on the phones when you call 611... I am DONE with them and I hope as many people as possible read this and avoid all the problems we all who have posted here have experienced. Hoping they go out of business soon because paying customers don't deserve to be treated this way. Please spread the word!!

I have been with US Cellular for 9 years, and this last CS response causes me to pause to ponder if I will try for 10 years. It only seems reasonable that if AT&T and other providers of the S3 can connect to Samsung software via Wi-Fi that US Cellular “dumbed-down” their version that does not connect and flatly refuses to correct the issue. You can rate their customer service... I have.

I'm still a US Cellular customer and this is just ridiculous. It's not my fault they are on the way out of business. Also had a friend who they sold a new phone to 5 weeks ago. He will not be able to use the phone on a different network. Seems like they are not taking care of their customers very well! Don't get me started on all my rewards points which are going to waste. Oh well, looking forward to switching carriers.

Financial Services was seeing a different amount due on their screen and Customer Services was seeing $155.93 as my bill stated. This went on for hours. I was transferred to the cancelation department 2x where I was asked, “What can we do to keep you as a customer?” I told the rep I would like to pay $55.94 today (3/28/13) and the balance of $99.94 on 4/4/13 (next Thursday). The male rep said, “OK, that’s not a problem,” and transferred me back to Financial Services where I was rather rudely told he has no authority over Financial Services.

I was transferred back to the cancellation department. A female rep asked me, “What can we do to keep you as a customer?” I went through the whole drawn out story again (15 or 16X), only to be told, “I’m sorry there’s nothing I can do.” Then why did she ask? At this point, I’m livid. I will be cancelling my services with US Cellular as soon as I secure a new carrier. I have been with US Cellular for 11 years. This whole experience was unbelievable. I said to the rep, “US Cellular would rather lose an 11 years customer over a $100.00 payment. US Cellular has no loyalty to their loyal customers. Check my records. I was on my cell phone the whole time.”

Now here is where the untruthfulness comes in. I told him I planned on selling used stuff online. I also explained I had a niece who called often due to grief of losing a child and wanted to be there for her. He said “Do you have many calls you need to get?” I said “Well, if the line was busy (I thought I wouldn't know it anyways like a landline), they would have to wait.” He said, "If you need to use your phone, then you may want to think about hotspot so you won't miss any calls.” I said, “When I am listing my items, I may need my phone and did not want to lose my connection as I would be listing and would hate to begin again.” He replied, "Well, you definitely would benefit with hotspot and you are lucky as there are no contracts with it."

So I did not need the hotspot! I got the 5g plan the first month okay; second, no luck. I went over 2g that's $20 more. So now I am paying $90 for phone, $20 which is a required cost for smart phones, the $50 for hotspot and then $20 for going over. I also had the ins plan for my phone for $4.99. I went back in feeling quite nuts for paying all this. I dropped down my phone to calling and text for $40 then the $20 for smart phone. My thought is this would take care of things and increase my internet on hotspot to 9g and I had to sign a 2-year contract on it.

The very first bill was 8.7 something usage to the 9g won't fix it. I text a company you can get phones at a large discount store who told me unlimited everything for $50. Really? Really? I have to buy the phone for $104 but yes use WiFi. My housekeeper called me using her WiFi. The call came through and did not disconnect me. I feel led on and robbed. I don't have the new phone yet but am ready to let go of US as I can’t trust them. Why do this, they made money?

I said, “This is our first notice that something is wrong. No text, no email, no call for 3 months and you are canceling a 15-year customer in a few hours and this is the first notice we get? “Yep. Sorry, sir, pay now or you will be termed!” The problem stems from the time we upgraded one phone that month. It put our bill over a pre-set limit on auto deduct and so it didn't go through and then it automatically stopped all future deducts. So it all piled up, each month - Oct., Nov., Dec. and now Jan. and they finally got around to telling us 4 months later? And gave us a few hours to pay without us ever having the chance to figure it out? So we paid; we had to. They had us in a box. So we are off auto-deduct and off paperless and will be looking for a service that does better than this.

We are set up with them for text and email notices every time there is a statement due, a payment due, or an amount past due. We received no messages and the text number I know they have is correct as they used it to notify me yesterday of the balance needing to be paid immediately. First notice in 4 months of unpaid bills.

Today I called and spoke to the two rudest idiots I’ve ever experienced in a customer service position. They told me they were not taking any money off my bill and I should have opted for the 100 dollars they offered me yesterday because today the offer was null and void! What kind of manager says that? I felt like I was bullied and treated unfairly and not at any time did I receive a text or call from them stating that my bill is skyrocketing! They obviously don’t care about keeping me as a customer and they sure won’t care about keeping you. Please do not use US Cellular as your cell phone provider. Thank you!

I was in the store a few days ago, trying to figure out how best to handle this situation, when a customer came in loudly complaining about the activation fee. A regional manager was in the store at the time and kept talking in circles, in an attempt to get the man out of the store. Several customers left in disgust. I have had several cell phones and worked with various companies. US Cellular is a joke.

I am not the kind of customer that needed a new phone every year. The phones we had been using were at least 4 to 5 years old. My children were older and wanted texting and internet. I broke down and agreed to get new phones. I avoided it for so long because I know what it is to get the phones switched and upgraded. The clerk laughed at the phones we were using because they were so old and out of date when I purchased the phones. When I returned the phone to the store where I purchased the phone, I got absolutely no help. I got "We have to send it in for repairs. We can be given a loaner." I was pissed because it was "We can't exchange it." I said I did not buy new phones 16 days before to have a loaner phone for who knows how long. The phone did not work from day one. The phone was in mint condition when we brought it back into the store.

I agree to have US Cellular send it to have it fixed after the clerk said it would be 4 to 6 weeks for the repair to be completed. I get it back yesterday, 11/09/2012, finally. My son is traveling back home and he calls me. Guess what, I still can’t hear him. They did not fix the mic as needed to be done the first time. I call 611 this time around. I find out we have to drive back and have it sent in again. The customer service rep stated it has to be sent in for repairs 3 times for the same problem before they replace the phone. I told the rep that it took 4 months to get notified the phone was done. I never got a call from US Cellular. I called them at 4 weeks, 6 weeks, and 8 weeks. I then told them to call me. It never happened. I called last week, and lo and behold, it was allegedly fixed, but it was not fixed. I don't even have any proof it was even sent in for repair.

I asked the worker if it took 4 months to get this phone back and now I have to travel back to the store again and wait another 4 months or who knows more time. They did not fix it this time (what faith do I have to fix it this time). If I have to wait for two more times for the phone to be sent in and returned, that is 16 months before the worthless company exchanges my phone according to the no exceptions policy of US Cellular Company. I have been with US Cellular for years. I get "We can't help you." When I worked customer services for Sears years ago in college, it was never ever "I can’t help you." It was "How can I help you and make this right?"

I checked on eBay this morning. A new phone that I purchased new on 08/11/2012 is selling for $50.00. US Cellular would rather piss me off, lose my loyalty as a customer, and have me badmouth their terrible business practices than fix the problems. Unbelievable! Warranty is one thing, but you know common sense and doing what is right is clearly the way to do business. And just like politics, these companies need to know what happens locally, not nationally or global, is what keeps their business going. Piss off enough people like this and you don't have a business or you’re getting bought by your competitor because of your poor business practices. Oh yeah, what the hell are rewards with this company? I asked, “Can my reward be used to get a replacement phone?” I was given a “no".

It sounds good in a commercial, but with this company, it is like giving gift cards out. They sound great when you get them. But you lose them or misplace them or they expire before you can use them. The only one that gets anything from them is the company that sold them. They get your money and don't sell you anything - pure profit. I guess that is what the rewards program is. I have learned my lesson and I hope other's do. I look forward to witnessing US Cellular having a smaller market share of the cellular business due to their lack of customer service. Oh, I have filled out several surveys, and I wonder if anyone will read them. My best bet is no! I will be dropping US Cellular as soon as possible.

Now after dealing with the BBB on this, they claimed they removed the activation fees (however, they still show up on the bill) and they said that even after only a month of so-called-service, they could do nothing and we would have to pay the ETF in order to leave. They never gave an exact reason to why, just they can't do it. The only thing they offered is that they place a $25.00 to the account - $25.00 that shouldn't be on there in the first place. All we asked of them is to drop the whole account with no ETF as we would return the phones (which have only about a month and a half of usage to them) allowing them to keep the $158.00 we already paid for them.

We always heard such good things about this company. But after only dealing with them for this short period of time, I would never recommend them to anyone. We are still working on this issue and hope it can be resolved soon. We want nothing to do with their billing habits or poor customer service.

Today, September 5, when I went in, I was laughed at and told it is not uncommon to have to charge a phone every day. The clerks were very rude and snotty. You need to send these clerks to public relations school on how to treat customers. When my contract is up, I will consider looking for a different company for a cell phone. My phone still does not hold a charge, but I will be darn if I will return to a bunch of rude, impolite clerks. I will find a different store and hope they have decent employees.

Now for July bill, we never received (paperless) billing. On the night of August 1, 2012, they disconnected our service. No phone call or text message, no email, and nothing to say hey, your bill is past due to remind us to call them to find out where the bill is. So, I called immediately and paid the bill over the phone on an automated system. The phones were turned back on in 10 minutes, but now we still don't have the July bill (I requested the next day on August 2). And the new August bill is out and of course the billing is incorrect and they have charged us a $25.00 per line (5 lines) suspension charge with their taxes and surcharges added to each line, which totals out to be $29.62 per line in additional charges.

We have had it with them. No consumer should have to go through this each and every month, just to have a service that we can get elsewhere. But of course, we are locked in a 2 year contract. So my question is, is there anything we can do to get out of this contract so we can go elsewhere?

There have been several payments misapplied to the wrong account. My service has been interrupted 3 times since we switched. Logistically, their process makes no sense. They have a credit balance on one account and are disconnecting my service for non-payment on the other account. I've made so many double payments to get my service back on it would make your head spin. There were countless hours I've spent just asking them to apply the payment to the correct account, but it’s rocket science to them. They tell me they are mailing me the overage amount.

After patiently waiting for their mail for 4-6 weeks, I still have nothing in the mail. They then agree to post the overage to the account. Would you believe that, after all the representatives that I spoke with and all the notes that should be on the account, they reapplied the overage to the same account that it was misapplied to in the first place? I decided that I just can't deal with the incompetence anymore. I'm running to Verizon to switch my service. I don't know if they are any better, but they can't be worse than this. It is frustrating for me to leave because I'm a very loyal customer. All I wanted to do is pay my bill each month and have my service. They had no appreciation for how long I've been a customer and how much revenue they make off of me annually. They called me harassing me for my payment like I was the scum of the earth who won't pay my bills when all along U.S. Cellular owes me money!

They will spend millions of dollars in marketing to get new clients, but won't spend the money to train representatives to fix what should be simple billing errors for existing customers. Message to U.S. Cellular: please appreciate loyal customers. With the no contract campaign, we will leave if we are not treated fairly and with respect. Unprofessionalism and incompetence isn't acceptable. Please learn from this and improve your process and procedures before more customers leave.

I explained the problem I was having and she said that their cell phone tower was down today. When I said, "This is frustrating because I just signed up for your internet service and it has been happening out of state as well," she told me, "What do you want me to do about it?" She then explained that I should go back to the service center and directed me to it as if I was a child. The family next to me that was considering to move their service to US Cellular walked out. I do not blame them. The service associate told me he tried a couple of things and reprogrammed it, but doesn't know if it would work so I would have to come back if it didn't. When I got to my car, I looked at my phone info. It had not been turned off to reprogram nor had it been reprogrammed in the call logs. Do they think I'm stupid?

I had a previous issue back in December when the other phone on our line did not work right after we got it. After four trips to US Cellular, they agreed to mail us a replacement phone. The same day we got the replacement phone activated, we sent the old one back with their prepaid address US Cellular mailed us. In January, our phones were shut off at midnight on a Sunday. I went into US Cellular the next day and they said it was because the phone had not been returned. I said it had and provided the tracking information and ended up calling around myself. Finally, I found it at a post office and they told me that the address on the label did not exist.

I took the box back to US Cellular and told them what the post office told me. They called customer service and the customer service said they would mail me a new label, but no, they would not turn our service back on nor could I just give it to the US Cellular store I was at. In order to turn our service back on, we had to pay $600, the value they claimed of the phone even though it was not in working order and it would not be refunded - it would just be a credit on our bill. We ended up adding our phones onto another family member's line and when we finally got a zero bill, went back in. We had previously been told that they would allow us to pick back up our contract and what not when the account balance had reached zero, but that was not the case. Customer service had canceled our account so we had to sign a whole new contract and start back over.

I am considering just paying the $300 to cancel two lines and go elsewhere. This is the worst customer relations company I had ever dealt with. I will gladly overpay for Verizon for better phones and customer service.

I told him that I had been disconnected even though I was paid up through 3/21/2012. It took some repetition before Keith seemed to understand what I was talking about and he still insisted I would have to pay the $113.85. Finally, he left me on hold and when he came back, he said that I would still owe $5.61. I told Keith I felt very angry and that this would not be the last of this because I did not owe US Cellular anything and that I would not use this service again. He said something like, "so be it!" in a rude manner. Upon reviewing this bill after I hung up, I noted that the $58.21 I had already paid had not even been deducted so I was being billed excessively even if I had owed for another month.

On 4/22/2012, I was billed $63.31 with no explanation on the bill, no note of what the expenses were for except that it shows a $58.21 credit and "Extended Home Service Area" charges of $101.43. When I came to Nevada, I phoned US Cellular and discussed the fact that I was out of the home service area, but they said it was no problem as long as I paid my bill. I am only guessing that the $63.31 is for the three days before US Cellular disconnected my phone on 2/24/2012 even though I was paid up through 3/21/2012. I want to have US Cellular acknowledge that I was paid up through 3/21/2012, do not owe them any money at all and that they will stop billing me. This has resulted in much stress and frustration and I have an appointment with a legal attorney assistant in June to discuss this.

Now 7 months later, another $200 charge. Well after 1 hour on the phone once again, they were telling me that I have used this data. No way! I barely use the internet. So now, they have a new plan to charge you only $10 extra a month for each 1GB you go over. How convenient. So they are intentionally over-billing, because there is no way to keep track of your usage because their connection logs are not accurate. So they probably send out thousands of these $200 overcharges and then give you a credit. Today, I got $100 off my bill, because I threatened to cancel. Then they sign you to a new plan. It sounds like a scam! I will be looking into Clear and canceling with US Cellular because I'm not happy.

I took everything back the next day, got a refund for the modem, but the store said US Cellular had to issue me a check for my prepaid time. I was told it would take 4 to 6 weeks for a refund. I paid with a credit card and asked if they could just put it back onto that. They said no, that wasn't their policy, I would have a check issued to me. Needless to say, it is now May 10, 2012, and I still have not gotten my refund. I have spent about three hours talking to people, trying to get my money returned, only to be told that the ticket has been pulled and a check is in the mail, but they can't tell me when it was issued. I have been put on hold and you hear a recording that says, "US Cellular customers are the happiest customers." Well, I am not happy! Beware! I will never buy anything from them again.

I went to the U.S. Cellular website and looked at the LG Wine II phone, and it does state that a minimum of a 90-day data plan is required in order to receive the $50 rebate. This is a false rebate because the full price of the phone is $79.99 and we are required to spend an additional $44.85 which totals $124.84. Taking the $124.84 that we are required to spend on this phone and minus the "rebate" of $50.00, the new total that we actually pay for the phone is $74.84 which is $5.15 less than the $79.99 full price, so actually there is no rebate!

How can this company get by with this blatant customer rip-off? I told the customer rep "No thank you" on the so-called "rebate" and to further add insult to the situation, the LG Wine II phone is not a smart phone and can access the Internet but it has very limited and primitive Internet capabilities. It does not come with a web browser or email client installed so we would have to download both from the U.S. Cellular Easy Edge which would cost us more money.

Many people have probably fallen for this fake rebate. I have been a U.S. Cellular customer for 16 years and had no complaints until now. They have become greedy and their interest is in the company, not in their customers. When our contracts are up, we'll change to a different wireless carrier.

The lady then issued the work order ticket and transferred me to customer service where they made sure I wanted to stay with the same plan, etc and said that they would be back on in a few hours. Well seven hours later, they were not back on and I called them to see what was going on and then they told me that they couldn't turn them on because the account had been turned over to collections and I needed to call the collection agency. And if I wanted service with them, I needed to re-apply. I said the other people told me it wasn't any problem to turn them on and they said, "Well, they made a mistake."

So I called the number they gave me and they had no record of me. I called them back and asked more questions and they said what I can put an order in and I said, "You don't see any problem, like collections?" And they put me on hold, and came back and said here is a different collection # but to call back tomorrow during the day and they will work with you and the collections.

So I called the collection and they said I owed a different amount and I looked at my last bill and I paid what the bill said. US Cellular told me my account was current 0 balance. So I called the next morning and the account now showed only collections and told me that they could not discuss the account with me and to call the agency. They took my money and I feel they lied to me just to get the money. If the account is with collections and they don't own it, how could they take my money? If they had told me in the beginning that the account was with collections, I would have paid it differently. I really didn't have the money but was not happy that I didn't have service with them so as soon as I came up with it I made sure I called them right away.

A friend of my family recently passed away and the message came in several days after the funeral. I pay about $55 per month for one of the only cellular service providers in my rural area that has reception. As with most things in this great country of ours, I should be happy to play solitaire and take pictures with my phone in lieu of actually receiving relevant phone calls. Can you say "Big Brother"? Perhaps I should travel with a Scrabble board to entertain myself while awaiting telephone calls for up to several days.

So I called back and asked why you hanged up on me. He said because I was cussing at him and I clearly wasn’t. I even asked if the call was recorded and he said no but I wish it was like seriously, and the worst part about this story is he said he was the manager. Yeah, y’all just lost me as a customer when my contract is done within the next year and a half and this was the store located on Millertown Pike in Knoxville, TN 37918 and it was the store located outside of the mall.

Started talking to my friend. And the earpiece kept falling out of my ear. It was getting annoying. So I got off the phone. I had another call. I look down to put the other earpiece in and both rubbers had fallen off somewhere. I was hot! I'm looking all over for the rubber piece and can't find them. I got tired. I couldn't put my earpiece in my ear because it hurt without the rubbers. I ain't never had this much problems with a damn earpiece in my life.

The next day I had found a rubber piece from my old earpiece and put it on. The same day the top of the silver earpiece had broken off. How cheap! I took it to the store, wanting to exchange it. One guy was super nice and the other guy was a jerk face, sitting there and playing with his cellphone. The nice guy said let me make a call to somebody to see if I can exchange it. While he was doing that the jerk face guy was saying that they can't take this! I don't have all the pieces and I said yeah, they kept falling off. So I waited there about 10 minutes waiting for the person to call back to see if I can exchange it. Very awkward. While jerk face was still playing with his phone, finally someone called back and they said no! I was so pissed. I didn't want my money back. Just wanted a better piece. How rude! I would never step into a US Cellular store for the rest of my life or refer anybody to switch to them. You suck! $32 wasted.

Before transferring me, I was blackmailed by Andrew. He said that if he transferred me, then I might not get any help with my bill and made it sound like asking for a manager, I would be giving up any help he had already offered. I called his bluff and told him to just transfer me. I was on hold for another timeframe and then Charles came on the line and was a pleasure to talk to. Not only did he apologize for Andrew, but he also positively turned the situation around and created interest in using US Cellular again in the future.

I don't usually send complaints or compliments so this is a good statement from a consumer point of view. But Andrew needs training and should not be representing your corporation in customer service. Some have it and some just don't cut it. Andrew misses the cut while Charles meets and even exceeds it. I had to switch to an iPhone for my job. There are other issues I have had with your corporation on a professional level that had me thinking of switching before, but if I could get Charles a job at Verizon, I would. Your training and ethics as a company are not customer focused, and you have a ton of people in the wrong position. Larger isn't better if you lose all your customers.

Now, they want to pull this stunt? I'd rather cancel everything altogether and get a straight talk phone. I don't need their ** anyways. And what makes me even angrier is I know a girl who has USC in the same area as me, and she will go literally two months without paying a dime and they leave her phone turned on! Ughh! What kind of business are they trying to run? Their prices are outrageous anyways. The only one who is going to be suffering any consequences is U.S. Cellular because I'm going to cancel my service. Oh, and by the way, I wish I could give them zero stars. That's the service I received.

U.S. Cellular should be made to provide the consumer with a clear understanding that they do make a profit from such third-party businesses, and they take no responsibility for whether it was authorized or not, and they should be made to give the consumer explicit notice when such a charge is being added to a consumer's monthly charges. U.S. Cellular should be required to obtain consumer's prior consent to add third party charges of any nature. Now what congressman or administrative agency could be against that?

On October 26th, when we traded my phone in, the girl who helped us was rude, and was on her phone half the time. She kept wiping her running nose with her hand, and touching our new phones. She downloaded apps, we didn't want or need, on the phones. We spent over two hours there, waiting for her to figure everything out. She was very stuck up, ignored our questions by going on about what she wanted to talk about. She asked me if I had a Google account set up, and I said yes, but I couldn't remember it right then and there. She replied with a dirty look and sighed and said, I guess we will make you another one.

After the grueling process of dealing with her attitude for 2 hours we left the store with the swapped phone. From October 26th through November 15th I tried using the HTC Wildfire. It is the one of the worst phones I have ever had! My boyfriend who has the same phone experienced the same problems; calls being dropped, predictive texts is horrible, volume drops out, touch screen doesn't work half the time, doesn't save messages, or new contacts, voice on GPS getting softer and louder, memory storage alert comes up whenever downloading an app, saying we couldn't do it because of lack of phone memory (the phones had nothing on them), phone freezes, and all sorts of error messages would pop up.

I thought all of this could be corrected by what the salesmen told me. That I could swap out the phones within the thirty days of the initial purchase. My boyfriend and I decided, that we both wanted to switch our phones (HTC Wildfire), to the phone I originally wanted (Motorola Electrify). So, on November 15th, we went back to the same US Cellular store that we had gone to, when we purchased the phone. When we walked in, there were two workers there with a customer each. They did not greet us or anything. So my boyfriend and I, looked at other phones to occupy our time.

After waiting for over half an hour we decided to sit on the floor and wait, being as there were no chairs for waiting customers to sit. 15 minutes later, a guy who said he was the store's assistant manager, one of the two people working, came over and asked how he could help us. We told him our situation about disliking the phones, and all the problems we had with it, and that we wanted to trade them in for different ones. He then told my boyfriend that only he could trade in his phone, and I was out of luck because I had already traded mine in once.

I told him what his co-worker said to us the first day about how we could trade them in, within the thirty day period, and after that, we could only trade it in once, and he said that his co-worker was new and must have gotten it mixed up! How is it our fault for his trained co-worker's mistake? Also, when I traded my phone in the first time, the salesperson made no comment about how that would be my final trade in allowed. So I told him I would ask customer service about this and he said go ahead.

After the whole conversation we decided to go with just trading in one phone for the time being so one of us could avoid the stress of having a horrible phone. The assistant manager started working with us, then other customers came in, so he went and helped them, and had his female co-worker take over. Apparently, she was training still, even though on our last 2 visits, she was already training! She had no clue what she was doing and had to keep calling over the manager. It took us 2 and a half hours dealing with them, before we finally were able to leave the store. The girl who was dealing with us was extremely rude. She interrupted the manager, speaking with us multiple times. She also interrupted me when I tried speaking, and when my boyfriend and I were talking, she would interrupt. She talked about how she thought the world was going to end in 2012, and how she was bummed she wouldn't be 21 to drink.

It may have been a conversation starter, but not with irritated customers on the whole situation, and people she didn't know. I told my boyfriend how tired I was from work, and she butted in saying I shouldn't be, and she was tired cause she worked last night and had three jobs, and her whopping 1pm to 9pm shift was killing her. Are you kidding me? By that time, I was extremely furious, as well as my boyfriend. I would've have complained to the assistant manager right then and there, but I just wanted to get out of that store, and he wasn't much help either. The assistant manager and her, rather than listening and helping us, argued with us about the problems we were having with the phones, and asked if we could prove it.

Throughout our 2 and half hours there, they also mingled together, and were talking under their breath and pointing at us. Complaining in the store would've made our visit more awkward and annoying, than it already was. Our whole night was wasted in a US cellular store with rude, attitude filled people. Three nights in total now. We were recommended to US Cellular by co-workers and friends, who said it was way better then the competitors.

I cancelled my Verizon Contract for $300 because I was so sure I would have a good experience with US Cellular. If something isn't done about this, then I am afraid I will have to cancel my contract, and go with someone else. With Verizon, their sales representatives were always so nice and helpful. US Cellular has proven not once, but three times, to be not so great. Your plans are great and the Motorola Electrify is a very nice phone. I would like to know about how to switch our HTC Wildfire to the Motorola Electrify we were told we could do, that we still have that we tried to trade-in.

We have no problem paying the $200 difference of the phones. Please let us know how you can help us with our phone, and with the horrible customer service we received. All of this happened at the US Cellular Store located at ** Madison, WI 53719. I am truly appalled by the whole situation. I have worked in customer service for many years, and would never act as they did, or treat my customers the way they did.

Thank you so much for the time you took to read this letter and for your patience. Any questions and with a resolution to this probably feel free to email or call me.

I received my next bill and once again they were showing a past due amount for the phone and late charges. I called again and waited on hold for 20+ mins. They said they would correct and I have yet to see any results. This is embarrassing and time consuming for nothing more than buying a new phone on an existing account. What a mess. I need help with making sure they don't report past dues to credit report and correct my account properly.

US Cellular, you guys need to do something about these service waiting times. Two hours before it's even your turn is insane. I want to scream right now. My best friend has Verizon cell service and he said he has never had to wait for more than 10 minutes. I have been with US cellular for over 18 years and this is a deal breaker! Right now, there are 15 customers waiting and only 2 service technicians.

Plus, I had this plan for two years now and I moved to a new house--there is no signal at all, always roaming or nothing. I called them more than six times regarding this problem and all I got was lies, telling me that they had a problem in our area with the towers and that they fixed it. But nothing changed for 30 days. I had no service and they didn't even apologize, as if it was my fault.

I pay $86 (that's plus tax) per month for nothing! I even lost two job interviews because of their crappy service and costumer service. I can't wait to switch to something better. I wish they'd go bankrupt! If you go US Cellular, you are out of your mind!

Then I struggled to pay the bill every month. It took 5 months to receive my rebate for the HTC Touch Pro 2 that I purchased in November 2010 for various reasons, resulting from incompetence on US Cellular's part. I finally convinced them to issue a rebate card after several phone calls. Five months, I've been more than patient. I walk into the Brookfield, WI store to upgrade my children's phones with my hard-earned belief rewards points and was told I could not add the $100 charge to my bill because I had a suspension on my service within the last six months.

I also will receive a rebate of $100 making the phones free. What's the big deal? I've been with US Cellular almost 2 years and it would have never been suspended had I not been gouged monthly. I plan to exercise every action possible against the company and against the sales associates in the form of complaints at this Brookfield, WI location. This policy that's to be used at the manager's discretion. Since my bill is paid in full with a credit, I am loyal despite their robberies, and I have 5 lines. I can only assume that it was biased.

My bill isn't due, the phones are a penny with mail-in rebate, and I've been loyal for approximately two years. They've made an above average profit off of me, and I am a customer. I'm appalled and this company will not prosper for long. I have spent hours of my time over the past 3 days with incompetent representatives for one issue or another. I also just heard that the HTC Touch Pro 2 has a glitch that drains data. I'd be very, very upset if I find out I've been over charged in excess of $1000 by this company.

I then informed them that I never authorized this. They stated that since I modified the plan, that I agreed to extend the contract. When in fact I asked several times during the conversation that by making this changed that it would not extend my contract. The representative that I spoke to assured me each time I asked that question that it would not, so I made the change. Now, I am being told that it did indeed extend my contract.

Most recently, I spoke to Sherice in customer service, again then stated that I did agree to extend the contract. I then asked to speak to a supervisor named Michelle, who followed the same line. Michelle then transferred me to Chloe in customer relations, who continued to state that I did I agree to this extension. She then reviewed the notes on the account and states that she would have to go with the proof of the notes documented by their representatives that I was wrong and that I did agree to this extension.

All the information that they reviewed again was based on the documentation collected by their representatives. Through further conversation, she stated that she could reverse the changes and that I would have to pay the $150 I "saved" in addition to the early termination would then cause my $277.50. She states that based off her documentation, I was incorrect. That I verbally agreed to this as noted by their representatives. When I asked for documentation with my signature that I was informed that this would extend my contract, they stated that could not produce that since this occurred over the phone. So basically people, if you're going to change your plan, don't do it over the phone. Get it in writing.

This was about 7:30 am. Again, I told the rep that the remaining $27 would be paid this afternoon. I called US Cell when I got home today and was told that my promise-to-pay had not been noted in the file and the only way our phones would be turned back on is to pay not only the $27 but also the current month bill. It definitely isn't my fault that you have nitwits working customer service that cannot note files correctly and I will not pay a $25 per line reconnect fee. I did tell the rep that today, so just in case he failed to note that you're aware of it. As soon as we can, we will be switching carriers. You disconnect 3 phone lines for a $27 balance. Unreal! You are the worst. I will also publish this on the US Cell complaint blog.

She told me if the past due amount isn't in by 10pm, my services will then become interrupted and then she told me to hold on while she set up the arrangement then she stated to me again what we discussed. I wake up on today, November 12th, morning and my services is disconnected. I spoke to financial services, customer service and customer relations. They all had the same thing to say that there's nothing in my account stating any payment arrangement. I've been with them a long time and have never had someone make a big mistake like this.

Customer relations tells me that, "If you make the payment right now, I can lower your monthly bill and waive the $125 reconnection fees." Well, I had already got $250 reconnection fees added to my next month bill and I explained to her it wasn't about lowering my monthly bill but because this lady made a big mistake like this and will cost me money because this is my business phone. She told me 10pm. That's the whole issue and I should have been give 10pm not "If you pay the bill now. Oh, well what she did this is what we will do for you."

You guys made the arrangement with me and you broke it. I guess now, I will still be charged a $25.00 restoration fee when my services should have never been interrupted. This problem needs to be solved in a timely manner and there should not be any fees for my inconvenience. So unfair.

I was totally confused because it was set up identical too as a US Cellular store inside as well as out and did not sell anything but US Cellular products. I could not return the cell phone. I then called customer service and spoke with a supervisor named Ashley, who informed me that the independent stores do not have to follow the same guideline as US Cellular corporate and I just basically have to keep the phone.

I would like for someone to explain to me, how can a cell phone company have one name and two different policies and how do the consumer suppose to know the difference between the two companies when they look identical and sell the exact same items. If US Cellular care to look into my account they will see we have been very loyal and we have never been late on one payment. The account is in my husband name (Arthur **) Acct# is **, my cell phone # is **. Thank You.

The first few months, we paid it assuming we had done something to cause those charges. I contacted US Cellular and asked them to block easy edge on all the phones on our account so we wouldn't do anything to cause those charges but each month, there is still either 3 or 6 dollar extra charge on the bill saying we have used easy edge. I contacted them each month and they claimed that it is a computer glitch and will remove the charges but I believe they are doing the same thing with Verizon. I talked to a few other friends that have accounts with them and they have experienced the same problem.

I would like someone to investigate them also because I believe more companies are doing the same thing that Verizon did.

Basically, they have what people are looking for. Also, they have better phones, and better plans. When my contract is up. You can bet I will be leaving US Cellular. The only reason I'm with US Cellular is because they offer free incoming, and free after seven. But my suggestion to US Cellular is to offer all those things in a package to become competitive.

I asked them to work with me for an ext on my bill because my billing statement comes out before I get my benefits every month. I also asked them if they help out people that are disabled and they said no. Wow, I pay my bill each month I'm not behind at all but the keep charging me all this money for things I'm not using.

PS. The date of this encounter was 08/28/2010 at about 10:30am and about 12:30pm the same day.

As of May 2010, US Cellular (USC) still has no automated way to check where you're at with the limit. You have to call and physically speak to one of their customer service representatives. Each time you do that, it takes about 15 minutes. Last month, we went over our 5GB limit by a few hundred MB (yes Megabytes) and had to pay over $250 for our bill (they have a $200 max along with the $49.95 monthly fee). Their overage fee is .49 cents per MB over 5GB. But if you're under your 5GB, they do not roll over what you paid for but didn't use. That's wrong! And it's wrong that USC customers do not have an automated way to check on their usage. Yet, we are penalized dearly if we exceed the cap. Stop the cap! This is the United States of America. We can and should do better than this.

Now, two years later, I go to apply for a mortgage and I have a surprise bill of over $400 from U.S. Cellular on my credit report! I was charged after I left U.S. Cellular. When I called U.S. Cellular to have them investigate and remove it from my credit report, they said they couldn't talk to me because my account had already been referred to a collection agency--Valentine something or other. U.S. Cellular was then kind enough to transfer me to Valentine (weird that it was an inside, transferable call) who told me that they couldn't do anything about the bill because U.S. Cellular sent the bill to them--which means that "the bill is obviously legitimate." Yeah! I love this!

So, instead of spending the next six months of my life in a small claims legal battle or attempting to deal with these nimrods, I'm choosing to share this information with all of you. So thanks for listening and please let me know where else I can post this.

I again contacted US Cellular and their response was basically, “too bad for you”. I sent them a check for $175 - my charges have mysteriously grown. And again I complained. I was then told I was charged because, this is a quote following from email I received, “the fee that is billed to customers who cancel their service prior to the end on their service agreement period. This fee is not intended to hurt or punish customers who choose to cancel their service, but simply a mechanism designed to help us to recover the financial loss we incur when selling a customer a handset at a discount at the point of sale.”

If they had told me to begin with that my daughter had 5 months left, I would have just changed to a cheap plan, not used the phone and waited to cancel. And if they had told me it was because of the phone, I would have returned it to them, because as we all know - you can't use one providers "equipment" with another provider. So far I have gotten 5 different answers and no satisfaction, except that I can post how bad US Cellular is and please do not use them, and please tell everyone you know not to use them.

Six months later, we received a bill showing more than $150 in charges that were not documented. We requested a detailed bill documenting the excess charges as we were concerned that our phone had been cloned. Four weeks later, we requested it again but based on a concern for disconnection, we paid the amount of the bill that was documented. After three more, we requested for a detailed bill (we are now three months down the road) we got disconnected. Contacted USC again and they told us that they would turn it back on if we paid the outstanding amount.

We paid the outstanding amount but got disconnected again when they lost track of the wired amount. Notified USC of intent to severe based on breach of contract. We changed provider. USC billed us for future service. Disputed bill, USC turned it over to collection agency. We paid USC to make them "go away". Credit agency is still showing up on report. I am notifying USC of intent to sue for cause. I will update as things progress.

I called to verify payment with the representative, and all he wanted was a payment, then he told me that the full amount would be taken out on 2/13 unless I edit it in the system. I tried to enter my information on the website with my password to do so, and it doesn't exist. I am quite concerned, because we cannot afford this to be taken out, and we will get overdrafts on all checks out. We cannot get caught up because they bill in advance for service. We did miss December's payment, and want to work out a payment plan, but was told that this full payment would have to be made. Otherwise, they will cancel our phones on 3/4/2010. Our phones have been placed on suspension with no service as of 2/2/2010.

First complaint. There has been significant advertising about a "free battery exchange". I have seen advertising on the internet, television and posters on many of US Cellular stores. I believed it was something to get you into the store so that they could try and sell a new phone. So expecting that I might buy a new phone, I walked into my local store at Wilson & Clark in Chicago and asked for a replacement battery. One of the reps who was walking by me looked quickly at my phone and said, "I don’t have a battery for that ‘old’ phone." He never even stopped walking as kept walking to another area of the store.

There was no attempt made to replace my battery or direct me to where I could get a replacement battery. To my surprise, no one tried to suggest that I could get a newer phone. I found the experience to be very disturbing because I believe that the "free battery replacement" advertising is total fraud. In addition, the behavior was rude and in general the service was very poor. At the time, there were at least three reps in the store and someone could have given me attention in this matter and at the same time made a sale for a new phone.

Second complaint. Today, 1/19/2010, in the middle of a call, without any warning, I was disconnected and the call ended. I called US Cellular customer service and found that I had a zero balance. I was concerned as I that I had a credit balance and believed that there was no reason to turn off my phone and asked how minutes I had used in the past month. In fact I asked the same question more than three times. The customer service rep "John" did everything but answer the question. I indicated we were having a communication problem and that I wanted to speak to a supervisor. The request to speak to a supervisor was made at least 2 times. John promised to connect me to a supervisor and put me on hold. My call was then disconnected.

I called back, and on the second call I asked to speak to a supervisor right away. The rep answering the call would not give me a supervisor without my account information and a password. He then forwarded my call to a person who was not a supervisor. Again the person I was talking to, "Michelle", did not tell me how many minutes I had used. Michelle also refused to give me the address for US Cellular. Neither John or Michelle would provide an employee number. I am made to provide a password to my account, but I can get information about who I am talking to. Michelle indicated that only a "supervisor" could provide the address. I asked Michelle to connect me to a supervisor because I had asked to be connected to a supervisor.

I was then connected to "Lisa" who indicated she was a supervisor. Again I was not provided with an employee number. Lisa said that "we need to protect our employees". Lisa also indicated that they do not provide an address. So it is hard to make a complaint to anyone at US Cellular in writing. Lisa promised to help me with my request to find out how many minutes I had used and what happened to my credit balance. Lisa did indicate that there had been a credit balance but could explain what happened to it. Lisa also explained that she could not understand the report she was looking at to figure out how many minutes I had used. So it seems that US Cellular can charge my account without being accountable themselves for what they charge me.

Lisa offered to call me back with information about how many minutes I used after she asked someone about the report that related to my account. Someone called three times from a US Cellular phone, but no message was left. So at this point I am frustrated because I spent over a half hour on the phone trying to find get an answer to simple question that even a supervisor could not answer. I am not too impressed with US Cellular and I am not certain what happened to the credit balance that I had. US Cellular benefited from fraudulent advertising. As a result of a lot of advertising, it appears that US Cellular is a generous company willing to provide service to their customers but that is not true. My loss is wasted time and a lost business call.

I will use the service Straight Talk after my contract ends. It does not charge outrageous taxes and fees and I can get unlimited text and airtime. Oh and by the way, no contracts. US Cellular, you cheated me out of 3 rebates. It's not as much the money owed as it is the general principle. If I break my contract, I am fined. What happens when you don't live up to your end of the contract? For those of you who have had great experiences, just wait, your turn will come. I will continue to encourage people to find other more honest companies as their cell phone providers.

US Cellular has a bunch of dishonest crooks that are pocketing their customers' monies. They should do background checks or check records of customers who have purchased rebate phones to see if they have received their money back. You all are a disgrace to honest companies.

I asked if they had any of those phones. I was told, "They went very quickly and some we had none at all." Talk about a bait and switch! We called several other US Cellular stores. They were all out or never had any. This is poor customer service at its worst. If they couldn't supply the phones, they should not have had the sale at all. Their ads for the last year tell us how important we as customers are and to "believe in something better." This is better? No, US Cellular, it's not. We have spoken to many friends who have US Cellular service and they ran into the same situations.

We contacted the Iowa State Attorney Generals office and have registered our complaints. I'd suggest that anyone who had the same service do the same. This is typical bait and switch. The pricing now is higher, much higher. The HTC will be nearly $200 more, the Blackberry Tour $219.95 and Quantico $139.95. During the sale, they would have been $49.95 and $69.95. For Shame US Cellular!

I was unable to make the payment because I did not have employment at the time and I was under the impression that if I made some form of payment, my service will not be disconnected because I had used this telephone number as a contact number for all my business and employment transactions. I did not have service for over a month. When I finally was able to pay within a few days, my service was disconnected again. This happened twice. I therefore decided to go over to the store to pay and find out what was going on since I am never lucky with speaking with someone on the telephone. At the location, I was told that my service was disconnected because the checks were returned. I had paid on the telephone using my checking account.

The manager called US Cellular and spoke to someone who claims that the amount I owed was $87.00+ (I do not have the information here on me). I made this payment and then was asked to speak to that person on the telephone. This person informed me that because they had completely disconnected the service, it would be like a new service so I will need to wait for 72 hours, before reconnection, as they will need to make sure that they had not given the numbers to another customer. And because it will be a new cycle and will be different from the old one, I will need to speak to customer service in order to determine what plan I wanted. This plan they claim will determine my new cycle.

The lady also told me that I was going to pay a $35.00 reconnection fee for each telephone because they had completely disconnected my service and I agreed. When I spoke to the customer service person, I chose a different plan that would cost $69.99 a month plus $9.98 for 250 minutes of text messaging on each line. She concluded that my bill will not be over $100.00 after taxes. I agreed with this plan. However, when my bill came for the next month, they added so much hidden costs that included over $40.00 in taxes. According to them, this was FCC and FTC's idea to charge such a high tax. The bill for that one month was over $464.00, which they reduced to $364.00+ by waiving four $25.00 fee on something I am not sure of - with over $50.00 in taxes.

Because this bill was so high, I asked them for a payment arrangement. I was expecting to break the payment into two payments and make one payment on the 1st of November and the second payment on the 15th. They refused and claimed that they do not accept partial payment and I must make the payment in full in ten days. They gave me until November 5th to pay, which was only ten days from my due date. Because I was unable to make this payment on Tuesday the 10th of November, my service was disconnected again. As of now, it is still not connected.

What is so upsetting about how these people treat me is that they have been lying to me from day one. When they disconnected my service in August, they lied that they do not accept partial payment and I discovered that they do. For some reason, I feel their actions mean that they feel I should be grateful to have a telephone service from them. Secondly, when they claimed to make a payment arrangement with me and refused to allow me to break my payment into two, this is also a lie because I was given a ten day grace period, which is the normal time frame given to every of their customers without payment arrangements. What they claim to do for me has nothing to do with payment arrangements.

I am not sure why they lied to me, why they are doing this to me and why they never told me about these hidden charges before they connected my service. Instead, they told me that my cycle will change because they had completely disconnected my service.

I wanted to get both myself and my wife the HTC Touch Pro 2 phones and purchase the additional data plans for both phones. I was told a week before the promotions by a local sales rep that the phones were in and that it would be to my advantage to wait until the four day promotion began to purchase the new phones (for free with rebate). Now I'm told that the phones are sold out and that I am out of luck to take advantage of this promotion. I was told by the local sales and national sales reps on phone the same story.

How dare they not honor what they advertised? Even today, the HTC Touch Pro 2 was listed as available on the internet for this promotion. I think they should at least offer a rain check to current US Cellular customers who are willing to upgrade 2 phones and spend an additional $24.95 times two for data plans. There is nothing that I can see in the fine print which states: First come, first served or limited supplies of certain models or promotion ends upon sell-out. I came in during the 4-day period and was told I can't have the phone of my choice under their free promotion.

The first time this happened, I complained to 3 people only to hear that there's nothing that can be done and to just not save any messages anymore to prevent this. Really? That's the answer? So, I decided if it happens again, I will call again. They waste my time, I will waste theirs, too. I called today, 3 weeks after the first time because it happened again. It took me 12 minutes to get to my one new message. I spoke with a supervisor right away and explained the problem. I sarcastically said they need to send me a date journal so I can transcribe my messages since the new system is discouraging me from saving them. He said if I wanted to buy one, he will knock $15 off my current bill to do so. I did get the tone that my complaint wasn't going to change anything, though. When I called him on that, he said he could discuss my feedback with his supervisor and get it elevated to the right group of people.

I just felt that a huge change in service would have a better feedback system in place, but it doesn't seem to be the case. I like my plan and my minutes and that's what has kept me there, but I've had this problem now and complained in the past a few times to them about their ** new phone selection choices. I suppose I have to choose between keeping my messages or shopping around for a new phone plan. Sometimes, it's the devil you know...

So, I went into the Homewood store and a sales associate named Laura ** took care of me. I picked out the phone I liked and we sat down at her station. She proceeded to figure out how much I owed for the phone. I handed her my credit card and she asked to see my DL. I handed her my card assuming she was being cautious that it truly was my card. She then told me she needed to go in back and make a copy of my cards. Not thinking anything about it, off she went. She came back about 5 minutes later with the box containing my phone and my cards in her hand but no papers. She sat down in front of her computer and entered the phone information into my account. Then she ran my credit card through, went behind the front counter, and brought the papers I needed to sign.

About 3-4 days later, I got my daily text message from my credit card company and my balance was over $385 less than the day before. I knew I had not used my card since I was at US Cellular, but I had no idea what happened because I had my card in my wallet. I went on the computer and checked the website of my credit card company. I was shocked when I found nearly $300 to Apple iTunes for songs purchased. I also found close to $50 to an online video game rental company and $30 to a weight loss tea company. I immediately cancelled my card and contacted these company's about getting my money back. They all said it was my credit card company's responsibility to refund my money. My credit card company said it was the responsibility of the companies that the charges were made to.

After three months of back and forth, I finally got my money back. Then about two weeks after I was at US Cellular in Homewood, my girlfriend went into the same store and the same employee took care of her. She purchased their wireless internet stick for her new laptop computer. She too was paying with her credit card and Laura asked her for her DL too. Then she told her she needed to copy her cards. Once again, she went into a back room and gone about 5 minutes, came back with the box with the stick in it but no papers. She sat down in front of her computer and put the information into her account. She ran the credit card through the system, went behind the front counter, and got her papers to sign.

Three days later, she called me up in a total panic. She just checked her bank balance and she was missing nearly $3,000 from her account. She immediately called the bank and cancelled her card. The bank ran the activity on her account and told her there was a charge of nearly $1,700 to FinishLine.com and charges to Macys.com and several other companies before the card was cancelled. We both went to the Homewood police department and spoke to a detective regarding fraud. Unfortunately, because they bought gift cards with my card and sold them overseas, they weren't able to trace where the ordering came from. But on my girlfriend’s charges, they were able to trace the IP address of the computer that was used. But because Leandra ** who is the employee that did the purchasing lives in Indiana, Homewood police won't cross into Indiana and Indiana won't come into IL to make an arrest. Both girls are still working at that store.

I started having trouble a few months back with my new phone because I was never shown anything about the phone. Because it is a slider style phone, whenever it slides apart, it ends up calling the last # I dialed. One day, it called my girlfriend five times in half an hour. I didn't even know it had done that. I complained to US Cellular and they exchanged my phone for the exact same one they refurbished.

On March 4, I called my bank to check to make sure my pay check was deposited as I do every Wednesday and found out there was a charge from Finishline.com on my debit card for $1,183.30. I canceled my debit card, filed a claim with the bank, and contacted Finish Line. I was told that whoever had my debit card info had access to the 3-digit code on the back. US Cellular was the only one that had my card in their hands. I don't shop online. I took off time from work and filed a police report with my local police station.

A few days later, I took time off again to go pick up my police report for the bank and was told that I should go to the Homewood Police Station, as this was where it happened. I was talking to a friend of mine, and the exact same thing happened to her in the same store with the same employee! Now we both had filed reports with the Homewood Police Station. The Dec. did his investigation and told me that he had talked to Jeremy at US Celluar as I did and that they suspected it was Leandra, as her brother was fired years ago for the same thing.

We received the subpoenas, and their address was in Griffith, Indiana. Homewood would not do anything, because it was Indiana; and Griffith wouldn't do anything as it was in Illinois. US Cellular will not do anything, as they were saying that they questioned both employees and they said they didn't do it. They also told me that they couldn't see anything on camera, as it wasn't pointed to the copier. The police never questioned either employee! Both employees are still working for US Cellular! In total, they tried to charge approximately $8,000.00 on my debit card, and US Cellular is still paying them to do this! All my personal and private information has been stolen by their employee, and they are doing nothing!

A few months ago, the battery went bad and when my wife went to the store location, they informed her that they had a free battery replacement promotion and after finally having them actually reward us by having gone into that store without having to pay for something, she was happy for a change. They then gave her a sales pitch about free LG camera phones and an additional line for $10 a month extra for our 17-year old daughter. They told her since our original contract ended less than six months, she could start a new service contract and since we know how teenagers are with cell phones, she attempted to make sure that the new contract would include the unlimited text messaging for $29.95 a month extra. She was told that any needed changes could be made in the 30 days following the new contract (which I did not authorize to begin with) since she paid the first month's charges at that time.

Then after the 30 days had passed, they sent a bill for $793 saying that there was in fact a 250 text per month limit and my daughter's line was showing 2300+ text messages in a month's time! Since the cell phone had become so important and my wife's number had been in use for so long as a contact number for important resources, she arranged to pay the additional fees plus the regular bill by mid-September to avoid disconnection. She paid the regular agreed upon charges and over $400 towards the overcharge.

On August 26, 2009, my wife had taken my daughter to a specialist's appointment at a Chicago hospital following a diagnosis of possible Cystic Fibrosis. When I tried to return her call, she made to home earlier that morning that I didn't get because of my hearing disability. I received an automated message stating that the cell phone numbers were no longer in service! I called US Cellular and when I got a snotty representative's response about the outstanding bill, I lost my patience and laid out the facts regarding the whole matter including the fact that I hadn't signed anything or authorized the new agreement to begin with. I was put on hold and then she got back on the phone and stated that someone had made a mistake and didn't make a note about the agreement my wife had made and informed me that the phones would be back on within minutes, but wouldn't do anything about any of the issues surrounding their many other mistakes.

I was also informed that the balance was due on Sept. 3 not the 13th. After paying over $500 in a month, we get a bill for $853 and decided to take whatever steps we can to legally resolve this matter, but would not give US Cellular another dime or even do business with this company in any way should we experience any service disruptions or a lack of willingness to come to mutually acceptable terms. The phones were disconnected at 12:01 am Sept. 4, 2009. My wife has all receipts, the original contract paperwork, and the second unauthorized contract, and I am putting together a file with everything they ever sent us or gave us for receipt of payments. I will provide a brief summary of the negative impacts so far in the space provided below for description of economic and physical impacts. Thanks for your time in reviewing this matter regardless of whom the reviewer concludes to be at fault here and the one who breached the contract.

The major difficulty that in all fairness would possibly justify a $200.00 deposit was that not only was I a new customer, but I also had no credit rating. I was in my 40s at the time and had always been employed and productive. However, 20 years previous to this, I had paid off my last bank loan and focused on staying debt-free. And by being debt-free for 20 years, I had no credit rating at all. As I reasoned with the CEO of US Cellular, John Rooney, in my e-mail, it took a great deal of diligence, careful budgeting, and hard work to provide for myself and yet stay absolutely debt-free for 20 years and I thought that this should be considered a positive and not a negative. Surprisingly enough, I received an e-mail reply from John Rooney in which he said he understood my situation. He said his own father had lived debt-free for most of his life and had no credit rating to speak of, but he still always paid his bills. He told me that he had instructed US Cellular to waive the $200.00 deposit in my case. I thanked him for this.

Sure enough, when I went back to US Cellular to buy a cell phone and sign up for their service, the salesperson checked with the credit department and the deposit had been waived and I was approved for a cell phone, even though I had no credit rating. About a year after this, I received a check for $200.00 to "refund deposit." Since I had not given them a deposit in the first place, there was nothing to be refunded. So, I called them to tell them of their mistake and to ask which office of US Cellular I should send the check back to. I was bounced around from one person to another until I ended up speaking to one of the higher-ups in Chicago. He told me to not worry about the check and to just keep it. I told him that I do not keep money that is not mine. He told me, with a sigh, where to mail it back to and I did.

Within a few days a US Cellular representative called me and profusely thanked me and really praised me for my "honesty" in returning the check to them. She told me that to thank me, they were adding 200 "courtesy minutes" to my account. I told them this wasn't necessary, but I thanked them for it. I've had cell phone service exclusively through US Cellular for 5 years now. I have a perfect payment record with them. I have never gone over my allotted minutes. I have never incurred any extra charges, late fees, or penalties.

Recently, I wanted to add a second line to my account. Like many baby boomers today, I'm looking after an elderly parent. My mother never calls anybody, but she told me she would like a cell phone anyway. So, I went to a US Cellular store to have a second line added to my account. I thought it would be a breeze. Boy, was I mistaken! First, I found I couldn't buy the quality cell phone I wanted without signing up for Easy Edge - which I did not want - and going through a complicated process of paying for, then cancelling Easy Edge after 90 days and then applying for some sort of rebate. So, I laid that phone aside and planned to buy a real cheapo cell phone that US Cellular offered.

The salesperson did not know my name or anything about me, but said that I would need to put up a $25.00 deposit in order to add a second line. I asked her, "I have maintained a perfect payment record with US Cellular for 5 yeas. Why do I need to put up a deposit?" She said that everyone has to, but she agreed to call the credit department to see if it would be necessary in my case.

In the first version, the credit department said that everyone had to put up a deposit regardless of payment history. This didn't make any sense to me, so I left the store and called their credit department directly. In the second version of the story, they told me that they require some customers to put up deposits, but not others. They claimed that I would need to put up a deposit because of something they read on my credit report. When I asked them, "If this decision is based on my credit report, then why did you ask me to put up a deposit before you even knew my name and had a chance to check my credit report?" They couldn't give me an answer. So we ended the conversation.

Their answer made no sense to me. I do not have bad credit. In the last 5 years, I have worked to re-establish a credit rating. I have taken out two car loans and paid them off - always paying the payments on time. Then I bought a house and a few years afterwards, I refinanced it. Both the purchase and refinance sailed through without the slightest problem. I've worked at the same job for 13 years. I have good credit. So this time I e-mailed US Cellular's credit department. I told them the whole story from the beginning just like I have recorded here. I told them of the CEO waiving the $200 deposit, me returning the $200 check a year later, a five year-long perfect payment record, etc. I asked, "When I was a stranger to US Cellular, with no credit rating, you folks waved the $200.00 deposit, but now that I have good credit and a perfect payment record with you, you won't wave a petty $25.00 deposit. Why?"

The e-mail acknowledged that I had not been charged the original $200.00 deposit, that I had returned the $200.00 check, and that I had a perfect payment record. Then they said that deposits are never waived. Then how was mine waved? And they added that this deposit was necessary and that deposits are "non-negotiable." I read on the internet where US Cellular is losing customers in droves. I read also that CEO John Rooney - the man who had originally waived my deposit - had implemented at US Cellular his personal motto of "complete customer satisfaction." As a US Cellular customer, I am anything but "completely satisfied." I tried e-mailing him again, but this time when I e-mailed him and explained my situation with his company, I did not even receive the courtesy of a response.

Other than this exchange, I have been entirely satisfied with the service I have received from US Cellular and have recommended them often to my friends. I think they have the best deal around: unlimited incoming minutes and I have the national plan. I don't see any other cell phone company offering anything close to this plan. But I am decidedly unenthusiastic about US Cellular anymore. I think the $25.00 deposit is petty. It appears to me that they charge this deposit to everyone and then when they are called on it, they backtrack and try to think up excuses for their policy. Some people have to pay deposits and others don't, but these are non-negotiable and are never waived. These contradictory statements just do not fit the facts.

Their final statement in the e-mail was really incomprehensible. They said that if I maintained "uninterrupted service for a year," the deposit will be returned to me. But I already have 5 years of uninterrupted service. Perhaps the worst part of this situation was in talking with US Cellular over the phone or in receiving e-mails from them, there was the repeated implication that I was not telling the truth. At one point in the conversation, the credit representative replied to one of my statements with, "I don't know if that is true." I confronted her and asked, "Are you calling me a liar?" Then she backpedaled slightly.

It is no marvel to me that US Cellular is losing a steady stream of customers. They have lost this one. I will let my contract expire and sign up with another company. The reason I haven't bought an iPhone or some other more modern gadget is that I would have to leave US Cellular to do so. Well, that is no longer an obstacle. I still can't help but think that this is the decision of mid and low-level managers. I wonder if the same CEO who welcomed my business 5 years ago would be in agreement with this petty $25.00 deposit now. I guess I'll never know. I e-mailed him and got no reply.

In the end, I guess I got off easy. I've read some of the complaints on this site that others have filed against US Cellular and the hateful way they were treated. It is incomprehensible to me that any company would treat long-standing customers like criminals and like dirt. Maybe someday US Cellular will be exampled in textbooks as a long-defunct company that is a perfect example of how not to run a company.

My wife told him the way business works, you cannot hold other people accountable for your mistakes and they were going to have to deal with losing a hundred bucks as a consequence of error because for six years, we had made our payment in full, on time, every time. The answer from US Cellular was "Oops, but tough!" The day after I called and had the unpleasant experience of dealing with Kathleen, the most wretched individual I have ever had the dissatisfaction of dealing with. Anybody thinking of doing business with this company should be made aware of the fact that they hire thugs and bullies to handle their claims. I explained to her that this was the mistake on US Cellular's part and that I did not appreciate the way my wife was talked to. I made my payment in full and their mistake was not mine to make up for.

She immediately reverted to the same rhetoric as the night before, "You're a thief, a liar, taking advantage of the company. Yes, we made a mistake but you are going to have to deal with it," even making reference to my personal financial situation as if to imply I was a welfare case looking for a handout. I explained that I was in business management and had any of my employees ever talked to a customer the way I had been talked to, I would fire them post haste. She told me flat out, "I don't care what you think. We have enough customers so you can leave and it ain't going to hurt us any!" I could not believe the audacity of these individuals. I have never in my life even on the streets been met with such belligerent and insulting behavior.

It is sad to me that US Cellular feels as though this is the best way to deal with longtime customers. Especially since when I tried to speak my side, I was hung up on. I will never again recommend that anybody use this company. They are entirely rude when it comes to handling their customers. I have never been so angry and offended at the same time. I hope people will think twice before choosing service with this company. PS: I recorded my phone call with Kathleen and I am considering posting it to YouTube so people will see the way they treat their clients.

FYI, I made the payment through the US Cell website. Using their system, they made the charge directly to my checking account. Remember this, this is important. So I call, and speak to the rudest person on the planet. She can't speak with me. My wife is the primary account holder so I am less than nothing. Okay fine, phone doesn't work so I can't call her at our apartment. Thank God she was meeting me here at work. So, a little while later, my wife shows up. We call US Cell. Once again, I speak with the rudest person on the planet, a different one this time. Where do they get these people?

Anyway, they want a payment. We had made the payment, my wife says. She gives the phone to me after authorizing me to speak with this witch on the phone. The US Cell rep says we had not made payment and demanded that I pay right now. I told her I had made the payment using their online payment system and the charge was posted to my checking account 10 days ago! Well, that simply wasn't possible because she had no record of it. The witch suggested I contact my bank, have them fax a copy of my statement to them, and it may take 3 days for someone to look at it and start the investigation.

Well, I'm doing some investigating. I'll be looking into new cell carriers. Screw these clowns. If this is how they treat people, and they can't even manage their own payment system, they don't need my money. This phone is my home and business phone. God knows the damage this could cause. I am trying to buy a house, sell a house, deal with schools and other business. I can't even contact my realtor!

With me not caring so much about electronic toys, I opted to take the free activation. I told him there would be a total of 4 lines including mine. He said that he could get my activation waived for sure, but will try to request for the other lines as well. And the free phones he had were crappy. I still ended up having to get a new phone for me and my son, out of pocket of course. I had some rebate but still it wasn't completely free. I checked my bills every month and he said that he did put the request in, and said he'll do it again.

I have called him at least 2 times maybe 3 times and he has never returned any of my calls. Not only did he lie about giving me the activation fee waived, he also failed to give me my employment/corporate discount that I was entitled to because of where I worked. A co-worker told me about our discount through Verizon well into the plan. I've also talked to a few people and they said that they hate the cellular sales (Verizon) at Hickory Mall. I missed out on much better phones and accessories which would have dollar figured to more than the activation fee.

We can not pay our bill online so we have to call the company each time to pay the bill. We were never told we had to call them to pay the bill. Now, she is saying they are trying to charge us $25.00 twice and which is one for a late fee. We never get the truth and we always get the runaround about the bill. They add on charges that they want to stick on the bill.

My service has been interrupted every month since January until I have to call and speak to a supervisor. I am unemployed and my phone is my lifeline between me and potential employers, and they are interrupting my service due to company error.

I have received two letters threatening to send me to collections. On 10/4/09, a rep named Eric agreed to waive the charges of $25.02. He was also going to remove the $20.00 fee. He promised me that this would be the last time I had to call. On 11/4/09, I received new charges of $45.02; I did dispute these charges as well. I cannot get them to close this account and refund my deposit. On 3/37/09, I received another collection notice but now the amount is up to $60.00. I need your help.

So, being just before the holidays, I was talking on the phone somewhat more than usual and not realizing what was going on till I got my bill. I got a bill for $710 the following month. Remember this all started by me trying to save $10 a month. So now I can't pay due to lack of employment and they are going to terminate me, so yeah, you're right there's another $150 tacked on (I'm lacking a couple months to fulfill my 2-year agreement) plus the last month's bill of about $62. Now I don't have a phone and they are turning it over to collections. I owe almost $1000 all because I tried to save $10. I truly believe these people at US Cell go out of their way to think of ways to screw people. They make it so complicated that it's difficult to keep track and figure it out. I'm sure many others have been stuck by these ** in a similar way. I will now get a TracFone. They work better anyway.

I didn't know that I had to document every conversation from the time I purchased a contract through US Cellular. I told the lady that she could look at my account and see that I have never downloaded an application since I had the phone and this obviously was not something I intentionally did. She then became rude explaining to me that I still had a program downloaded to my phone and I had to pay for the program. I asked to speak with her manager and was put on hold for at least 9 minutes before I became so frustrated that I hung up.

A second agent came on and in the meantime I rearranged my important bills like electricity and gas to accommodate the last $50. I talked to the second agent with a few less swear words and told him that I made this arrangement to pay the rest of the balance on January 30th. I gave him my two cents on the matter and he said that's just the way it is basically. I told him I would like to make this company better for them and for customers. Payment arrangements for cellphones should be a lot more lenient than public utilities, but it's just the same. If you don't give them all your money, they turn the switch off. I wish I could really do something about this. Maybe I will switch to a landline.

The first 2 US Cellular stores/repair centers didn't answer the phone. I finally drove to a store and asked what could be done. The sales girl didn't know, could not determine what was wrong and then said I was eligible for a 'FREE' upgrade in Dec. but could not tell me the details. I asked if I could upgrade early as apparently there was no one to fix the phone, which is my only phone, and I was leaving town that afternoon. She put me through to the customer service division who informed me the 'free' upgrade would cost me another 2-year contract (now note, I still have 10 months left on the current 2 year contract!) and I could then pay for a new phone. I asked why after only all these years, having paid all bills on time. Nothing could be done to just replace the phone, even temporarily until a tech could fix the one I owned.

I was told that my only option was an outright purchase and/or a longer contract. Then I was told I should have had their insurance - to which I replied that my previous phone lasted 6 years and I only upgraded as the old one was analog. Then I was told to go to a repair center to which I replied none answered their phone. Their customer service is not service by any means. I informed them I would not renew my contract next year and would let people know how bad they treat loyal customers. I then went around the corner to a cell phone repair shop and... get this... the young kid told me the phone needed to be reset for their towers. In 30 seconds, he had the phone on and it is working better than before - no charge! Next year I'm getting a different provider without a contract even it means T-Mobile...

This December they will waive the final 6 months of our contract and early fees as a courtesy. I find it ridiculous that I no longer get mobile to mobile minutes which are supposed to be free. I am roaming and using the Verizon Wireless network therefore I cannot do an over the air update for my phone since it is not using the US Cellular network. I cannot have my phone serviced, if need be, because there are no US Cellular stores anywhere around.

After calling several times to customer service they could only recommend that I increase my rate plan to accomodate for the expected increase in my minute usage (since mobile to mobile is no longer free and included). Now I am still stuck with their shotty service and have to pay $7/month + taxes fo a higher rate plan till December.

I have to pay $7/month + taxes for a higher rate plan because my mobile to mobile minutes are no longer included with my plan.

Bad credit record and collection agency calls demanding payment.

So I called them about the phone and I asked if the phones were refurbished and the operator hesitantly told me that they were but they inspect the phones before they send them out which clearly they didn't because if they did I wouldn't have gotten this POS. He told me that I would have to send the phone back and call them in 24 hrs with the tracking # and they would send a new one right out. I have yet to get the new phone but when I do I will re post.

I originally paid $135 for the phone that had to be repaired twice. Than it got ran over had to pay $50 for a replacement $10 a month for 10 months($100)for the insurance and got a loner phone that doesn't even hold a charge so I am phone less not to mention that essentially paid $285 dollars for the phone that should have only cost me $80.

I have been waiting on a manager to call me from US Cellular in Wytheville Virginia. No one will call. My son has used the loner phone longer than the phone we purchased for him. The loner phone is not even close to being the same as the phone that is being repaired. I am tired of waiting and 12 weeks is long enough for the phone to fixed.

Well, they said, you'd better check with your credit card company because they declined to pay your bill. I called my credit card company. They had never received a request--computer program or otherwise--from US Cellular to pay the bill, they said. Okay, I said, calling US Cellular back. We know we did our part, US Cellular said, because we sent you the e-mail, see?

Well, let me pay my bill over the phone, I said. Over the phone, I used the exact same credit card, on the same day US Cellular had sent the e-mail, and the bill was paid. Over the phone. Nothing wrong with the credit card. Nothing wrong with my credit, as the US Cellular CS staff person had intimated.

By the way, I suggested the US Cellular CS rep escalate this issue. As I said to him, this type of glitch usually doesn't happen to just one person. I suspect there is a problem that your superiors would be delighted to hear about. I could almost hear him rolling his eyes. Oh well, I thought. This couldn't happen twice.

Guess what. Today, Saturday, August 30, I got an email from US Cellular. You guessed it. Exact same message as the one I received on July 30. I double-checked my US Cellular account. Tried to re-enter my credit card information, top to bottom (including State), but got an error message saying it was all identical to the credit card account I already had on file at US Cellular.

I called my credit card company first this time. No, they said, they hadn't gotten any request. I called US Cellular. There would be a 15 minute wait, the recording said. I waited. Got someone named Jenny on the phone. She started repeating exactly what your July CS rep had told me. Eventually, she reluctantly said she'd have to check with another department it would be a very long wait--did I really want to wait? Yes.

She checked with the other department. Came back on the line many minutes later, and said that I'd entered my state wrong. I live in Wisconsin. I'd entered Wisconsin. But the US Cellular screen said Alabama. She said that I needed to fix that. Wait. I live in Wisconsin. I entered Wisconsin. My screen said Wisconsin. Her contact in the "other department" at US Cellular said his screen showed Alabama. I'm supposed to fix that? Well, she says, I guess I could call them back and see what they say. Do I really want to wait that long again? Okay.

She came back on the line eventually. Here's what she suggested. Delete my credit card information in my US Cellular Account. Wait a few days. TRY to re-enter my credit card information in my US Cellular Account. Wait until the end of the month. See if I get the e-mail again. (Actually, she said, "see if that works." ) Wait, I said, losing my cool. The mistake is on US Cellular's end. Why do I --the customer--have to fix it? Why are you making me jump through all these hoops to fix your glitch?

Throughout this last exchange, I tried to talk. She wouldn't let me talk. She just kept telling me all the things I had to do to fix your problem. And if it didn't work, she said, I'd have to contact-- I think she said the IT or IC department -- to see if they could figure it out the glitch. Good grief. While on hold, I'd located the names online or Mr. R. (CS honcho) and Mr. R. (CEO) --not an easy task, as you know.

I'd already written about half of this letter. And made coffee. And drank two cups. Petted the cat. Brushed my teeth. Thank goodness for ear buds. But, hey. If it there's an easy fix, I'll try it. Life's tough. This isn't cancer research, after all. So, I went back to my US Cellular account. Tried to delete the credit card account. Guess what? I'd been on the phone so long with customer service, I'd been logged out.

The next thing that occured I paid my bill on the Fri. at 9 am and my services where not restored at 2pm I called and spoke with a extremly rude Rep. that stated I need to go back to the US store where I paid my bill and have them to call US cellular with a receipt no. which I was never told before.

The services of US cellular suck, my husband, me and my two sister's have this services and we cannot even speak to each other because the calls drop every second. When you call the customer service line a group of rude, unprofessional, overtalker's who cannot help you answer the phone. I use to have Sprit and I was a fool to change services.

I could have taken my $90.00 and paid toward something else instead of paying for services that I can't get right away. Even the land line phone company have more customer service than this company.

Around April US Cellular came out with the HTC ppc 6800. Later that month I again went to my local store to ask questions. They did not have one on display. I stated what I wanted and didn't want. I would be due for an upgrade in August with a new 2 yr phone contract. To get their price I would also have to sign a 2 yr data service contract in addition to the 2 yr phone contract. I was told "US Cellular will not sell you the phone with out the phone and data contracts. "If I am willing to forego the rebates, would I still have to sign a web contract." The answer YES! I remember telling her "Your kidding, thats really stupid, I wonder how many phone contracts and phone sales their losing over that decision, they just lost me because I will not sign a contract for something I won't use.

I also mentioned something to the effect their on line pricing and contract descriptions for the HTC were misleading, it was not the same as I was being told in store. I asked about buying from an individual, since US Cellular HTCs were already being sold on ebay. Again I was told as long as it is a US Cellular phone you can have your phone service transferred, you won't have to have the data service or wait until August for the upgrade." One of the male employees offered to sell me a discounted pda (they had two to get rid of they were returns or models they were fasing out)without a data plan, but I did not want a blackberry.

So I started looking at the HTC 6800 on ebay and Craigs List. It was not the pda I wanted but if I went with this phone I would not have to think about changing carriers when my contract expired. The prices were higher than if the phones were purchased thru US Cellular, but people were buying them. I assumed people like me that wanted the pda and phone but did not want the web. I always asked specific questions "Does the phone and all pda functions (pictures, calendar, contacts, notes, load games and phone) work without the internet. The answer I always received was yes all those functions will work without the web, and you don't have to have the data services. Of course being a PDA phone, I knew they should all work without the web.

I ran across one close to home. The man had purchased it new, April 1, it was more phone than he wanted, there was a problem with answering it at work, and he also wanted to get out of his data service contract, and go back to a regular phone. When he realized I had a razr, he offered to discount his asking price for the trade of my phone. The deciding factor to purchase from this man, he was using the phone as we spoke, and he was more than willing to meet me at a US Cellular store to have our services transferred. Perfect, how could I go wrong, I would know the phone worked and if there were transfer issues I would know before purchasing.

June 16: met Mr Red D. @ the US Cellular store; West Florissant Ave Ferguson MO. Red D., his wife and I were greeted by three store employees. Red and I explained to the reps we wanted to have our phone services switched to each others phone and I was purchasing his HTC 6800. One of the reps said something about having the data services switched. I said " I don't have data service and I don't want data service. "One young man said you have to have the data service to have that phone switched to your service." I specifically replied "IF I HAVE TO HAVE THE DATA SERVICE I DO NOT WANT TO BUY THE PHONE. I don't email, text message or browse the net, I just want the pda functions with phone. I already pay US Cellular $230 to $240 a month for a family plan, I don't want to pay anymore for something I will not use.

Mr Red said "I was told when I purchased the phone I could cancel my data service contract anytime and still have phone. They asked him about purchase date and one of the boys said I will check with my boss. He left then came back a few minutes later, the young man said "You only have to have it for a month, then you can cancel but you have to have the data service to make the switch. I said something to the effect "Oh a one time service fee to have the phone switched over." He replied "YES" I asked the amount, he said 24.95. I asked again "Are your sure? I am more than willing to pay a 24.95 one time fee but I DO NOT WANT TO PAY THIS EVERY MONTH. He said "YES just make sure you call at the end of this month to get it cancelled so you do not go over into another month." He also told me I could not text message without the data service, I said fine I don't text.

So one of the two young men said he would take care of the switch. Red, his wife and I spent about another 30 minutes with this employee while he was transfering phone services. During which I questioned him on being able to load games off my computer onto my cell phone. He assured me I could, all the pda functions and phone were great. When he was done he said "Now don't forget to call to cancel so you don't get charged more than 1 month." I thanked him, paid Mr. D. and left. I went home and started playing with my new phone and toy. I sent my one and only text message ever "Did you get this" and received my first text message "Yes I did" I checked out other functions to make sure everything worked properly. I checked out a couple sites on the phone, definately did not like, too small. Everything works fine.

July 1: I made my first call to have the data service cancelled. When my account was pulled up I was informed by the rep "You have to keep the data service plan with the phone you have, you cannot cancel it." I replied, I bought this phone from an individual I do not have a data service contract, I only have a phone contract, and I do not want the web browser. I believe she said as of August 07 US Cellular requires these phones to have data if you want voice phone. After some discussion she transferred me to another rep.

This rep told me "US cellular only allows these phones to have voice phone without data service after having and paying for a two year data service contract." Applies to blackberries also. I was insistent I wanted the web cancelled, he said to cancel the data services you will have to cancel your phone service. I said "fine cancel my phone contracts" he said "all 5" I said "I dont know, but right now at least this phone." I am making this clear right now I want the web cancelled, if that cancels my phone, then you have cancelled it and I have not" He then says he is not authorized to cancel my phone I needed to talk to a superviser.

I was put in contact with Bill located in Knoxville TN. By this time I was pretty livid, I angrily went thru the whole scenario again and told him "I want the web cancelled, if that cancels my phone then US Cellular is the one breaking the contract, I am not." "I want to honor my phone contract but I will not pay an additonal 25.00 a month on top of my 230.00 for something I do not use and do not want. I do not email, I do not text message and I do not want to browse. I only use mabe 2 hrs at the most a month on voice. Up to this point I had been very happy with us cellular, I bought this phone not wanting to change carriers but if this was not resolved I will have to rethink my decision, when all of our contracts come due. I must say he was calm, cool, very polite and mannerly, and did an excellent job at calming me down, Not one time did he raise his voice or become sharp with me. He was a very nice man and understanding of my side of the issue.

I offered to give him the name and number of Red. He said that was not necessary, he believed my version of the previous conversations with us cellular agents. Given the fact I was given wrong information, by a US Cellular agent he was going to send in a Special form to get this issue taken care of. He was sure US Cellular would not want to lose my business. He said it could take 4 or 5 days before the data service was off. I was concerned about going over the month and he said I called early there would be no additional charges above the 24.95. Said if I had any other problems I could call. I did not speak with Bill after this and I sincerely hope he did not lose his job for trying to do the right thing.

The next couple weeks I kept checking the internet on my phone and the same thing I had pulled up earlier in the month would still be showing on the phone. I decided to wait until I received my bill to see what was going on. I was not sure if the phone was still on the net or if that just stayed there. It was pogo.com or microsoft on there. I did not even try to use my wifi to pogo for fear it would be thru us cellular. My bill date is July 10. I received my bill on Fri or Sat, July 18, or 19. My bill showed a charge of 19.96 for a partial month data service June 16 to July 9. It also showed an additional 24.95 for the following month of July 10 thru August 9. The bill total was 307.61.

Monday July 21: I called US Cellular again and asked to be connected directly to Bill in Knoxville. I was connected to Ron in Knoxville he said Bill was out of the office that day. Went thru the whole story again including conversation with Bill and some kind of form Bill was suppose to have sent in. Ron said it was a Special Remedy form and Bill had indeed submitted the form to a board or somewhere and for some reason there had been no movement on it at all. He was going to check into it, to see what the hold up was, he was sure it could be resolved, it was a no brainer US Cellular would want to keep me as a customer. He would get back to me. He evidently did call back that day but he called the cell phone, not my landline, and I did not notice until late in the day. Somewhere during the conversation, Ron did ask if it was the 24.95 I objected to. I said well YEAH! Why pay for smething I won't use.

July 22:, I called and asked for Ron, he was not available and I left a message that I had called. He called back later that day to say he was still waiting to hear something himself. My impression, was he had talked to his boss and was waiting for a ruling on the special remedy form submitted. He still did not think there would be a problem. I told him I really wanted to get my bill payment in and I needed an to know about the 19.96. I had agreed to pay a one month fee of 24.95 and had no issue with that charge. He looked at the bill to adjust and deduct the 19.96, there was also a 25.00 credit due to my daughter receiving two bad phones from Signal Insurance. Anyway he gave me a total of 260.15. He said he would get back to me as soon as he heard something. I again offered up Red D.'s telephone number, for verification of my story. He said not necessary I was being given the benefit of doubt, and he felt my story was true.

Wed July 23: Spoke with Ron. He suggested I call Red Donaldson to get my phone and my money back, I said he is not going to give me my phone or money back. He said "Oh I thought you said you could call him, I said, "call him to verify the conversations that occurred at the store between the 2 cellular reps, Red, his wife and myself. Ron said they did believe me but I was given bad information. He also suggested if I wanted a pda to get a palm. my reply "Palms don't have cameras." He then asked if I had another phone I could have my service transferred to. My answer was "No!" I purchased and traded my phone inside a US Celluar store in front of a US Cellular reps, after information they gave and assured me, was accurate.

He apologized profusely, for all the misinformation I had been given, but there was nothing that could be done about the situation. He had taken the issue to his boss, his boss had taken it higher. The code they have to make my phone work as a voice phone, will not work on my particular phone. He said it applied to the blackberries also. I believe he said something came out August 07 blackberries and my phone could not have voice service without data service. "Your particular phone will not work as a voice phone without the data service plan." He said a statement was made that no cell phone network will allow data services on a phone for free.

My reply "I dont need data services to make out a grocery list." If these phones will not work without data service then they are not phones. The description of these phones on the US Cellular site does not say they will not work as voice phones without data services. If this is the case this information needs to be put out to the public, because it is fraudulent advertising to call these phones if they cannot work without an internet plan. I know I am not the only person out there that wants one of these phones as a pda with telephone, and personal use only gadget without the web browsing and internet. People are buying these on ebay for the very same reason I bought from an individual.

I looked at and considered dropping my minutes from 2100 to 1400 which is 20.00 difference. to offset the 24.95 data charge, however our used peak minutes is right around 1100, I told him that would be taking chances, and I did not want to get caught paying 25 cents a minute if I went over. I was going to have to think this over. I was and I am not happy. Again I will say Ron was also polite, easy to talk to. I also asked if they had a lower price data service plan. Evidently not. As I told Ron I would have preferred to purchase the phone new with warranty and insurance. Ron said I could still have it insured, but after all the different things I have been told over a 4 month period, I think it best to wait and see if this problem has a resolution.

Thurs July 24: Since I was just told I would not have voice phone unless I paid an additional 24.95 dollars a month I called to have my phone number suspended. I do not want to accrue charges for something I will not use and do not want. I can have my number suspended for up 60 days, it will extend my contract 2 months. I do not have a problem with the extension as long as there is a resolution to this problem. I do not know the name of the last customer service agent I talked to, however this one was short and sharp. I did tell her I had sent a note to contactus@htc.com she said htc had no control over how the cell networks operated regarding the phones. I also told her I would be contacting the better business bureau, asked that my message be forwarded to Ron.

My note to HTC has to do with my being told that my particular phone will not work without an internet plan. If the phone doesn't work without the web, then it is not a pda phone it is an internet only device. If it is an internet only device that should be stated in advertisements because calling it a phone is misleading and fraudulent. I also stated I did not believe what I am being told about the phone and I would like to hear from them if this were true. I kept a copy of my note. I received an acknowledgement email of note received, I have not heard a single word since. I think my note is being ignored and I am being avoided like the plague.

Since having my phone suspended I have checked the net on my phone several times and I cannot get on to pogo or us cellular thru the web browser, which is good I do not want to get on. I was told my phone would not work without the data service, so how is it I can dial up US Cellular and and be connected to their whole recorded options menu and even speak to a customer service rep on the phone. The phone will connect whether I dial their 611 number, or the 1-888- number. Any number I dial will ring up US Cellular So it appears my phone does work without the data services on the phone.

US Cellular does not want to honor my phone contract, unless I pay an additional 24.95 a month for data service, that contradicts what US Cellular reps told me prior to purchase. My phone and data service has been suspended (turned off)yet my phone can dial up US Cellular and connect with a customer service agent. In addition I take issue with the way the phones pricing is being advertised on line, it is misleading.

Their online description should state the phone will not be sold without the data plan.

If the phones really will not work without the data service, then their on-line description should state that fact. If the phone will work without the data plan then I also take issue with their refusal to sell phones without a two year data service contract. If it is a phone sell it as a phone with contract. Data Service should be an optional addition. Internet should not be mandatory to purchase. It is wrong and bamboozling the consumer into additional contracts. I may be an old school baby boomer, but I don't believe the definition of phone has changed. If voice phone relies on internet then that phone needs a new name or companies better redefine phone in their descriptions of such phones.

Not all of the country is business people, some of us are just very busy housewives and moms that take care of numerous people in numerous places. Not everyone that wants a pda phone are internet junkies, some of us are just middle aged baby boomers that want to use a fraction of the convenient features these phones have. None of us wants to pay for something they will not use. I did not just dive into this purchase blind, I made 3 trips to stores and I asked direct questions of US Cellular employees and now they want to charge me for the very questions I asked and statements I made up front before purchase. Based on the several visits I made to the stores and the questions I asked of US Cellular reps prior to purchase I should not have to be taking the time to deal with this issue now.

I read the description of this phone on the cellular site numerous times while I was looking and trying to decide what to do. No where in the description does it say the voice phone is dependent on a data service or the phone will cease to work as a voice phone if you decide not to renew the data service plan at the end of 2 yrs. THE FOLLOWING IS US CELLULARS ONLINE DESCRIPTION AND PRICING ON THE PHONE

This is misleading. It sounds like you can purchase the phone with phone contract until you visit the store and you cannot without a web contract also.

My phone is slated to be reactivate Sep 21 when it does I will not pay 24.95 for data services I do not want. I will not pay taxes or late fees for that 24.95. And I will not cancel my phone or pay 150.00 cancellation fee for 1 phone let alone 5. Based on my efforts to get the right info and the fact my decision to buy this particular pda used was so I could stay with this cell phone company, I thought was the best cell company I had ever been with. This whole situation is just PLAIN WRONG. I have told so many people how happy I had been with US Cellular and now I am just extremely disappointed, I am being forced into this situation, to file a complaint. I had phone suspended so as not to accrue charges for something I do not want and something I was told I would not have to have

I have called U.S. Cellular Corporate about this, and although they admitted that there was a problem with their system and knew they had over billed me,(the $128.50 payment will be paid twice; it is included again in the $273.09 payment); They themselves could not release the funds back into my account without Bank Of America signing a statement that they would honor the payments. Bank Of America refused. Althought these payments were posted to my account, and obviously being paid, Bank Of America claimed they had to wait three days before they could honor the payments.

To anyone who loves the idea of "Debit", don't do it. I am learning a very hard lesson. One authorization gave this company enough power to wreak havoc on my account and there is nothing I can do. My Bank can't even help me. To me, this is Identity theft, and stealing. They are being allowed to do whatever they want to my account and it's to the tune of $423.59 and climbing. I received no notice that they were taking the payment out of my account. The times that they claim I accessed my account and authorized payments would be impossible for me to do, I was working at the time. No other person has the I.D. or password. I set payment up with my debit card, but they did not submitt payment using the card. They some how got a hold of my banking account numbers and authorized payment using them.

I actually was going to report the card stolen to stop the payments, and Bank Of America told me that the payments were done using my checking account numbers. I don't know how they got ahold of them. When I asked U.S. Cellular to provide me with authorization to use my checking account numbers, they told me that they cannot provide me with that information. When I asked for a copy of the dates and time that I authorized the payments, they could not give me that information either. Each person I talked too, when I asked for their full name, I was told they could not provide that information due to the privacy act. What about mine? I can't even get them to provide me with information about my account, but they sure know alot.

Don't deal with these people. I have filed a complaint with BBB, Consumeraffairs, Attorney Generals office, and here I am doing it again. I am so angry that I am looking for monetary compensation for having to fix a problem that is not mine to begin with, nor did I create it. My account is now $423.59 short of money I was counting on to pay other bills. Over and above these payments fess of $105.00 have been added due to overdrafts. My husband had to get an advance of $80.00 just so that he could continue to work. If he did not he would of lost his job. I am taking an emergency trip, my father is having surgery, I had to borrow the funds in order to make this trip.

This is not possible, I had to work that day and was scheduled to be in at 1:00. One payment for $150.00 is for the month of August: They do not know how or why I am being charged for August since it is not August. The $273.09 includes a second payment of $128.50, they will recieve that payment twice.

These payments totalling: $551.59 have placed my account in the negative. Additional overdraft fees of $105.00 have also been placed on my account. My bank has been trying to help resolve the problem and has replace two of the three payments, I had to sign an affidavit stating I did not authorize these payments. My account is still in a negative due to the overdraft fees. My husband had to request an advance on his paycheck so that he could continue to work. He is an over the road operator, very embarrassing to have to ask for such help.

I had told US Cellular reps that if they did not remove these payments, I would consider this stealing and Identity theft. I also told them that those payments have wreaked so much havoc on my account that if they don't remove them I will be living on the street by next week. They offered no resolution.

I wasnt buying that excuse. He said, well I can offer you a new phone of which he recommended the LG UX 260. This phone as it turned out was worse than the Motorolla phones with continual software issues of which I was told after calling Matt at the Orland Park store, to come in and a software upgrade would need to be done. My question is, why wasn't this done in the first place? I was told that it was an issue with an entire batch of phones bought by US Cellular and that US Cellular doesn't know what phones are faulty and which are good. So that said, I had to go out of town for a few days to a hot climate with this faulty phone. Once down in the hotter climate, I left my phone in my car where the heat "supposedly" cracked my screen on the phone due to the fluid in the screen expanding from the heat.

Now I'm sorry here, but aren't phones supposed to withstand the heat that is on EARTH?! Isn't that what they were made for? I remember old phones such as Nokia's could be dropped off a building and still be ok. Not a new US Cellular phone though. I was told I would need to file an insurance claim of which I would be billed the $50 deductable for. Matt assured me that US Cellular would reimburse me the $50 as a "good faith credit". I received my next LG UX 260 phone days later. Upon activation, I began having problems with the new phone almost instantly such as the phone's processor running slow or locking up all together and a hairline crack appeared at the top of the screen.

I called Matt back at the Orland Park/Tinley Park store and was told to once again bring this phone back and he would take care of the problem. I came back in irrate on a Friday afternoon after the phone this time locked itself up and was told that he would issue me a $10 credit for the hassel, but he could do nothing and that I would need to come back another time when the tech was in. I said fine and that when I got a chance I would be back. Nothing has been resolved as of yet. I had to file another insurance claim at $50 and have a loaner phone. DON'T BUY A US CELLULAR PHONE! WORST ON THE MARKET.

Today, I took my phone to work with me where I work in an office and had my phone alone by itself in my FRONT pocket of my pants and had not used it all day. At my time of departure from work I took my phone out of my pocket to use it and noticed that the screen's small crack had spread down the length of the screen and the new phone only 3 weeks old, was now un-useable. I called the US Cellular store from a work phone and was told to bring it in to the Harlem Ave location and that they would have to look at it and get me a loaner phone. I arrived and was told that I have been abusing the phone, and they would do nothing for me. I pointed out that there are no scratches on the phone and that the original packaging is still attached to the phone. I was told that I must have sat on the phone. I said, "I'm sorry I don't usually sit on my front, its kinda hard to do so" and that this phone was not used all day. So, after many people looking at the phone, they agreed that this phone was NOT abused, but still would do nothing due to the fact that there was physical damage to the phone and that I would need to file another insurance claim.

I called customer service where once again I was told that I must have dropped the phone. I told the woman on the phone that I never even took the phone out of my pocket, nor did I sit on or fall on the phone. She said sorry, the best I can do is offer you $20 for your trouble. I told her that I just wanted out of this contract so I could go somewhere that has "real" phones. Again no luck. So, after dealing with customer service over the phone from within the US Cellular store, I was then told, "sorry we ran out of loaner phones and you need to go to the other Orland Park store". BOTTOM LINE... DON'T BUY A US CELLULAR PHONE!!! WORST PHONES ON THE MARKET!!!

US Cellular says I owe them $150.00 for cancelling my contract, then they said they would reduce it to $75.00 but I think this is still unfair because I was told my contract would be over July 7, 2008.

About a year later our son's phone was water damaged. We found out that only then that US Cellular has a seperate company called The Signal that handles there insurance issues. So we called The signal and paid the $ 50 deductable and a rebuilt phone arrived in three days. After about two weeks this phone's flaws started showing. One the battery won't stay charged. This is probably because the charger connection is now loose. The volume on the side of the phone doesn't work correctly either.

So we call the signal. We find out they only warrenty their phones for 5 days. If I wanted to exchage this phone, I would have to pay another $50. I noticed on e-bay that this phone is being sold new for $49. If they ask you if you want the insurance, just say no. Its a rip-off. US Cellular used to be a great company. Now I don't think I could recommend them.

We paid $6 a month for a year, ($72) plus $ 50 for a used phone that doesn't work properly. Thats $122 for a phone that can be purchased new for $49 on e-bay.

So, I went to the US Cellular store in Brunsw3ick. I told them of my experience at the Topsham store. They told me "that was retail" like that makes it right. Thy checked my phone to make sure it had not been damaged by water. It had not. Then I was given the same choices I had been given before. I was in tears...no way can I afford $85 for a new phone. I wrote to thm online...pretty much the same story. So now I amexpected to pay for a phone...that does not have any of the features I have to pay for. That is not fair. I have a son in the Navy..overseas...I can't even get a call from him should there be any trouble...how could that be right?

Upon arriving, contacted US Cellular to see what we could do about our service, they informed us at that time they did not service this area. We had to cancel their service and take a local provider. I received a letter about a month later from US Cellular that we owe a cancellation fee of $150. I explained to them we had to move for employment purposes, and cancelled only because they did not service this area. They basically said "Tough" cancel your contract and you pay. I have called 4 times, speaking to one supervisor after another, written numerous letters to them and to the Collection company they have turned it over to. They won't budge.

Many years ago we had Sprint, when my husband was trasferred out of state, and they could not provide us with service, they told us the contract was cancelled and no fees would be charged because THEY could not provide us service, not because we chose to dump them. This is the same case with US Cellular, however they want their money.

I don't feel I should have to pay when it is they who cannot provide me service here. We offered to return the phones, they did not want them and refused. Its now on my credit report, they've addedd another $50 so I owe $200 at the moment and they are calling me once a week for payment. I am not paying, I don't care if it is on my credit forever, its the principle of the thing.

My phone does not work unless I plugged it in. I use it for business calls mostly and internet access.

I called us cellular as soon as I rec'd a call from a collection agency and us cellular told me my account is fine and upto date! I rec'd a collection letter and I again called US cellular and now the acknowlege that an acct was sent to collections and they can't help me that I have to deal with the collection agency! I went to US Cellular were I started the contract and the rep said that she sees what happended were they applied my pymts to the new acct and not the old and mentioned a disconnection and I told her the number was never disconnected and she said that the manager said that there is NOTHING they can help me with that I should have contacted them earlier! which I contacted them as soon as I rec'd the collection letter and they had said my account was fine! This has put a stain on my credit and I don't think this is fair. This also happended to someone I work with. They are very messing and very unfair.

My credit has been stained. One of my credit cards which I had a $3,000 credit line has lowered it to $300.00 because it has been reported that a deliquent bill has been reported to the credit agency.

I told them that I had been told by US Cellular that I had been paid in full. They said it wasn't true, yet refused to send me proof of the bill. US Cell said they could no longer legally look at the account. I was stuck. I was VERY upset about this and let them know it. I told them my father had had a massive stroke in Oct. and that this was very stressful. They said, Lady we all have problems in a VERY rude way. I paid it just to try to save my credit. I'd been with them for 10 years. I only canceled because my son is now paying for my service with Verizon. I will NEVER go back to US Cellular. No heart, and incompetence.

US Cellular is the only bad mark on my credit report. They refused to send me proof of the bill being owed and my hands were tied. I paid a bill that I still feel I didn't owe.

And when we contacted US Cellular to see what was going on, their response was, the other company owns the contract now, so it's not our problem. Problem is that this account was PAID IN FULL on the last date they had payment made.

Besides them trying to get an additional $172, this collection agency notice goes on our credit rating.

I spoke with several people at USC about this and apparently they feel they are justified in charging me $150 for a contract that had less than 6 months remaining. Personally had I known this in advance I would have done things differently. All I can do now is pay the charge, NEVER USE US CELLULAR AGAIN, and tell everyone I can what a bogus company they are. I hope this info will help someone else before they end up having to pay $150 for a phone number.

I lost $360.30 that was promised to be refunded to me.

I go in to the store, expecting to NOT pay a deposit because I had now lived here for one year. The credit department told the sales guy I still had to pay a $100 deposit because 8 of 12 of my last monthly payments had been late! I was shocked. I always mail my bill in 3-5 business days before it's due.

Apparently they count a bill as received when they get around to posting it, NOT when they receive it. Therefore, if you don't want to be late you have to send the bill 10-12 days in advance. The only reason I was using regular mail is that they offer no online electronic payment service. This company is way behind the times.