U.S. Cellular / United States Cellular
reviews and complaints

This is the complaint that I just submitted to US Cellular: I am extremely upset with your company and do plan on changing carriers. We had a past due balance of $137. I called on Nov 9 and made a pmt of $110 over the phone with my debit card. I told the rep that all I had available that day was the $110. I also told her I was working out of town and would not be home until Sat Nov 13 and that I would pay the remaining $27 online that afternoon. I go to leave the hotel this morning and my truck wouldn't start. I try to call for help and guess what, my phone has been shut off. 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 definetly 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.

my piece of craps phone totally died after i dropped it, not that it wasnt dying anyway..i made an insurance claim but the denyed it even though i pay insurance and my bill monthly.. the ended up telling me my claim was bogus and to by a new phone. even after i threatened to leave their service.. the also told me that that they were inface willing to sell me a used phone, i guess to ease my pain..

i took the time to send their customer service dept. a complaint.. here is their response and a response from a friend of mine after i forwarded the mail to her..

HI Allan,

I am sorry to learn of your interest in canceling your U.S. Cellular Service. We strive to provide great service to all of our customers. You have been a customer with us for two years, and I regret to learn we may lose you. Your business is valuable to us and I would be happy to resolve any issues so you may stay with U.S. Cellular.

I know how important it is to receive a prompt resolution for your request. I would like to apologize for the delay with our response. While it is our goal to respond in a timely manner, due to an overwhelming amount of emails we were unable to meet our usual response time of 1-3 business days.

After reviewing your account, we show a claim was filed (claim # [protected]) August 2010 for mechanical breakdown. On August 8, 2010 we called insurance representative stated that the claim was filed online and typed on incident form "screen won't work". When our representative contacted you to gain more information regarding the incident it was stated that there was physical damage. But when filed the initial claim online it was noted no damage or incident occurred. I understand how frustrating it is to experience problems when filing an insurance claim.

Allan, when a customer file an online claim there are specific questions of what is wrong with equipment and if anything has happened. Your claim was submitted as "No". When contacted regarding the claim it was mentioned that the phone was dropped. Allan, because of the many false claims the insurance company get, once a claim is filed, information cannot be changed. That is the reason the claim was denied. We are not accusing you personally of filing a bogus claim.

We truly hope you can understand the importance of providing accurate information with any carrier and we are not personally attacking your character. Customer satisfaction has always been our company’s primary goal. We strive to provide all of our customers with the ideal experience in all dealings with our company. I recognize we did not meet these expectations when you spoke with our Customer Service Department or your visit to our store I can understand the frustration it caused.

Allan, have you heard about our Overage Protection service? With Overage Protection, we will send a Text Message directly to your phone alerting you to potential overages before they happen. This feature monitors both your minute and text message usage, and is a great back up plan in case you have an emergency or a big event that causes you to use more minutes or texts than normal. You truly get peace of mind in knowing you will not get a surprise on your bills. Best of all this service is totally free of charge. To receive these alerts, you may enroll though our Customer Service Department at the number provided below, online at http://www.uscellular.com/myaccount or at your local U.S. Cellular store. To find a store near you, please visit our website at http://www.uscellular.com/storefinder and enter your ZIP code. Additional information about our Overage Protection service can be found here: http://www.uscellular.com/overageprotection.

Allan, I sincerely hope you change your mind about leaving U.S. Cellular® and allow us the opportunity to regain your loyalty and trust in our service and products. If you have any further concerns or questions please do not hesitate to contact our Customer Service Department at the number referenced below and we will be there to help. For more immediate assistance you may contact our Customer Service Department at [protected] or 611 from your U.S. Cellular phone. Our store associates will also be glad to help if you prefer to stop by a store. To find a store near you simply enter your ZIP code at http://www.uscellular.com/storefinder. We appreciate your business and look forward to assisting you in the future.

Sincerely,

Cliff R.
Customer Resolutions Support
U.S. Cellular

Wow, I'm astounded that US Cellualr isn't willing to work thru an insur claim mix up to keep your business...incredible. The fact that it would cost them next to nothing to resolve the issue and retain u as a customer. makes their response even more incredible. It's crystal clear that u are in fact not a valued customer and complaints aren't handled on a case by case basis. Of course the company's true interest lies in profit. Profit begins and ends with customer satisfaction. When a customer takes the time and effort to complain extra consideration needs to be given. US Cellualr does not want your business. I'm ..###'em [censored]. Wow.

A couple of years ago we moved to an area that u s cellular did not service so we were unable to use our cell phones because we could not get a reliable signal. I called uscellular and their only response was to tell me how much longer I had on my contract. 6 months. We paid for the service for the next six months while not being able to use our phones, except for our daughter who was away at college. When the time was up I called and told them I wanted to cancel my plan. The csr was very nice and told me I only had to pay my current balance and my service would cancel at the end of the month. This we did. We chose another carrier and plan. Our daughter wanted to keep her number which we did. 2 months later I received a bill from uscellular for $150. Then a credit for $34. I called and asked why I was being charged for a service I no longer had and was told because we "ported" the phone number. I wrote and email in complaint that cell phone companies were not allowed to penalize customers in this manner. I received a reply that it was not because we kept the number but that we did not cancel the service since we kept the number and my daughter had 5 months left on her phone even though it was a family plan. I did not pay the account, I am now being hounded by collection slime, 2 years later. I again contacted uscellular and I am being charged $175. They said it was because they needed to recoup money from the "free" phones they give. If I had been told this originally I would have just returned the phone to them, because as we all know you can not use a phone from a different provider. They have given me 3 different answers to the same question. U s celluar is the worst cell phone provider. Do not use them no matter what. They charge for service they do not supply and then keep on charging.

The two lowest-price phones offered by US Cellular, both LG models, do not allow the user to be notified if a voice call was missed.

LG says this change was made per US Cellular specifications. If you want this basic feature you have to pay US Cellular at least an additional $50.00 for a phone with this feature. The local sales staff were not aware that this feature was removed from the latest LG phones. Their customer service said this was a "free" feature, and because of that I was not due any compensation. At a minimum they should warn people that this feature was removed.

Back last year in July 2008 I had gone into U.S. Cellular and paid my monthly bill of $82. My mistake was that for the first time I paid it in cash because I had not run by the bank to deposit the cash into my account. Two months go buy and I get my bill stating that I owe over double what I normally have to pay. Everyday I had collection agencies calling me saying I needed to pay this bill that I had already paid for in July. The person I paid the cash to had pocketed my money, and I didnt have the receipt to prove it. It taught me a huge lesson to never pay in cash and to really hold on to EVERY receipt.

I have been a customer of UC Cellular for a few years now and have not been so disgusted with a company in a very long time until today...Once, I tried to make a phone call today it stated that my service had been interrupted for non payment. Now, it has been pretty rough lately for my family and I, so a few weeks ago I had contacted US Cellular to make a pay pmt plan (they only give you 3 payment plans per year)...I explained that I would pay my bill last week in full...Stuff happened and I was not able to pay the full balance, but I did in fact pay my past due balance which was almost half of what I originally owed them last week..Today, when I'm trying to make a call, it states that my phone service has been interrupted due to non pmt...It then directed me to a representative..I verified all my personl info with this person...I ask why they shut my service off, she tells me due to what i currently owe...i said i made a past due balance pmt last week which your company so graciously took..she says, well your pmt plan was set up for balance in full and since that it was not paid in full as agreed they turned your service off...Now, I ask if they could turn it back on and set me up with another pmt plan and she says no...I'm like, looking at my acct i know you can see that i have been a longtime customer and for the most part i pay my bills on time...i finally hung up on her and then called back in to speak to a manager and he would not even help me...What kind of cell phone company shuts your service off after you paid on your bill and when times are hard?! I could see if I never paid my bill, but i do pay my bill...I even told them that I would pay the rest of my balance at the end of the month...So, now they would rather not care about their customers during these rough times..That is not customer service in my eyes and I would never refer a friend or family member to deal with a company like US Cellular!

U. S. Cellular are the biggest scam artists! We were sucked into their service by the supposedly low fees. In the first month the phone went bad but instead of telling my teenage son it was a recalled phone they made he pay cash to get a new phone and told us we could not cancel our service because we had damaged the phone. This was all within 3 weeks of getting the service. In a two year time frame we had to buy phones, of course they never were warranted, some were rebuilt in store where we had to pay cash. After enduring 23 months of service so we could complete the contract my sons phone was stolen. We we notified U S Cellular they said because it was so close to the end of the contract we would not be billed for that service. Approximately 6 to 8 months later I started to get collection calls. They said the phone wasn't stolen and that I not only owed for the last month but for the crazy cancellation fee. Three years later after I thought it had been resolved I am getting collection calls again on my cell with a number that I had for over 10 years same provider.

My daughter signed a contract for a cell phone and even though she does not live at this address and didn't when she signed up and didn't ask for permission to use such information I seem to be now trapped when she failed to pay her bill. I recieve at the very least 5 calls per day for the past three weeks. They come at different times of the day. I called the number twice that they leave and they tell me that since I am not the contract holder I am not authorized to change any information on the account. May be a good thing however Why then am I 'AUTHORIZED' to receive the calls. I would probably have let the matter play it's self out however I was recently injured at work and I am home most of the day and night and I sleep when ever I can because the pain from my injury doesn't allow me to keep any sleep schedule. My problem is that when I spoke to the company they told me that it wasn't their responsibility to check out every customer I believe it should be mandatory for the emergency contact number to be checked and if it isn't in the same name of the would be contract holder then the person it does belong to should have to sign that part of the contract' before 'their name or number or address can be USED for such purposes. Please see if there are any guidelines that cover this type of harrassment.. You have helped me not to long ago with a problem I had with AT&T and that problem has not returned.

U.S. Cellular offers rebates on new phone purchases. This is the second time that I have applied for different rebates on two different new phone purchases. I have gone thru the headache of double checking to make sure that I have enclosed all of the information that they require. This is the second rebate that they are saying I will not get due to not submitting all of the information. They will not accept a photo copy of the UPC code off of the phone. How can I send the ORIGINAL a SECOND time? What a SCAM! I am not alone in this situation~check out the U. S Cellular website. There are a ton of complaints listed there for the same reason. Don't expect to get a rebate~unless you are one of the lucky ones!

For the last 2-3 months we've received a recorded message for "Christopher Stokes" and instructed to press 1 to connect. After ignoring the persistent call (1-2 times a day), we attempted on two different occasions to explain to the "operator" that there was obviously a mistake - there's no one by that name living here. The individuals were extremely rude, arguing that C.S. had identified our phone number as a contact. Furthermore, when I requested to be removed from the call list, I was advised that I would continue to receive the calls and was disconnected. I contacted US Cellular on 6/5/09 and talked with Desiree who assured me the phone number would be removed from the system. We are still receiving the harassing phone calls today (6/15/09).

I was ripped off by us cellular. I decided to change my cell phone company because I needed nation wide coverage. Well I called and canceled and payed my bill up to date. Note: I was with this provider for eight years. I then turned off my phone and it went into a drawer. Now a year later I went to a bank to get a home loan and was denied. Apparently I owed US Cellular for some reason. I called the company and started to get this resolved. They informed me that they couldn't even talk to me because they had sold my account to a collection company. Remember they never sent me a bill or called my LAN line to tell me my account was still on or past due. Even though I called and canceled my account. They told me I never called to have it turned off. I actually did twice because I had friends who had a problem that was the same as my current problem. Well then I called the Collection company, This was a huge joke. They harassed me to settle my account and kept calling after They had my phone#. They told me to call US Cellular to settle the problem. So I did. They again told me to call the collection agency. So again I did. Again they told me to Call US Cellular. I finally got through to some manager type at US Cellular, She told me I would have to have a court ordered subpoena for them to let me see or talk to me about my own account information. Well for a couple hundred dollars I am not going to get a lawyer involved. So I called back the collection agency and talked them down 40% to settle the account. I felt robbed, They had held me hostage with my credit just to make a few hundred bucks. Now my credit is trashed and I cant buy a house. So I have decided to make my life a vendeta against this evil cooperation. I have talked to about 20 other previous customers of US Cellular. This happens to 1 in 3 US Cellular customers when they try to cancel their accounts. My next step will be to talk to my congressman, and get a lawyer involved to start a class action lawsuit.

I signed up for a cell phone for just myself because US Cellular wanted a $100 per phone deposit. A couple of weeks later, when I could afford it, I got a second phone for my daughter with a 250 text messaging plan on her phone. They neglected to tell us that the 250 minutes would be prorated since it was in the middle of the plan. When I called to check on her usage 3 days later, they informed me she was over by 15 messages at 25 cents each.

After much arguing they agreed to back date the text package and up it to a 700 message package for 9.99. When I called to check on it again, they informed me that that was also a prorated amount and now I owed them 34.00 extra in text messages. This was within the first 30 days in which I was going to cancel the account because they were ripping me off right off the bat at every turn. Customer service said, 'Go Ahead'. So, I went into the store, very upset and handed them the two phones, explained what was going on and they said they would handle it.

They contacted US Cellular and spoke with several managers and finally got them to approve back dating to an unlimited plan, so there would be NO overages on my daughter's text messaging. They informed me they were giving me a $10.00 credit toward that, so basically I would receive the unlimited plan for the first month for the price of the 250 plan. I just received my bill and they have charged me $304.27 for text messaging. There are also ambiguous charges that aren't explained, one being for 9.99 on my phone, and another for some Sony Music Player on my Daughers phone for 12.99, and something called easy edge charges of 46.98.

I was also promised $50.00 in additional Credits for my trouble with customer service. The bill shows the original $10.00 credit (for the text messaging), but no other credits were issued.

Buyer Beware, these people will promise you anything to keep you in that contract beyond the 30 days grace period, but when you get your bill... let's just say, you better be a very wealthy person. I have never experienced this type of fraud to this extreme so quickly with a cellular provider.

This company is trying to collect 922.95 dollars from me after I had informed them I was moving to Az. and their services weren't available there. I had completed all but 2 months of my 2 year contract with them and gave the store in Owasso, Ok. my forwarding address in Az. and informed them I would pay the service in full until my contract was up, then asked them to discontinue my service at that time.They told me that was fine and apologized that they couldn't serve me there in Az.I was never contacted by them again. They instead sent a collection letter to my in-laws home address in Owasso, Ok saying I owed them this un-godly amount of money and on top of that they reported it to my credit. I have called them and all they can say is that they have already turned it over for collections and it is out of their hands. They did however tell me that they showed a note on my acct. that I had contacted them and it was probably overlooked. I am appalled at this company, they have basically told me 'Too Bad' it is out of their hands now and my credit is now damaged because of them.I have no where to turn now and no hope of clearing it up without just paying all this money for their mistake.Help me please!

We have had a contract service for 4 phones with USC for 4 years. We recently ended up getting our svc shut off after a bout with unemployment. (Note that we knew we were running behind, but had no warning from USC, and my emails asking them to work with us were met with a form of "bummer".) When I emailed to find out what it would cost to get them turned back on, I was given a quote of $300! OMG. If I had that much, I would not have been late with the bill.

Anyway, we needed some cellular service, and could not pay that price, so ended up going with Cricket prepay phones (another disaster!). We ended up spending $270 between three people to get the phones and one month of service. Of course, I realize after the fact that if we waited another month, we could have reinstated USC for that cost.

Anyway, Cricket is horrid in IL - rarely does the phone ring, etc etc, but that is another post. We went in to a local USC office to see exactly how much it would take to get our phones back on. Our outstanding amt was only $150! BUT... they are charging us a $25 reconnect fee PER PHONE and a $10 REINSTATEMENT fee PER PHONE to get them back on.

You would think after four years of service, they could waive a fee or would have worked with us in general on the bill to begin with. Not so - they just don't give a rip. We were not too torn up at first about losing the phones, since USC is one of the very few carriers where you cannot download a simple ringtone (you can, but only if you pay $10/month per phone to get their special access, then pay an ADDITIONAL amount per ringtone!).

BUT - this is where it gets even more fun - they are one of the few carriers that actually have a signal in Illinois. This state is so messed up on phones and telecommunications! There are palms greasing palms somewhere, because the restrictions are amazing.

So, I STILL do not know where the phone rep got the amount they were giving me on our account balance - it was much more than we really owed. We ended up wasting quite a bit of money trying another service that never worked, that we could have put towards the bill in the first place. (We had only needed to wait 3 more weeks for a first paycheck on the new job when they had shut us off for missing a payment.) It took going in to a physical location to get things straightened out

So, if you are stuck with US Cellular as your phone company, do NOT believe the phone rep - go in to a place in person. The service will be much more effective, and there won't be mystery amounts added to the bill.

US Cellular - www.uscellular.com

I have had an account with US Cellular for several years. The account was opened in Illinois and primarily used in Illinois until I had to go to georgia in july because my mother was terminally ill. The lg phone that I purchased mid contract (I mention this because us cellular doesn't offer any discounts or promotions on phones if you need to replace it. While in georgia for almost four months I incurred some overages. I was charged for roaming which was one of the reasons I purchased the lg phone. The agent told me I would never have roaming charges with this phone. I called to request a better plan. Where I would not incur the $700 and $1300 telephone bills. Mind you my mom was dying and I trusted the service representative to give me a decent plan. I returned to illinois to find that I had a $1300 plus phone bill. I have tried talking to customer service without ant satisfaction. They pretty much tell me they can't honor what previous representatives have told. My service has been disconnected and referred to collections. Today I went to the us cellular company near my home in illinois and saw that they have an unlimited nationwide plan for 199.00. If this is the case, why would I be billed for $1300 when I asked and thought I had the best plan. Certainly I was foolish for trusting someone else to take care of my plan and provide me with something I could afford but this was the most challenging time of my life. I really feel that I have bee taken advantage of by us cellular after being a loyal customer.

When I was in NC I had US Cellular phone service for several years. My phone kept disconnecting and they said a new phone would pull in all the new towers.

I accepted a new phone, not knowing that it renewed my OLD contract, which had all kinds of original "agreements" that was not on the new sheet they had me sign. Several months later I accepted a job in Florida and guess what--US Cellular isn't IN Florida. When I have phone problems where do I go--nowhere. I'm still being billed NC utility tax and haven't lived there for over a year! Although I've payed many times the value for this phone (very basic--no flip, no camera, no nothing--it's a PHONE!), they insist on wanting to charge me a $200 cancellation fee. I dug through my old files and sure enough, on the ORIGINAL contract, they said if I moved to where they weren't TUFF! All the numbers have now rubbed off this phone. This summer as soon as June rolls around I'm going to throw the damn thing as hard as I can into the Atlantic!