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My problems with US Cellular (as a consumer)

mrclean355

Feb 22, 2008, 3:00 AM
1. Customer service is not that great. US Cellular built itself on a reputation of customer service, but has lost a good portion of what once made it special.

I used to frequent the US Cellular in Aurora on Farnsworth, which is a company store. Since they let go of their sales manager a couple of months ago, service has become terrible. I walk in and nobody even looks up from their internet for at least five minutes. Then, when I pull out my Blackberry and start to ask questions about problems I am having with it, they immediately tell me call smartphone support. Nobody in the store is qualified to help me with this phone. Are you freaking kidding me? A company store and they can't even trouble shoot with me. I have been a US...
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knoxvegas75

Feb 22, 2008, 10:21 AM
1. You are absolutly right, you should be able to go to a corporate store (especialy one with a tech) and be able to trouble shoot a blackberry, its not like we have not been carrying them for over two years. Overall We do have customer support that is FAR above the industry standard.
here are some examples:

- 18/20 renew time VS. 22 month industry average
- Sprint fired over 1000 of its Customers because they called CS to much
- Verizon was rated in 2006 to have the worst customer service in telecomunications not wireless.
- At&t cant make up its mind what they want to be called it was at&t and then for a while it was cingular and wait no we want to be at&t again. This has created a ton of issues for billing and making customers ...
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mrclean355

Feb 22, 2008, 3:25 PM
Okay, so not only do I have to spend $500.00 on a US Cellular Branded Blackberry, but I have to pay monthly fee of $25 to use the software package I just spent $500 on. Do you see why, from a consumers prospective this makes no sense? I buy a computer and the programs I need to make it functional for me. Unless I am renting the program or have a program that is service intensive, I don't have to spend more each month to use what I just bought. Simply because "everyone is doing it" does not make it right or good customer policy.

Plus, US Cellular has been horrible about continuing to support it's older phones. I had a Kyocera 7135 and two months after I got it, US Cellular stopped supporting it as the first Blackberries were making th...
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usccindiana

Feb 22, 2008, 4:04 PM
I understand where you're coming from. I work for US Cellular and don't really support the policy for data. This, however, is the primary reason for it: if you get a Blackberry (retail $500) on contract, you are getting that phone for $200 and get $100 Mail-in-Rebate. US Cellular has to make up for the $400 you just cost them. Hence, the data plan requirement. A normal phone ($300, you get less a percentage back in the form of contract incentive). If you purchase a smart phone outright at contract price, I don't think they should require you to have the data plan.

On the phone issue, I also hear you. That is the #1 complaint about US Cellular is that our phones aren't trendy enough. We do have more than 20 phones coming out this y...
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8091nafsbuc

Feb 22, 2008, 7:27 PM
To touch on the first point of the original message...

I apologize for any mistreatment you have received at the Aurora location on Farnsworth Ave.

My name is Steve and I am an associate at that location. I would be more than happy to spend the required time with you to help you better understand anything about US Cellular, ranging from Blackberry help to different policies and why they are in place.

Feel free to stop in and talk to me.
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mattuwo

Mar 27, 2008, 1:14 AM
Steve,

I am happy that you did what you just did in this post, it makes me feel warm inside. 🙂

Also, if you have questions about Blackberry or Windows Mobile, let me know anytime. I am a Smartphone SME in Wisconsin.

Thanks for proving customer service is something we value.

Matt M. (R040)

PS. Look me up in the store manager directory under that location code if you want to email me.
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underground1

Feb 22, 2008, 7:35 PM
USCCIndiana....How can you say the following with a staight face: "if you get a Blackberry (retail $500) on contract, you are getting that phone for $200 and get $100 Mail-in-Rebate. US Cellular has to make up for the $400 you just cost them."

US Cellular is choosing to offer the phone at a huge discount....no one is forcing them to do it and no one is telling them what they have to charge for the device. Just because it is US industry standard is not a compelling enough argument. Any subsidy offerred to the consumer is factored in over the term of the subscription agreement whether or not the phone or pda has a data plan attachment and a substantial profit is generated in months 12-24 of the 2 year agreement. IF the agreement is termi...
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HDTVDinner

Feb 22, 2008, 8:47 PM
Okay, so who is it that is forcing you to get a Blackberry? Sounds to me like you are the one Choosing to purchase it. You can choose to pay full retail, or subsidy pricing, no one forces you to do either, Unless of course your not eligible for subsidy. Then you would be "forced" to choose rather or not you want one at retail price.
Also help me understand how the $150 ETF recoups the $400 subsidy/rebate, the Rim licensing fees, the commision to the employee who sold it, the payroll or the department specially designated to help only smartphone issues, and the pay roll needed to increase that staff to get rid of those long wait times?
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rain413

Feb 23, 2008, 12:40 PM
wow everyone chill. okay listen, uscc offered speed talk service (walkie talkie sevice) and when you had a speed talk phone and no speed talk service your phone would disconnect from the network for up to 45 min intervals.......a very similar situation goes for the blackberry a motorola q's, the phone depend on a data network connection to work properly. you will not recieve calls for set periods of time unless you have a data connection. Fact of the matter is that you can have ee pay as you go and it would be find, or ee unlimited and it would be the same has putting blackberry service on your account.

Now I agree there shouldn't be a price difference from the windows mobile service for the moto q from the blackberry service but as...
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mrclean355

Feb 26, 2008, 4:28 AM
If you read the original postings, the question was essentially "why should I have to pay for BB internet service, when what I really need is BB phone book and scheduler." No, nobody forces you to buy anything. I know that. All I am saying is, that as a consumer, it is frustrating that USCC lacks options that provide true PDA usefulness without over priced branded internet service.
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donna7189

Feb 27, 2008, 4:08 PM
You actually can purchase many phone models through US Cellular that are not "Smartphones" and receive the same functions that you have mentioned. My choice would be any motorola product, they all have calendars, with alarms and you can also set recurrences. software and accessories are available for purchase so you can sync your phone to your computer to transfer contact info, calendar, appointments, images & ringtones. Smartphones are designed first & foremost for web browser access, third party apps, and email sync. If you do not need the data portion on your phone, then the the smartphone is not the ideal equipment for you. Hope this helps!
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jjones6993

Feb 28, 2008, 10:59 PM
Another problem I see in my retail store is 9 out of 10 customers who actually activate a flashed phone arent happy at all. Sometimes the phone wont text or has other functionality isssues that would create bad customer experiences. We have extreme pride in our service and network. When you activate a flashed phone that we havent had made to our specs you could have problems. We only want the best experience for our customers and buy using one of our phones we can ensure that experience.

Not to long ago Verizon announced they would activate any device but if it wasnt theirs you would just have access to their network not Customer Service , Tech Support or anything. Sounds like they think you would have problems with flashed phones as...
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jmac3

Mar 13, 2008, 9:28 AM
I'm a USC customer and currently carry two devices around: a pda and a cell phone. I'd like to dump my old cell phone and pda and just carry one device that does both.... However it seems my only options are Blackberry or Moto Q both with extra $$ monthly data charges.

From all the research I've done on-line it seems there is a market for voice only package - smartphone - However not many carriers are providing this service.

I need a device that will sync with my pc for calendar/contacts/note and work as a call phone. I don't care about using the internet or GPS!

I've been happy with US Cellular and would like to remain a customer.
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mrclean355

Mar 17, 2008, 9:48 PM
input on the motorolas is not that easy. The benefits of smart phones is that you have an ease of data input on the fly. To put it simply, you are not going to please this customer without more offerings. The current offerings are insufficient. I have done my research and USCC simply does not offer products to meet the needs of consumers who want increased functionality without spending big bucks on branded internet service. Look at Sprint, look and Verizon, tell me US Cellular has comparable phone offerings and I will call you a liar. USCC has many great things about it, phone choice is not one of them.
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hawkeye9

Mar 18, 2008, 11:02 AM
Ok well for anyone wanting info on using the Moto's calender. You can purchase motorola phone tools. It will sink with your outlook contacts and your calender. I know at our stores it runs 49.95 and that is the software and the data cable.
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drksyde

Mar 5, 2008, 3:31 PM
The 24.99 4 mb is PLENTY for 90% of the users out there. BlackBerrys don't use nearly as much data as windows based handsets. The average user only uses 2.1 mb per month and that is with consistent usage!

I know for a fact as I have an 8830 and by mistake was billed on EasyEdge instead of BlackBerry Data and I had CS check to see what my usage was and even with steady GPS, WEB and Email usage everyday it was less than 1mb. Ask any knowlegable CS rep or BlackBerry rep and they will tell you the same thing.
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amkway

Mar 6, 2008, 11:13 PM
I agree there is a problem, this is what I had to say to them : have more of a complaint than a question. I am
starting to wonder about the eithics of your company or at the very
least the training of your employee's. I have been lied to twice to what
I feel are very major lies. I recently went out of town on business
training and incured numerous roaming charges. I forgot to set up a plan
so I would only be paying th 10.00 dollars for every 100 minutes. I know
this is my fault and understand once I got home and saw my bill was 698
dollars that I should of set that up. That however is a big chunk of
change and I went to the store to ask if I could work out a payment plan
or if there was anything to do to make this bill easier to p...
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EvilFurby

Mar 13, 2008, 1:15 PM
I work for an agent and we seem to be better than the surrounding corp stores in terms of Customer service. We get complaints about the nearby corp store, and about how they are rude idiots.

We recently got a credit for a customer who went over his plan by almost 700 minutes. He complained and we told him it was legit, but would see what we could do. We ended up getting him about $300.00 in credits dropping his bill from 650 to 350! As an agent store we get paid so much less than the corp stores, but we always do our best and do what we can to give the best customer service around!

It's all about who you talk to, given your history with the company some phone reps will do anything in their power to make you happy.

We even had a guy ...
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EvilFurby

Mar 13, 2008, 1:38 PM
^ I meant the LG Ux245, haha. I don't know what a Lg 265 is.
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schumilvr

Mar 13, 2008, 3:37 PM
Not all corp. stores are this way. Just as in any business you are going to have some bad people. You can't lump them all into one. I have heard horrible things about agents, I try not to think negative about them all though.
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hawkeye9

Mar 18, 2008, 11:10 AM
I currently am a store manager for an agent store. I use to be a sales manager in a corp store so i have seen both sides. people complain about whom ever gives the answer that they dont want. that is the nature of retail in general.
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TheUSCellGuy

Mar 19, 2008, 12:43 PM
All cell companies have their issues. I speak from experience, dude. The data plans suck through any company!!! Some of the peeps in the biz are aholes, but some are really good people. This is across the board in the cell industry.
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