What customer service?
Written: Jan 25 '07
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Pros: Good reception, virtually no dropped calls, extensive nationwide coverage.
Cons: Horrific experience with customer service department.
The Bottom Line: As all calls made "in" their network nationwide are free, I'd recommend checking out Verizon instead to anyone who travels extensively outside the local calling area.
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| jvsgooch's Full Review: General Reviews of US Cellular Customer Service |
I have been a customer of U.S. Cellular going on 3 years now. Although I experienced a few problems during my first 2 year contract, renewed regardless as the good outweighed the bad. However, am currently considering terminating remainder of contract due to numerous uncorrected billing errors over this past year, stemming from erroneous and highly misleading information from company representatives, coupled with almost unbelievably horrific treatment received in the course of trying to resolve this issue with their customer service department. Due to the problems I have had, US Cellular has offered to waive the termination fee for early cancellation, and I am currently undecided.
First, what I like about U.S.Cellular:
Most important: Good reception and nationwide coverage. My husband travels all over the country on business, reception is always "crystal clear" and we've never experienced any "dead" areas or dropped calls. In fact, his cell phone works in areas and facilities where the rest of his coworkers' phones, using different providers, are completely dead.
Fairly important: It's easy! Set-up on the Razr phone I received with my new contract was so simple I never once had to refer to the manual. On my last phone, I had to get one of my stepdaughters just to set up my message on the answering machine, code in my "pin number" and show me how to retreive my messages--forget about the rest of the features, which I never used because I couldn't figure them out. I use everything on this phone, and particularly like the alarm clock, and being able to store all the numbers of my contacts by name.
Not important, but cool: I love US Cellular's unlimited "easyedge" service! It's $9.95 per month, and includes e-mail, headline news, weather and sports, and an entertainment section with daily horoscopes, local movie directory, lottery results, etc. Downloads and optional services are a little extra, offered both on a monthly basis (from $1.99 to $9.99) or even just on a one-time daily service (usually $.99), and include ringtones, business tools, maps, and internet access just to name a few. There's also literally dozens of fun games to choose from, which really make the time waiting at airports just fly right on by!
What's OK: The rates are fairly reasonable and competitive, starting at $39.95 per month. The "family plan" my husband and I are supposed to be on is $109.95 for 2,100 "anytime" nationwide minutes.
Bringing me to recount what's bad about US Cellular.
I can only describe my numerous encounters with the customer service department as a reoccuring "nightmare from hell" as I've tried to get them to correct the billing errors on my statements. It has been so traumatic, that I can barely bring myself to relive the horror by writing it down.
First, when I went in to renew my contract, I signed up for a "nationwide" plan because, as I explained to the salesman, my husband would be traveling out of the state on business, and was assured that all calls between my husband and myself on our "family plan" would be free and not count towards our minutes. I told the rep. explicitly that my husband was being sent to Florida for several months, and was assured that there would be no charge for calls made between the 2 of us, so I signed up initially for their 800 minute nationwide family plan.
I didn't get my first bill for almot 2 months, and to my horror discovered that all the calls between my husband and I were being billed at the rate of .40 per minute--over 1,000 extra minutes, totalling an additional $500! When I called the customer service department, I was told that the salesman hadn't explained their billing policies correctly, that our calls were only free if we both stayed in the local area, but as soon as either of us left, the "per minute" charges applied! And as I didn't find this out for almost 2 months, I also found we had incurred additional overages amounting to almost $500 for the next month as well!
After a number of hours and I can't even remember how many managers I had to talk to, they finally agreed to "split the difference" with me on my current bills, but the only thing they told me I could do to avoid that .40 per minute fee when my husband traveled was to increase my plan minutes. So I said fine, and asked to increase my "family plan" to 2,100 minutes, figuring the additional $50 per month would be more expensive than what initially I thought I had contracted for, but better than the alternative.
Next bill? Even worse! Over $700! Reviewing the charges, I found that we hadn't exceeded our minutes, but instead of giving us the family plan, they had charged instead for 2 separate plans of 2,100 minutes each--and also charged for 2 months instead of 1!
When I called the customer service department this time, and told the girl that "you" charged me incorrectly, she sarcastically responded, "No, I didn't. I don't even work in billing!" I was shocked, and responded that I felt she was perfectly aware that I was applying the universal meaning to the word "you", meaning "your company", I had not been referring to her personally. She then got snotty, started arguing with me about grammer, and when she repeatedly refused to address my billing issue, I asked to speak to a manager--and she promptly hung up the phone on me!
I called back, asked immediately to speak to a manager--only to get another argument, and another hang-up when I persisted. It took 4 calls to 4 different customer service reps. before I could get one to put me through to the group manager--who then argued with me that she didn't believe what the first rep. had said to me, and that she hadn't hung up on me, that her record claimed that my calls had just mistakenly gotten "disconnected". No, that was not true, and asked to speak to her supervisor. She refused! I then asked for the number of the home office, and again, was refused! I went through this a number of times before I finally was put through to a supervisor who finally stopped arguing and adjusted my bill, but even she refused to give me either the phone number or address of the home office to register a complaint.
Although the bill was adjusted, the error was not corrected and for the last 6 months, I've had to call every month and fight to get my bill adjusted, but still, have not had my "family plan" reinstated as requested, and continue to get 2 separate charges for 2,100 minutes billed at $109.95 each!
I have had to devote so many countless hours of my time and effort, that at this point, I feel I am being forced to work as their "unpaid employee" to correct their errors for them--for free! As I have reached the end of my rope and am no longer capable of "civility", after 6 months, they have finally given me the phone number of the department at their home office with the authority to make this correction. The name of this department? Escalations!
The "escalations" department has just recently agreed to waive the fees for early termination of my contract, but I'm not real happy with their proposed resolution. I don't want a new service--I just want to charged the right amount without having to spend my time in a major battle to get it adjusted...every month.
It's really a shame. This company has so many great things going for it that I can't even fathom why they wouldn't spend a little time improving service to retain their current customers, instead of all the money they spend trying to get new ones.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 109.95
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Epinions.com ID:
jvsgooch
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Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 0 members
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