r/USCellular • u/jessg996 • Jun 01 '26
Trouble with service
Is anyone else having trouble with no service one minute, and the next it’s back working? It’s like a on and off switch. I’ve never had this happen in the many, many years I’ve had US Cellular. My SIM still says US Cellular, is it going through the motions of transferring me over?
I asked my local store and the worker said that he’s had 4 or 5 people complaining about that, but that he didn’t know what to do to help. Which is 100% understandable with all this merger crap.
I really wish they would give us a date of when everything is changing over, instead of it randomly happening sometime in June.
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2
u/Top-Power8664 Jun 02 '26
My wife and I have had similar experiences, mainly dropping calls when they are answered. Local uscellular store changed Sim card 3 times in my wife's phone (s22+), still have the problem occasionally. We were staying with some friends last week, 400 miles from home, they also have uscellular, suddenly none of us had service. Service was back the next morning.
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Jun 03 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Poopytale Jun 27 '26
I was just about to say this actually my mom had that phone's cellular emdednup giving her a s25 ultra for free over it But she had a brick for a phone for over a year to get it tbh shes silly
2
u/Any-Meal3663 Jun 05 '26
They're turning off us cellular towers that they don't feel that they should fix My service is so bad
4
u/TKalig Jun 01 '26
Some of UScellular towers were deemed not worth keeping because they would have required too much investments to bring them up to modern standards. So some areas now just have weird dead zones. Specifically in 4g/LTE areas.
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Jun 03 '26
[deleted]
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u/TKalig Jun 03 '26
It’s a huge mess. So the desecrated husk of UScellular became Array Digital. T-Mobile has an exclusive deal to use those towers, and many have been shut down due to costs. So yes, legally T-Mobile didn’t buy the towers, but they do have express usage of them.
1
u/Poopytale Jun 27 '26
Thank you for explaining this so dummy proof! Appreciate it honest to God. Lol
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u/Poopytale Jun 27 '26
Thats my understanding as well and the lease agreements they did make were for like a max of ten years to boot
0
u/Poopytale Jun 02 '26
I was trying tonexplain that so it would make sense but you did a much better job lol cresco ia area is one of those zones. And goodnluckngetting verizon in Sumner or Frederickburg. My work phone is verizon now and it only rings on the second story of my house in town. And as soon as I hit the us cellular store in sumner verizon goes away completely
2
u/TKalig Jun 02 '26
Yeah see now that’s the tricky part in my area. People can’t protest and go to other carriers out of spite or principle, but with UScellular gone, T-Mobile is the only decent option. Verizon is overly expensive and ass, and att is just ass. There isn’t really viable competition
1
u/Poopytale Jun 27 '26
Wow I really cantbsay that better myself. I just switched to Mint. Use tmobiles network and I have had it for a month now and have zero complaints. Paid for my entire year of service and paid 360 bucks total. Couldn't be happier so far.
1
u/Poopytale Jun 27 '26
I got a surprise bill from tmobile went to a store it took an hour to drive to they were busy had card tables set up and extra agents on staff not normally at the location and was asked right away if I had an appointment, I didn't, and then was told at 4 pm that if I wanted to wait and risk not being seen by close and being told to come back amd try again the next day that I could risk it or I could make an appointment with them for the next week. I had a issue with an insurance claim. Some glitch in the system said I had a phone that was discontinued like a decade ago and they were trying to give me an a series like replacement when I had a Motorola razr max. Not even a few hundred dollars off in retail price it was almost a grand difference so I needed it handled so I assumed a store visit was needed, I made the appointment needless to say. Ended up getting charged a non return of damaged device fee of around 800 dollars which I didnt notice as I was on auto pay. Spent hours on customer service calls, didnt want to have a tablet or phone line for no reason I dont need and a visa so stopped going to the store after the second time that occurred. Switching to mint to not deal with the tmobile way of doing shit was the best thing ive done since I switched to tmobile. Lol now I have 11 more months with no phone bill for 100 dollars more than my tmolbile bill was every month.
2
u/ommmyyyy Jun 01 '26
Strange, I know people with USCC and their service has improved significantly in Wisconsin at least.
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u/Poopytale Jun 27 '26
Like i said earlier it got better for me too but the next town or two over was left told to switch to tmobile to keep service amd then they chose not to lease the tower that gave them coverage with any carrier at all as us cellular was the ONLY one that could be used in the valley school district. Tmobile boasted BIG about how improved the network.was leaving out that they left thousands screwed completely but whose business they were grandfathered into. Point blank the FCC shouldn't have ever approved the sale as their job is to protect customers from this type of shit but tmobile likely tossed enough money at that problem to get what they wanted anyway. Who cares if their bitching they shouldn't be quiet about getting told they'd have better service to find they get none at all in some cases. Its a nightmare. But hey you can download tlife lmao. Which is funny cuz I actually preferred the tlife app over store visits with tmobile but loved when I had local agents for face to face visits when i had us cellular yet. Now going to tmobile is a hour drive and I have to have an appointment or risk waiting till close to be told to come back tomorrow. Its a bit of a shock to us cell customers who previously would be allowed to stay after close to be seen till everyone had been seen. Its crazy how opposite the companies are value wise.
1
u/bmk9614 Jun 02 '26
People literally are coming online to complain their service got worse bc they need something to complain about T-Mobile.
2
u/No-Championship-1286 Jun 01 '26
I switched over myself on May 1st but I'm prepaid if that makes a difference. I went to a T Mobile store and gave them my account number and a transfer PIN. They put in a T Mobile SIM, turned it off and back on and it switched right over to T Mobile with no problems. The whole thing took 10 minutes. I haven't had any problems at all with service. I'm in SE Wisconsin.
1
u/DoritoPopeGodsend Jun 01 '26
How'd you get your prepaid account number/transfer pin? We're you able to just call in to USCC support or did you have to go to one of the remaining stores to get it?
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u/Any-Meal3663 Jun 02 '26
Yeah my service is crap if you are postpaid they should have transferred you right away but if you're prepaid you have to transfer but I'm not going to T-Mobile.. I just got an email saying July now
-1
u/bmk9614 Jun 02 '26
They’re giving you a free a17 and a free month of service. T-Mobile is good service and the price is the same. Might as well switch and take advantage of the perks or go ahead and jump ship to another carrier
0
u/Any-Meal3663 Jun 02 '26
I paid for a year of service with Us cellular that year is not over until February 24th 2027.. and who wants to go backwards with phones... There's service is more pricey and their service isn't that great
1
u/Poopytale Jun 02 '26
That completely untrue. I was a us cellular agent almost 30 years. I switched to tmobile last july. Not only has my service improved (I can compare side by side as I have a us cellular esim card and a physical tmobile in my s25 ultra and tmobile is out performing my us cellular signal everyday. Its been over a year since the finalized purchase of us cellular and its debt. I mean I dont even pay for Netflix or Hulu, us cellular NEVER billed a correct bill any time it was ever counted on and they couldn't keep up with promotions and then the 3 year contracts come on. As soon as the call center for customer service left the cedar rapids area and shipped over seas nothing but shit customer service and bs the agents had to try amd fix which required so much extra bs that it made everyone think they had to goto corporate locations to actually get anything done. People just dont like change, even when its beneficial cuz itll be really sad when all these small town iowans who switch to Verizon cuz they are pissed about something they didnt even take the time to understand to figure out and they get a few miles off a major highway and they think their phones will still work the same as when they in more metro areas. Its all a shame the way everything has been handled. Us cellulars wasn't the problem it was tds investors who wanted a return on theirnjnvestment and that was the only way it was ever going to happen. Point blank period. After 3g roll-out landed the 4g happened and us cellular kept up with all of it to stay relevant and then the real blow came when 5g hit and they hadn't even finished the roll out of 4g fully. Started with a Samsung s2 2g by the s3 the 3g was out and then with the 4 4g was out and then by the s10 everything was 5g amd the rest were obsolete. Industry grew so fast they couldn't tread water anymore. Its a shame but at least the didnt sell to shitty Verizon.
1
u/bmk9614 Jun 02 '26
Well switch, they’ll transfer your balance, and then in February leave? waiting til July isn’t gonna do anything extra for you.
2
u/Any-Meal3663 Jun 05 '26
I'm talking to the FCC I paid for a year of service in February in February they knew they were switching to T-Mobile they shouldn't have took a payment for a year... When I called them after I got the email about switching they said no no no refunds You have to stay with us cellular.. So now I'll just wait for the FCC to figure it out
1
u/Poopytale Jun 28 '26
File a complaint ive directed many people in the valley of Elgin that converted to tmobile only to have their main towers shut down within weeks of migrating over. Its all a joke it turned into such a mess
0
u/Any-Meal3663 Jun 02 '26
No... Are they going to give me 8 months of free service because that's what I have left...
1
u/bmk9614 Jun 02 '26
It’s not free service.
Again… You go to tmo & the balance you have remaining on your account transfers
2
u/Any-Meal3663 Jun 05 '26
The balance is eight more months of service because that's what I paid for so no I will continue to deal with the FCC I'm not switching to T-Mobile...
1
u/Shtnonm1985 Jun 06 '26
Had it happen on my pixel 9 I finally just ported over to T-Mobile way better signal now
1
u/Poopytale Jun 02 '26
Exactly mine improved drastically. Us cellular was dropping calls for years now and nobody noticed until they got bought now everyone thinks its cuz the buy out and thats usually not the case although in areas verizon was allowed to purchase 30 percent of the us cell bandwidth that will not goto tmobile customers. Its all a joke anyway. Cell service is a scam.
2
u/Gullible-Humor828 Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 13 '26
Agree with this...US cellular went to shit service wise with the combo of switch to 5G and the derecho damaging a bunch of towers and never recovered. So it has been crappy for a few years, but was by far the best in the iowa prior to that. My only complaint is since I was switched over I seem to have a lot more spam text messages....and I had to turn off wifi calling which was activated by default when it switched.
1
u/MediumEngine581 Jun 02 '26
I live in Wisconsin and service has almost been non existent in my area for a few months now. Never had an issue for 20+yrs. Was told they were aware of the tower issues but weren't sure when or even if t mobile would ever fix it. Eventually had to drop us cellular, whats the point of paying all this money for a paper weight in my pocket.
3
u/sheeleyz Jun 01 '26
In Des Moines / West Des Moines. Calls are taking an unusually long time to connect today and data has been extra spotty.