I HEART US Cellular

Or, "Why my cell phone company can beat the crap out of yours any day of the week".

US Cellular rocks.

Buckle up, this is going to be a long ride.

Waaaaay back in January, I went to Boston to be with my Mother while she had surgery (which she later died from, but I'm not bitter or angry at the dirty hospital she caught 5 post-op infections from or anything).

Yeah. I'm in that stage.

While there, I routinely called my two sisters, my Dad, My Aunts and my many cousins to update them, and to let them speak to my Mother.

I roam when I'm in Boston. What does that mean? In monetary terms, it means about $400 bucks.

I started to sweat. it isn't just outgoing calls, which I could control, it's incoming calls, too.

I called US Cellular.

Help! I said.

I'm going to have a million dollar bill by the time I go back to My Calling Area on the 31st! I said.

And the lovely lady on the other end of the line said, "Have no fear, crazy person from Maine with the sucky calling plan. I will fix all for you."

And by God, she did!

She put me in a text plan and erased the incomprehensible sum I'd accrued in text charges.

I never really liked the text-y thing. Too 'twelve year olds with their own language' for me. But, like most things, once you start, you can't stop. And once I realized I could text updates to 10 people at once without spending 20 minutes on the phone with each of them...well... it was all over.

Now I like it a lot.

Then the lovely lady said, "And I can see that you are deviating from your normal usage".

I explained where I was, and why, and how long I expected to be there.

And she credited my account a nice round number to offset the roaming charges I was accruing, without my uttering a single word.

Because, really, I would never have asked for such a thing.

I was floored.

Fast forward to today. My Mom is gone. I am trying to get back to Normal, whatever that is.

I got the mail. I got my cell phone bill.

I opened the bill, expecting to see it higher than usual.

I fell on the floor.

$819.66

I grabbed my phone, and called them.

Yet another lovely lady answered the call. She, too, fell on the floor.

You're a great customer, she said.

I sweated nervously, thinking she was thanking me for ringing up an $819.66 phone bill, but she went on, Let's see what we can do about this.

I held my breath.

What I expected (or hoped for) was to be moved into a different plan, one that would encompass the calls I had racked up, retroactively.

While that is not exactly what happened, the end result is the same.

They cut my bill down to $262 and change.

I was ecstatic. It was more than I had hoped for!

I am now in a great plan, that better suits our circumstances (no more roaming!).

She also did a usage audit, to evaluate our normal number of minutes accrued.

And she put in a fail safe, a new program for US Cellular called Overage Protection.

They will text me (for free) when I use 75% of my minutes, and again at 100%.

And that is why I've been their customer for over 14 years.

And why I will never leave.

Thank You US Cellular!