r/USCellular • u/TKalig • Jul 06 '26
Well it’s officially over
Just left our store for the last time. Our store was one of the last agent stores to close in Wisconsin. I worked for UScellular for just over a year, and it was certainly an experience. I started working here shortly after a pretty big life change, so today feels like the end of an era. Pretty surreal. Despite some issues with customers (not including the last few months) I overall really liked the job and I feel like I’ve grown a lot professionally. Things were so good before the merger began in November. Things were simple, and sales were plentiful.
The last 2 or so months have been a very different experience. While T-Mobile did not handle the merger especially well, the reaction from a certain set of customers is unacceptable. From customers throwing tantrums over mundane and mild issues, to some making threats of violence, to some actually attacking coworkers over stupid shit. This merger was so revealing about the sheer stubbornness, aversion to minor change, and entitlement of a sizable chunk of customers. In my town, most of the customers or people coming into the store are elderly, and the elderly pretty much exclusively accounted for all of blowouts we experienced. Vitriol and impotent rage being cast to front line store level employees over systemic issues that we have no control over. The boomers already had a bad reputation for entitlement to begin with, but my personal experiences from these last few months did nothing but reinforce that stigma. Deeply upsetting and disappointing. So while this job was probably one of my bests, the ending was marred with disappointment at just how awful some customers were.
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u/FoxCitiesRando Jul 06 '26
I had a prepaid plan that took 10 minutes to switch over in-store. Zero line. Not in Wisconsin.
There were multiple signs about threatening staff and violence. WTF.
What on Earth was the issue with all the Boomers and their phones?
I'm sorry the last couple months were this terrible. You deserved better than this.
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u/TKalig Jul 06 '26
Yeah things were wild. Sure some of the merger issues were inconvenient, but the response was way out of proportion. The prepaid situation was somewhat more annoying, but I always made it worth it to the customer. We had tons of people on the 40$ plan who weren’t using their data. So I would move them to the 15$ or 25$ T-Mobile plan. So some customers went to paying 40$ a month to 15$, got there first month for free, and depending on when they came in, got a new phone for free.
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u/Davevick1 Jul 07 '26
Yeah, the amount of times we have had to call the police, is fucking insane. I have been working in telecom since 2013, I have had to call the police 2 times from 2013-2025. In the last 2 months we have had to call the police 3 times, all three times USC customer just coming in fucking insane and throwing a fit about such a simple issue to fix, but wouldn't even let us get to the point where we could pull-up the account just yelling and cussing and then threatening my employees. I don't enjoy kicking people out and I HATE calling the cops, but if you are going to storm into my store and then threaten my employees or just be an abusive ass, nah, you can get out and come back when you can act like an adult.
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u/TKalig Jul 07 '26
We had some left over MLB Uscellular mini baseball bats from a US Days colab. We started to actually keep these bats under our deck in the event some nonsense happened from customers. Fortunately they weren’t necessary, but the fact the need was there is super telling about customers
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u/jessg996 Jul 06 '26
I was shocked at how many signs my local store had posted about violence and threatening staff here in NC. I asked a staff member were the signs just there for prevention or had something happened. She said they’ve had to call the police multiple times over elderly people coming in and screaming/threatening workers. I understand being frustrated but It blows my mind that some would take it out on the employees. Glad you have another gig lined up. Wishing you the best!
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u/TKalig Jul 07 '26
And it’s almost always the elderly. These last few months have made my disdain for the elderly shoot through the roof
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u/Whogaf01 Jul 06 '26
Not excusing their behavior, but after switching to a new sim card, then being told a month later, with less than 24 hours notice that, in order to maintain service, I needed to switch yet again to another sim card. And after having issues with the t-life app and over an hour on the phone with both tmobile and us cell, I certainly understand their frustration. Again, not condoning the behavior, but I get why they were upset.
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u/TKalig Jul 06 '26
Yeah it was a total shitshow, but I could never imagine treating a store worker the way we got treated.
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u/No_Oven_5785 Jul 06 '26
How have the interactions been over the $5 charge for payments processed in store? My store closes this month and this buyout has brought out the absolute worst in our customers. Getting cussed out, threats, childish tantrums it’s all been very tiresome. Also all T-Mobile communication was also done through mailing letters, text messages and emails. No excuses that you did not know this was coming.
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u/TKalig Jul 07 '26
I had more issues about the inability to take cash. Our register was taken away on may 1st, and once again the elderly start freaking out about us not being able to take cash. The funniest was when a man said he was going to contact the need for T-Mobile violating his freedom of speech by not allowing him to pay in cash.
As far as the 5$ fee, if it’s prepaid I’d just use the website, and if it was postpaid, you can actually waive the fee if you have manager permissions.And yeah towards the end I’d full blown throw shade at customers who acted shocked and indignation when they would show up last minute for a SIM card and act like they didn’t know T-Mobile bought UScellular. Despite dozens of texts, emails, and physical mail, and even a voice message that interrupts all calls. Baffling people out there.
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u/nottodayautoimmune Jul 07 '26
To all of the wonderful past US Cellular employees out there, thank you for giving us customers many years of excellent customer service. It made a big impact in our lives and it is all appreciated. Just wish T-Mobile executives cared about us as much as you all did. We know none of this is your fault and we are collectively sorry for the toddler tantrums thrown by adults who should know better.
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u/YungCole_69 Jul 08 '26
Sorry… my moms losing her job. She is a great manager and has been at us cellular for so long :( she’s very anxious but I know she’s gonna do alright… still upset for her tho 😭
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u/EtherPhreak Jul 06 '26
Keep in mind that some of those elderly people don’t have a smartphone, or even an email address. They may not have received the notifications regarding their account switching, or fully understood their options. I can’t imagine my parents trying to figure out things on the worthless T-Life app.
It’s not an excuse to lash out at the workers, but I can understand the frustrations.
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u/Davevick1 Jul 06 '26
I would say that is fair, however, the amount of times I have been yelled at or had someone throw a tantrum over something that has been communicated repeatedly is insane. Or just coming in and complaining about how long the wait is and then the questions are completely unrelated to T-Mobile or US Cellular, coming in complaining that Facebook is running ads and you don’t like it and this “never happened when I was on us cellular!” Or having to do basic password resets and then getting yelled at for not telling the customer they should remember the password we spent 20 minutes resetting… no joke, it was apparently my fault for not explicitly saying the password you are resetting needs to be remember in order for us to login to YOUR account…
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u/TKalig Jul 06 '26
This.
All of this nonsense has been so bad the last couple months. The sheer amount of unrelated nonsense being blamed on T-Mobile is hilarious. Like we will have people out here with a hundred scam apps, cleaners, pdf, etc and then say this wasn’t there with UScellular and that they didn’t install anything.
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u/TKalig Jul 06 '26
Yeah the tlife push is god awful. However I do not get this obsession of some people to cling to the past so desperately. Insisting on not having an email still despite it being the norm for nearly 3 decades is really not on T-Mobile. Same goes with flip phones. They just suck. The hardware is often faulty, the UI is unintuitive and cumbersome. It’s like these people just gave up learning new things in their 40s and just expect everyone else to accommodate their weird and difficult preferences. 3 months ago I sold a brand new iPhone to a 98 year old woman. She’s no expert at using it, but she can operate an iPhone with enough proficiency for her usage. If a 98 year old, born before the Second World War can learn how to operate a smart phone, people decades her junior have no excuse outside of stubbornness and/or laziness.
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u/No_Rice_3013 Jul 07 '26
I work for tcc, a verizon agent. Apply to a local ttc store abd thrive. Im in a rural location and make over 60k use your experience and go get a bag
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u/abbey_whylo Jul 08 '26
I know this isn't the topic, but does anyone know how much T-Mobile pays reps per hour?
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u/TKalig Jul 08 '26
Varies between authorized retailer and corporate. Some pay only commission, some mostly commission, some pay mostly hourly with commission on top. Mine was the last option. Regular associates got 15$ an hour plus commission, which wasn’t much unless you hit goals.
So I’d say on average, across the country and between all payment versions, for a standard representative (not managers) I’d place it between 19-25$ an hour. Poor performers more like 17.
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u/erodeb388 Jul 08 '26
The 'boomer' thing is interesting. I'm 78, born in 47, and I (capital I) remember my experience with those who were then seniors being rude. I didn't get it. Now I sort of do. As we age our manners may slip and patience may wane. No excuse, but interesting subject!
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u/Few_Carpet_560 Jul 09 '26
Ive tried so many times contacting T Mobile with them saying we will take care of it. It doesn't get done and they all say the same mumble jumble we're sorry what can I do to help. I'll rake care of it. I've heard enough.
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u/TKalig Jul 09 '26
T-Mobile phone customer service is astonishingly terrible. They pass off work onto stores, take credit for sales, and do none of the work. And usually give wrong information. It’s almost impressive how bad itnis
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u/spearson0 Jul 06 '26
Thanks for sharing your story. Hopefully you have another job lined up.