U.S. Cellular Brings Back Repeating Two Year Contracts

While T-Mobile is working hard to rid the world of contracts, U.S. Cellular is doing the exact opposite: bringing them back!

For those that aren’t aware, the regional carrier previously offered an amazing rewards system and a program called “one and done”. With this program, you simply had to sign a contract once and only once.

After that? You could still get subsidized phones using reward points, etc.As a U.S. Cellular subscriber, I will tell you that personally it was one of the reasons why I used their cellular service over any other carrier available in my area. So I surely am not the only customer that is very disappointed by this news.

So when does the One and Done deal go away? July 27th, so if you have the means to grab a new phone before, I’d do it if I were you. After that, your next subsidized phone will require you to sign on the dotted line once more.
Besides bringing back 2-year contracts U.S. Cellular also plans to change its 15-Day Excellence Guarantee policy. Right now, if you don’t like a phone, you can return it in 15 days and get another one. Going forward, you’ll still be able to return it and get a new one, but you’ll have to pay a $35 restocking fee.

Here’s the official statement from US Cellular:

At U.S. Cellular, we are continually evaluating the entire experience we offer to our customers. Beginning later this month, all customers will be required to sign a 2-year contract when purchasing a subsidized device. In addition, a restocking fee of $35 will be introduced as an update to the 15-Day Excellence Guarantee policy and will be charged when a customer returns a device during the 15-day time period. These changes will allow us to invest in improving our customer experience and offering new products andservices to our customers.

To be fair, these policies aren’t much different from what we already get with AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. Of course, that’s kind of the point. Part of U.S. Cellular’s magic was that it WASN’T like the other carriers when it came to re-signing contracts.Any other US Cellular customers out there? What do you think of this news? Will you still stick to U.S. Cellular or will the change lead you to start shopping around for a new carrier?