US Cellular's battery swap program puts a new charge in your handset, for free
By Darren Murph 
posted May 18th 2009 8:32AM
posted May 18th 2009 8:32AM
[Thanks, Kristofer]
posted May 18th 2009 8:32AM
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the iPhone will never hit US Cellular
Too bad MOST phones won't hit US Cellular.
Too bad iPhone battery is not replaceable
I got a phone from my carrier... It lasted a month. It was an alcatel phone, when I tried turning it on, none of the keys would work. I took it to their office and asked why it wasn't working/turning on. They said it was a battery. Almost everyone who bought that type of phone had been having the same problems, they couldn't gimme a replacement because they were out of good batteries. But the phone was a sh!tty phone anyway... So I got a Nokia 5300 and I love it :)
Shame US Cellular blows dick
Well.. that depends. Would USC be willing to swap out batteries from other carriers' phones? There's damn near ZERO USC coverage in my area, and I've never seen a USC store or what have you, but if I could swap my Sprint Touch Pro batteries on the fly for a nominal fee, oh hell yes.
The meat of us cellular is in the midwest. It seems the closer you live to chicago, the better. I live about an hour from the USC headquarters and the overall reception is actually better than sprint and at&t.
I have never kept a phone long enough to need a new battery. My iPhone 3G is probably the phone that I've kept the longest as I will likely reach the end of my 2 year agreement before upgrading to the new iPhone that' rumored to come out soon. It doesn't seem like the new iPhone will be as big of a change as the original iPhone to iPhone 3G was, so I'll probably wait.
never heard of US cellular?
When my SLVR battery wasn't holding an adequate charge after a year and a half, I took it in to the ATT store, and they just mailed me a new one. Didn't give me any hassle at all actually. So I have two batteries for it now. Better deal than US Cellular.
I love US Cellular! They provide outstanding service anywhere I go and the plans/phones are not that expensive.
Sure they don't have a ton of smart phones, but they target normal people who don't want to spend around a $100+/month on phones.
I am very happy they are doing this!
Maybe people should keep phones longer than a year. We have such a problem with used and discarded phones and that is because the cell phone companies want you to buy a new phone every 6 months.
The everage cell phone battery starts losing its ability to hold a charge after one year. After two years you get about 15 minutes of talk time. WHen you want to get a new battery the carrier charges you almost as much money as a new phone.
Then the carrier charges you for the phone every month even after you pay it off. Just like a cable box that has already been paid for hundreds of times over.
I need a new battery for the phone I have had for three years but the phone is discontinued so no battery. It would be really nice if they could standardize the charging connector and battery for phones. It would make all the sense in the world, but then we might not buy new phones unless we really need one.
Who buys new batteries from their carrier? I usually keep my phones for about 3 years. After a year and a half I still have about an hour of talk time but standby is down to less than a day. So I by a new OEM battery on Amazon usually for about $8 with shipping and I can go another year and a half.
Sprint has been swapping batteries for customer for years. I don't think a policy has to be put into place to do something that's just great customer service. So what US Cell is saying that enough people have complained about having to pay for batteries that go bad that now they will give them away. In the words of a true genius "Good grief!"
I was just thinking this. I've had the battery replaced in my HTC Touch (Vogue) at least 3 times. Hell, I have SPARE batteries, because they let me keep the old ones.
I thought this was a pretty standard service.
This sounds more like a service so you no longer have to charge your phone yourself. If you run out and notice your phone is dead, stop by and your phone is now fully charged.
US who?
Over 6 million customers and the 5th largest wireless company. Stop the dumb comments about "never heard of them..."
i work for us cellular and there will be limitations as to how many swaps you get. and also let me tell you that the gimmick is to get you into the store to upgrade or add features
lol, I have US Cellular and everyone makes fun of them but hey, you know what, I dont pay much, I get all my incoming calls for free, and my area is highly saturated with their cell towers. But best of all, Ive only had good experiences with them. Theyve always taken care of every problem, I even got a free HTC PPC6800 phone by error, and they let me keep it lol.
Sure their phones are a little dated, but theyve got the HTC Touch Pro now, which is a pretty good all around phone, and I personally dont need anything beyond that for awhile.
Two thumbs up for US Cellular. =)
TMobile sent me a new battery for my HTC Wing at the one year mark. I didn't ask for it and didn't expect it, it just showed up in the mail one day along with a postage paid envelope to return the old battery. My original battery still holds a charge so I kept it. Never heard anything more about it or saw any mention of it on my bill.
Fry? Fry? ...Fry?... Fry? Fry?
The battery on my Voyager is on it's way out. Verizon should adopt this idea, pronto.
If the battery on your Voyager is less than a year old, they will replace it with a new one in store. It seems that US Cellular has simply extended the warranty time by six months.
i was in a US Cellular service center store just a couple days ago with a busted battery and the guy told me nothing of this, even told me a new battery would be like 50 bucks, sheesh