U.S. Cellular

This is a long story, but the people at Portage’s U.S. Cellular location really stepped up to the plate and made a really messed up situation right. This review isn’t a comment on U.S. Cellular’s service or business practices (although they’ve generally done right by me), but specifically on the staff at this location.
I also want to make clear that this is based upon my experiences helping my dad out, dealing with a business.
It’s a long story, and I’ve been helping my dad out with a really messed up situation, so buckle up.
In 2011, my dad made a damage claim through US Cellular’s insurance provider, Assurant Solutions, because her (yes, correct pronoun, even longer story, just roll with it) phone fell into a bonfire and burned up. Obviously, the phone was damaged beyond recognition – when we found it it was a glob of melted plastic.
Assurant filled the claim. My dad got a new phone, mailed the glob of plastic back, and we forgot about the incident.
Recently, my dad had another claim. The screen was broken. I told her that it was an easy repair and that it could probably be taken care of with an hour of time and a couple replacement parts but she’d already filed the claim. Days later, Assurant denied the claim citing previous unreturned items from the 2011 claim. My dad was adamant that she returned the previous claim (and I believed her, I remember because she made a big production of mailing the melted glob of plastic).
So there are two issues:
(1) Assurant is claiming they never received the phone, but offer no evidence to support that claim.
(2) Point 1 is irrelevant, because when my dad got a new phone Assurant entered into a new policy with her. If there was prejudice against her future claims based on what had previously happened they should have rejected her application for insurance. When they agreed to enter into a new policy with my dad (taking her premiums all the while) while still holding the 2011 incident against her (meaning they would reject out-​of-​hand any future claims) they probably committed fraud and certainly acted in bad faith.
Well, the Portage US Cellular fixed the issue. Within twenty minutes or so of walking in, their manager was on the phone with an agent at Assurant trying to ascertain what had happened. By this point, Assurant was backtracking and claimed that the claim was now under review. The manager knew exactly what was going on and honored Assurant’s obligation to provide a new phone at the cost of what would be the cost of the deductible. Put another way, this manager saw to it that U.S. Cell did their insurance carrier’s job for them, and put customers first. That’s earned them some customer loyalty.
Assurant has still managed to screw things up. Since being told off by the U.S. Cellular store’s manager, they’ve reversed their tune and processed the claim – their agents now say they probably received the phone in 2011 but, having no way to identify it, didn’t scan it and left it marked unreceived in their internal records (you’re an insurance company and you have no way to handle extremely damaged items?! #@$%!) so now they ended up sending my dad a second phone and charging her for her deductible. That’s a pretty easy fix though, we’ve rejected the delivery through FedEx and are waiting on a refund.
The TL;DR here is this: The manager at this location rocks! She went above and beyond for her customers to try and solve a situation that was bungled by forces outside her control. She’s guaranteed a bit more loyalty in their customers through this, and I couldn’t be happier. Way to go! I always appreciate when people within companies advocate for their customers rather than taking the easy, lazy way out.