Consumer Cellular

I was thinking of switching 4 lines from VZW to Consumer Cellular and read the reviews here. They were mostly negative so I was a bit put off and decided to get a test number/SIM to try out. Everything went well, the connection was excellent and so I switched over all 4 lines. Not only am I paying about half of what I was paying with VZW, but I get more data. Customer service is excellent. They are all in US, and very pleasant and helpful. Holding time was 1 hour, 20 minutes, 0 minutes, 2 minutes on the 4 occasions I had to call to get my number ported over. Best decision I made!!!!

We love Consumer Cellular. They have been our provider for years. There is always someone patient and understanding on the help line. Never have we had a problem with our bill. The minor issues we have had with our phones were quickly and easily taken care of with their excellent customer service. If you're looking for a provider, look no further!

Elderly Retired: My wife and I moved from Verizon to CC over 5 years ago for cutting our monthly cell phone bill less than half. Less than $50 per month for 2 phones was a no-brainer! We started with the “Huawei Ascend 2” and loved this phone! A little over a year ago we both moved to the iPhone 6S. This phone is a bit narrower than the Huawei and much lighter! We both like the iPhone with all its great features and both sync our phones to iTunes for loading music! The only drawback with the iPhone is we never knew when we had a voice mail? Voicemail Screen in our phone app was always blank! Always had to dial “1” to check to see if we had voicemail! Recently had a friend with an iPhone 8 show her Voicemail tabbed screen alerting incoming voicemails with even a little recording on her Phone. So why don’t we have this feature with CC? First Customer Support call was a Female in Oregon. She did mention that I need to set up my “Visual Voicemail” but could not walk me through that setup on this first call! I then did some Google searching and found this: Receiving the notification is a feature provided by your service provider - it's called a MWI (Message Waiting Indicator). Generally it requires a bind between their voicemail server and their SMSC so that the notification can be passed to your phone over the SMS network. In general, these are sent as "push" notifications - the server informs your phone you have a voicemail. This is what allows your phone to produce an alert/notification even when it is locked and the voicemail app isn't running. Essentially, if you're having issues with this, but can still access your voicemail, then you should push back to your service provider using the above details to sound like you know what you're talking about iPhone Visual Voicemail needs to be provisioned on the customer account. iPhone Visual Voicemail also requires a back end Visual Voicemail server on the phone company's end. If they don't have one, a customer's iPhone will only receive regular voicemail, with no way for the phone app to indicate any number of messages received. Armed with this great bit of information I called Charlotte Customer Support in Arizona! She brought up my recent call case info and could not understand why the first agent did not activate Visual Voicemail on our 2 phones? Does this cost any extra? No this feature is included in all of our iPhone plans! Now I am wondering why this was never activated when we moved from Android to iPhones? After she left me on hold to accomplish this activation she came back to talk me through Visual Voicemail set up. Do you have latest IOS? Yes Version 12.2! Again after trying several different steps we could not get it to work. She suggested that it might be my only one or two bar signal strength at my house and I need to drive to a stronger cell signal need at least 3 bars. Ok I will try that. Well this did not work either! On my third call to Nicha in Arizona she did a reset of my mailbox and I still could not set up Visual Voicemail? After doing some more Google searching about this issue I found that I might try restoring my phone to a recent backup in iTunes. We don’t use iCloud so our phones are backed up to PC and MacBook! This did erase current saved text messages and my wife was a little upset losing those! Sure enough doing a Backup Restore in iTunes suddenly activated Visual Voicemail on the reboot! Although we like CC for its great prices and great coverage in Florida there is a definite lack of strong technical support from customer service! Hope this may help those out there in this CONUNDRUM!

The price is right! Can not beat Consumer Cellular for value. Usually have no problem with calls most everywhere in the US. However, customer service has declined since we signed up. A couple of years ago we could call and an agent would pick right up. Now, it's a wait or use automated call-back. Biggest drawback is that credit card company and the IRS could not send a verification code to my phone because the number "could not be verified" as belonging to me! I'm told by CC customer service that my caller ID will only ever show up as "wireless caller," never my name unless the call is to someone with me in their contacts. That explains the problem . A real drawback but I guess worth putting up with given the price of service with CC is a fraction of directly with a wireless carrier.

My wife and I switched from AT&T coverage years ago as we were paying a fortune for minimal talk minutes with no texting or data. Fast forward and now with Consumer Cellular we have unlimited talk and text and a minimal 250MB data for $33.25 + tax/fees monthly, and can increase data plan for a low cost. We purchased our phones. Connectivity is great.

I have been a consumer cellular customer for a number of years and have been very satisfied with their service. I have two phones on my account and seldom go over 2gb of data use. With taxes my total bill is about $60 every month. The few times I have had to contact customer service I received prompt and courteous service. If the service does not meet your expectations then maybe you should of done more research . For what they offer at the price they are very good.

I've used Consumer Cellular for four years. I stay with them because they're a great value and have reliable service. Instead of adding high fees when I go over my plan's limit, they just bump me up into the next-level plan, which is just a few dollars more. At the end of that billing period, I switch back to the lower-cost plan. It's painless and very affordable. Their fees are extremely reasonable and as far as I know have not even gone up since I've been a customer. They also do not require a contract. When I first became a customer, they didn't have a very good selection of phones, but that's improving; they have phones by Apple and Samsung now (although I use a great little Moto that I love that was only $100). The only reason I would not give them five stars is because their e-mail support is awful. If you have a technical problem, call them and speak to a live human. Their phone support is good. But if you e-mail them with a problem, you'll get a cut-and-paste reply that makes little sense and probably won't solve your problem. Skip it and call them instead. I have never used their phone service in another country, so I can't comment on that.

I have been with Consumer Cellular since Jan. 2012. They have exceeded my EVERY expectation since joining them. Their phones, accessories, talk & data plans, AND their knowledgeable, friendly (& PATIENT!) service reps are incredible! I have had nothing but great experiences with them from day one, and the folks I have referred to them feel the same way! I would not consider switching carriers - even for a cheaper rate! I plan to remain one of Consumer Cellular's biggest fans! I've NEVER been disappointed!

I recently switched to them and get better service for a lot less money. They use their own VPN, so you can't get hacked by using Wi-fi or Blue tooth.

Excellent experience setting up multiple lines ,bringing our own phones was seamless. Just two day after setup I had to travel a good distance from home and never lost coverage.

In general, we are quite happy with you. Only problem ever had, was with the web site and ordering. I ordered the phone 3 times and didn't succeed. Finally, the fourth time, I got thru it. Hadn't had this much trouble in the past and I had ordered a previous phone. And yes, I do order frequently on-line. Karla S Skabialka

Excellent customer service. Put forth extra effort to get my old number transferred. Your representatives spoke clearly and slowly enough that I was able to understand what they were saying.

Customer Service Agent Lisa assisted me with a problem I had related to setting up my new phone. She was professional, courteous, and most importantly to me, patient. Her instructions were concise and easy to follow.

I couldn't wait until I turned 50 so I could get Consumer Cellular and I wasn't disappointed at all. This is the best phone company with the best costumers service I've ever experienced.

Dylan was professional, patient, knowledgeable, proficient, and kind. I was beyond impressed. The customer service experience alone with Mr. Dylan was enough to make me feel like referring family.

Yesterday your rep Mia was absolutely amazing. I might have been her most challenging customer EVER but she had all the patience in the world for me and my electronic illiteracy! Please give her a big raise!!!

Sent my new sim card out immediately and I received it just days later. Thank you for your kindness. As a new customer it was a refreshing change to deal with unlike most companies now.

I have had consumer cellular for about 4 years. I have never had a problem and have traveled to many states. Mostly the east coast and I never had a problem with coverage. I like the plans, I pay less than 50 dollars a month for 2 lines. The only reason for the 4 stars and not 5 is there is no physical store to go to. You need to call them or chat on line but they have always been very helpful with any problems or questions. I will keep using Consumer Cellular.

Purchased an iphone15plus today from las vegas store.. elizabeth took very good care of me... pointed out various features of phones helping me choose best for my needs. took the time to explain the new and different features of the phone. great asset to the consumer cellular family.

Consumer cellular is wonderful! I used it for about a year and it was awesome until I moved and didn't get good signal so I had to swap to another company. Everyone else I know that used it loves it. They have good devices and the signal for video chats is really steady and works well with or without wifi.

Great service all around. Monthy cost very inexpensive. Customer Service very helpful always. The only negative in 7 years is reset password. They have the worst reset policy of any company out there. To worried about privacy. There are so many ways to allow access but their staff is not allowed to reset. NEEDS FIXED. If not for password issue a 10 star rating for sure.

Changed carriers for cost. Consumer was definitely a better buy. Had a login problem and called their USA Tech Service. Initial person could not help, as this was a new issue. Was transferred to a "senior tech", who thought he knew. Fixed problem in about 5-minutes. Other than the login issue, would have rated a "5-Star". AND, NO WE ARE NOT PAID TO WRITE THIS REVIEW.

I’ve has CC for two years. I’m pleased with their coverage. Streaming videos on mobile devices works well. Using phones as hotspot is able to do Zoom meeting well. I got Consumer Cellular Home Base in March, 2022. Call quality is OK. When the phone rings I have 3 rings to answer the phone before it transfers to voicemail. Not enough time for a home phone. I looked for hours on line to find out how to change this only to have CC tell me I can’t do that myself. I have to call their service center, tell an agent I want more rings. However, it isn’t a number of rings, it is a number of seconds limited to 30 seconds at most. They then call AT&T, the actual CC carrier, and place an order with AT&T to change the time. It still isn’t enough time. CC caters to the elderly but this isn’t enough time for an elderly person to walk across the room to get to the phone before VM picks up the call. I had to wait over 1 hour one time I called CC. Not acceptable for a “consumer” oriented company.

The phone service is excellent. The phone reception is excellent. But it's impossible to do business with Consumer Cellular. They wine about the crippling pandemic and how it has affected their business and reduced the number of employees. I waited two hours (2 HRS@@!!!) for someone to answer my call today 3/6. Finally, I had to end the call. So I was fed up and tried to email them, using the published on-line email address. Seconds later I got a message stating the email address is unresponsive. So I tried using their chat program. I found I was 21st in line. I entered my "chat" and found that I had to wait (FOR 21 CHATTERS!!!!!!!!!!!) FOR A RESPONSE. I am ready to try another phone server. Consumer Cellular should add 50 cents to every customer's bill and hire enough phone operators to do the job.

Been a CC customer for 4-5 years. Always loved customer service before. The CSRs are still very pleasant and seem helpful but what they've told me and what's reality don't seem to match up anymore. Let's start with the CC/Target "partnership." CC CSRs will tell you that you can go to Target and someone there will help you with all kinds of things like transferring your contacts, content, etc. If you call or go in to Target, tho, they'll tell you they only activate your phone. It's like when one person thinks they're in a solid relationship and the other person is looking feeling used. The target folks have told me that CC will set up appointments for customers at times when there's nobody on duty at Target. (This came up because the person told me they leave at 4pm and don't work Sundays, and Target had offered me Sunday appointments as well as a 5pm appt for that day). Keep in mind, Target is your ONLY hope of having a human talk to you, in person, about your phone. Then there's this situation with my hotspot. I bought it from CC a while back. Probably early 2020. it's a ZTE hotspot, it has a CC sticker inside, and it says 4G on the outside (embossed into the phone). CC keeps telling me they can't promise they'll be able to support it because I bought it elsewhere. NOT TRUE. Then they tell me they won't be able to support it because it's a 3G device. NOT TRUE. Also, they no longer offer hotspots of any make. What looks like the truth here is that they wish they'd never sold or supported hotspots. I assume they're telling other customers the same story. This really had a negative impact on how I view this company. I got the ConnectPad. You can get unlimited data on it, for a price. I wouldn't mind that, if it shared that data with the hotspot. Guess what. No sharesies. Also, about the ConnectPad. No flashlight. If you've ever had your power go out, you know how handy that light on your cellphone can be. It's the one thing you have with you almost all the time. Also, I'm not crazy about the power button. That's how you bring your device back when it's asleep. But the button is small and not that easy to push, and it's right next to the volume button. So if you're trying to hear a caller better, it's possible you're going to mash that button by accident and completely turn off your phone in the middle of a call. I do like the charging dock, actually. My tablet slides right in, and the magnetic connector at the bottom keeps it in place. No fumbling with the usb connector, trying to figure out which way is up. But it's inconvenient to carry with you. So I'm looking around. I don't have very good coverage where I live, and the AT&T sim option has worked out for me. I really don't want to jump to AT&T. I wish Consumer Cellular would go back to being the nice company it was.

I've been with CC since July, as a veteran, disabled and trying to make the most of my budget, CC offered "Unlimited t,t and data. It is only unlimited as long as you stay below their threshold. I travel occasionally and find myself being charged for using to much data....I really don't understand why "unlimited" requires up charging.....Is this false advertising or am I misinformed? I was with Tmobile for 12 years and was never upcharged for anything and it was about 112.00$ per month including international service, now am paynig approx. 50.00 per month but with service and billing issues. No international etc. Have I made a mistake?

Taking advantage of SENIORS. EACH BILLING IS HIGHER WITHOUT REALIZING MANY SENIORS LIVE ALONE AND ARE LONELY AND THE CELL IS THE ONLY COMPANION AND NOT REALIZING CHARGES ARE ADDING UP. CANNOT AFFORD THIS SENIOR.PLANS ENDORSED BT AARP

I actually used Consumer Cellular for 4 years and it was great. Good coverage, good price, no issues. However a few weeks ago both my husband's and my phones stopped getting data. Both our phones showed full bars of LTE or 5G in his case with an iPhone 12, but besides talk/text, could not be used for anything unless they were on wifi. We called customer service and they were unfriendly and unhelpful, treating us as if we were 75+ years old and not knowing how to use a phone... "try going outside" and "try getting a new sim card" were the best they could offer. We're moving soon and our new place doesn't have great internet options, so we decided this was clearly the right time to switch to a new plan with a different carrier that would cover our phone and internet. But it took forever to finally get CC to approve our port out request and shut down service. After the first couple requests were denied I called and found out you need a special one time pin (maybe that's on me for not realizing), which the customer service rep begrudgingly gave me while grumbling about us leaving. After this the port was denied once again, so I called and spoke to yet another clueless, unfriendly representative. After another wait on hold, the call dropped and that was the last I heard from them before the port was finally completed. Good bye Consumer Cellular. When there were no problems, it was good, but customer service is terrible.

We have unlimited everything, including Unlimited Data, which this article says is not available. We have had good service, since they use at&t towers and no issues in the time that we have been with this company. The only time we have had to contact Consumer Cellular for some assistance on how to do something, they were very helpful and nice.

I 've used CC for 3 years; I've never had a problem. My son and daughter use and recommended CC-they're west coast, I'm east. CC support has been great and patient. I don't know when this review was written, but they do offer an unlimited data plan. I've had ATT and Verizon in the past- you couldn't pay me to go back.

I have been with them for 8 years. It just goes to show those other cell companies that if you treat your customers right you don't need to tie them into a contract! The customer service has always been exemplary and the phone service is just as good as AT&t and Verizon

Company offers good service and fair rates but doesn’t have a decent flip phone. Have had a few Doros now and this latest 7050 is a piece of junk. So many issues, i.e. fails to ring, texting is terrible, slow, and impossible to get correct fonts and letters correctly at times. Can’t hear as clearly as the old one! Get a decent inexpensive phone for us old farts who don’t spend all day taking selfie’s!

My husband has Consumer Cellular. He has the basic plan. He just wants to make calls and doesnt want the internet or texting features. The plan is inexpensive because of what he has. The amount is deducted by autopay. We really dont have any dislikes about this company.

For a low-cost carrier, they are pretty good - not great, but better than just okay. Their coverage is not nearly as comprehensive as Verizon, but then neither is their cost. I recently upgraded my old iPhone 6S to a newer iPhone SE. After activating and setting up, I kept getting a 'no service' indicator on the new phone. I checked the iOS and iTunes software - all up to date. I restarted both my computer and the new phone, no joy. I removed the new SIM card and reinserted - that didn't work. Then, I swapped out the new SE SIM card with the old 6S SIM card, and viola! Service! Yet they charged me for a new SIM card that is bogus. And my final complaint - they won't let you send them a message. You have to go online to chat (and wait behind 175 other customers) or phone call, (again, wait until they get around to talking to you). Overall, barely satisfied.

My experience with Consumer Cellular was a cluster flop. They sent me 3 cards and none of them worked. After 5 weeks the phone wouldn't turn on and they wouldn't stand good on it, they said it was only warranted for one month, I said I don't want this POS!!!

This company is great. We've been with them for about 6 years now, and every so often, they will increase our plan data limits with no increase in costs. Their plans are very affordable, better than any major carrier I've seen. Their coverage is also good, not like the big guys, but I've never not had a signal when I needed one.

I bought an iPhone 7Plus from Consumer Cellular and have had trouble since the beginning with voice clarity. There is so much interference sometimes that I have to hang up and try again. I suspect that I was sent a used phone, though I cannot prove that. Although there is a year's warranty on the phone dealing with Consumer Cellular staff is a real hassle. They may as well not exist. One person told me once that I only have a 9 month warranty! this is obviously untrue as I have the warranty in formation for one year. They asked me to replace the SIM card on the phone, which I did, but the disturbance on calls is still there. They now want me to call on another phone so they can wipe my phone clean. I am hesitant to do that because I am not sure that will solve the issue. Even if they everything clean, I will still have the same phone. Very frustrating. I would not recommend doing business with this provider.

I have had Consumer Cellular for over 10 years and have always been very happy with the service. I recently had to replace my phone (a DORO). When I got the new phone, I found that several of the features had changed...and not for the best. With the previous phone, if a caller was in my Contact List, it showed the Contacts name so I always knew who was calling. If it just showed a number, I would just ignore the call since they were usually unwanted sales calls or crank calls. If it was important, they could leave a voicemail. With the latest model, it only shows the phone number so 1) you have to know every contact number and be able to recognize it, 2) you can not answer and hope they leave a voice message, or 3) you can answer what is probably not a caller you don't want to waste time talking to. With the previous model, you could delete records of calls received with one selection. With the latest model, you have to perform 6 separate steps to delete the call record. On my phone, I have to delete the same calls multiple times over several days before they finally stop showing up (example-today {a Tuesday}, it shows calls that were deleted last Wednesday and Thursday--I didn't get calls between last Thursday and today). I called customer service today to find out if there were settings I could change to get the previous features. I talked with the rep for a while. Then she wanted to research something and said she would call back in 10 minutes. She never called back. I would like to be able to write a letter to Consumer Customer but am unable to find an address for the company. I am very dissatisfied with the updated phone and may just switch to another company.

We have used Consumer Cellular for about 6 years. We have never had a problem with them. My wife has a smart phone, I have a 6 year old flip phone and we use the home phone service from them. My service for all 3 are less than $80 a month that includes unlimited calling, long distance, 2 GB data, etc. Cell service is the best.

The service works well and is much less expensive than my previous AT&T plan. The AT&T customer service (Overseas) became just horrible so I switched. Consumer cellular service is all US based and my experience has been positive so far. The only downside is to get international coverage, the phone needs to operate on the T-Mobile network (you will need a T-Mobile SIM card) and you need to place a $50 deposit with the company, from which your international charges will be deducted. Hopefully they will expand their coverage to include AT&T For international roaming in the future.

I have had Consumer Cellular for 4 years and loved it. This year I bought an iPhone 8 from CC because CC said it now provided phone service oversees. I went to Switzerland and Italy, and my phone NEVER had phone service, unless it was connected to wi-fi. I called CC twice from Rome and received completely incompetent suggestions from Customer Service. One rep told me that I was likely in an area that was not covered. I replied I had been all over the city of Rome and never had service. If oversees travel is important to you, go with another company. By the way, CC uses T-mobile lines in Europe. I checked T-mobile service in Rome -- customers report being very happy with coverage. so, something was not right with my phone, and I could not get a Customer Service rep to help. In 6 months, I will shift companies.