Consumer Cellular

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.

The customer is very nice but some of them are not trained very well. In my case when I called to switch, I informed them I lived in a rural area and had no cell service at my home with my current carrier. I told them the hamlet I live in is a known dead zone. I am dependent on wifi calling when at my home. So they send me an ATT sim card and ATT for some antediluvian reason won't support wifi calling. ATT DOES NOT have cell service in my area either. So now my family and my work have no way to contact me. Consumer Cellular said they would send me a T Mobile sim xard because they support wifi. Why didn't they do that in the beginning? Also sending pics is not supported, even when I am on the ATT cell. If you live in an urban area Consumer Cellular would be ok, but if you are in a rural area with known dead zones, I would not reccomend CC.I hope T Moblie better or I will cancel my CC account.

Until recently I was very pleased with Consumer Cellular (CC). My wife and I were planning a trip to Europe so we called CC to get a recommendation on keeping one of our cellphones fully functional. The customer service rep recommended I go to a local Target (20 miles away) and get a universal sim card. I did just that and came back home to get the sim card activated for use overseas. The rep activated two of the three features (downloads, texts) that would work over the T-Mobile network there. When we got to Europe my wife’s phone did not work as promised. She had to be tied to a local wireless network in order to text, so it was next to worthless. When I got home I called CC and told them about it. They apologized, but did not offer a real excuse. So I told them to let me put the old CC sim card in and they led me thru the process. The clincher is that the card takes up to 72 hours to get provisioned. So far, her phone has been an exercise in frustration for almost two weeks. What a mess!

Love love love this company! Half the price I was paying at AT&T, great customer service and the exact same coverage. And they just added more data to my plan at no additional charge! All this without being roped into a contract. I have recommended them to my friends, my kids and my parents all of whom are very happy.

In trying to transfer a service (ie do a port) from Credo Mobile to Consumer Cellular, and using a current iPhone, they sent us a new SIM card for their network. The card did not work and produced no service. Upon calling CC, they told us that they needed an account number and PIN number from Credo. Well, I said, why did you send us the SIM card before getting this information; as it stood, the SIM card was useless. They told ME to call Credo, which was not for me, as a new customer, to do. They needed to get the porting info before sending me the card. They failed. They asked me for the account number and PIN, not even knowing that CREDO doesn't use PIN numbers. VERY BAD SERVICE.

We went to a target and though they didnt have the newer phone for seniors they told us of the new model doro 7050. It is much better in dusplay and easy yse than older phone. So we went to the company web site to purchase the phone. It was not listed as an option. Only the older doro. I chatted with a Rep from consumer cellular. He saud tgey wont offer the newer midel phone exceot at target...lttough the targets here dont have it...until they sell all tbe older model. This us just not acceptable. They are basically concealing the fact there is a much better phone forcing seniors to buy the old model thats not very user friendly. My husband had the older model and so we know about it.

Excellent service, you can stay, and we will stay, or leave anytime. Excellent rates. They lower rates as needed if you you don't use minutes or will advise you to chnage if it is on ly for a month, then go back to previous rate. Excellent all the way around, not to mention the excellent phone coverage area.

We have just begun service with CC so cannot comment on long term, but with set up, cost of phone, Samsung Galaxy J7 and estimated monthly cost, it is exactly what we are looking for and cheaper than what we had. CC has already emailed and called to see if they can do anything else for us at this time. Just gave 4 stars because don't have long term experience with CC.

Got my phone and it was packaged securely. Everything went flawlessly with transferring my data. Also, they don't charge crazy activation fees.

Very professional, the employees were highly educated on Consumer cellular products. They did whatever they could to make our deal work!

I really like how fast Consumer Cellular was in helping me to transferer everything from one phone to the other. Top Notch.

Customer service was great. I don't remember the woman's name from OKC. She was very informative and polite. She had very good energy.

It was extremely easy to pick out a new phone and place the order. Shipment was quick and it was fairly simple to transfer to the new phone.

Your customer service over the telephone is fantastic. No matter who you get all my questions were answered politely and efficiently