Consumer Cellular

Almost impossible to close an account. They will say the account is closed and then 2-3 months later you get a bill for hundreds of dollars. This company has no ethics when it comes to keeping customers. Don't ever sign up for their service... you will regret it.

Porting had minor glitch which was quickly and efficiently resolved by great courteous well trained staff!

It took way too long to activate my phone. For example, the first rep. That I was talking to disconnect my phone . So then I called a second time and got a very pleasant and conpetent rep, Denise. But I was on the phone for over an hour,, just to activate a phone I'm not happy with the company.

Perhaps the ease of setting up the transfer of carriers and the savings that will be seen are truly incredible.

Easy online ordering. Fast delivery. Great phone, plan, and prices. A+ customer service as always!!!

The tool to take out the sim card snapped in half, and while we got two SIM cards, we only got one tool so we had to drive to a Target.

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

The people with CC were very nice and helpful during the switch. Only been a short time to check reception and do any comparing with past service.

Buyer beware. Stay away from consumer cellular. They are very nice when you first get the service. Shortly after you will realize the service is not great. When you call and question the service they basically brush you off. They don’t care. Then you disconnect service and they give you an attitude. Finally, they don’t prorate the final month. So if your billing cycle begins on the fifth and you cancel service on the eighth, they will charge you for the full month. That is legal as they are a postpaid service not a prepaid service. They are horrible.

Consumer cellular adds false. Uncaring customer service. Bad network service. I'm handicapped in disability. Was a great customer 4 yrs. Had trouble w phone calling out Spent 3 days w their tech. Or should I say non tech dept. Finally said sending sim. Then deactivated phone I'm paying for. Had no phone 7 days. Got phone called in for 4 days before getting sim all good offered credits . Free shipping new phone. Put sim in no phone problem. Now called in tol I'm not longer allowed to be customer Violated policy the won't say what is. Again 4 yrs paid good customer Then bam no more now phone works. Had to find a new co. Shut off phone gave me three days . No notice after 7 days no service.

The worst cell service company I have ever encountered. They advertise a low cost and then immediately escalate their price to incredible levels. When you attempt to terminate their service, they immediately begin outrageous and unjustified costs as a punishment for leaving their very dishonest and deceitful company. They will attempt to assign all sorts of termination fees when you attempt to move your service to another company. They even locked my phone and only unlocked the device after I contacted my congressman and the FCC. They then lied and stated that they did not lock my phone when the phone clearly indicated that they locked the device. This is the most dishonest and deceptive cell company and I cannot state how crooked they are. Avoid these thieves at all costs.

Consumer cellular is a disgusting and deceptive company. When I terminated my service, they vengefully locked my cell phone to their company to prevent me from utilizing the phone with another company. They also loaded up my final more than one hundred dollars of bogus charges when I terminated my service. I filed a complaint with the FCC and they were none responsive and I then filed a complaint with my congressional representative which did provide me support. They finally unlocked my phone after almost three months of denial but I had absolute proof that they locked my iPhone. I would advise everyone to avoid this unscrupulous company. They finally unlocked my phone after almost three months of denial but I had undeniable proof that they locked my iPhone. I would advise everyone to avoid this company like the plague. They will lie and deny and the FCC is the most useless government agency I have ever encountered. Consumer cellular TV commercials try to deceive you with promises of a very low rates of approximately $15 per month and you will see your future bills escalate exponentially. I have used almost all cell service companies since the inception of the industry and they are the most disingenuous and simply crooked company I have ever encountered.

Consumer Cellular shut off my text messaging without warning, and did NOT restore my text messaging after I called and asked them to allow me to send texts where I was promoting my business. I've been allowed to promote my business for years with other companies in this way of sending out texts with links. This is censorship that shouldn't be allowed. They would not work with me when I called them and spoke to the highest level they would allow, which wasn't as high up the chain as I asked. They only stated that if I didn't comply, they wouldn't restore my text messages. Using conservative language, I don't recommend them!

I have been a customer for more than four years and had been happy up until May. Consumer Cellular started misreporting the data used on one of our phone lines. I was on the phone with Customer Service multiple times for this issue. The kept saying that the data usage for that line was double what it actually was. I even had proof from the phone itself and their website for what the usage should be. All they kept saying was that their was a huge amount of pending data. The first rep I spoke with said it would update in 24 hours, so I waited and called back after 48 hours. Their website still said our usage was half of what their system said. The next rep said it could be up to 72 hours before the system updated and would reflect the huge amount of pending data. I plan to call back after 72 hours and talk to a supervisor. This has been extremely frustrating, and we are looking at switching carriers. Too bad, because we had been satisfied customers up until now.

I was a Consumer Cellular customer for less than two months if they have an auto pay discount l never received one is the reason for my account termination. The company is overrated had l checked customer reviews prior to opening an account l never would have. I am now a customer with a company that has a 4.8 out of 5 customer review score. I have the same plan l had with Consumer Cellular, my monthly bill is 50% less, my new company submitted to me in writing my total cost per month and plan. I am retired and have always spent my money wisely being a customer with Consumer Cellular was not cost effective for me.

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE! I helped my elderly father leave Verizon to save money using Consumer Cellular. Their $25 plan turned into $27.30 (not much savings there). The real problem started when his flip phone broke and he had to go and purchase a new "Consumer Cellular" phone, their Iris Flip. There are no "Consumer Cellular" offices or help, so he went to Walmart to purchase the CC phone. Upon calling Customer Service, they said they could not help transfer his contacts, since his phone did not have blue tooth. My nephew sat and hour after hour punched in all of his contacts by hand. ONE MONTH AND THREE DAYS LATER, the new phone stopped working!! He took it back to Walmart. They said it was past their 15 day return policy. He was stuck with a non-working phone, no place to go for help, etc. He went back to Verizon. Upon calling Consumer Cellular, they said there was nothing they could do and then billed him for "the whole month" for his final bill, even though he was not able to even use their service with a broken phone. Good bye, Consumer Cellular.

This is the worst telephone company I have had to work with {I have worked with Sprint, ATT, Verizon, Spectrum in the past). I set up a home phone for my father with a base that his landline plugged into. I needed an extremely reliable phone because he is 97, blind and lives alone. Problems started immediately because It took over 3 weeks for CC to port his phone number over and with every call from me during this time there was a new excuse. We finally got set up and everything went smoothly for a few months. The reason I left today was that my father's phone has not been able to receive or make calls for FOUR DAYS. We called and computer chatted with CC multiple times daily for four days and they finally just said "ATT towers are out, there's nothing we can do." We checked with ATT and they said that was false and they had no outages. We were never followed up with, nor did the company ever reach out to us to give us a time frame or respond to our concerns. Four days is an unacceptable amount of time to be without a phone for anyone but for a homebound senior, it is nothing short of dangerous.

Why do 53% of the reviewers on this site give Consumer Cellular only a ONE STAR rating? Because zero stars are not available. CC is an ATT reseller that has carved out a niche exploiting elderly and presumably less savvy customers, note the AARP tie-in. The service is undependable. I used it only for a rarely used backup phone. Too often, I would find that the network was unavailable. Contact tech support, they flip a switch and I'm connected again until next time. This last time, they didn't even offer to check for network outages in my area. They only wanted to sell me a new phone, since mine was six years old. I cancelled on the spot. They will lie to your face. I purchased a second phone which I intended to connect with CC under their "bring your own phone" program. Their rep told me it was not unlocked and could not be connected. This was false. It was absolutely unlocked and compatible with their network. They just chose to lie to me because I had not purchased the phone from them. Verizon connected it with no problem. It remains connected with Verizon to this day. I find that the Verizon network almost never, ever goes down. No issues! I believe CC's business model is built around exploiting their geriatric customer base. My suggestion is to find yourself a real cell phone service provider, such as Verizon, AT&T, or Tmobile. Steer clear of CC. You're not that dumb.

They are a fraudulent operation that preys on seniors through lies and deceit. No matter what you are told by their "customer service" reps, do not believe them, especially if you are purchasing a phone through them. I was told I could exchange a flip phone, which was technically incoherent on so many levels, for a less expensive, easier to use phone for my elderly friend. I was forced to pick up all shipping charges and then found out they refused the phone because it wasn't "like new". The issue? A microscopic scratch in the charging port. Other than that its appearance and functionality were perfect. Also, don't be fooled by their AARP endorsement. When I complained to AARP, they dragged their feet contacting Consumer Cellular and then weeks later told me there was nothing they could do. Buyer (especially seniors) be very, very careful with both these organizations. They are not what they say they are.

We had many Cellular contracts during our lifetime. Consumer cellular advertised 50gb unlimited but never mentioned that it was split between the 2 lines. At 38gb use for both they left message that internet was cut off! Throttling cuts off the page loadings after 3 minutes as "timed out" So not throttled, cut off. They said that we have to pay separately for each line, so no deal as advertised. They act nice while they are cheating you to act like it's good customer service. Smile and laugh as they rob you BAIT AND SWITCH ! So we got 2 lines. Same cost as our last cell contract. Went over 50gb on one line as a test and BAM!Cut off internet completely. No unlimited, Throttling is 1 page per 7 minutes unless it shows timed out. Their secret to giving horrible service is to act very sweet while doing it. They can't pull their wool over this wise sheep's eyes. Other 3 cell companies with caps slowed down a tiny bit but was a true unlimited plan. Consumer cellular are scammers and bait and switch while smiling and acting as caring. Can't do anything because there's no contract. They just deny further service for you. Then scam the next sheep.

I had been with Consumer Cellular for many years with no problems. I have noticed of recent that the American customer service reps, except for a few excellent ones, are increasingly rude, and have know-it-all attitudes without having much knowledge of the problems presented, so there goes that J.D. Power award. The main problem though is absolutely disgusting beyond disgusting. After having trouble with an existing phone I bought other new ones, 3 more to be exact, and EACH had problems from the very beginning, so I sent them back, and each time this cost me extra money to do that. I had also upgraded, and finally I had one that cost $199 that I sent back, but it was returned to me because they said it was damaged. Indeed it was, but I had the phone for only a few days, and I never damaged it---THEY DID. They actually put some nasty scratches on it deliberately so that they could extract $199 from me, my word against theirs. I did a consumer complaint, and very soon a rep called me up and gave me a professionally coached firm rebuttal blaming it all on me. Why they would want to do this in the first place for just $199 I do not understand but it is beyond dishonest and dirty. When I persisted, they finally sent the damaged phone back to me, to keep, but would never take any ounce of responsibility, continuing to blame me, and the consumer complaint was dropped. So much for any follow-up, and that left me with many hours of work for nothing except a damaged phone. This is one of the dirtier things ever done to me by a company, and I will never forget it, and have moved on for a while now. Just remember—they did it to me, so that means that they are capable of doing it to you as well.

Terrible customer service. They are heavy handed and aggressive despite appearances. They neglected to remove my wife’s line from the bill despite the fact that I reported her death. They refused to let me change the account name because they said it require a change in financial responsibility despite the fact that I had been financially responsible for the bill since it’s inception. Consequently, every time I called customer service, I had to go through multiple ways to access my account since I wasn’t the primary account holder. When I finally decided to cancel my account with them, they wasted my time explaining things I hadn’t asked about, arguing with me and making the process unnecessarily complicated. When I tried to transfer my number to the new company, they kept the transfer pending for hours and hours giving me no other choice than to change my number since they already canceled my service. When I received my final bill, it was more money than it had ever been. I called about this only to find that they had completely removed me from the account due to my cancellation so I had no access at all. Explanations to everything were vague and only satisfied their needs. I finally was able to speak to a supervisor who gave access to the account and then actually acknowledged the death of my wife and said I would be refunded what I had paid for her line beginning on the day of her death. Billing then let me know that I would only get 3 months returned to me, as a courtesy, with no acknowledgment of the discrepancy. The bill that the billing department sent still said that I owed the full amount. No one could help me with this because I was no longer on the account and their restrictive policies denied me a document that showed the lower amount I was told I could pay. All of the conversations I had with them were pointless. Their tone was pleasant and friendly but the content was always self-serving. They kept telling me they were trying to help me but clearly all they were doing was helping themselves. They are many other phone carriers. Avoid this one completely.

I was just reading this to help decide if I will make the switch and thankfully I know better because you need to update the information as it is wrong. I don't know how much of this is wrong but I know for a fact that cc has unlimited data plans.

I bought a new phone from them thinking that I would be treated better. The phone cost me more than advertised and they could not get it to receive service for two days and too many hours. When my brother and I approached the 50mb cap, we got messages that we were overusing and our data got cut off. They act sweet and apologetic so that they are received as 'good service.' They denied that the service was slow. We could not load a page in minutes. Could not look at a bank account which kept timing out. They said that they could give us the service back if we each bought our own plan at 50mb. So now we pay twice the price. Their customer service is horrible because they put on a "nice" show when there's a problem. "Oh, I am so sorry to hear that. Let me fix it for you, okay?" And they can cut your month to month service just like that because you don't have a contract. Best to get service with a company who owns the towers to avoid Consumer Cellular- like tight reigns on service. We are paying the same amount as our former contract and wish we hadn't switched. They never threatened to slow service or throttle data to zero.

Helped my 92 year old neighbor get a phone with consumer cellular. Considering CS is geared towards elderly, they are not very elderly friendly. Requirement just to place order, she required an EMAIL address. My neighbor had never owned a computer, nor ever had an email. Tried signing her up for a free yahoo and google email address, however, those required a cellular number to sign up for as well, to send a verification code to for the email, need the cell phone to get the email, need the email to get the cell phone.... Waited 2 weeks for the order to arrive. They require signature for the phone package. Since my neighbor was a little too slow to get to the door, mail carrier didn't wait around long enough for her to get to the door. Thus, took another WEEK to actually get the package with the phone (So now 3 weeks in). Finally got it. Went over to set it up for her (Tuesday August 1st). Low and behold, they are using E SIM now, and REQUIRE WIFI to set up the phone. So off we go over to my house to try and set it up. So now phone is active, works. Great! The NEXT DAY she has some heart issues and ends up in the hospital. This sweetheart of a woman unfortunately passed away Monday August 7th, so 6 days after getting the phone. So now we are a month since ordering, and less than 1 week of activation. As I am helping the family settle the estate and take care of things, and since I helped setup the phone/account, I am trying to cancel service. Consumer Cellular will not honor the 30 day trial, SINCE IT IS 30 DAYS FROM DATE OF ORDER, NOT 30 DAYS FROM DATE OF ACTIVATION! So less than 1 week of activation, but 1 day past a month of ordering, no cancelation and no refund, nothing. So that is almost $700 the family is out on a device & service that is not usable. Nothing about this company is Elderly Friendly, it is 100% setup to trip elderly and the family into blowing a good amount of money. Save your time & money for your elderly loved ones, just go to Wal-Mart, get a prepaid phone off the shelf and call it a day!

We joined Consumer Cellular because we were told they used the T-Mobile and AT&T network. AT&T does not work in our area. This was the sole reason we signed up. Once we received our iPhones, and service was turned on, we were told they no longer used T-Mobile, but we had 45 days to cancel. That was the first mark against them. We canceled within the 45 days and returned our phones. A couple of weeks later, one phone was returned with a note that said there were scratches to the display and that we had to pay for the phone. There were a couple of minor scratches, and we offered to take it to the Apple store to have the screen replaced for $300, but they refused. They gave us a couple of ridiculous options of buying the phone and reselling to someone who want's consumer cellular, or to buy the phone and apply to get it unlocked, but it may or may not be accepted. This has been the absolute worst experience with a company I have ever encountered in my 48 years of life. I feel like they refused to meet me half way and has now basically given me the choice of paying $1,300 for a phone I will not be able to use, or to just not pay and go to collections. Guess this is what happens to your customer service when you're bought out by a private equity firm. Lesson learned.

New phone order handled horribly. Customer service has gone downhill dramatically in the last few years. I just purchased a new phone thru them. I told the rep I wanted to order a new charger because the one I currently have might not fit. What she sent me was a cord--nothing more. No way to plug the cord into the wall. I had to make one phone call to find out I didn't have what I needed, and I had to order it myself through Amazon. Then I read instructions that tell me to insert a sim card, but no sim card was included. I have to call again to find out there is NO physical sim card, it has an e-sim, but nobody sent me the link to the QR code to activate that. So then they have to send that out. I call again to complain about how this was handled, and I get a rude SOB on the phone who talks down to me and tells me it's written on the box that there is no charger AS BIG AS LIFE. Guess what, you moron? I don't need to read it when I open the box, I NEED TO KNOW IN ADVANCE THAT I HAVE TO ORDER IT. Finally, I call to register a complaint about all of this mess, and I get a supervisor who insists that the person who set up my order told me what I needed to know. Excuse me, NO, SHE DID NOT. She never told me that she was sending ONLY a cord, and not the piece it's inserted into it that plugs into the wall in order to actually charge your phone. The supervisor also spoke down to me, as if I was supposed to automatically understand what her employees were saying even tho I have no idea what their verbiage means. She then made it even worse by telling me she can send me a different phone that has what I need. Umm, hey, dum dum, I have been telling you all along that I already ordered the charging pieces from Amazon, NOW THAT I KNOW I NEED THEM. If you idiots had told me that to begin with, I could have placed the order immediately as soon as my phone was ordered. I told her that all she accomplished was upsetting me more, and now I'm going to call around and get pricing from other carriers. GOODBYE!!!

Consumer Cellular sent my daughter a new SIM card for her Iphone XR. (She had been using the phone on Consumer Cellular's network for the last 2 years.) (She needed a new SIM card because Consumer Cellular was switching networks from T-Moblie to ATT.) After she put in this new SIM card, her phone stopped working. Consumer Cellular told my daughter that she had to call Apple or T-Moblle to unlock her phone to work with her new ATT SIM card. Apple said they could not unlock it, only T-Mobile could. T-Mobile said that they would not unlock the phone (this was after they told us they would but it would take 3 days) because my daughter never had service with T-Mobile.) My daughter was without a phone for 4 days. (Between Consumer Cellular, T-Mobile and Apple - we had spent 5 plus hours on the phone.) I called Consumer Cellular (which I had been a customer of for 15 years) and told them to replace my daughter's phone which they refused to do. They told me to give them 3 more days to try and unlock it. I refused to wait three more days.

If I were to rate Consumer Cellular's products and services, I'd give them a minus 10. The phone they sent me wouldn't work. They sent me a new SIM card and by the time I got it I had owned the phone for 5 weeks, or 1 week past the 30 day return policy; all the while I was paying them for a service I could not use. Giving them the benefit of a doubt, I asked them to send me a SIM card that would allow me to use my current phone number and I am still waiting for it. That was over 4 months ago. Now they are telling me that I owe them $97.00 and some odd cents. And for what? A lousy product I have used less than 5 times and non-existent customer and tech support. I paid for over 3 months of service I never used and got tired of waiting for them to keep their end of the bargain before I quit paying the monthly charges. I have lost count of how many times I have tried to contact them via my other cell phone and through their website to resolve this problem, but since they have ignored my every attempt, they can suck it if they think I will pay them another cent!

AVOID IT !! After a week , I still have no service . Before I transferred , I provided the " IME " phone id to see whether it was compatible with their system ; they assured me it was ! A few days later , they tell me it is not ! Their solution , buy a new phone from them ; in no uncertain term , I told them where to go ! Switching back to my old carrier became even more difficult as the " transfer pin " provided expired in less than a day and one has to spend hours waiting to get a rep on the line so that they can provide a new pin . The reason I switched is because of the endless hours wasted trying to understand and explain to my old carrier , whom I had been with for 24 years , and whose call center was in the Phillipines , and you could hardly understand them . As the saying goes , better stay with the known than the unknown

Consumer Cellular continually said I was going over my gigabytes every month, so they constantly did an auto upgrade in spite of the fact that my online account showed that I had not gone over my gigabytes. When I switched to another company, I called Consumer Cellular to discuss my final bill. Again they had upgraded me on my final bill - saying I had gone over my gigabytes even though I had 10 days left on my monthly bill, and my on line account was showing I had gigabytes left. And they charged me $5 for opting out of auto pay which I had not done (they had charged the balance on my final bill to my credit card). I explained to the billing department that my current company was showing I was far below my gigabytes which were in fact fewer than my CC plan, and I had not changed the amount I used my phone on my new plan. The representative said "Just because you say that, doesn't make it true." In other words, he called me a LIAR. I hung up on him. In my opinion, this company is dishonest. Watch them. They will steal from you every chance they get.