Consumer Cellular

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.

Consumer Cellular are thieves. They lie about the service. When I was looking for my best option for hot spot I had spoken with 3-4 people on different days. ( which I did on purpose to see if they had different stories) I was told data was unlimited and hot spot. Unlimited means unlimited exactly how it sounds. That was never the case with then. LIARS. Then my phone showed it was compatible. Send me a sim card and nope it doesn't work. Nothing but trouble. So I have to buy a phone from them ( how convenient) I get the phone. It's the exact phone. ( which I'm sure was refurbished and not brand new like they said) nothing but problems with the phone. Freezing. Taking a half hour or more to turn on when I would start or restart it. Take money out of my account after I distinctly told them no. I paid my bill on time and early every month. Each agent rambles and talks BS . Do not trust this company AT ALL. The only reason they got a 1 star is because there's no option for a 0

If I could give this company 0 stars I would. Let me stress that to try and save a few dollars it is simply not worth it no matter what Ted Danson says on Consumer Cellular TV ads. We have never had a problem with a mobile carrier and normally stay with a carrier for many years. After seeing how AARP endorses Consumer Cellular and the fact that we could save a little money I decided to switch service to Consumer Cellular. I initially purchased an Android phone from them and set up the service online. I have used Apple phones for many years, so I was unhappy with the Android and called and was planning on canceling my service. So, when I called the rep (I have his name) he said if I would stay with Consumer Cellular, he would give me $100.00 credit to be credited to my bill at $10.00 a month for the next 10 months (I never received that monthly credit even though a “supervisor” was going to check into this). So, I bought a new iPhone 14+ and when I received the iPhone a USPS bag with the label attached was included. I sent the Android back and everything went just fine. Even though I only used the iPhone 14+ for a week or so I decided I would prefer the iPhone 14 Pro Max as I used to have a 13 Pro Max with another mobile carrier. So, I called and the Consumer Cellular rep said that would be great and I paid the difference. I received the iPhone Pro Max and the USPS bag with the label attached was included to send the 14+ back which I did. Not long after I received an email from Consumer Cellular saying to remember to send the phone back or I would be charged. Over the course of the next few weeks, I called and talked with several reps at Consumer Cellular giving each one a tracking number (I have the USPS receipt) showing the iPhone 14+ had been delivered to the address that was provided on the shipping label from Consumer Cellular (a Fort Worth address). Each rep I talked with checked the tracking number showing the phone had been received and said everything was fine and that not to worry I was “good to go”. Then later I saw my AE bill, which had an “insufficient return charge” from Consumer Cellular of $996.47. I talked with another Consumer Cellular rep and she said the charge would be credited back as it shows the phone was received in Ft. Worth. After several more attempts to get this taken care of, I finally called AE and gave them all the info. AE filed a dispute to suspend the charge. Then Consumer Cellular rejected the dispute and billed my AE again. I contacted AE and they extended the dispute as I had all the info AE needed. During this time, I was on the phone with several Consumer Cellular reps and finally one of the reps (I have his name) said that they must have included the wrong shipping label and the phone was sent to Asurion. I did not even know who Asurion was at that time. He explained it was a mobile phone insurance repair company. He said he talked with a supervisor and she said I would need to contact Asurion and get the phone back and then mail it to them. I said this was not my mistake and why should I have to deal with it-he agreed. I asked him for the number and he said he did not have it; I would need to look it up. I checked the internet and found the company. I called with the tracking number and of course, they had no record of this. Then a couple of weeks ago I saw on my AE bill a charge for a small amount from a company I did not make. AE suspected a suspicious charge and mailed me a new card. I went online and input my new card number with Consumer Cellular so they would have my new number for my account. Then today I was notified that my cell service for my wife and I would be canceled. Consumer Cellular tried to bill my old card for the $996.47 “insufficient charge” and it was rejected. Today I literally spent several hours on the phone with several Consumer Cellular reps to try and get this straightened out. What happens is first you talk to a rep, then they must get a “supervisor” who hopefully gets you to “billing”. Then the billing rep must get to another supervisor. Now the latest is, the billing department says they must send an email to “accounting” (they can’t call them they said). And after a billing supervisor disconnected or hung up on me, they finally have reinstated my service and then show a “payment arrangement confirmation” for the $900 + so in the meantime they can try to find the phone I mailed back and investigate. I bet this phone was either lost or stolen. The bottom line is, I sent the iPhone phone back in the USPS bag with the attached label that Consumer Cellular provided and it was shown as received and delivered. I paid for my new iPhone 14 Pro Max and I should not be billed for the $900.00+ for a phone I mailed back that was received at the address Consumer Cellular provided. Either USPS made a mistake or someone at Consumer Cellular affixed the wrong label. I would think for an expensive phone that Consumer Cellular would have it insured. Regardless, I did everything correctly and it has been a nightmare dealing with them. Everyone is polite on the phone, but I just get “lip service” as no one can make a decision, and then they forward me to someone else or tell me it will be handled. I have spent probably 10-12 hours between Consumer Cellular and AE trying to get this issue resolved and so far to no avail. My wife and I are retired, have perfect credit, and never have had any billing issues until now. I have spent way too much time on this issue and it is beyond frustrating.

In 2022 I contacted Consumer Cellular to let them know I would be out of the country for 5 months. I wished to drop my regular plan to the lowest level for that time period, while still retaining my phone numbers. I was assured by the customer service representative that that would be done. It was not done. When I recontacted them to ask for credit for those 5 months, they said they had no responsibility for this but that as a courtesy they would refund $30 to me. I was impressed by how very unpleasant and impolite Aaron, a customer service representative supervisor, was in our interactions. I am deeply disappointed in what is supposed to be a better cell phone service.

ordered a phone and new service, found an email within minutes i was canceled. no explanation. Called to find out why, they transferred me to a billing specialist (which is code for fraud ). I talked to the rep and he said i was canceled due to security. I asked if they are going to ask me questions to validate i am who i say i am (I know this because i use to manage a fraud department at another carrier that doesn't have service where i spend most of my time). He said know this is all he has. You cant validate with them. No take a pic of your id and yourself and send in. Nothing. I have no idea why they canceled my order and no way to overcome it. Unbelievable, considering i was paying everything in full up front. Hook up with At&t directly if its their towers you use is my recommendation.

I have had CC since 2010. I noticed the last year or so, their overall quality went down substantially. I recently purchased a new phone because we were forced to upgrade to 5G. My latest problem with this company is usage. I inconvenience myself to completely shut the phone down, so as not to waste minutes. I am 5-days into the new cycle and already received an intimidating usage warning. What CC is attempting to do, is raise your rate each and every month. They touted themselves as to say; the customer has "unlimited minutes"; what happened to that? My next step and I suggest everyone on this page will think about this, is to file a complaint with the FCC and you States Attorney General's Office. The more that people will file, the more something will be done to curver what I call "a racket". BTW - I agree with many that the new customer service is horrible. Last inqury found me almost arguing with a young, arrogant and rude customer service employee who was not accurate at all and did not have a clue on how to answer my request. It is a shame, because CC used to be tops but not anymore!

Consumer Cellular is good service even in remote areas. The only thing is, it's not available everywhere. It depends on how close the nearest tower is.

Consumer cellular's customer service used to be the best of the best before they were bought out by a private equity firm. Their reps used to be highly knowledgeable, courteous, and dedicated to getting it right for the customer. They apparently have a completely new group of customer service personnel who often do not know what they are doing, will never admit when they don't know what they are doing, promise to fix problems and then don't, and generally don't care much about the customer. Sometimes they sound arrogant, sometimes disrespectful. I assume that the new owners got rid of all the old reps and contracted the work out in order to increase company profits. Any time you have a customer service problem they pressure you to go to a more expensive plan.

Wish I could give no star or negative star. Terrible experience with CC that costed us a lot of time and money. Here is what went wrong with us, and this is brief as there is much more. 1. Said my current phone would work when we switched to them-it didn't and I had to buy a new phone. 2. Said CC at Target could help port info cause customer service couldn't. Went to 2 Targets and no one was there to help. 3. Said they had coverage in Canada (we were going to take a trip there) and at the day before we were to enter Canada found out we had to get a special sim card for our phones to work there. NO ONE TOLD US THAT. So, we had to cancel our trip costing thousands of dollars. Wrote to the company execs-crappy response. Most they would do is reimburse me if I sent my phone back. So that would mean more time and money. Very poor company-stay away!!!!

Horrible service! After a few months I cancelled and move to cricket. Once I signed up and ordered a phone I got it in a few days but I was received Litterly 15 to 20 calls and texts a day for other people. After dealing with this for about two weeks I called consumer cellular and asked for my number to be changed. The operator helping asked why I wanted a new number, I told her of the many calls and texts a day I was getting that were for other people. She informed me I could not get a new number and she also told me to just ignore the calls and texts. I was furious when I got off the phone. She had an attitude was not even going to try and help me. But, I went on for a few more weeks and then had enough!! I cancelled! I tell everyone about my experience with them. Horrible company!

I wouldn't even rate them a one star, but had to, to leave my review. I just got off the phone with consumer cellulars sales department and customer service department. Talk about the WORST EXPERIENCE, i've ever had with a cellular company. They talk over the customer while speaking #1 , Then their attitude's were attroshish. Very disrespectful of a customers questions. It's like your dealing with young kid's that don't wanna listen, and just run on with their mouth's. I mean really, they've turned me off so much, that I ended up hanging up on them. Not a way to get new customers if you ask me. I won't be purchasing service from them ever. And I would feel highly sorry with those that ever do. I can see why they deal with seniors more, because they can probably just take advantage of them. Consumer Cellular isn't what they claim on television advertisement what so ever.

If I could give 0 stars, I would. Switching from our old cellular service provider to Consumer Cellular was a big hassle. It took a lot of calling around and digging through paperwork to get various account numbers and pin numbers. The SIM cards were difficult to install and my son's SIM card is still not activated because Consumer Cellular has lousy hours and we can't get in touch with anybody. When we tried to activate his SIM card on line, the system wouldn't even let us create an account. It said our information doesn't match their records. Then it told us to call a phone number where nobody answered the phone. All this to save money? It looks like we're getting what we're paying for. Had I known it would turn out this way, I would have stuck with our former cellular service provider.

As a Consumer Cellular customer I called them 3 weeks ago to ask about enabling international usage for my phone. I was told I needed to install their T-Mobile SIM card which I did. I asked if anything else was needed and was told no. Three days ago called Consumer Cellular again to confirm my phone was ready for international usage. They confirmed it was. While in Europe today the phone does not connect. When I called Consumer Cellular I was told that international roaming was not turned on and could only be turned on while in the US. So, I was lied two twice and now must purchase a local SIM card for use while in Europe. Consumer Cellular offered no assistance.

1. Phone constantly drops call. CC's response: If a bird flies between your phone and the cell tower, the call will drop. 2. Utterly inept tech support. 3. My newest gripe is the $5.00 a month FEE because I will not give them my credit card / checking account information for Auto-Pay. That's right, folks...it's NOT about the paper billing, which was their explanation/excuse for the $5.00 charge the first time I called and complained. OH NO, it has nothing to do with paperless billing. It's now a $5.00 charge every month that you decide that you are a competent (not senile) adult who chooses to pay your monthly bills through your own bank's bill-payment system. Guess What...CC does NOT like that idea. They want your credit card / checking account information so that they can pull money out of your account. Having read the dozens (hundreds?) of complaints about CC making erroneous (illegal) withdrawals from customer's checking and credit card accounts, I am NOT a big fan of giving them my banking information. And for THAT reason alone, I have to pay them $5.00 a month. Can someone PLEASE explain to me how this fee is legal.

I’ve had CC for 6 years. At the time they were a reasonable cost compared to ATT which I had before. I’ve bought 2 iPhones from them. But recently (last 6+ months) I’ve been been getting spotty data and in some part in the center of the city I couldn’t get anything at all. Called and they said they’d send me another SIM card. Funny though, that’s what they did about 1+ years ago. This time the SIM card they sent was just as useless, so I changed carriers. If you live in a rural state, don’t bother with this carrier. Also their customer service has really gone downhill. Sounds like they farm it out to individual’s home phone and they’re unknowledgeable. They close it 5 pm and off all weekend. They used to have longer hours and the csa’s were knowledgeable. Now they’re crap. Also when switching over they wouldn’t unlock my phone for the new carrier even though they sent me a text with the 6digit code for the new carrier and when I called asking why they wouldn’t unlock it, they said the other carrier made a mistake when in reality it was them. In the interim after that, they cut off my phone line entirely for a 12 hour period where I could even reach either carrier! I think she did it for spite. I’m very disappointed with them. And now that I’m with a larger carrier with better service, instead of $35 with CC (taxes included) I’m paying $14 (taxes included) with the new carrier. Don’t bother with them. They must’ve been bought out by a venture capital firm and then cutting costs to milk the profits from it before they flip it to someone else.

I have had Consumer Cellular for a couple of years. At first it was great but not so good now. I have problems with not being able to hear me and I can’t always hear them either. My phone keeps cutting out the only way I get good service is if I stand outside and be perfectly still. Half of the time when I am away from my home I can’t get any internet service. I have a Samsung Galaxy A21 phone I thought when you have a cell phone you should be able to use it away from my home.. I knew I didn’t want a smart phone. I am going to start looking for a different phone carrier.😩

I have been with consumer cellular for almost 10 years and was happy until today. My rating was 4-5. It is a now a 1 My phone finally gave out so I ordered a new one. It arrived today. I went to charge it and found out it couldn’t be charged. Samsung apparently no longer provides a cable for charging except a C cable with a C connector on both ends? WTF? I have 8 charging stations with multi charging on each one. They all have the standard USB output that we are all used to and have been using all along. The duel end C cable of course is useless in this charging system. I thought they must have sent me the wrong cable so I called Consumer cellular to get them to send me the right cable. After waiting some time their customer service came on the line. I identified myself and told the rep the problem. She – like a 12-year-old girl giggled all through this whole exchange until I raised my voice. She then stopped giggling pretending she was actually over 12. The only problem was she had no idea how to 2-way communication. Shew incessantly interrupted and talked over me. I finally had to tell he I would talk and when I wanted her to talk and respond I would say your turn. This of course is totally silly to have to do but I had no choice. I was talking to a immature person who should have been selling cool-aide not being a customer service rep. She suggested I could buy a wall unit to plug my cord into either from consumer cellular of by one elsewhere. I on the otherhand suggested that maybe they could send me a proper cable – one with USB on one end and (in this case) C cable end on the other. She insisted they could not do that and hat I would have to spend more money and waste more time to and buy the charging end for the junk cable Samsung sent me. We next moved on to her supervisor. Working with this child was exhausting and infuriating since she kept repeating that Samsung did not include the plug in end with their phones. She just could not get it into her head that thjat was not the issue. The unusable cable was the issue. So supervisor. No luck there either. The supervisor must have trained this child for her customer service position since she was telling me the same BS. So from 4-5 to 1 rating. I have never been so infuriated by customer service since Amazon’s gemes from oriental lands. Are all customer service people going to be dingbats from now on? I hope not because I feel sorry for consumers. Are all cellphone manufacturers going to be as cheap and idiotic as Samsung and Iphone? although I bet IPhone at least gives you the right cable or a way to plug it in. Maybe not. I don’t use the ultra-expensive IPhone. I neither need to impress my friends or throw my money away. A any rate I found a better plan for about the same money so bye bye Consumer cellular. Your customer service stinks and your prices are not that good. Also goodbye Samsung fopr just being idiots with your ultra-cheapness and your idiotic cable that is useless to most people. I feel much better now thank you.

They increased my data plan when they deemed I was going over my current data amount without my consent, I was charged for text messages that they put through to me although I had cancelled text and charged me for a text they allowed me to receive from someone else and I am billed for usage after they shut my service down because I did not call to cancel my service.

Very poor coverage, could only get or make calls while at home using WI-FI. Canceled service, to go to another provider. When I contacted Consumer Cellular to have phone unlocked, I was talked into staying with a different plan. I paid the outstanding balance and I had to wait 4 days for new SIM card (due to damage of old SIM card). When I got the new SIM card it was defective, I was told I would have to wait another 4 days, I said no, cancel and unlock my phone. That was 6/5/22. On 6/10/22 Consumer Cellular charged me $43.45 for a month of service I did not use. On 6/26/22, I was charged another $5.40. I contacted C.C. was told that there had been a mistake and a check for a refund would be sent in 7-10 days. Not happy, they took the money electronically why not refund it the same way! Scam, poor service, stay away from this company!

My experience was very poor. After using my phone for a short time I discovered that I could not receive or initiate phone calls over the LTE data network (cell towers). I called and explained my issue and the Consumer Cellular rep told me they found something turned off with my service and would download code to my phone to help with cell tower reception. After the call the phone worked making and receiving calls on the LTE network. Next morning I discovered the problem with phone calls on the LTE network was back. I called Consumer Cellular again and they asked me to start troubleshooting. I told them I was uncomfortable troubleshooting with them unless I was compensated. This is where the relationship went down hill. After this second phone call the phone worked with phone calls in the LTE network. That afternoon the problem again (a third time) returned. I asked for a refund and was told I has exceeded my 30 days. Potential customers need to beware that their 100% refund starts at the date of your order, not the date you start using their service. I did not begin using the service for 8 days after my order (delivery of the phone and porting of my phone number). I have no confidence in traveling outside of my home with the Consumer Cellular phone. After less than a month I wasted my money on a new phone and the cellular service. In my case about $200. I am in the process of switching away from Consumer Cellular.

Wanted to change my cellular carrier to CC. They said my phone was compatible and could transfer my current phone #. After 3 days of not being able to make or receive calls, almost 8 hours on my husbands phone, talking to 6 different CC reps (including a supervisor) and several online chats, CC conceded that my phone was not compatible! I quickly retuned to my previous cellular company.

Lied to me. Told me phone I ordered would ship right away and would work as soon as I "Set it up." That was the phrase chat representative used. "Set it up." To Consumer Cellular, set it up means follow these steps: 1. Receive phone. Yeah, it did arrive in a couple days as representative promised. 2. Look for charger. 3. Come to realization that no charger is included in the package. 4. Go to Samsung Customer Service web site. (Couldn't call - Had no phone.) 5. Get told charger is not included in package. Must be ordered separately. 6. Order charger. Pay fee, even though you already paid $250 for phone. 7. Wait another week for charger to get delivered. There might be more to "Set it up." I don't know because I have to wait several more days for charger. I'm sure if I talked to someone from Consumer Cellular, he would say, "Did the representative tell you a charger was included." Me: "No. Didn't think to ask." Consumer Cellular: "Well there ya go, boy. You ain't go reason to complain." In my book, Consumer Cellular representative told a blatant lie. "All ya gotta do is set it up." If nothing else, he could have warned me no charger was included. I wouldn't have liked it, but at least I could have ordered it at same time as phone and gotten it sooner. Consumer Cellular is a slimy, dishonest company. I will never forget this filthy, filthy trick they played on me. Nor will I forgive.

I've been with Consumer Cellular for just over a month after having Verizon for decades thinking I could save a few bucks on a couple of lines. In order to avoid having a medical emergency while writing this review I'll skip over all of the details and just write that I've had to call this f[oops!]ing company on average twice a week to either have my phones reset or figure out why one of the phones (my work phone) isn't making or receiving calls or figure out why the Consumer Cellular website takes 4 minutes to load or figure out why there's just no internet service at all, or, or, or, or... I feel bad for the customer service reps. They're super nice but their hands are tied over the remarkable ineptness of the service. Once I was actually advised to go to my nearest Target (45 minutes away) and have a tech look at the phones because they had no clue what to do. Don't use the service for your elderly parents. Chances are they're going to need their phone in an emergency and there's not going to be any service whatsoever. As for me, I'm heading back to the Verizon store tomorrow.

Had consumer cellular for almost 2 years. I have had excessive phone problems to which customer service was never able to resolve. One, the phone only worked on speaker, another I couldn’t get rid of an amber alert and customer service told me I needed to factory reset my phone only for me to figure it out once I got off the phone. Several other issues but those are two. Additionally whenever I call, they demand that I verify the account to troubleshoot problems. This couldn’t be more irrelevant except for verifying what phone it is. Last time I called I was so worked up, I asked to speak to supervisor but after a hold, the representative spoke to a supervisor instead of transferring me as I asked. Then and only then was he given “permission” to troubleshoot the issue with me. I’m amazed how a phone company can exist without any stores where customers can get help from. Target is good for nothing except buying the phone. I will strongly discourage anyone from choosing this horrible service.

I got a plan and a phone with Consumer Cellular. The phone I got never worked properly from the start. I tried factory resetting a couple of times, and finally got around to calling them. They told me I needed to factory reset. I said I already did. They said I needed to do it within a week of the call. So I just said screw it and figured I'd call back later (I didn't have time to deal with that). Anyway, a small piece of the swively part broke off randomly and I called about that and the issue I was having with the keys either not working or acting as though I hit them 3-4 times with each press. They mentioned the swively part break was a defect and they'd replace it. Okay, cool. Well, I ended up getting a used phone, which is unacceptable considering I bought a new phone and it didn't work properly from the start. Not only that though, it was absolutely disgusting and had scuffing on the screen (though they told me if the one I return had any scratches, I'd have to pay for this used garbage so not sure how that works). Anyway, that's absolutely ridiculous that I pay for a new phone, get a defective phone, and then get a used phone to replace it, and it wasn't cleaned and was in bad condition. I would avoid.

WE WERE WITH CONSUMER CELLULAR FOR 3 YEARS. WE LEFT MINNESOTA FOR KEY WEST ON MARCH 4TH. WE HAD SERVICE MARCH 4TH AND 5TH. ON MARCH 6TH ON OUR DRIVE TO KEY WEST WE HAD NO SERVICE THE REST OF 2 WEEKS OF VACATION. WHEN I ARRIVED AT KEY WEST I TRIED TO CONTACT CONSUMER CELLULAR. I WAITED OVER 45 MINUTES ON HOLD. TRIED CHATTING AND WAS NUMBER 68TH IN LINE THERE. COULD NOT REACH THEM THE ENTIRE MONTH OF MARCH. ON MARCH 29TH WENT TO TARGET IN ROCHESTER MN AND TALKED TO THE CONSUMER CELLULAR REP THERE. HE WAS IN TOUCH WITH CONSUMER CELLULAR AND TRIED DIFFERENT THINGS INCLUDING PUTTING IN NEW SIM CARDS. NOTHING WORKED. WENT TO T-MOBILE ON APRIL 1ST AND THEY INSTALLED NEW SIM CARDS AND EVERYTHING WORKED IMMEDIATELY. NEVER EVER WILL I USE CONSUMER CELLULAR AGAIN

In the process of "reconfiguring" my phone from 3G to 4G Consumer Cellumlar destroyed the phone. It never worked again! Despite telling me that I did NOT need a new phone at the time, my phone dropped all calls immediately; and my texting was severely limited- other people were unable to text me! After repeated efforts to fix my phone I was told by two different Supervisors at the company that repair "tickets" would be sent to AT&T and that I would be contacted. I never was contacted and I had NO phone service for three weeks! Now Consumer Cellular is trying to collect $62.00 in closing costs for "service"! I estimate that I spent "9" hours on hold with this company in order to get help with related problems. At no time were they capable of doing anything but run me around in a circle. I ended up buying a new phone and arranging service with a first line carrier. The single worst experience with a company in my life

I called them twice in December to assure I would not have roaming charges when I traveled overseas during the holidays. The person I spoke with 12/22/21 said "you are all set up". In March, 2022 I received a $482 bill from Consumer Cellular. I made 6 calls over 3 days to get the bill corrected. A "supervisor " said their employee should have asked me more questions but would not correct the bill. I moved my cell phone provider as soon as I found one I hoped has Ethics and integrity. Do not believe the CC marketing. After being an 8 year customer they acted a bit shocked that I would change providers. Karma is......

Customer service team just doesn't know what they're talking about. I have a slightly more obscure phone (Asus Zenfone 6) which is compatible with both 4g/5g networks, and GSM and CDMA (when you google asus zenfone 6 it comes up with the international version which has only GSM, but I have the us version which has both) and was using it perfectly fine on their network until I ended up losing the sim card a day ago and called them to replace it. They ended up telling me my phone was no longer compatible with their network, which clearly wasn't the case as my calls and data both worked fine for 3+ years until I lost the sim card, and I told them that it must be an error in their database and asked if there was anyway to fix it, they said no, so I asked to speak to a manager, who also said no. It would've only taken a little extra effort on their part to fix this, kinda disappointed since customer service is supposed to be the thing they're good at, I might even be willing to go back to them if they fixed this problem but unfortunately since that doesn't seem to be the case I can't recommend them anymore and I'm gonna have to spend the rest of the day switching cellphone numbers.

Consumer Cellular is running a scam. They advertise an unlimited data plan with up to 50 gigb high speed, than a slow down. But they will not honor this for their Connect Pad service which for some illogical reason they limit 35 gig then a slow down, which renders your pad useless., and without. One would think a pad device needs more high speed data than a phone! And they can get quite testy discussing this issue. Then they blame lack of gigabyte usage updates on cell towers polling delays. So, if you need a mobile pad with reliable data connectivity, better look elsewhere.

The customer service is awful, rude people who put the "blame" on the customer (ie: the information given doesn't match so YOU will HAVE TO...blah blah blah), if you call to change or cancel your service, you really get treated like dung. I called to cancel because the phone I gave my mom was deemed incompatible with CC service and therefore I was being forced to go to another carrier, the representative was rude, and, be prepared, they charge 2 months service when you cancel. As well, I wanted to change the payment to my credit card so that my mom's account would not be charged for the last two payments, but he had already put in for the cancellation, therefore, they refused to change the payment method unless I reactivated her service, which would incur additional charges! They don't seem to understand that their business depends upon it's customers. I will NEVER be one of their customer/victims again!

Customer service speak clear English but I've had several bad experiences. I've had to call over and over to get thru and then I've had to speak with them more than once to resolve the same issue. Most recently my call service was off for two weeks or more, and after spending more than 12 hours on various chats all they told me was it might be 24-48 hours and they'd contact me. 8 days later I started a chat and had the problem resolved in around an hour. So they left me hanging and acted like it was my fault asking if my phone was updated and if my data was on wasting my time over a series of a dozen or more attempts usually being disconnected from my screen turning off while I'm in the queue or them saying they couldn't do anything and they were sorry. But guess what they took out full payment for that month even though I couldn't use my phone for calls over half the month. 👎👎

I've switched to their service 2 weeks ago and have no network service without resetting the network settings over and over. They tried to resolve the issue but have not after hours of talking to their technicians. They keep blaming it on the upgrade to the towers from 3G to 4G. I'm so disgusted that I have little or no service, I'm going to switch to another provider.

GOT A REFURBUISHED PHONE DIRECTLY FROM CONSUMER CELLULAR. I ONLY GOT A SMART PHONE BECAUSE I HAD TO HAVE ONE TO USE APPS FOR WORK. MY FLIP PHONE FINALLY DIED. I ONLY USE MY CELL PHONE FOR EMERGENCIES. I PROBABLY USE IT FOR 30 MINUTES A YEAR. I WENT TO USE THIS SMART PHONE WHICH WAS OVER A YEAR OLD. THEY DIDN'T REMOVE THE INFORMATION FROM PREVIOUS USER SO I COULD NOT USE THE PHONE FOR MAKING CALLS. THEY EVEN ADMITTED IT WAS THEIR MISTAKE. SAID, "SORRY, YOU HAVE TO BUY A NEW PHONE". WE CAN'T REMOVE THE OLD INFORMATION. THE PHONE IS NOW LOCKED WITH PREVIOUS OWNERS' INFORMATION. THE PERSON WHO RETURNED IT WAS SUPPOSED TO DELETE ALL THEIR INFORMATION. BEFORE RETURNING IT. YOU CAN'T RETURN THE PHONE BECAUSE YOU HAVE HAD IT FOR OVER A YEAR. I CANCELED MY SERVICE. IT WAS THIER FAULT AND THEY WANTED ME TO BUY A NEW PHONE. GO WITH A CARRIER THAT CARES ABOUT THEIR CUSTOMERS (IF YOU CAN FIND ONE). THEY ALSO HAVE ALMOST NO ONE IN ALL THEIR TARGET STORES. NOW THEY ARE IN WALMART AND THEY HAVE NO ONE IN THOSE STORES EITHER. I WILL SWITCH TO ANOTHER CARRIER BECAUSE THERE ARE 4 PLACES THAT HAVE CORPORATE RETAIL STORES OFFICES WITHIN 3 MILES FROM MY HOUSE. IF I HAVE PROBLEMS, I HAVE SOMEONE TO SEE FACE TO FACE.

Promised no contract/no penalty cancellation and a low price. Raised price almost immediately. Promise great service. It was always terrible, connection was never good but we used them so little that we hung on until they tried to coerce us into spending hundreds more dollars on their new phones and service we did not need or want. Told their phone rep no, cancelled, but kept getting billed. They sometimes didn't even get the bill to us until AFTER the due date, making it impossible to pay on time. At the end they refused the usual by-phone payments via credit card in order to force us to call and talk to their representatives who, as above, tried to coerce us into spending hundreds of dollars more for items we did not want.

I had been with CC for many years. I paid by check since their customer service is terrible and they NEVER ANSWER A CALL. I called CS to say I had a sent a check but my bank called to say I had written it on a closed account. I called CC immediately and they had not yet (so they said) received the check. I paid my bill this time with my debit card and CS said they would not process the check. I got a notice a few days later that I owed the present month + a $25 charge for the RETURNED CHECK (They processed the check anyway) and demanded payment for the current month (Not Yet Overdue) plus $25 right then and there. They had already cancelled my service. They now are demanding $96.26 and will send it to collection if not paid!! I had been with their service for many years and never had a payment issue. They now are threatening collection against me when they would not accept a payment and then cancelled my service. An inquiry into this company will reveal they have terrible customer service. I called the month before to inquire if my current bill was for the past month or the new month. I called twice and was given a different answer from both sources. Think twice before falling for their advertising. Your service is actually with AT&T even though it is thru Consumer Cellular. Terrible Terrible Company!

I've been with CC for almost 10 years, and until a few months ago, they were pretty decent, but it's been Hell the last couple of months. First, they cut off my phone completely because I used 35Gig of my 50Gig monthly allotment, stating in a one way email that you can't reply to, due to their fears that there might be fraud on the line...no notice...nothing. This, of course, forced me to call these idiot morons to fix their mistake, which brings me to the next HEADACHE with CC....their hold times are in excess of 45 minutes to reach a rep IF THEY DONT HANG UP ON YOU FIRST...and you have to call them back waiting another 45 minutes, if you're lucky and not hung up on again, to speak with a rep. So we're now at an excess of an hour of my time for which I'm not being payed by these yahoos, waiting on hold to tell them about their mistake. So I finally get through to a live rep who then assists with the issue. I want to make it clear that it isn't the reps I'm angry with, but management. Unfortunately I can't get to management to wring their proverbial necks for executing a disconnect on a line that hasn't exceeded their data allotment. Now, I find that, "Oh, the reason why was because your package is at 35Gig...not 50Gig" What!? How the freak did that change!? I'm the admin of the account and never issued you that directive. I record all my phone calls and told them I could let them listen to the conversation about our package agreement, but NO, they don't want their lies to slap them in the face...so they fixed THEIR mistake. I'm now almost 2 hours into fixing something I didn't break. Next...I then order another line on the same account with a separate data plan and charged for it because I want the additional data (100Gig Per Month Total). At the end of the billing period, they throttle the new line me at 28Gig....22Gig under my 50Gig allotment! WTH!? Another round of calls to CC...'cause I have nothing better to do...to AGAIN, fix their mistake. Are you seeing a pattern here? Again, they pulled the same crap (keeping it decent) they did with my primary line stating that it was on a 35Gig Cap instead of a 50Gig Cap. Seriously 🤨? Would you like to listen to the recording I made of the discussion and agreement on the 50Gig package? Uh...NO. Again with the not being able to admit they were wrong. But they did what they were supposed to do to begin with and honor the 50Gig Cap...PER THE AGREEMENT... Next...this evening...AFTER THEY CLOSE THEIR CALL CENTER FOR THE NIGHT, they throttle my data after 1.2Gig of usage 🤨 You just can't make this crap (keeping it decent) up. In a nutshell, CC has gone from good to crap and I don't recommend them unless you like double talk, being lied to, waiting for hours on the phone to get a hold of someone to fix their mistakes. Yes, their plans are cheaper than most...which comes at a cost. The question you have to ask yourself is IF that cost difference is worth the PITA that it has turned out to be....

There is nobody home. To chat you have to wait an hour. You sign up for a callback and they text you. You dial that number and start at the back of the line. I am in their auto pay program. I buy a new phone. They want me to join auto pay. I don't because I'm already in autopay. Then they send me an email telling me I need to join autopay. I click the link, go to the website, fill out the data. And they tell me I'm already in autopay. They used to be so good with customer service. Now it is nonexistent.

To Whom It May Concern: My dad was the person using this phone line, who passed away. A few days later, I received a final bill from Consumer Cellular. A couple days later, I called and spoke with an agent and requested that Consumer Cellular waive the final fee. Agent told me that that was fair and would probably do, but she needed to check with her supervisor. Her supervisor told her that he would not waive the fee and that the only thing he could do was reduce the invoice for a couple dollars and that this is all he could do for me – what an insult! You may think that this is not a lot of money, but all of you know or will know that when sudden death occurs, every penny count and is not about the money but a principle of appreciation for a good customer, as my dad was. I will publish on the web about this incident and notify all my followers, friends, and family—that Consumer Cellular is a company that does not empathize or cares about family members passing away. As a good customer, I ended up paying the bill. I will never work nor deal with Consumer Cellular again.

I had only had my Samsung Galaxy AO1 about three months when people could not hear me speak. Took to a you brake we fix place as they requested and tech said mic was bad. Lady I spoke to at Consumer was rude and did not listen, told me three times to remove sim card after me telling her I did not have another phone to insert into. Finally told her to just tell me where to take it to get fixed. Gave me wrong Target store and said I had to have an appointment when didn't. They did a factory reset. Worked for a month and then same problem, flash will not work on camera, didn't then either. Last night noticed phone was still on when set to go off after four hours. This morning phone is dead. Have not phone to call Consumer Cellular. I am 78 and this is more than a hassle to me. When charged if works, they probably will want to do another reset instead of replacing the phone. It is now about ten months old.

My 85 yr old mother used their service for her home phone. She paid for the 1st wireless receiver which lasted about a year. We called their customer service when it stopped working (expect a 2 hr or more hold time) and they had to send her a newer model receiver and charged her $51. The new receiver did not work so we call them again and they sent a 3rd receiver (again charging her $51) and it did not work either. They continued to draft service fees from her banking account each month even though she had no service. We finally had to go to the bank to stop any future drafts from being taken out because they could not get her service cancelled. This company markets to seniors and they rip them off. Beware!

Been a customer for many years. Just received a bill for $5 extra which will NOW be required for all customers who do not pay their bill thru Autopay. This was never set up years and years ago, and told to us that it could happen, and now they want to penalize OLD customers who Never have paid their bills late. No offer to allow old customers to pay as they wish, without having to go on autopay to avoid the $5 fee, this is called a Grandfather Clause. Very not customer friendly. When you are older you are not used to doing things on Autopay , as well as being self employed and not knowing exact dates of when you get paid, so not wanting to set up autopay for any bills. This is a SLAP in the face to well established customers who have been with the company close to a decade and now have to pay an extra $60 a year just for the WAY we wish to pay. As a side note--this is a company that advertises and Holds themselves out to be Very SENIOR CITIZEN friendly. As you can see this is no longer true, IF it were ever True. I called customer service as well, the rep was so rude and talked over me the whole time. I actually have never had someone that rude from their call center. I had to hang up on him, as I couldn't listen to him anymore. Any complaints I have sent to the company before have NEVER been answered, including MAILING a complaint to their main office. They bury negative reviews at the back of their review stack so no new customers can find them. I would definitely change companies IF my mom was not over 85. At this point it would be very hard to teach her a new phone or new service. Just another way for them to make money!!

CC is reasonable when you do not use the service much. When I was using my phone to buy a home, it was expensive, the data would slow to a stop every evening, the wait to talk to a person was typically over 30 minutes. It even charged me over $8 because it took 3 extra days to port my phone number to another provider after being with CC nine years.