Consumer Cellular

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.

I have been with Consumer Cellular for years, and it had excellent customer service until the original owners/founders sold the company in 2020 to a venture capital firm. Consumer Cellular went from wonderful to horrible. Impossible to talk to anybody, and today at 12:30 pm I asked for a call back time and was informed that the first available call back time would be tomorrow at 11:30! Customers who signed up for CC Go Lyft service, be aware that Consumer Cellular places the ride request for you and does not have the staff to do this in a timely fashion. Saturday I used CC Go to get a ride from Portland, OR to Vancouver, Washington. It took a while to get the connection to Vancouver, but I got it. Coming back from Vancouver after the event I attended ended at 4:00 pm, I stood on a street corner for over30 minutes being told all the operators were busy. I called again. After 20 minutes somebody answered and told me they could not hear me an hung up! I then down loaded the Lyft app and was trying unsuccesfully to set it up, when thankfully one of the staff from the event recognized me and asked if he could help me. He set up the Lyft app, and a car and driver showed up right away. I do not know what I would have done if it was not for him. CC Go was marketed to seniors as was Consumer Cellular, but the new owners have thrown us away and will not give us the help we need. I will be looking for a company will respect me as a customer like Consumer Cellular used to.

I wish I could give it a minus 10. Just bought the phone and service. Took 6 hours to hook up the phone. Had to call and leave a message and wait for an hour for each call back. It took an hour each time. Have to admit t mobile was difficult to transfer my number, due to the family plan I was on. But the worst part was the last service rep. She finally got T-Mobile to transfer my number, but it was 6:05 pm (closing time is 6:00 pm). Did not know that. she hung up on me and now I have no cell service no t mobile or consumer cellular. She dId not bother to call back. Had to drive to my daughter’s house (30 miles), to call cc back only to find out they close at 6. Left me with no service. So much for caring. If I have an emergency, I am out of luck thank to consumer cellular She was also very rude.

I am a long term customer of Consumer Cellular. I was satisfied with the service and had little reason to contact support. That all changed. I have been receiving almost constant adult content spam to my Consumer Cellular number. Found out it is also going to children. Someone in a similar situation told me her company was able to put a block on her number and it all stopped. I contacted Consumer Cellular and was told they can do NOTHING. If you expect your cellular provider to provide some basic protection options against this type of content being sent to your phone, do not choose Consumer Cellular.

I notified Consumer Cellular that my elderly father passed away on November 7, 2021. I am still receiving collection notices for "data/service provided" after his death. He hadn't used his phone for a year plus prior to his death because he was unable to do so. I contacted customer service and canceled his service after his death and, received another collection notice yesterday for service provided for Dec '21 and Jan '22. The gentleman I spoke to had a very arrogant attitude about the whole issue and kept saying the service was provided and whether it was used or not was irrelevant. I can't believe they are billing a dead man for cell phone service. Consumer Cellular is short on experienced personnel but their problem isn't the customer's problem however they are making it my problem. I would not recommend Consumer Cellullar to anyone and will be cancelling my servicer and going to another provider even if I have to pay more. I expected more empathy with this considering a man died.

Consumer cellular is also not the provider for you if you're looking for honesty. I am unfortunately a current consumer cell subscriber because of the low price. However, I got what I paid for. When I first became a subscriber c.c. upgraded my plan (and the price) because I was going over my plans' limit, despite having wifi at home and work where I did the majority of my online "surfing". Furthermore c.c. lied to me about long-distance calls, saying that it would cost an extra per minute, plus a roaming fee. From day one I was lied to when a c.c. recording told me the long distance number does not exist or my plan does not include long-distance. The number has existed for over 50 years and still does. I regularly receive calls from that number. Therefore c.c. lied about the long-distance service. Finally, one year later, a c.c. support person actually went over and above and told me that I needed a new SIM card. Therefore c.c. lied to me about long-distance calling or their incompetence with keeping up with updates was preventing c.c. with supplying the service I was paying for. When the one customer service rep solved my problem (every other c.c. customer service rep. lied to me when he/she said my problem was solved and I can make long- distance calls. For over a year this was the only solution I got.) In the meantime, I had yet another issue w/ c.c. and called customer service (insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result). I was greeted with a recording saying based on the number I am calling from, do I want to activate a new SIM card? My reply was no but my service was shut off (despite my negative answer) because apparently service has to be shut off to activate a new SIM card. I received my new SIMcard four days later. For four days I was without any form of immediate communication since I don't have a landline. Thank you for making the decision to switch to a competent provider so easy. Richard MC

For simple needs, ie: phone and text, Consumer Cell. seems to be fine...but, I'm going to address the horrible customer service: The phone I purchased from CC a little over one year ago started having issues...since CC could not fix it, and I did not buy an extended warranty, I purchased a new phone from them. Well, Good Luck trying to reach customer service trying to set up the new phone....My husband actually set it up by trial and err...still trying to fix glitches, but here's where CC is failing: Customer service is so poor. You cannot reach them! I set up the (supposedly) call back, and four times now, when my phone rings, and I answer it, there is no one on the other end, and you get the great joy of starting all over again. Keep in mind before this all happened, I spent about six hours of wasted time on the phone w/ unprepared customer service reps that do not have the training, or perhaps the skill to help with phones that are not working properly and the rep. doesn't have the skill to help. Actually found where my phone which wasn't working properly could have been factory reset, but not one rep. wanted to do it. Much easier to sell a new phone to someone of my limited knowledge. So, please keep in mind the customer service is lacking to being dang near non existent...I am still waiting for the "call back" and it is now 4:15 p.m. I started calling this morning at 9:30 ....still waiting after their service hanging up on me from their supposedly call backs. Customer service is a joke.

On 1-2-2022 I received a call at the bank I work for from a mutual customer. She stated she had spend well over and hour with consumer cellular and after everything they went through the issue was actually on the end of the bank. After taking my time to look through this issue with our customer I found nothin that could be found in our system and began a three way call to help assist our 80 year old customer figure out the issue with trying to pay her bill. After 45 min on hold we got in touch with one of your reps. She was very kind and was able to determine that the fault landed on Consumer Cellular end. it appears the payment system that is used had been down and was unable to take ACH payments at this time. The customer would need to call back and process her payment tomorrow. Before dropping off the call I requested that the $29.00 bill be waived for the amount. After being placed on hold again the rep came back and stated her manager could do $5.00. We asked to speak to the manager. After being told she would transfer us right over because the initial attempt did not work we were placed on another hold. As we sat on hold for an additional 15 min you would here a clicking noise interrupting the call. I stated that it was more than likely the manager tapping into the call to here what we were saying. On my recorded line you manager or rep called me a jerk. When she finally came back on the line the manager began by stating she could not speak to me. I stated that $5.00 credit for over 3 hours of wasted time was worth far more than $5.00. She refused and stated the system would not allow her to do so. Which we all know if a lie. There is always someone with an override. You just need to find the person that wants to take the time and help. She began to speak to our mutual customer in a tone as though we had interrupted her day. When I had a chance I stated i would drop off the call to allow the customer to set up a security pin. I did mention to the manager that she sounded irritated and that our time was wasted and she has not reason to be irritated. I stated she should do right by your customer and waive the bill to avoid her spending anymore time on an issue she did not cause. Again we are talking about an 80 year old women. When I said I was going I muted my end of my call to listen. What you could hear was the manager attempting to assist the customer with an agitated tone and the other rep snickering at our customer, on a recorded line. They were basically laughing at this women for having a challenging time with a cell phone. This behavior was disgusting and wrong. I dropped off the call. I am speechless that this kind of behavior would be accepted at your company. I also work for a call center and understand the aggravation of taking customers one after the other while they each rip your face off. Regardless I am still required to remain calm and profession because this is the field of work I chose to be in to pay my bills. She is an 80 year old women that spend 3+ hours of her day just trying to pay her bill. She is on a fixed income trying to get through each day just like the rest of us. We would all expect a little respect and courtesy. That did not happen today. I cant imagine how calls are handled if that is the behavior of a manager. Customer service is not for everyone

Had to discontinue service with CC and switch to another provider. Spent 3.5 hrs total 1st day because their Rep “Chris” (inconsiderate, negligent, idiot!) who dropped both our phone services (before they were ported) and then deliberately dropped our call because he was so confused what to do. Had to call back to restart cellular services and repeat with another rep. Then, 2nd day to finish the porting/transfer of service, the porting numbers they gave us would not work. Took me and the new provider a total of another 2.75 hrs on the phone with their reps as to what is wrong on their end. CC sent multiple porting numbers trying to get their system to work. Consumer Cellular is a TOTAL MESS and most of their reps seem ignorant as to fixing their own system problems. A total of 6.25 hrs dealing with CC trying to port our 2-phone service over to Spectrum. (Guess they were really pissed at me leaving after 7 yrs. and wanted to really screw-me-to-the-wall, and they did!) If it were not for the persistence of Spectrum Mobile, we would never have gotten our numbers ported over to Spectrum. "Consumer Cellular’s system and their inadequately-trained reps are not worth the lower cost service they advertise."

I was required by consumer cellular CC to get a new phone due to their going to 5-D. This has been an unmitigated nightmare. I have been unable to get C C to connect the new phone to their system since their employees do not have the skills/training; and consequently now I have 2 phones, neither with service. Their service previously had been good with respect to billing issues.

After being faithful customers for two years with two phones, we replaced those phones to meet their requirement to have phones that are 5g compatible. Then we purchased another factory-unlocked 5g phone to add to our plan that was listed as compatible, but for some unknown reason it isn't. Technical support could not overwrite the glitch, nor could the "manager". So we decided to switch plans to another company. My wife's phone transferred just fine. When I tried to switch mine, I was advised my factory-unlocked phone was locked to Consumer Cellular's service. The customer service representative gave us the run-around with illogical responses, such as a non-iPhone would be locked to their service for 30 days, unless it was purchased through them. My new factory-unlocked 5g-compatible phone was with them for almost 60 days and my wife's new factory-unlocked 5g-compatible phone was with them for less than 30 days. So why was mine locked to their service and hers wasn't? Now I'm without a phone for 1-3 days, even though the process has been "escalated". Being disabled, having children and grandchildren, this is totally unacceptable. And they want us to come back? I don't think so!

I had ordered a iPhone 13 from Consumer Cellular. Terrible Experience. When the iPhone 13 arrived there was no SIM card installed and the area where you would slide in your SIM card there was no tray located inside the SIM card slot. It was just a open hole . Then I called Consumer Cellular after waiting 30 minutes to speak with technical support. They were surprised to hear about no SIM card installed inside my iPhone 13. They sent me a SIM card in mail which I received on December 27th. I placed the SIM card in the IPhone 13 and called Consumer Cell on my IPhone 6 which was working great. Waiting 30 minutes for tech support to reply at which time a person named Russell replied at 5:24 PM on December 27th and said how can can I help you Richard. Can you activate my IPhone 13 he replied I can help you with that as I was talking with Russell on my iPhone 6. That was connected with. Consumer Cellular. Russell than said give me a minute to activate your iPhone 13. I replied sure. Well since then I haven’t heard from Russell ever again. My IPhone 13 was NEVER ACTIVATED AND my IPHONE 6 with Consumer Cellular I could no longer make ANY PHONE CALLS. How about that, now I can’t call Consumer Cellular to at least get my IPhone 6 working to make phone calls. Presently my Original IPhone 6 is not working to make phone calls and my iPhone 13 is not working at all. You would think Russell would of tried to contact me, but he Never Contacted to Confirm it everything was working just fine. Total Thumbs Down On Consumer Cellular

Pass on this company. Customer service is a joke. Spent all day trying to get a number transfered from CC to another service. Automated service is impossible and you will wait an hour or longer to talk to a person. Then the rep will tell you what you want to hear, but the issue is not resolved. Hours wasted and still the new carrier gets a response of "delayed message" from them. Most changes from one service to another take less then an hour. CC doesn't use pin numbers, only account info which their system should be able to check within seconds. Number transfers should be done seamlessly. Stay away from these people.

A total nightmare! Switched from Verizon to CC as it seemed price competitive.It was but not worth the awful customer service reps AND their supervisors. We had a disagreement about an international bill for $163- talked with 4 reps, 4 supervisors, and the CC FB page. They seem consumed with proving themselves right rather than trying to problem solve. Consumed more than 6 hours of my time AND theirs.I paid the bill and though I did not agree at all with them, it was not worth the headache to continue the battle.I am a senior citizen and found the entire CC experience unpleasant,unhelpful, and unworthy of any senior citizen’s time or business.

I have the unlimited text, talk & data....there is NO unlimited data, I pay overage every month and do not mind paying but I do mind when CC goes into my account and turns my data off without my permission!! I go right back in and turn it right back on and they continue to turn it off! I am moving my lines to my biz account I have with ATT Elite, CC is not worth the hassle of ending up with no data even if you pay extra for the "unlimited" as they call it! Do not go with them, not worth the absolute pain in my neck every month of having to call and deal with the poor excuse of customer service after they turn off your data in your account when they think you have used to much and send you a text saying "they have done it for your safety'?? Really my safety? I am paying my bill not you! STAY AWAY!!!

Since I’ve had this phone their coverage has been less than satisfactory. I noticed I don’t get coverage in any buildings. While others are texting away around me I get no service. I have to go outside to send a text. I have unlimited data but can never access the internet to look things up if I’m not by WIFI access. Finally I have never been able to get through to customer service to get help with my lack of services. I have been trying for the last two (off&on)months. Their app. Is useless and claims you can get direct access to help. Can’t figure this out either. I pay over $50 a month and can only basically make phone calls when I’m not by a free WiFi’ connection. I’m canceling this phone service if I ever get through to talk to somebody. SMFH!!

Their new plan increased the fees of an existing customer like me. I have 2 lines (250 min talk) which were $15x2=$30 every month. The new plan is that line 1 is $15 with unlimited talk and line 2 is $19 with unlimited talk. Line 2 uses less than 10-minute talk each month. That means I do not need unlimited talk at all. I have to pay an additional $5 every month under the new plan, so I called Customer Service to go back to the old plan. However, it was useless. The operator simply said we can not go back to the old plan; moreover, they charge me Auto pay&E-bill fee, which is $5 each month. I have never paid late since I become a consumer cellular customer. I have to pay $10 each month. I understand the new plan for a new customer. I am a long-time customer. I am so disappointed. I will look for another carrier.

OK, so someone needs to take this review seriously!!! My husband and I both have Samsung Note 9's...they are only 2 to 2 1/2 years old and ever since CC have upgraded to 5G the phones are glitchy. Well today my husband's won't dial out or receive calls and he can't access his voice-mail. We called CC customer service and they stated that his phone is "out of date" and he needs to purchase a new cell phone...hmmm, funny because MY cell phone is the same thing and it still works on your network!!! My husband has END STAGE KIDNEY FAILURE and has to rely on his cell phone in cases of emergency!! We have medical bills coming out of our ears and your trying to scam us into brand new cell phones for this 5G crap network?!? Let's see, so in other words I should not pay my mortgage or pay these medical bills so I can purchase $2,000 worth of cell phones??? This is ridiculous and you all out to be ashamed of yourselves! I can understand if my phone was 4-5 years old but they are not...we are talking 2-2.5 years old! We even talked to a supervisor and you just don't care. No notification sent out to anyone! Your company is a joke. I hope retirees are prepared to shell out money because that's what they are going to tell you.

My phone service here in Northeast Florida - BOTH calling out and receiving calls - is UNRELIABLE, POOR and very frequently non-existent with Consumer Cellular - except for voicemail. The problem stems from the fact Consumer Cellular does NOT have its' own cell tower; but (here) uses AT&T and T-Mobile towers. I have been switched (by their Customer Service Reps) between the two with T-Mobile being the absolute worst. AT&T is not that much better and is the reason I canceled my expensive service with AT&T not knowing I was getting the identical POOR service, only cheaper. With the AT&T cell tower being approximately 5 miles away from my residence, I would expect at least GOOD service occasionally; but that's not the case. I would NOT recommend Consumer Cellular; UNLESS you live right next door to an AT&T tower.

I have used Consumer Cellular for about 7 years. They used to provide excellent customer service if you had any problems. Recently I added a new phone line to my account for my son. I tried to call them on a Friday to activate the new phone in September 2021. I called them three times, no one ever answered the call. I waited over 90 minutes total time for someone to answer. I then tried calling them the next day on a Saturday. It took them over 60 minutes to answer my call. The representative was helpful, but they no longer provide good customer service. Wait times have become outrageous.

The phone messed up within 4 months of receiving it, but they wouldn't exchange it! And when I dropped them, they charged my account for the balance??!! Wanted to bring my own phone, but they said they would still charge me for the balance!! And in order to find this out, I sat in a chat queue from number 91!! Called and was on hold for 37 minutes and finally hung up!! Very poor customer service!!!

Don't sign up for this plan unless you want to wait 30-40 minutes on hold on each and every call you make. The enrollment is extremely lengthy and frustrating so I cancelled but still have not received a shipping label from them it hey said they would send men order to return the phone . I gave them two stars only because their staff was friendly.

Recent upgrade Sep 2021- I got a letter in the mail about my cell service with them. Bold letter stating: “DONT LOSE CELLPHONE SERVICE ACT IN THE NEXT 30 DAYS!” UPGRADE NOW FOR $35.00. (They are upgrading to 4G/5G and all 3G cells will lose service. That means i will lose service) I call stated number 888-626-0989 and the very nice customer service guy tells me that the stated CC LINK 2 FLIP PHONE for $35.00 price was just raised to $55.05…”What!?” I’m already having a hard financial time as a disabled senior and they tell me that the price just changed? The only way they can honor this is by giving me a credit on my next bill. I planned on paying 35.00 plus all the taxes charged in my city zone, Los Angeles, Duarte Etc, each is around $2. +/- and now in order to save my long time cell phone number and service I have to pay (paid) over $60.00 today? There’s something wrong when they have you in the corner and the only way to save your number is by paying almost double up front. False Advertising! Bold printing for price! No fine print stating that this $35.00 price can change without notice within 30 days either. J.L. Sep 28, 2021 Temple City/Duarte Ca

Buyer BEWARE. Especially if you are a senior. I NEVER get warranties on phones. I also get paper billing. The warranty they put on my phone without my permission was not realized until several billing cycles. I went on the website to see what was up and there was an un-authorized warranty. I called and was told " we record all phone calls and I will check the recording and get back to You". No one did so I called again, No reference to the recording and they took off the charge but, would not refund the months they charged me. I was told " you paid for it so that was the authorization" Keep in mind this charge was not on my paper bill. ONLY on line. After 2 months of back and forth I decide to go elsewhere closing the account on the 10th of the month. the last day of the billing cycle. I received a bill for 22.27 and was told that was for the cycle of the 20th to the 10th. WHAT?? The bill reflects cycle ending on the 10th but, they say it's from the 20th to the 20th. Not reflected on any bill I have. I was on the chat on their website and from the way the conversations were going I believe I was talking to a AI. No real resolution and they kept offering to send me last month's bill, which I had in my hand. Any conversation that proved my point was responded to with the same circle of "we can listen to the recordings and get back to you" or "would you like a copy of your bill". You are going to HATE dealing with chat. Talking on the phone is a little better at least you are talking to a human. but, you'll not get anywhere. the promises to investigate go unheeded. better off banging your head against a wall..

On August 10, 2021, I purchased a SIM card at Target for Consumer Cellular. I had called and as interested in what was called, “Unlimited Talk and Data Plan”. I had explained to the customer service person my situation: I am a senior and wanted to find the best plan as the cost was important to me; I did not have WIFI and used a hotspot for using the computer and also for streaming a show or two in the evening. I was told that the 35gg plan would probably work for me. It was my understanding that the plan included unlimited talk and also 35gg of high speed. If, for some reason that was not enough for me I had a few options. First, my speed would drop to a lower speed, but that I should still be able to stream and use the computer-use at a lower speed once it hit 35gg. At that point, if I decided to want higher speeds, I could change to the next plan up and pay more. I signed up for service and got a message saying I was getting close to the 35gg. I noticed that while watching shows on tv, ie Netflix or Paramount+, that all of the sudden I got a circle spinning and after several minutes I would eventually get about 30 seconds of the program. Also, using the internet was futile…the blue line showing it working would be about an inch and just stay there. I called and talked to a representative who said, “Oh, I’ve taken care of that”. I said what do you mean…she said she bumped me to the next level. I said what do you mean…is that going to cost me anything and she said yes. I immediately said I had not given her permission to do so and asked to have that extra canceled and asked for a supervisor. I got a supervisor and told her the she bumped me up to the next level without even asking me and felt that was almost illegal and getting into dangerous territory with the FCC. She said she would talk to the customer service person and then she said that they had no way to adjust the cost and that it would have to escalated and assured me someone would be calling me from the escalation team within the next couple days…NO ONE DID. I also told her I wanted to cancel and expect that because I was within the 30 day trial period I expected to get a FULL refund back as I had only used the service for 16 days and had already gotten close to going over the 35ggs WHICH was what my program was. They then said that I had gone over my data and that I would have to pay even though I was in within the 30 days timeframe. I thought that finally the supervisor said she would because of the issue with the girl bumping my service up and miscommunication they would zero out my bill. I have copies of all communications from Consumer Cellular which I will attach. Today, September 3, I received a bill from Consumer Cellular for $33.86. I called and spoke to a customer service person first, who then referred me to supervisor who started to explain to me that although I was on the 35gg plan, that part of an agreement was that if I used 500mg WHICH BY THE WAY IS APPARENTLY 1/2 OF A GG, WHICH WOULD BE USED WITHIN A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME, EVEN IF YOU HAD A 35gg Plan…if that was the case, YOU WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO CANCEL AND GET A FULL REFUND. YOU WOULD BE ABLE TO CANCEL…BUT YOU WOULD STILL HAVE TO PAY FOR SERVICES. NO ONE, TO MY KNOWLEDGE, EVER DISCUSSED THE 500 MG WITH ME. I HAVE ALL emails from CC and they only refer to the 35gg Plan and how if I go over I would get slower speeds and I could remain there or be bumped to a higher speed for more money. SEVERAL things upset me as I got the information over the phone from a customer service person after I took the time to explain my circumstances. AT NO TIME did the 500 mg come up. Also, it was my understanding that this was Unlimited Talk and Data Plan which I was told was $40…WHEN I spoke to the second supervisor, Ryan I was told that it was $20/mo for the talk and $40mo for the data. NO ONE ever told me the two were separate and would be priced separately. I would never have paid $60 for this as it did not offer me what I needed and there were other plans out there that did include talk text and data for only $40. ALSO…AFTER THE CONVERSATION on 8/27 WITH THE SUPERVISOR ADVISING THAT I BELIEVE THEY SHOULD NOT HAVE BUMPED MY ACCOUNT UP WITHOUT ADVISING ME, ESPECIALLY WHEN I WAS ON THE PHONE ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT IT…I RECEIVED AN EMAIL MUCH LATER IN THE DAY SAYING HOW IT WAS CC PRACTICE TO AUTOMATICALLY UPGRADE YOUR PLAN TO GIVE YOU THE BEST RATE FOR WHAT YOU ACTUALLY USE. I felt this was sent to cover them for doing it without my knowledge while I was still exploring my options with the customer service rep as it was hours after my conversation with the rep and the supervisor. I ALSO GOT AN EMAIL DATED 8/27 SAYING I REQUESTED CHANGING TO THE NEXT LEVEL PLAN…WHICH I NEVER DID. I feel that Consumer Cellular is practicing unfair and deceptive business practices. ALSO, the customer service girl should not have bumped my service to the next level without my permission and letting me know that she was going to. It was my understanding that I could stay at the lower speed unless I wanted to change plans. The supervisor I spoke to at the time agreed that should not have happened and even said she would talk to that individual about that…and also said she would escalate it and have someone from escalation call me…NO ONE DID … NO FOLLOW UP. It was also my understanding that I could cancel and get not pay if done within the 30 days. Their recording while waiting for customer service clearly states, IF YOU ARE NOT SATISFIED, REGARDLESS OF REASON, PAY ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I BELIEVE THIS IS FALSE ADVERTISING. They say they want to create lifetime customers and never get locked into a contract. ON AUGUST 26 I received an email stating "Thank you for your recent trial of Consumer Cellular’s service. With our risk-free guarantee, you were able to try our service with no obligation. When I spoke both to supervisors they kept going back to the fact that I had used 500mg and according to CC agreement ONCE I used those I could cancel BUT NOT GET THE SERVICE FOR ABSOLUTELY FREE. They kept asking didn't I see it in the papers I got from CC. I RECEIVED NO PAPERS AS THIS WAS DONE OVER THE PHONE. I WAS NOT TOLD TO LOOK AT AN AGREEMENT ONLINE AND WAS NOT EMAILED AN AGREEMENT. I in good faith canceled so I would not go over and could cancel my account with them for a full refund. After much back and forth, a supervisor agreed to take off $5.58 for some kind of overage but refused to zero out the account. I feel that Consumer Cellular is taking advantage of their customers and exhibiting unfair business practices. I would like to have the phone conversations pulled if possible as I believe that they will show my intent and understanding of my agreement with CC. AGAIN, I FEEL THAT CONSUMER CELLULAR ARE PRACTICING UNFAIR AND DECEPTIVE BUSINESS PRACTICES.

This is the worst company I’ve ever dealt with and that is saying a lot. First of all, they’re almost impossible to get a hold of their hours are only until 5 PM And they don’t work on weekends. I signed up for the service and went out of town for a business call I need to find out that I’ve had no Internet on my phone and since they weren’t open I was unable to contact anyone which meant I lost contact as well as a whole days worth of work. Once I Was able to contact them they realized it was an error on their part. Then my hotspot would never work and come to find out someone had made a mistake and they corrected that supposedly only it never was corrected and I had to contact them three times. And each time expect at least an hour to have to deal with them. They found that they sent me Wouldn’t charge and I immediately contacted them to complain and asked that I have the service disconnected. The girl told me to wait because I had 45 days according to AARP. I canceled on the 43rd day and asked how to send the phone back. They couldn’t tell me this and said I had to contact a different department a few days later per their instructions. I was then told that I was outside of my trial. Which I explained I was not and reluctantly they said that the phone would be excepted and they sent me the instructions on sending it back. I sent it back and then they charged me $585.85 even though they didn’t have permission To debit my account and the phone was returned. The worst company they stay away if you can!

Horrible, tried to transfer from Verizon, they promised all would work great with my Samsung Galaxy S10. Had the service for two weeks, never could get texting to work, customer service told me I would need to move to a different provider. So I switched, now I find out they are still billing me. Breaking out the find print Heather stated the confirmed the start and stop dates that spanned two weeks. They promised talk text and data, I did not receive this. Heather transferred me to a supervisor they hung up the call. Run from this company, they cant and wont deliver, and they charge you for services that cant or wont provide. They take advantage of Seniors, I ended up with back with Verizon, on a prepay, $50.00 a month, and most important, it works, yes Talk, Text, and Data. Again RUN away from Consumer Cellular as it Does Not Work, and they steal your money charging you for services they cant and wont provide. RUN!! I will never trust a AARP recommended company again.

Bad news don't trust consumer cellular. I have had touble using our hot spot. After many phone calls no help in fact it got worse. And still doesn't work. I sent back the recent phone and switched to another carier (visible). So far very pleased. Unlimited streaming that doesn't slow down, but you can only use 1 device at a time and the speed is preset. Works great netflix and church with no digitizing. I got the warranty phone back they claimed it has deep scratches to the display whitch is odd I and others don't see anything wrong with the phone. Anyway after 9 years it has ended our relationship with this company. Shame on them don't fall victim to there so called 30 day warranty if you don't like the phone and or service don't get an expensive phone from them their warranty for us does.t hold water.

They will NOT honor the MA tax free weekend if you buy a phone from them online or call them via the customer service line. They claim there is no way in their system to remove the tax and their Billing Department will NOT give you a refund on the tax claiming that their phones bought on line (or via phone) does not fall under one of the eligible items in MA that qualifies for the tax free weekend (the phone I was looking at getting was less than $100). After 1.5+ days in dealing with them, they have refunded the sales tax but I was TOLD this was a courtesy to me as the Sales Tax has nothing to do with them but between me and MA!

We have been with this company many months. We experienced problems early on with customer service. Believe me, quality control in not one of their bright spots. In fact it will attribute to their eventual demise in my opinion. From the beginning we had many dropped calls, no reception that meant lost time, lost money. After months of limited service we were still left in the lurch. Their whiz kids had no answers except for us to send the phone back for a replacement. As I write this complaint we are on our second phone, both were returned & sent back to us on account of scratches on the phone which I was unable to see with my eyes, & a magnifying glass. Our only option was to call Portland, Oregon ( main office ) where my complaint fell on deaf ears. When management got involved, they found out that the tower that T Mobile operates, does NOT put out a signal strong enough to satisfy our problem. They sent another simm card that does not help. Now we sit with 2 phones using one hoping that whoever calls can get through to us. Paying Consumer Cellular monthly for their service is nothing short of a crime. There are a awful lot on negative reviews on their site. You would think that a responsible company would respond. Then again if you do not have the right tools you will never get the job right. Terrible Company !

Bought phone from target got lied to told me there was great service were i live . Lol had phone 3 months 80 % of time i tried to use it would say no net work service . I had $20 . 00 month plan got told it was unlimited talk an text . Lol i never tried to text because of no service but found out today i never had texting . That would of been $30.00 a month . Called them about problem 2 hours on phone oh you need a sims card. Wait a week get card no change Lol call them another hour on phone oh sorry you have no cell tower reception were you live. Lol then i tell the cancel service they tell me i owe them $35. 00 dollars to canceling a $20 .00 a moth plan i say give me a supervisor he taks $10.00 off then threatens me with collection if i dont give the the $25.00 who does that ?? Thats customer services that how a supervisor talks Lol i am on auto pay no servies for my consumer cellular phone and even worse customer services from there customer service representative i would not recommend them to my worst enemy. What a joke lol

You get what you pay for. If you are a cellular junkie who needs no help when things go wrong, probably no problem. But if you need ANY help, be prepared for long waits on the phone, inaccurate advice on how to solve your problem, or just plain wrong answers. I actually solved a problem I had for several days at 9 am, tested to be sure it was corrected, and was unable to access the “corrected” problem 3 hours later. Based on my 7 days with their idea of service, I would not return to them if the price was free. A former very short user of a very poor service. The AT&T sales person who moved me to his service could not believe my complaints until he had to deal with an hour of trying to move my service (including one hang up by CC).

Consumer Cellular is without a doubt the worst cellphone company ever. There customer absolutely sucks, I needed a password reset. I gave them a call, after a 20 minute wait I was told, sorry can’t do That if you wait 24 hours you might be able to login into you’re account. Huh I replied, okay please could you tell me my account number. Sorry can’t do that, oh, so I confirmed my identity which the agreed, well can you email my account number to me, sorry can’t do that. Why don’t you wait 24 hours and login was the reply. WOW I’m wondering how much the paid to get such a good rating. At your own risk