Consumer Cellular Review: Is It Worth the Savings? (Pros and Cons)

34 thoughts on “Consumer Cellular Review: Is It Worth the Savings? (Pros and Cons)”

1. Not satisfied with Consumer Cellular. Purchased an iPhone14 from them. It arrived 1/3/24 and I activated it 1/5/24. It had issues from the activation. I’ve been told it’s an Apple issue- go to them. So I did. Apple is willing to replace the iPhone- Consumer Cellular won’t.
   Contractually, I have 14 days to determine if I choose to keep the phone.
   Consumer Cellular said THEY had to troubleshoot before they replaced the phone. I wasn’t informed of that until Apple iCare representative called on my behalf to state the phone had an issue. I spent nearly 10 hours on the phone and with Geek Squad trying to figure it all out. Unacceptable!
   Because of the phone issues and how John at Consumer Cellular treated the Apple representative on a 3 way call, (he didn’t even document his involvement) I’m returning the phone to Consumer Cellular and getting a different carrier with a phone through them. I’ve NEVER heard such rudeness.

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2. I bought a flip phone from them when I went with the service. Apparently I’ll be paying for it the rest of my natural life. Three years, and the damned thing isn’t paid for.

   And the phone sucks. It’s the Link II. One day the battery heated up on me, it was so hot I had to shut the phone down before I burned myself.

   My perpetual problem, though, is texting. The useless manual tells you nothing about texting, just “Go to this screen now text!” That’s literally it.

   And no one at CC can explain how it works. The Catholic Church has fewer mysteries than Consumer Cellular when it comes to the workings of text on this phone.

   I have been using cell phones since 1990. I have had a couple of different providers, including ATT&T and T-Mobile. Every provider has had knowledgeable customer service. But not this crew. If you don’t have a smart phone, they can’t help you.

   Avoid this company.

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3. I am cell/computer illiterate. I wanted to drop my AT&T and T Mobile accts. I talked a young lady who was so refreshing. She was professional but friendly. But my phone hadn’t been unlocked. I called back and got Christopher J. This young man walked me thru every step he was so caring, understanding and patient. He taught me so many things about my phone that hubby and son would be shocked to realize that I had done it. I have to stress the point that either of these customer service professionals ever made me feel like I was an idiot or asking stupid questions.To be truthful they were the best trained customer service people I have ever had the pleasure to talk to. As far as I’m concerned they have a customer for life. Thank you for training your employees so well.

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4. I’d like to leave less than 1 star. These people lie to you left and right. The commercial says you can cancel them at any time. Don’t believe it! My husband died slightly after I got a phone for him with them, more than 30 days (We had battery problems with the 1st phone) he only made a couple of calls with his replacement phone ( the1st phone due to the faulty battery) but less than 60 days. Most companies will prorate the phone and let you return it with a death, I asked to do this with no chance of this with Continental. I was okay with this and bought the phone paid for it in full and I have the receipt which states this. I gave this phone to a relative who needed one. Free and clear right? Wrong! They then told me I would have to pay for 6 months of service on a phone BEFORE it could be unlocked. How is that cancel at any time. When trying to call and get this resolved (I asked for a manager. I was given a first name that I am doubtful about) and told I could have no way to identify them no employee number no last name not even I first initial of the last name. I then asked for a manager, he stated he was the only employee in the US I told him I doubted this. CUSTOMER SERVICE MAY BE IN THE STATES BUT IT IS NON EXISTANT. It is no wonder they are not BBB acceditated. Save your $ You can do much better than these crooks!

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5. I was a consumer cellular customer for years. My reception was terrible. Three weeks ago I decided to switch carriers. Today after three weeks of numerous phone calls and endless hours I was finally able to switch. They locked my phones. It also meant that they can bill me for another months bill.

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6. I used CC for about a year and then quit forever. I would never recommend it despite the 2023 tv ad blitz.
   30 to 60 minutes phone waits for customer service. This happened very frequently.
   1 month to get a new SIM CARD.
   Bad billing experiences.

   After several months, I could no longer log into its website to pay bills, etc.

   I was using T-Mobile while using CC. I decided to use T-Mobile for everything after leaving CC. T-Mobile has great service on the phone and in-person. And it has a greater variety of plans. I have a pay as you go plaln so cheaper for me than CC.

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7. they jacked up the price 25% folks.

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   • Oh damn…..

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8. We’ve had Consumer Cellular for 3 years. When they were dropped by T Mobile, our service range shrunk significantly. No cell service at all around parts of Times Square Manhattan. Could not access ticket links in emails etc, had to leave venue and walk blocks away to get service. Also much less coverage in upstate NY, more “dead zones.”
   Recently travelled to Mexico and Italy and was told I would need new sim card before leaving since my existing T Mobile version Consumer Cellular sim no longer supported international service. Got a new sim but international service barely worked, even in Mexico City. Had to find stores w wifi to get uber, look up maps, etc to navigate the city which made the trip much more difficult. Coverage in Italy was better.
   The savings are significant and the customer service has been mixed but mostly good, so we hang in there. But losing T Mobile coverage negatively affected our coverage even in major cities and abroad.

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   • That is odd as the service they use is AT&T. However, I was in New York in April 2023 and service for AT&T and Verizon was spotty. Times Square was not very good. My other family members had really bad service (VZW). That issue appears to be tower channel saturation; too many devices trying to connect to a limited number of channels. The carriers should have fixed this years and years ago.

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9. I just upgraded to a samsung A03 and just received the phone and there was no adapter to charge the phone. When I tried to call the customer service department which took 3 1/2 hours, they told me to go to guy one at best by. Any 8.00 adapter – you couldn’t add that to the total so I could charge the phone when I received it. Really?
   this is customer service?

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   • I understand your frustration, but to me this is on the phone manufacturer — not Consumer Cellular. Apple no longer includes a charger with its phones either.

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10. bad service poor connection. it is not senior friendly. so many codes tht an elserly person could get through the system my 94 yr old mom culd not put in those. she talked to sale to get help. asked for bill to be mailed hung up on. can’t get her final bill over charged her. .they won;t send the code to reset password. poor customer service. the bill isn’t being paid, she can”t get it. consumer cellular is a senior scam

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11. I had problems with customer service during activation. The person I spoke with was rude and hung up on me. We ended up staying with T-Mobile. After reading reviews I think I made the right choice.

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12. I have had some good experiences in moving my parents over to Consumer. The first is that I have had two interactions over the phone and they were both handled by US-based support. Hold time was less than 10 minutes both times. The second time, I was on for a good half-hour plus with some fairly technical questions and I was with the same person the whole time. No transferring me to their manager or to another department.
    On the downside, my Mom has an iPhone SE. I think it’s the 2020 version. And that particular phone is not supported for Visual Voicemail. Which means she has old-school voicemail, meaning 1) press a button to call your voice mail 2) enter your (SEVEN DIGIT!) PIN 3) listen to the prompts (press 2 to hear voice mail, press 7 to delete etc.). It’s a very 2005 voice mail experience for 2023.
    Still they are saving a ton over using VZ.

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13. I was with Verizon for 18 years, but I recently changed to Consumer Cellular for the customer service. Verizon was charging us $119 per month for two lines with unlimited talk and test with 3G of data. Verizon told me that that was with a Veteran’s discount, and it was the best they could do. my CC plan costs half of that with unlimited data. The most difficult part of changing our service provider was getting Verizon to release the number, and ensure our purchased phones were unlocked. We spent more than 3 hours, over three days accomplishing that. We have contacted CC customer 3 times, and each time the representative was friendly, polite, patient, and was easily understood. The only hiccup was my wife’s phone, a Motorola G7, was not compatible with CC. We were able to purchase a similar phone From CC at a modest cost. We switched for the customer service. So far we are happy. I wish we had switched years ago. Should that change, we change companies since we have no contract with CC.

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14. What ever happened to “unlimited” talk and data? Did Consumer get new management? Now, every other day I am receiving intimidating notices that they are going to ugrade my plan because my minutes are going over the limit. I HARDLY use the phone. Sounds like another racket to me!

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15. Consumer Cellular highjacked my phone, I was a long time customer of CC before I lost everything in 2019, including my CC line for non payment but I purchased the phone but they locked my phone anyway so I cannot put any other sim card in MY phone I paid for. My understanding is if I paid for the phone then the phone is mine and the number is theirs, am I wrong? They own the number, I could never use that number again. Consumer cellular is a horrible company inside and out, from customer service up to tech support. I am glad I am no longer a CC customer.

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16. I’m dealing with that consumer cellular garbage since late August through today where the calls & usage is not being reported every 24-48 hours since I’m on a minute plan. I spoke with one of their customer persons earlier this week & she said the cell tower problems should be fixed by now since its good ole AT&T Reseller; that is a big fat lie-calls & usage still not reported & she changed my plan to “unlimited” without consulting me the Customer & Consumer. Geez! I’m way over 50 years of age & do they falsely advertise. I would like to have a cell phone carrier company that is Equal all the way across the Customer & Consumer board; not really sure that is an Actuality for me or anyone else out there. Then there is the issue of their reprogramming cell towers or something & some functions on my 4G phone do not work, I’m told by Supervisor the only way to fix that is to Reset the phone & lose quite a bit without some other device card. Such technical aspects in their reprogramming Customer forced to fix their erroneous.

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17. Consumer Cellular is the worst company I have ever dealt with for phone service. Ì had to purchase a brand new phone from them in order to get a plan with them. The phone stopped taking incoming calls after 3 months. I called to let them know about this and after troubleshooting with several people no one could help me figure out why my phone was blocking every call that came in. They would not exchange the faulty phone they sold me. So I was forced to go back to my last carrier. But to top it all off, they wouldn’t even release my phone number back to me. A phone number that I’d had for 8 years. I had to call or text everyone a new phone number that I still can barely remember. It wasn’t worth the $20 I was saving for those few months. Horrible service, horrible company!

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18. well all i can tell you is that this is a company that just keeps on giving, after you cancel, after they cancel you after you send them the third final payment they just keep on giving you emails of delinquency and threats for collections, yes they are one of the most special companies i have had the displeasure of signing up with if you chose to get in with them you best just stick with them.

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19. Consumer Cellular is NOT a company any Senior citizen should have to deal with! It is not easy to set up any phone they sell you-passwords for everything on the phone. What Senior citizen wants to waste time trying to set up a phone, figure out passwords, and deal with the customer service department? Their commercials make it seem so easy to deal with them, set up the smart phones, etc. It is NOT easy. What a waste of time and money. I would NOT recommend this company
    for anything to do with a Senior!

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20. No one everanswers their customer service phone line-period! If you log in, and chat with them, they can correct your bill, but have zero decision making ability to correct equipment (theirs) failures. When AT&T went to 5G, consumer cellular didn’t coordinate, confirm, or follow up on making sure that AT&T transitioned consumer cellular into the new system. Tens of thousands of CC customers lost connectivity. But CC kept billing for full service, not telling any CC customer of the dropped service. CC blames AT&T, but since CCdidn’t coordinate with AT&T before, or during the transition, it’s on CC. No relief in sight, and CC is still not coordinating with, or pushing AT&T to fix it. If you call AT&T, they don’t wannaknow nuthin’ from nuthin’ about any reseller system dumps.

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21. I am currently using Twigby (Verizon) after finally giving up on Republic. They where offering the 50 percent off for 6 months if you port your number. That’s hard to beat and the service has been great. After 6 months I will probably switch to Visible. My wife uses Visible and it may be the best bang for your buck if Verizon is strong in your area.

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22. have you tried twigby or pure talk? any comments

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    • I’ve tried both actually. It’s been a couple years. I liked Pure Talk better. It uses AT&T’s network. Twigby uses Verizon’s network now, and I think US Mobile and Visible are better options for that.

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23. They do not honor the $200 rebate, I just signed on and they refuse to apply this offer. I guess I made a bad decision switching to this carrier. I’t’s called greed !!

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24. I have been on hold with Customer service for 3 days now, trying to Activate new phone. Yesterday was 2 1/2 hours, today I decided to call again. I was on hold over an hour, and I signed in and opene, d chat. I was in open Chat in waiting, for about 40 minutes, and all of a Sudden it Timed out and closed. I think my husband should just stick with the Old Carrier. So Far I am NOT IMPRESSED.
    On top of that. I got an Offer in the mail that new activation would receive $100 per line. When I signed up they put $25 per line, saying the other had ended. Then the following day got the $100 offer again……. BUYER BEWARE!!!!!!! Vickie Crisenberry, Rutherford, TN

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25. Consumer Cellular, Inc.: You Will Pay for Their Mistakes
    Read the reviews. Check with the Better Business Bureau.
    My experience with them has been unfortunate. I ported my two mobile phone numbers to another carrier because of poor coverage, thereby cancelling my service with them. But Consumer Cellular continued to bill me for one of the two lines that was cancelled, because of a computer error. I called their customer disservice line (you cannot write to them; there is no published customer service email or address) and waited a very long time to be told that they would not correct that billing. They would continue to charge me for service that they knew was not provided.
    This is how I learned Consumer Cellular is not trustworthy and that their customer service personnel are poorly trained and unhelpful. I will not call them again. Fool me twice…
    Note, this was not an end-of-service proration issue. This was my being charged incorrectly for the last month (and again for the next month) of service on a line that was disconnected. And they were aware of that fact and intentionally refused to correct it at that time.
    Well, I did not pay that bill. And you wouldn’t either. So, Consumer Cellular charged me a late fee.
    A month later, the incorrect changes were mysteriously corrected and within 30-days of that correction, I paid them what I owed them which was the correct prorated charges for the last month of service.
    But I did not pay the late charge (you wouldn’t either). Now every month I get an invoice with a late charge for not paying the previous month’s late charge, which was bogus to begin with. Is that even legal? These compounding late charges are beginning to add up. I expect there is no way to stop this extorsion other than to pay it.
    They cheat me; they will cheat you.

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    • Same mind boggling experience with Dish.
      I still might give them a shot. So tired of Verizon and the high. Monthly billing.

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      • Don’t. If you use the highest data plan, & go over the 50GBps, the rest of the month will be less than 500 KBPS!! Basically not loading webpages. They can’t do a thing either.

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26. I have been waiting to speak to someone, you can forget it. Very poor service. My friend wants texting removed from his plan but it is impossible to speak to anyone after 30 minutes of waiting. He is hard of hearing so am trying to help him.

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27. I am a long-term customer of Consumer Cellular who has been reasonably satisfied. That all changed. I have been receiving almost constant adult content spam to my Consumer Cellular number from a different email address each time. 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 so she would not receive text messages from email address 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.

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    • Don’t bother, your cheap cost for max plan will be debilitating & they won’t do a thing. If you use the highest data plan, & go over the 50GBps, the rest of the month will be less than 500 KBPS!! Basically not loading webpages, barely getting texts. They can’t do a thing either.

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