Consumer Cellular
Reviews and Complaints

Since June 2020, I have been calling CC re: a caller ID issue. When I call someone's home, the called ID reads JEZYMAR EFRE. It should read "Wireless Caller" A lot of times the person I am calling does not answer because they think it is a scammer. As of today, this issue has not been corrected. Customer Service has not been been very helpful at all. They gave me the "Its not us, Its the carrier" excuse. Something about a National Database. To me, they are responsible for this issue and should be pro active to rectify it. Each time I call they tell me it will take up 60 days to fix. 60 days? RU kidding me? The fix is a few key stokes in some network center. I am giving them until the end of Jan 2022 to fix this. If not I am changing carriers.

I went with consumer Cellular thinking I was going to get a great deal and I am AARP member that's a joke too you get $2 off or something and my bill was supposed to be $20 a month it went up so fast till 30 to 35 I called many times about it but didn't do anything about it their customer service is terrible so I stopped and I joined another mobile carrier the one I have now I paid $15 a month it's great I have no issues with it actually it's better than consumer Cellular the quality the calls everything I think twice about getting consuming cellular

I have talked to customer service several times about my phone, Samsung A12. I can't get it unlocked to use it because I forgot the password and I don't remember making a password just a pin. But it doesn't work I'm still paying my bills with them and I've gotten no help. I just get the same answer to let the battery run down and they can help me get restarted, I first talked to customer service Monday morning and that is what I was told. The battery is very slow to run down and it's hard to wait this long. Could you please help me? Thank you,
Donna

For the second time today, I've been on hold for nearly 20 minutes due to the "unexpected" number of calls they're receiving, not believable. I was then transferred to billing with the same "long wait time" message, but they'd call me back in the order my call was received. That was three hours ago, still no call back.
In the meantime during my 40 minutes on hold, I had to listen to the "best customer service" message, bragging about their service. WHAT? While I'm hold for 20 minutes (twice), then get transferred and never called back, not my idea of customer service at all, let alone the best. GIVE ME A BREAK.
Spectrum plans are about the same price these days, better step it up, Consumer Cellular.

My home phone does not work. I have a base station. I have been on the phone for hours with Consumer Cellular. They have not helped me.
I am told that my base station may have to be recharged. To recharge, I have to remove the back cover. It is stuck. I was told to go to Target for service.
The Consumer Cellular representatives are rarely available at Target. Target can not say when the rep will be in. I am paying for nothing.

Need information how to make this phone work. Called the 1888 # and waited more than 30 minutes and not one to talk about my problem. I am a new customer cellular phone. I am really upset for their lack of service.
I am going to ask for my money back.
CUSTOME SERVICE SUCKS.

I have literally lost more than 2 full work days trying to use the 888 number to resolve the problems. after long wait periods, all but one of my calls ended by being cut off without any resolution.
I switched service providers from Verizon to Consumer Cellular several days ago and have not been able to establish reliable cell service. I have spent hours on the phone with cc, I went to an appointment with a cc representative in my area for person-to-person help and the service provider didn't show up for work or call to cancel the appointment (90 minute drive/round trip). I have been connected to service reps by phone, none have solved the problem and I have been cut off at least 8 times over the past two days. I need assistance to get both phones on line. my 336.577.4358 line seems to work, but my 8387 line will not receive incoming calls. It may well be my lack of expertise in the new "grander" digital world...but no one at cc has been concerned enough to help fix the problem. this has created significant stress and los of productive time. HELP, HELP, HELP!

[protected] michael daley. Got consumer cellular yesterday. cannot receive calls; goes to voice mail. spent over one hour with target representative, nothing wrong with the telephone, HE COULD NOT GET THROUGH TO CUNSUMER CELLULAR.

This is a business telephone and is causing severe problems.

I can assure you that my complaints will be spread widely.

On Thursday, Oct 21, I attempted (changed out SIM cards) to transfer my mobile service from Consumer Cellular to Mint Mobile. I was unable to complete the transfer because Consumer Cellular locked my phone. I had recently upgraded/purchased a new iPhone 11 from Consumer Cellular (CC). I purchased the phone out right, no installment plan. I did not owe CC any money on the phone.

I was told that by Consumer Cellular that because I purchased the phone from CC in July 2021, less than six months ago, that the purchased agreement (very fine print) stated that I had to wait six months from date of purchase to transfer service from Consumer Cellular.

My complaint is with that policy. The consumer should be able to transfer their service to any desired service provider, as long as the consumer does not owe or a balance on the device. Because my phone was locked, and after spending hours at iPhone store and Target's, I experienced no service for 4 days over a weekend.

Service was great until a equipment upgrade. Have tried 4 days to get the bugs out of home base and cell phone. Have went through trouble shooting with 5 people in chat. They have not solved my problems and seems like everyone has the same fix but does not work. Am sorry to say i will be getting another provider. Have reset everything several times.

I was offered expedited shipping on new service for a price. I live alone and am disabled to I said yes please, I need the phone ASAP, even said the phrase Judge Milian says to always say when time is extremely important. TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE. When I spoke with the person that had to verify billing address and confirm service (M.J. who is really rude) I was told it couldn't ship Thursday (order was placed before 10 am) because it was Veterans day and Post Office was closed. (I received a package that day from the Post Office that was sent regular mail) I questioned her about the fact that the person (Jesus) that was selling me on all of this said it would ship Thursday. Nasty M.J. said he didn't know what he was talking about. When I got home from my attorney's (whose phone I was using) I read the email to confirm order. I had a question but could not use the "live chat" option because just like that morning, it wasn't available. So I had get in the car and go to a friends to call. I asked the rep my question regarding the phone number and he said that as soon as it all ships, I would receive an email which would include new phone number. I explained that Jesus had put in wrong email address and that M.J. corrected it. He looked it up and said yes it was correct now in the computer and that I would have the phone Friday or Saturday at the latest. Friday night I still had not received the email stating that it had shipped. Live chat was still unavailable Friday so I had to drive somewhere to use a phone. I spoke with Seth (rather clueless). After explaining the entire story he said he needed to put me on hold to get some information. Immediately my phone call went to someone new who did not know who they were speaking with, what the problem was and was a real jerk. When I told him that even though I paid for expedited shipping Thursday morning it was now Friday evening and I had not received the email that it had shipped. He said it had shipped. Why would I trust this condescending jerk? Today is Saturday and I still have not received the email stating that it shipped. When I go to live chat this morning it is too early because chat is in PST/PDT. Thurs and Fri when it was during "regular business hours" for chat, your website stated that Chat was not available. I cannot provide documents of the chats because chat wasn't available. It is strange that two of the three people I spoke with Thursday did not know shipments would not go out. One of the two was the person selling me everything. The people answering the phones need to be better informed, the people in you department that verify the order need customer service training or maybe need to work in a department that they do not need to communicate with new customers. And people who answer the phone and are dealing with a very upset handicapped person with no phone and lives alone should not be allowed to just push a call they don't want to deal with to someone else with that person knowing.

I have been trying to call customer service and having problems getting in touch with them. After several attempts I finally got someone only to have them talk over me and hang up on me when I asked her to allow me to speak with her supervisor. I'm extremely frustrated and disappointed. I hope they do record as they say they do. She needs further training on customer service and customer relations. I worked with Southern Bell, BellSouth Communications, BellSouth Business Systems and AT&T for 22 years until I retired and if I ever were to treat a customer in the way they treated me, I would have been severely reprimanded and/or terminated.

This is the second time I have written you about these problems.

1. Your Customer Service phone centers are a joke. I have worked in a call center for Hara's Entertainment. Your message tells how short you are on help, and that wait times will be 30 minutes.

I have tried numerous times, and the calls usually drop after 15 to 20 minutes. I have only spoken to an agent once. Your limited service hours are unacceptable.

2. I was in the hospital from January thru March. On the March billing I exceeded the base data volume on my plan, and you automatically increased me to the next data level and billed me about $72.96. Not a problem.

However, you have continued to bill me at the higher rate for April through November. Because I can't speak with an agent, and you ignored my first request, I am writing you again.

My information is:
Charliene R Turner
P O Box 914
Moriarty, NM 87035
Acct. No. [protected]

My wife and I decided to switch from our cell carrier of 20 years do to lousy customer service and high costs. A few weeks ago we talked to a Consumer Cellular customer service rep who made it sound like a piece of cake to keep and transfer our phone numbers to our new CC account. When we called CC today 10/28/21 to activate the "piece of cake" CC phone service we waited 40 minutes on hold only to have CC drop the call...we then dialed back in and waited another 35+minutes to talk to a CSR. When we finally got to talk to someone at CC, the "piece of cake" set up of our iPhone 8s was a nightmare, hardly a "a piece of cake". After another hour on the phone we think we have one of our phones hooked up to cc but we can't verify it. The CC rep said it could take 24 hours for the phone to work on CC. Dear Consumer Cellular, if your listening: your process stinks. If the lousy service we got today is a foreshadowing of lousy service to come, well ...Fool me once, my bad...fool me twice and *&%$#!.

Have made 3 attempts to contact Consumer Cellular. Last time I was number 32 in queue. Although I waited I was eventually cutoff with message that customer service was not available.

When traveling out of my home area my I-phone is basically a pretty flip phone. Mapping is inoperable. Incoming phone calls are intermittent. Even instant messaging basically quits operating. And you want to connect the internet-forget it. Throughout Utah, Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana (mostly along I-40) the phone was a joke. Glad we had my wife's phone with another carrier along or we would have been dead.

Upon arriving home I received my bill for the trip. Added data charges for the time gone. Can't even get a hold of Consumer to ask for a bill reduction.

On 10/14/21 I decided from an advertisement to switch to consumer. When they did the credit check I was told there was freeze on my credit. After going online with the reporting agency there was no freeze called back and same thing from them. I called the reporting agency and verified no freeze. I was told to tell them to call the business line of the reporting agency which is was all companies can do in this situation. After putting me on hold off and on for an hour they told me they could not help me and tried to give me the phone number of the reporting agency I had already called. They refused to call the business number of the agency. Thank goodness they did after seeing all the bad service reviews they did me a favor. I had already given them my credit card number I just want to let them know I will be watching the account so it would not be good thing for them if they try to bill me.

In July of 2021 I decided to switch from Verizon To Consumer Cellular. I researched new phones and decided to go with the Samsung A32 phone. The phone was ordered from Amazon and received on July 23, 2021. I went to the local Target store to have it set up. They checked on compatibility (it was) proceeded to set up the phone. It works fine and have been happy with it.
On September 21, 2021 I received an email from Consumer Cellular telling me I needed to upgrade my phone as it would shortly become incompatible with Consumer Cellular. I checked with Consumer Cellular to see if this was a scam and was told it is not. I was told that cell phone tower and system upgrades would make this phone incompatible. My complaint is why was I not informed of these soon to be completed upgrades so that I could obtain a different phone that would not become incompatible in only 2 months. Now I'm told that I need to upgrade to a new phone that will be compatible. I spent over $300 for the A32 phone and will now probable have to spend at least that same amount on a new phone and I'll be stuck with a 2 month old $300 phone that is useless to me. I should have been informed by Consumer Cellular when the compatibility was checked at the Target store. I could have then returned the phone to Amazon and chosen a different phone. It cannot be returned it now as the return date has passed.

On about 9-7-21, I began having an issue with my iPhone 6s. I contacted the company to order a replacement phone at my cost. I was informed the phone was no longer available but the iPhone SE, could be purchased, with a 100% return policy. The iPhone Se arrived and had multiple issues upon setting it up. Issues such as it making phone calls on its own including a FaceTime attempt to my own phone from my phone. I contacted the company who agreed to take it back and set forth the return that "everything" that was sent must be returned in the box. any missing or damaged items would void the return. I understood and immediately boxed up the phone in the original box with its original packaging and returned it on 9-25-21. I was notified that the shipping dept says it was scratched and dented and voided the return. The phone was in fact set-up for use but was never out of the house nor dropped and I feel if there is damage it occurred at the receiving center.

I bought 4 phones from consumer cellular. Our link ll died with in 4 days. Had to replace it.
On anothr phone ZTE. trying to get info from old pone to new phone Zte phone iwould not accept an SIM card. Not even the original one. Technician told
me to put her SIM card in my phone to see if worked. In meantime had to go buy another phone to replace the zte. When we activated my sisters phone it burnt my SIM card to make it unusable. Have Been without a phone for 4 days. I bought another SIM card. Consumer was sending me one but did not want to wait another 3 days. When I went online to activate it. With new SIM card it worked for a couple of min. Then it went dead. Some one or some thing activated the SIM card I do not have. Borrowed a phone from some one to call. was told it would take 24 to 72 hrs. Cannot get in touch with any
one as no phone. No voice assist avaliable. No email is avaliable. This is the worst customer service I have ever had. Also when you do get thru plan on a phone plan to wait at least an hr.. I'm out here with no phone by myself. Also I all of this proves through all of this I have been on hold no less that 7 hrs. Its horrible to not have your phone and no way to get assistance.

I decided to go with the unlimited plan and put my kids on my plan. We ran out of data quickly and kept getting notes to add $10 more to get 10g of data added! They really need to put it out there that they do not have unlimited data plan.

I called him personally to make the request before switching everyone over. Made it very clear that we would need unlimited data because two of my kids are in the country and would rely on the phone for everything. They assured me that there would be plenty of data to use with unlimited and that it was indeed unlimited