Consumer Cellular
reviews and complaints

Called three times about my moms phone not working right, will not keep a charge and does not talk to her anymore. We purchased this phone in March, contacted consumer cellular end of May about the problem. Went through hard reset, factory reset, you name it with a representative which told me that if I continued to have problems to call back and they would send me another. This conversation took about an hour. Called today and after 1.5 hours I was told by a supervisor that a return call would come at 6pm, it is now 6:30 and still no call. My mom is 81, hard of hearing, and legally blind and cannot do what they ask by herself. All we want is a new phone as told by the representative!

One day international direct dialing to UK (England) works. Other times not many calls to 'customers service' same questions different answers, dropped call & no constant resolution.. Ask for tech support / supervisor... Never available.. This has been going on for over a year different answers each time I call without permanent resolution.. So much for aarp recommending this company.. Bottom line.. Incompetent customer service.. Get your act together.

People cant hear me sometimes and I cant hear them. All calls break up bad. I got a return call yesterday, the person couldn't hear me and I couldn't hear her. She finally hung up and didn't call back, now a day later I am waiting for a call I scheduled and no call.
If this is not resolved today. I will drop your service and go else where.
I can not conduct business this way!

I had not used my phone at all since my billing cycle had ended. 7 days later I see 4 minutes of usage. I call and am told they have no control over when the towers bill for my usage. these minutes came from the last day of my last cycle. the person said nothing we can do about it. I asked for a supervisor. they called back in a few hours. they said they could flag my complaint and if by chance i went over by 4 minutes they would adjust it. another week goes by I have made a few calls totalling 11 minutes with their rounding up methods but my usage says 50 minutes. I call again this time they would not be courteous enough to tell me what date these calls were made on. They did inform me i could see them on the website. I again asked for a supervisor. this time I am told that i had made the calls and am being charged accordingly. even told the calls i do not answer go against my minutes because they take tower time. I have since found that to be false. so no reasonable resolution with this 2nd supervisor and two falsehoods. I investigate online and 39 minutes come from the last 2 days of my last billing cycle. those minutes would not have made me go over my limit then and are already paid for because they were from the last billing cycle. The last phone call i made the Person suggested I look back through all my invoices to see if they have ever charged me for minutes from a different billing cycle. Not once since May of last year so why are they now claiming minutes from a old billing cycle and refusing to correct it?

I have now tried to contact Consumer Cellular for three days, each day several times. So far I have not been able to get a hold of anyone. Usually during the week, they give you an option to schedule a call back - if you do not answer them immediately, they leave a voicemail to call them back. When you try - you get the same run around.
During the two years of being a customer, I was without service many times. I only have a cell phone, since I am old and do not have a decent income. I had to try to contact them by chat to get service restored each time. Finally, I got tired and left and went to a different company. Now I got a bill that I do not understand - I think it is too high, so I have questions. Therefor the reason for my trying to talk to someone.
I am out of patience, I am frustrated and will not pay a bill that I believe to be wrong.
My personal info is as follows:
Morrigan A Black
[protected]@outlook.com
[protected]

I can be contacted by phone, text or email. I hope you can give this matter your attention, and let me know what I can do. I am not trying to get out of paying the final bill - but it is sort of crazy to try to contact a firm to give them money, and it should not be this difficult. You would think, they have more than ONE phone number and not many employees to answer, especially on week ends or later in the day.

M.A. Black

I am new with Consumer Cellular less than 90 days. My first 2 telephone bills contained text messages that I did not send. I called twice and each time was told that they would pass the information on to the appropriate department and that I would receive a call. To date I have not received the return call.
In addition, legitimate text messages that I send and/or receive are not timely.
Since I received the phone with the Sim card already in it, no one else has had physical access to my phone.
Recently I've used more plan minutes because of the present issues with the text messages. Consequently, a plan upgrade became necessary.
Please respond to: [protected]@gmail.com
Thank you.

We have reached out on multiple occasions to Consumer Cellular Service Supervisors, have sent 2 letters to John Marick, the CEO of Consumer Cellular, and Greg Pryor, the COO of Consumer Cellular to resolve a very serious matter amicably regarding two defective phones that presented my 72 year old husband to be without a working cell phone.

On February 2019, my husband and I purchased a Doro phone at Best Buy through the Consumer Cellular offer. A week after we purchased the phone, we noticed the keys were sticking and adding additional numbers. This was frustrating and annoying, but we dealt with it.

In September 2019, the keys were still sticking adding additional numbers, and we began to experience additional problems with the Doro phone - we were not able to access voicemail, and the outside display screen became a tie die of black and white and no longer displaying the caller's phone number.

We telephoned the Consumer Cellular customer service in August 2019 and described the issues we were having. They walked us through a series of trouble shooting with no luck. We were told that Consumer Cellular no longer dealt with Best Buy and we would need to wait two weeks for a Consumer Cellular rep to call us back regarding our one-year warranty.

We waited two weeks and with no follow up from a Consumer Cellular rep, we telephoned back and for the second time a supervisor walked us through a series of trouble shooting with no luck. Phil, a Consumer Cellular supervisor stated he would submit a warranty replacement and we would receive our phone in one week.

A few days later we received a voicemail from a Consumer Cellular rep that stated they needed to trouble shoot again for the third time before submitting the warranty. Brian, a Consumer Cellular supervisor finally agreed to ship us out a new phone. When we asked why the phone had not been shipped as promised by Phil, we were told Phil didn't process the claim correctly.

When we received the new phone on September 30, 2019 within hours none of the keys would work and my husband was not able to call out or receive calls. We telephoned customer service who walked us through trouble shooting steps and the phone started to work again by taking the battery out. When we asked for a replacement due to the phone being defective within hours after receiving it, the phone rep informed us that we would not have any additional problems and they could not replace the defective phone.

The very next day, the keys on the phone were not working again and my husband was without a phone as he couldn't receive calls or call out.
When I returned home from work, we were both so upset, we immediately telephoned Consumer Cellular and they walked us through a series of trouble shooting steps again and stated we'd have to call back in two weeks.
We started the process all over again of trouble shooting on multiple calls, being promised a phone was being shipped out, only to call back and be told a second time the Supervisor had not processed the claim correctly and they would need to trouble shoot again.

Since receiving the 2nd defective Doro phone on September 30, 2019, my husband has to take the battery out multiple times a day for the phone to work.

We had hope writing to the CEO and COO would have reviewed this matter and resolved the issue quickly, but we have not heard from the corporate headquarters.

It's pretty obvious that the phone warranty and Consumer Cellular's Customer Service guarantee are not being honored by their company's actions and procedures which put senior citizens in danger without a phone. We also found alarming that multiple Consumer Cellular Supervisor's were very aware of issues with the Doro phone and stated that on the phone call.

Consumer Cellular's process that requires repeated trouble shooting multiple times over multiple days leaving a senior citizen without a working phone is very unsafe, unprincipled, and dishonorable.

The only way Consumer Cellular would honor the phone warranty was for Consumer Cellular to ship us out a new (defective) phone, make us wait weeks through a trouble shooting processes, and then fraudulently claim the original phone had internal damage and charge us $50.00 for a 2nd defective phone that they will not allow us to ship back to them for a refund.

We took pictures of our original Doro phone that had no signs of damage externally and even the white tab to detect water damage was in perfect shape.

Consumer Cellular's monthly charge is the most economical within our limited budget. However, we are so very upset with the way we have been treated by Consumer Cellular.

We wanted to resolve this matter with them amicable if possible. Obviously, every senior citizen needs a reliable working phone for emergency reasons. We are between a rock and a hard place, we're stuck with a 2nd defective phone, and Consumer Cellular will not work with us.

Today I received an error message while trying to send a text message. When I called customer service, I was informed that someone deactivated my SIM card. I wanted to know hoe because I didn't speak to anyone about this and I wasn't given an explanation. I was instructed to use a paper clip to get it out. It popped out along with the door to hold it in. I was asked to read the numbers off the SIM card. I explained that I wasn't comfortable doing that that's what technicians are for. After reading the numbers, that's when I found out about the SIM card being deactivated. I placed the SIM card back in the phone. I was told that I could go to target to purchase another SIM card for $10 and then have that credited on my next bill. When I got to target, the representative said the SIM card was supposed to had been placed in the bracket. I wasn't aware of that. The phone I ordered in August already had a SIM card in it and when I joined this company, the target representative installed it. I called customer service to see what could be done and I was given the warranty number. When I called them, they said I had to pay the $50 copay first. I called consumer cellular back again to see if would pay for it and the answer was no. I'm not satisfied with this at all. I understand that I put the SIM card in wrong, but I wouldn't have had to take it out if it wasn't deactivated. Would someone please call me on [protected] because my number ending in 1556 isn't working. This is a terrible start for someone who just joined this company 2 months ago. I don't have a personal cell phone and I don't know how long it will be before mine is fixed.

My folks just moved into an assisted living beginning of july. My husband and I have consumer cellular and we are very happy with it. I got my folks the doro 7050 phones which I am learning are inferior phones to say the least. I have had nothing but issues. I just want my 84 year old parents to have a phone that they do not have to take the back off to get it to work. How many times do we have to update the phone. I have probably placed 20 or so calls on their behalf to have this phone issue resolved. They refuse to let me trade for the other flip phone. Way to take great care of your customers consumer cellular.

On August 28 2019 I called Consumer Cellular to purchase a new phone. The representative told me that I had a protection plan and gave me the information to file a claim. I called the Square Trade and was given information on how to file the claim on line. I began the process and found out that the protection plan was for a phone that was stolen on February 13, 2017. I contacted Consumer Cellular and advised the representative of my findings. After some research the representative told me that the protective plan was for the stolen phone and confirmed that they are still billing me $3.00 for the protection plan. I told that I either wanted a refund of the cost of the protection plan from the time the phone was stolen or a replacement phone. She told me that she could give me a one month credit for the protection plan. I asked to speak to her supervisor and was transferred. I spoke with Jessica, the supervisor who told me that she could go as far as a 3 month credit on the protection plan. I told her the was not acceptable and asked to speak with her supervisor. I was told that she, Jessica, was as far as I could go for someone to speak to.

On February 13, 2017 my purse was stolen, in it was my month old MotoE5 phone, my Kindle, money, bank card, gift cards, etc., I was traumatized and did not remember purchasing a protection plan and was not told about the protection plan when I reported the phone stolen.

I want either a refund of the cost of the protection plan for the 31 months I no longer had the MotoE5 phone or a replacement phone, which the protection plan was designed to give me.

The low prices offered at the website are very misleading and incorrect, with unexplained hidden fees appearing on the first billing.
I tried the $25 Plan, which is the 250 min and 2GB, with additional AARP benefits: a 5% AARP discount, and "Our extended 100% risk-free guarantee: If you're not completely satisfied for any reason, simply cancel within the first 45 days and pay nothing. It's absolutely hassle-free". So I expected an initial bill for $23.75 plus state taxes (8.875% in NY) which I calculated at $2.11. I tried to cancel after 40 days, only to be told that the special AARP deal only applied to use of 500MB (I used 548MB), with charges after that, and am now being billed an additional fee of about $20, on top of the first month fee of $34.74 because of all the extra surcharges tacked on (with "Government Taxes & Fees" listed at $5.08) for a total of $43.06. None of these additional charges and fees are explained, nor any warning given about 500MB maximum usage. I calculated that the real price for my 40-day trial, based on what was advertised, should be $25.86, which is what I paid them. I will not pay more.
Not only that, but the first SIM card permitted only limited phone use, and so I had almost no useful phone service for the first week (and many visits to TARGET) until the SIM was replaced. I did not receive any refund or extension for the time that the service did not work properly.

I purchased 2 doro 7050 phones the beginning of august 2019. Within 3 weeks key board locked up on 1 phone while other worked perfectly. after talking to costumer service, i was told to remove back cover and battery for a hard reset. i told agent i would need to use a knife to pry open case. after this still didn't get me a signal, agent said she would put in a request for a replacement phone. A day or 2 later i received a call from replacement dept. Went thru removing cover and battery again. i told her i would need to use a knife to remove it . She refused to send new phone only new sim card. When i returned home on 8/23/2019, i replaced sim card and could not get a signal after activating it. Called again and went thru futile step again for 3rd time. then was asked to try sim card in phone i replaced and immediately got a signal. Agent told me to use phone i replaced. Agent transferred me to supervisor Katrina ID 18323 who couldn't get me to say there was a scratch or smudge on phone.. She then told me i was supposed to take phone to target store to remove back. first time i was told of this step. She refused to replace phone or give refund. I called target store and was told they do no work on phones. i feel if consumer celluar does not resolve this, AARP should for putting their good name behind this company. this is for [protected]. The other doro 7050 works fine during this period and continues to.

Account # [protected]

Brian Beardslee
[protected]@outlook.com
[protected]

Good morning Mr. Marick

Love Consumer Cellular. I have a problem and a suggested solution. My phone number is [protected] if you would like to look at my account. We are on the unlimited with 20 GB of Data. Our billing period runs the ninth of the month through the eighth of the next month. This last month(Nov - Dec), we received a notice that we had exceeded our 20 GB on 12/7 and our speed was being decreased. I immediately checked our usage on your web sight and it showed around 18.8 GB used. I call customer service and they verified the amount as being 19.1 GB used. The next day I called customer service again as it was still slow. I again checked our account on line and now it showed around 18.2 GB used. This with virtually one day left till our account reset. I called customer service again and I spent a good 30 to 40 minutes trying to explain the situation. I ended up asking to speak to a supervisor. She spent the next 10 minutes trying to get one and finally said one would call me within 2 hours. A gentleman called about 45 minutes later. The result was he explained it was all computer run and generated and they have to account for data usage which may come in later.

Here is what I feel is the problem. I have a 20 GB plan. With a day and a half left and almost 2 GB remaining, our speed was slowed. The supervisor on the eighth said that the speed is slowed down at 18 GB no mater the date or time to allow for any data to come in from non AT&T towers. Our total usage on my bill ended up being just a bit over 18.5 GB. There result for me is slowed speed for a day and a half and 1.5 GB of data unused. I assumed the $40 for 20 GB of data means I'm paying for all 20 GB. If I am close as with this last month every month, I don't see how I will ever use all 20 GB and will have to suffer with slow speed for 1 to ? days.

Suggested Solution - My example is an example of what can happen with the existing policy. From what I gather, the policy is up to 26 GB allowed ( $40 first 20, then $5 for each afterwards, and shut off at 26. If this is the case, may I suggest full speed up to 20 GB recorded usage on the account and then slow the speed. Any further usage and pending usage would fall into the $5 per GB category.

What I would like to see is my being able to agree to have full speed up to 23 or 24 GB then slow the speed to 26 GB and shut off at 26. Unless you are loosing money at $5 per GB it only means more income for you if customers go over the 20 GB. You could still make the current set up available to customers that want that type of control.

Thanks for your time.

Brian D. Parker (retired)

I have had Consumer Cell for years, no problems. Suddenly I couldn't get a signal in my home? Customer service first told me I had to change sim cards. I did and it didn't help... Since then they have only given me the run around, no solutions? I guess I will have to do a survey. Does anyone have any input?/?

They told me I'd get the first month free, but I was billed for it. So I called to straighten that out, and they said it was straightened out. Then, suddenly I'm a month behind on my account because I didn't pay for the first month before I got the second month's bill. I had to pay for the first month then just so they wouldn't cut my service off.

Good luck if you want to talk with someone, because they're only available during EST business hours, and the wait these days is from five to ten minutes, assuming you have that much time to waste during your business day, with no possibility of them putting you on a list to call you back. One time I tried to chat with someone on line, and I was #99 in the queue.

Recently, I got an email from someone in billing saying they'd call me on a certain day. It never happened. Apparently, they've become too big for their britches and are too cheap to hire additional help.

Consumer Cellular sim cards not working in Peru. Changed out ATT sim cards for Mobile specifically for this trip. We have two iPhones, 6 and 6 Plus. No service anywhere, even in Lima. Can´t call customer service, and their internet page will not load on any computer in Peru. I have tried several. I hope my bill will be zero on return to USA!
David Murchison

11/01/18
DE Beard
3938 West Hamilton Key
West Palm Beach, FL [protected]

Account Number: [protected]
Product: Samsung Galaxy S8

Summary:
While planning a trip to Spain, I ordered replacement SIM Cards to support international calling, texting and data use for two phones, my Samsung S7 (703.994.2096) and my wife's Samsung S8 (703.994.2097). After encountering problems sending and receiving text messages and messages with attachments on my wife's S8, we were directed to our local Target store to have the SIM card replaced. Replacing the card appeared to solve the problem. After arriving in Spain, the phone was unable to communicate in any way.

Details:

On about 10/01/18 I received replacement SIM cards for our two phones to be used to enable international roaming while on a trip to Spain which had been planned for several months. On 10/10/18 I called Consumer Cellular to help install and activate the new (T-Mobil) cards.

On 10/13/18 we noticed that text messages sent to my wife's S8 would not download on the phone. A message was displayed something like "No Subject, Message size xxxk, Message not downloaded.". We called Consumer Cellular for assistance and talked to Dean who performed a few troubleshooting steps and told us that the phone would be OK. We noticed, later that day that the phone still was not working properly. We called again and spoke with Dorothy who also performed several unsuccessful troubleshooting steps. We also spoke with Suzie who did about the same thing others had done and concluded that the remaining options were to reset phone services or have the SIM card replaced at our local Target store.
We chose to replace the card and met with Dillard at our Target store. Dillard replaced the SIM card and we made a few test text messages with and without attached photos. The phone appeared to work properly at this time.

After we arrived in Spain on 10/17/18 it became clear that the phone was not working. No text messages with or without attachments could be sent or received. We were also unable to make or receive any voice calls. We called Consumer Cellular again and were informed that nothing could be done until we returned to the U.S. Except for the camera the phone was completely useless.

After returning home, we called Consumer Cellular again and spoke with Caress. Caress looked at our account and saw that International Calls, Text, and Data were not activated on the S8 phone. She turned these features on and the phone worked properly and all remaining messages began to download.

It is virtually inconceivable that through all the troubleshooting by at least three Consumer Cellular technicians that the simple settings necessary for international phone use were not set properly. We depended on our Consumer Cellular service for routine calls and texting. But, most importantly, we depended on you to allow us to receive any unexpected emergency calls while out of the country. This important service was NOT available.

We have been a customer of Consumer Cellular since, at least, June of 2012 and have been highly satisfied with the service until now. We request that you compensate us for this inadequate service in the form of a credit to the next possible invoice of at least $75.

Thank you very much,
Don and Nina Beard

We switched to Consumer Cellular about 2 weeks ago. We brought our phones. Since switching the first issue was not getting internet. I call CC & after being on the phone with them there answer was resetting both our phones and having them start fresh. I finally hung up & went to a Target where we bought the sim cards & switched. They were helpful & got internet. Our second issue is since we got CC we hit re-dial on either my phone or my husbands the Sim Card re-directs our phone to: [protected] it is a Massachusetts phone #. But it does not happen every time we use the re-dial. I called CC & she told me that CC doesn't have all the features that other phone companies have. Excuse me CC doesn't have re-dial. Then I went on line & did a live chat. She is telling me it is our phones. When this happens we are just tapping on the call we want to make under the "Recent's" & a message comes up that says "The Sim Card is re-directing my call" to [protected]. So this is not s Samsung issue it is a issue with the Sim Card we were given at Target from one of your representatives. My husband drives for a living & he does not have time for this & neither do I. If CC can not resolve this problem we will be switching companies

Hello I bought a mobile phone S7 edge from Samsung and I have issues with this phone from time I purchased it. Pink lines/dots on the screen. They replaced the screen once which is okay but after fighting for 2 months. Later after 8 months the screen started showing black lines and flashes frequently. I contacted one of the nearest Samsung service center (same place where I got it repaired earlier) I had enough time in expiring my warranty. They upgraded the software and asked me they will check the phone and return after testing (case is still open). The problem is still same did not fix anything. Now when I asked them to replace the screen and hand over my phone they denied stating it's not under warranty. I told when I reported the problem it was in warranty and now because of their stupid experimentation it expired. They said I need to call call center I did and no resolution provide, contacted them 10 times but nothing happened. Now whenever I try reaching service center they keep telling they contact me once they an approval from the area manager. I don't understand whom the area manager is and why is he taking so long. This incident is pending since march 23, 2018.

Vacation nightmare - do not use concumer cellular abroad! Cc left me high and dry while vacationing in spain. Phone was stolen at 8:30am in spain so contacting them to stop service was impossible since they were not available. They have no 24/7 availability so if an emergency occurs you are screwed! Later when my data was maxed it was days before I could renew the additional $50 for more. Then once that was added it unexplicabably got used up without me actually using any more. All this because they have no real time ability to tell you your status and allow themselves 48 hrs for accurate info. So I was wasting my time calling them many times on hold for 30 minutes or more each time incurring charges as if they save their money by being understaffed with any kind of infrastructure that is able to help you in an emergency. If you travel do not use consumer cellular!