Consumer Cellular
Reviews and Complaints

I bought a phone in 2019 and got service through consumer cellular. We went out of town a couple weeks later and I had no service; went out of town west about 60 miles a week later, no service. I called consumer cellular and was assured the areas I was traveling to had service; within two months found out most of nd and montana did not have service. Because of my family and job, I had to have service 24 hours a day, and traveled with my job, therefor I had to switch to verizon so I could be assured I always had service. Called consumer cellular and explained my situation, however they refused to unlock my phone, which I paid for. I was told after 6 months I could call and they would unlock it, so I had no choice but to buy another iphone. This was in june, 2019. I put the phone away, and yesterday my other phone quit working, I called consumer cellular and was initially told they couldn't unlock it because I hadn't had service for 6 months; I again explained I didn't get service when I signed up with them and I couldn't have a phone that didn't get service 1/2 the time. Customer representative put me on hold and came back after talking to a supervisor and said they unlocked my phone, tried to set it up and she said it wasn't on their end, has to not be working on verizon's end. Called verizon, and they tried to get consumer cellular on the line, and they were closed for the evening. I called consumer cellular this morning, and was once again told they wouldn't unlock my phone because I didn't have service for 6 months; I explained that when I called last night I was told my phone was unlocked. Representative said the person documented last night they unlocked my husbands phone and she told me that they couldn't unlock mine... That definitely was not the conversation. She assured me my phone was unlocked. I asked what I could do to get it unlocked, and she said the only way they would ever unlock it is if I went back' to them and had service for four more months... I asked her why I would pay for service that doesn't give me coverage I need, and she said it wasn't her problem, that was policy. I read the bottom of my contract that stated after 6 months consumer cellular would unlock the phone for any carrier as long as the phone was paid for and the bill was paid. She said while the contract didn't "exactly state the customer has to have service the entire 6 months" that's what the contract meant. I asked her to go back to the notes in june 2019 where I was assured my phone would be unlocked in october 2019; she stated it wasn't her problem the customer representative didn't know what she was talking about and that she would not unlock the phone. So I said, "basically, I paid for a new iphone, was told I would have coverage wherever there were cell towers, found out I had minimal coverage in the 2 states I live and travel in most, phone does not work, and I will never get it unlocked? Her response was"yes, ma'am, not my problem, have a good day and hung up. To all of you who agree with this, shame on you for misleading people and not being honest and upfront, not following the contract, and telling customers different information. Other than I paid for an expensive phone and will not be able to use, it... More importantly that phone has pictures of my two sons that I lost, as well as texts and voice messages from them.
To all of you, it's all about manipulating people to take advantage of them and make money, to me, while it's poor character on your part and lost dollars, my boys pictures, word and voices mean more to me than anything. Stand in my position, and ask yourself what you would do... Greed, dishonest, poor customer service means nothing to you, my phone contents mean the world to me,

We now have one bar on our Phones in 85629 becoming a problem for use to continue with their service!

I had recently experienced intermittent service with my 2 cell phones and requested last week that the servicing towers be changed. I was to receive 2 new SIM cards after which I would call in to CC for their activation. Today my cellphone went dead and when I called in to CC I was told that the new SIM card which had NOT YET BEEN RECEIVED, had been activated and that the SIM card presently in my phone was no longer functional. An error had happened at your end. I am now without personal telephone coverage and your CC representative suggested that I travel 15 miles to a Target store to buy a new SIM card. My wife and I live in a rural area and are over 80 years old, and do not wish to expose ourselves because of the Covid virus. Since the reason for the service stoppage was because of a fault at your end, we wish you to resolve this matter without putting us at risk. For example, can you have the new SIM card delivered to our front door? If not, with the current postal delays, we may not see the new SIM card for several days to a week-not acceptable. Murray F. Feller, [protected]

Ladies and gentlemen of Consumer Cellular.
I have been your consumer for several years. Until yesterday I was very pleased with your service.
Yesterday Saturday 5 November 2020 around 1:00 PM I went to change the "SIM" card with a new one.
I went to the CC near my house to "Target" in the South Shore Mall Braintree MA.
In CC electronic register area, were 6-7 workers, but one got the my daughters iPhone 6.
A girl starts working with this phone. She removes the old SIM card and inserts the new one.
For some reason she pulled it out. Later she tried to insert again the SIM card, but could not insert it again.
She asks the other worker for help. He tried many times, but without success.
This guy tried with unnecessary force to insert the SIM card in its place.
As a result the hole was damaged. They tried many times to insert SIM card there, but it was impossible. He destroyed our phone.
Finally a worker, could be a supervisor recommend to go to the another specialist somewhere in the mall for this job.
I went to the specialists where the supervisor recommended me.
They said : we can not fix that it has been destroyed a lot.
The result is that my daughter's cell phone is broken not through my fault, but that of your CC workers. I think this behavior was unprofessional, not serious and not polite.
We do not know how you will act in this case.
We think someone should pay this damage caused by negligence of your workers on my daughter's phone.
I like your service and will continue to keep this.
With respect Bardhyl Tom Lubonja 6 December 2020 Phone # [protected]
Addr. 314 Water St. Apt.311 Quincy, MA 02169

I called on behalf of elderly friend to inquire why a complete data transfer wasn't done in house and user was instructed to 'keep phones together' until transfer is complete. No configuration was done and new cell went into sleep thus terminating transfer. So-called customer service about as helpful & rude as k-mart staff. Avoid this carrier! This 'customer' would either go without all pics or paying a tech in completing data transfer & configuration.
This company is simply take the money and kick people out the door

This company advertises 5 bars signal all over the us but if you come to wi you only get 2 bars. When you have a signal or reception issue they always want to blame the sim card they sent. If they sent a t mobile they say t mobile is bad and you should have an att sim card but if you have an att sim they tell you to use t mobile as att is bad. If that does not work they want you to master reset the phone which does nothing for the service but only resets the phone. I think the problem with consumer cellular is they have oversold the network and now are not able to provide the service that they advertise. I was on the phone with a support rep and she put me on hold, we got disconnected and she never called back. I did not call back as over the past week I have spent more than 3 hours on hold trying to get support/service. Needles to say I am looking into other cell phone providers and would never suggest someone try consumer cellular.

consumer cellular agent Joseph C will not help me get access to my account by changing my password which i have long forgotten over the years i gave him other info requested then he wanted to have me fax my drives lic. then it would take three or more days to verify my account this total stupid and aggravating asking so much info over kill esp. when i gave him all the right acct info i need help with a problem with my phone a simple battery is what i need and making jump thru hoops is totally aggravating esp when i proved we have an account. i will cancel my account when i find another cell provider and i strongly suggest that people not use consumer cellular and i will tell everyone i know not to use consumer cellular for there provider

I tryed to get service thru consumer cellular I tried my phone with no results, I ordered a phone from cc august 8th 2020 it was shipped to me, on august 14th, 2020 I sent phone back, I couid not get a signal so I could not call or text anyone, so now their billing me for a month of service I did not use. I turned cc into bbb. I feel I do not owe the phone bill of $21.15 plus $5.00 late fee. My account #105293214at cc. My email is [protected]@yahoo.com my phone # [protected] my address is 3534 nash dr, jackson, michigan 49201 it is best to email me or by mail thank you norma cox

I terminated service with Consumer Cellular on Sept. 1, 2020. Later that month a received a final bill in the amount of $385.87. The statement said that they could not deduct it from my Citi card as the usual payments were made. I sent them a check for the full amount which they cashed on 10-14-2020. In the meantime they also charged my card (which they said they couldn't do). I contacted them about [protected], and they said they would post a credit to my credit card no later than 11-3. Check with my credit card and still no credit posted. Had several earlier billing issues with them. A terrible company to do business with.

I signed up for consumer cellular on line and purchased a phone, after I did they said the credit did not go thru, and I was told I would get a refund which I havent, I have called 3 times trying to get some infromation, and keep getting the same old song and dance from each person, they are crooks and should be put out of business, look at other reviews, 80 percent has given them one star, todays date is oct 10th and this happened 3 weeks ago and im still waiting on my refund

Switched from AT&T. Had to buy new flip phone from Consumer Cellular. New flip phone's input screen would repeatedly freeze and had to reset by removing battery. Switching additional Samsung Galaxy phone took a month and now can not send or receive messages with pictures. If you are using online chat to try resolve problem and it hits 8PM EST they just say goodbye without problem resolved. Their advertisement of being number one in customer service does not match my experience.

I spoke to a representative on thursday october 1st. The rep said that they have 5g phones in stock. I got lied to. This isn't the first time that consumer cellular has done this. First time was equaling over $2,000... I am so upset with them right now I could cry. I say if you want something done, make sure you do your home work and not rely on someone else to do it for you.

We received message from CC that it would be necessary to upgrade our phones because 3G service would soon be replaced. We purchased phone from CC and the instructions claim simple activation. NOT TRUE. Was told activation would take 2 to 24 hrs. After 24 hrs. and still no service I called them again from my other phone. As we were talking, she said she found the problem and then the phone I was using was deactivated. Have 2 phones and neither of them working. So had to go online and do the chat thing. This representative was very helpful and after about 45 minutes our service was restored. The next day we noticed that our original phone, the one not replaced, could send texts but no longer receive them. The solution given resulted in our losing our contacts on the phone and pictures. This all happened because we purchased a replacement phone. Do not believe their simple activation claim!

I recently purchased a phone a little over a month ago from Consumer Cellular (CC) because the phone I had would not get service in my apt (located in a historic building). Changed to AT&T sim card and still no service. Knowing Verizon worked in my apt and phone # was transferable, went to Verizon. They added Verizon sim card & requested phone # transferred. Still needed physical phone 'unblocked' because of special circumstances. Talked with Customer Service (CS) rep (very nice) and rec'd confirmation of unlocking v/m msg over 48 hrs ago but still not unlocked, i.e. no phone service. The phone identifies as Verizon but no calls/messages or voicemails can be sent or received.

Went to Target (where phone was purchased) and they again called CC CS.
Talked for 1/2 hr (?) to "Angela" trying to get her to re-send req to unlock. She kept reading verbatim the 'notes' from my call 2 days previous, kept calling "Mrs." even after I corrected her and said it was "Ms." Would not budge on what I was asking, kept reading verbatim notes saying it was unlocked, was upset when I interrupted her (had already been read the notes more than once and didn't need to hear them again). Said that I am probably get some 'weird' messages regarding this and to ignore them. I reiterated that I have gotten NO messages or anything because the phone service is not available because the phone is locked by CC.

Offered NO solution and when I asked to speak to a supervisor was told 'they' were at lunch! Really, it was nearly 4pm Michigan time and NO! supervisor could talk with me. She then said it was their policy to have the supervisor return the call: I DON'T HAVE A WORKING PHONE! so there isn't any number I can give. She was abrasive, combative and downright rude at times. I ended the call by just hanging up. Got NO Customer Service from Consumer Cellular. Unbelievable!

All I was asking is that she resubmit the request and that maybe whatever needs to be done could be because her "NOTES" say it's unlocked (giving me phone service through Verizon) and I'm telling her the phone is NOT, I repeat NOT UNLOCKED. It's the end of day three of this adventure and I am so frustrated with Consumer Cellular that I would NEVER recommend that provider to anyone.

I do understand that my situation is kind of unique since I haven't had the phone the minimum time before I should be able to use it with a different carrier, but I'm stuck with no phone service.

Consumer Cellular markets people like me - seniors - but the person I spoke with today was not what I would EVER expect from a customer service rep.

I'd call, but: I HAVE NO WORKING PHONE!

I attempted to get support via chat snd voice 8x in the last week without success. We were hit with s storm that devastated the state. We have been without power and communications for a week. The cell us our only lifeline snd I needed to use the hotspot feature again. Every time i need this feature, I'm forced to call CC and can never get through. I am so upset snd frustrated I am going to look for an alternate solution. CC support us NO help, website help stinks. Maybe if CC spent more $ on support for customers snd less on TV ads, things might improve. For me, I'm too upset to give you one more chance. You're not there when needed.

You activated my new phone before it was shipped.

Now my phone now, here does not work.

Who in the hell done this ?

I'm in the middle of a hurricane right now.

I have so much trouble with consumer cellular. Advertising does not do what it says. It is suppose to help the senior citizens, but it does not. I brought two ZTE Avid 559 phones, sent one back because it had external problems and would not work. Your employee told me to send it back and I did. they would not refund my money because they broke it and said I did