Ringtones Newsletter
Issue 34, May 2012
In This Issue
- Dialing In by CEO John Marick »
- Like Us on Facebook for a Chance to Win a Kindle Fire Tablet! »
- Feature Focus: Free SIM Cards »
- Talk About Your Phone: Write a Review! »
- Customer Star: Carol Ann Hardbarger »
- Your Questions Answered »
- Refer A Friend: An Easy $10 for You »
Consumer Cellular Home | Newsletter Archive
What’s New
- What Color is your Invoice? Read More »
- Our BBB Grade? An A+ for 12 Years! Read More »
We’re Here to Help
In addition to the extensive support you'll find on our website, check out these other resources:
Tuesday Tip on our Facebook page
How-To videos on our YouTube page
Interesting Tidbits on Twitter
Refer A Friend, Earn Ten
Give Yourself and Your Friends $10! Refer someone who signs up with Consumer Cellular and you’ll receive a $10 credit on your upcoming invoice. Your friends will be happy, too. Not only will they get fantastic cell service at great rates from the best cell phone service company in America, they'll also get a $10 credit on their first invoice. Don’t wait to share the wealth! The best gifts don’t require contracts.
Want to tell a friend? Click here to send an email.
Dialing In
by John Marick
When I think of families getting together, I immediately think of the national holidays, especially Thanksgiving and Christmas. Of course, there are other days of great importance to families that stand out throughout the year. This month it’s Mother’s Day; next month it will be Father’s Day. And then we’ll be in the middle of the summer months, a stretch of time noted for family vacations and road trips.
No matter what time of year or where you are, wireless communication can be an essential part of your experience. In the case of an emergency, a cell phone can become your lifeline to assistance. In your day-to-day life, however, a cell phone is most often used to stay connected to family and friends.
To make it easier for you to keep in touch with loved ones, we offer a Family Share plan. After you pick a cell phone plan, you can add family members to it for only $10 a month per person. It’s a convenient and affordable way to ensure your older or younger relatives have the cell phone coverage they need.
Along those lines, I’m very pleased to announce our new free SIM card program. Friends and relatives who told you they would love to switch to Consumer Cellular but didn’t want to give up their current cell phone, can now make the switch and keep their phone — the best of both worlds!
With the right combination of cell phone and usage plan, family get-togethers can take place anytime and anywhere — no matter the distance.
I like to think family reunions are just a phone call or text away.
John
For more comments and industry insights from John, read his latest blog.
Like Us on Facebook...
...for a Chance to Win a Kindle Fire Tablet!
Did you know May is Facebook Month? More specifically, at Consumer Cellular at least, it's Like Us on Facebook and You Could Win a Prize Month.
Sound silly? Maybe a little, but here are some of the great reasons to Like Us on Facebook:
- Access to free how-to videos with money-saving tips and tricks
- Answers to your cell phone questions (from us and other cell phone users)
- Late-breaking news about Consumer Cellular and the cell phone industry
- And, because we have great free giveaways all the time, a chance to win something cool!
This month, for example, we're giving away a Kindle Fire, one of the most popular tablets on the market! So, Like Us and then go check out our contest page.
But hurry. The contest ends Monday, May 14th!
Feature Focus
Free SIM Cards
Do you have friends who would love to subscribe to Consumer Cellular but want to keep their current phone? Now they can do both. Based on a popular customer request, we recently began offering free SIM cards. Basically, this means your friends can select an affordable Consumer Cellular plan and still use their non-Consumer Cellular phone. After so many years in the industry, we know once you get used to a specific phone, it’s hard to give it up.
So, what is a SIM card again and why is it important? A SIM card is like a mini-hard drive. Without it, your phone won’t work. It activates the phone and stores a lot of key information, such as your list of contacts, your phone number and more.
Using a Consumer Cellular SIM card is simple. Generally, if you have a phone previously used with AT&T or an unlocked GSM model which accepts a SIM card, we can send you one of our free SIM cards. Simply slide the old SIM out of your current phone and insert the new one — and, after a brief activation process, you’ll be good to go. If you have problems, don’t forget to check out our free online how-to video. The video walks you through the simple steps required to swap out cards.
And now, thanks to our free SIM card offer and our referral program, there’s never been a better time to recommend Consumer Cellular to other cell phone users. They can keep their current phone and you both get to keep the $10 you receive as a referral bonus.
Talk About Your Phone
Write a Review!
Have you ever “discovered” a restaurant or been so pleasantly surprised by a movie that you couldn’t wait to share your excitement with others? Positive blurbs help get the word out about good choices available to consumers. With our new five-star cell phone review system, you can help make it easier for friends, family and consumers across the nation to choose a cell phone that best fits their needs.
It’s easy and your privacy is ensured. Just go to our Customer Reviews page, pick the phone you wish to review, fill in the blanks, and click Submit. To guarantee your anonymity, we’ll only show your first name and the initial of your last name, along with your review.
Here’s a review from one of our LG Thrive users:
"This is a very useful phone and quite an upgrade from my previous Consumer Cellular flip phone. I have found it easy to set up. Use is mostly intuitive. The WiFi comes in very handy. The camera produces nice results. Even the battery life is extended by turning off the 3G and WiFi when's not in use. Importantly, the basic phone functions are right on the money." - Ed H.
To write a review of your cell phone or see other published reviews, please go to our Phones page and click on the phone review links.
Customer Star
Carol Ann Hardbarger
Retired educator Carol Ann Hardbarger, of State College, Pennsylvania, is a savvy cell phone user with a decade and a half of usage under her belt. She taught at the high school and university levels, and eventually served as Chief Educator for GLOBE, a NASA/NSF environmental education program. In sum, Carol understands the benefits of doing your homework and analyzing all options before making a decision.
Which is why we are especially pleased Carol switched her cell phone account to Consumer Cellular. She picked us over her other options because of our AARP discounts, no-contract service, affordable pricing, and flexible cell phone plans.
Carol was able to try out different Consumer Cellular plans before finding the right mix of minutes and data to satisfy her wireless communication needs.
For her phone, she chose the Motorola Bravo. She was accustomed to the convenience of a smartphone and liked having immediate access to online tools, such as GPS and email. She also enjoys texting, especially with her five grandchildren.
Confident in her wireless communication choices, Carol cancelled her land line, which, in her words, “is a wonderful cost savings.”
However, even the most experienced of us can slip up. One time while at a restaurant, Carol forgot to use a WiFi network and incurred a hefty fee for downloading a $2.99 game for her grandson. To avoid such mistakes, she now relies on the My Consumer Cellular app on her Bravo smartphone to keep track of usage. And she knows our Usage Alerts program will keep her out of overage trouble.
“Consumer Cellular is the best cell phone company I have ever used,” said Carol. “The pricing and the flexibility to control my usage is invaluable to anyone on a fixed income or strict budget.”
Consumer Cellular is Carol’s third cell phone company. Based on her experience so far, this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Your Questions Answered
In each issue we ask our Support team to recommend — and answer — commonly asked questions about our products or services.
I used to access my Consumer Cellular account via my home computer. Now that I have a smartphone, can I use my phone to access my account?
Great question and good timing. Your smartphone includes a free Android app named MyCC, which gives you easy access to your private account. Furthermore, we just produced a video that shows you how the app works. Watch the MyCC app video here.
Have more questions, need more answers?
Go online and see the answers to our most frequently asked questions.
What’s New…
What Color is Your Invoice?
As part of our mission to keep things as simple as possible for our customers, we’re pleased to be recognized for providing invoices that are easy to read and simple to understand. Many customers view our invoices as a breath of fresh air in an industry often noted for complicated and convoluted billing statements.
We’ve taken our invoices one step further and added color to them. From now on, Consumer Cellular invoices will be in full color, to make the invoice even easier to read than before. You’ll receive the same clear text and straightforward pricing — only it will come in color!
Do customers like this transition from black and white to full color? Well so far, customer response has been, shall we say, colorful:
"Thanks for your colorful update. Now I can really look forward to my next billing! Let us know who your artist is… keep up the good work!" — Mary T.
"You have a great bill and the color is good. I like the simplicity — it is so easy to read." — John D.
"Your colored format is GREAT. Thanks! " — Edna W.
"Thanks for the new look, love the colors. Doesn't hurt so much to pay." — Elenora K.
Our BBB Grade? An A+ for 12 Years!
We’ve received a lot of recognition over the years but our longest, continuously-running “attaboy” is from the Better Business Bureau, which again awarded Consumer Cellular a grade of A+, which is its highest rating possible. We’ve received this same grade for twelve years in a row! With a risk-free, no-contract service that empowers customers to manage their own cell phone usage and expenses, we want consumers to have confidence in us and in the cell phone industry. We’re pleased the BBB shares our vision.
