Dialing In
Simplicity, affordability, and wireless phone access for all. It might sound like the preamble to a government’s charter but those were the key principles we had in mind when we started Consumer Cellular. And we still believe in them.
We also believe in adding optional technology and services when it makes sense. Recently, we noticed some of our customers are doing more texting and Web browsing. So we thought it was a good time for us to expand our Internet access feature.
With our newly expanded Web service, you’ll be able to perform online searches using Google, Yahoo! or AOL. Check out the latest in cars or entertainment. Shop online. Even buy your movie tickets in advance. And keep up with your social networking.
Of course, you’ll still be able to check the news, sports, weather, and travel information online, as well as purchase and download ringtones, screensavers, wallpapers, and games for your phone, just as before.
Best of all, you can do these activities — and more — on your phone with the same no contract, low-cost plan and friendly U.S.-based customer support you’ve come to expect from Consumer Cellular.
Some companies might charge more when they expand their services. Instead, we plan to save you money by combining our text and picture messaging and Web data plans into a single optional package, called Connect! For more details on our Connect! packages, see our Feature Focus article later in this newsletter or visit the Services page on our Web site.
To browse or not to browse… ah, now that is the question. Or perhaps, in the words of Elise Langness, our Customer Star this month, all you really need is a “cell phone that lets me simply make and receive calls.” We offer those, too, and always will. Simplicity rules.
For more comments and industry insights from John, read his latest blog.
Enter Our Grandparent’s Day Contest and Win!
Consumer Cellular is proud to announce our first-ever Grandparent of the Year contest,
designed to honor and celebrate the extraordinary role grandparents play in families.
Our Grand Prize winner will receive an all-expense paid Carribbean cruise for
four. Second prize is four roundtrip airline tickets
to anywhere in the continental United States. And third prize is a two-night
stay for four at a premier hotel property.*
How do you enter? It’s easy. And you don’t even need to be a Consumer Cellular customer to enter or win. All grandparents — as well as children or grandchildren — may enter by submitting a personal 3-minute (or less) video or a 500-word (or less) written essay that answers one of the following questions:
- “What makes grandparenting extraordinary?”
- “What makes my parent an extraordinary grandparent?”
- “What makes my grandparent extraordinary?”
Entries will be accepted from August 1, 2010 through Friday, September 3, 2010. All entries must be uploaded to www.consumercellular.com/Grandparents, along with a completed online entry form, and will be posted online. Voting will be open to the general public, so you’ll want to “get out the vote” and urge friends and family to vote for your entry. All voting will end at midnight Eastern Time on Tuesday, September 7, so remind your supporters to vote early.
The top five finalists will be announced on Friday, September 10. The Grand Prize winner and top two runner-ups will be announced at AARP’s national convention, Orlando@50+, in Orlando, Florida, September 30-October 1, 2010.
For a complete set of contest rules, the online entry form and an FAQ with more details, visit: www.consumercellular.com/Grandparents.
Don’t wait! Get your entry in now. Tell us how extraordinary the role of grandparent is in your life and you could be cruising with your family on us!
*Contest prizes subject to change
Customer Star
Elise F. Langness
Elise
Langness, retired and living in Utah, is a straight-shooter who prefers simplicity.
“I want a TV that works when I plug it in and turn it on. A car radio that tunes when I turn a dial. And a cell phone that lets me simply make and receive calls,” said Elise. “I don't have long conversations on my cell so I don't need excessive usage. And I can't see well enough to text.”
Elise had been paying up to $75 each month for features and calling time she didn’t use. When she learned that she could pay less than $25 a month for the convenience and security of having a cell phone by subscribing to Consumer Cellular, she didn’t hesitate.
“The simple...free...phone was a bonus. And I mean ‘free’... not a rebate that may or may not have reached me months later. Plus, no contract? Unbelievable!” recalled Elise.
Elise first started using cell phones in 1994 when she lived in Alaska, where she commuted three hours a day on dark, snow-packed roads, occasionally competing with moose for the same stretch of pavement. Owning her first cell phone was a liberating experience; Elise no longer felt as if she had to hold her breath during her commute. Thanks to the phone, she had an easily accessible communication tool to use in case of emergency. Today, she enjoys a similar sense of security and comfort as a Consumer Cellular customer.
“I have yet to be in an area with anything but great reception...even when others who are with me, with fancier phones, and with plans that cost three times as much are unable to use their phones,” said Elise.
She admits to being “quite smug” about her Consumer Cellular service. In fact, before starting out on a trek with friends, she tells them to leave their family members her cell phone number in case of emergency.
For many years Elise competed in archery and bowhunting competitions, and knows what it takes to hit your target: directness. Which is one of the many reasons she’s so happy with Consumer Cellular. She particularly loves the low cost and simplicity of the service, and trusts the company, never worrying about “gotcha” tactics or small print. She recommends Consumer Cellular constantly as an ethical company with excellent customer service.
With her competitive archery days behind her, Elise keeps busy doing photography, quilting, watercolor painting, and traveling. She has three daughters and nine grandchildren, and recently made a trip to Hawaii to see a grandson graduate from college.
Whether she’s camping in the rocky Utah mountains or walking along a sandy Hawaiian beach, Elise enjoys clear cell phone reception that’s always right on target.
Meet the Family
Name:
Lisa J.
Role: Lead III. I answer escalated correspondence, such as questions that might come in through Twitter and other social media channels.
Start Date: October 11, 2004
Hobby: Cooking
Favorite Book: Marley and Me by John Grogan. We have had 4 Labrador Retrievers in the last 30 years: two black, one chocolate, and one yellow. At one time or another, they have done most of the antics that Marley did. What an adventure! Our yellow lab Ginger will be 13 in August. She is our princess and has a mind of her own.
Favorite Movie: I don’t go to movies so I don’t have a favorite.
Best Meal Ever: Filet Mignon with a baked potato with everything....... my homemade carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for dessert.
Best Vacation: My honeymoon to Tahiti. Ten days in paradise: warm clear blue water, beautiful scenery, relaxing in a hammock and our own lizard on the wall.
What you love most about living in Oregon: Everything is green most of the year. I've lived in Oregon for almost 21 years and still do not like the rain. But, I will put up with it to have less traffic, less smog (Oregonians call it haze), and less people. Oregon has a lot more people than it did 21 years ago. It is a great place to raise a family.
Favorite quote, saying or fortune cookie message: Always say what you mean and mean what you say.
What’s New
Consumer Cellular #66 on the Best Green Companies to Work for
We made the list of the top 100 Green Companies to work for in Oregon, as evaluated and ranked by Oregon Business Magazine. This is especially meaningful to all of us here at Consumer Cellular since we are big believers in sustainable business practices. We even have a special team (the Consumer Cellular Green Team) assigned to ensure we’re doing everything we can, as a company, to support an environmentally friendly green effort.
So, what’d we do? We changed our default billing process to suppress printed detail, which dramatically reduces our paper consumption. Our desktop computers are thin clients, which use less energy and less plastic. And we continue to recycle or reuse nearly all materials from our shipping process, almost totally eliminating garbage. We always include a postage-paid envelope for customers to use when recycling their old phones and batteries. Plus, we donate 100 percent of the proceeds from our phone recycling program to a local children’s hospital foundation.
We’re certainly proud of coming in at 66 for our first year in the competition. But we’re not stopping there. We’re already planning other ways to improve our “green” status next year, such as Eco SIM cards that use half as much plastic. Stay tuned.
Consumer Cellular 18th Fastest Growing Private Company in Oregon
Each year The Portland Business Journal, a weekly publication dedicated to business reporting, selects and honors the 100 fastest growing private companies in the state of Oregon. Consumer Cellular is proud to announce that we not only made the Top 100, we cracked the Top 25 and was ranked 18. It’s easy to understand why. Consumer Cellular started 15 years ago with three people and now employs 210. In 2009, revenue grew about 57 percent and the number of employees more than doubled from the previous year. Today, we serve about 500,000 customers across the United States, and are proud to be AARP’s exclusive wireless provider.
Winners this year were announced at a gala event held at the Portland Art Museum on June 24. The event was called “Kings of the River” because it recognized companies, in the words of The Portland Business Journal, “who, like the mighty Salmon, have successfully made it upstream in this challenged economy!”
For more information, read our press release and The Portland Business Journal story about us in our Press Room.
Feature Focus:
“Connect!” Gives You Affordable Texting and Web Access
We’ve noticed a substantial increase in customers wanting to use both texting and Web browsing lately. In response, we combined our optional Messaging and Data (Web) browsing packages into a single package called “Connect!,” making online texting and surfing the Web more convenient and affordable than ever.
Previously, if you subscribed to our 100-messages package and our 2MB data package it would cost you $7.50 a month. Now, with our new Connect! Lite package you can get both for only $2.50 a month, saving you five dollars — or more, depending on your Connect package — each month. In other words, when you subscribe to Messaging you basically get Web browsing for free.
NOTE: If you already have a Messaging plan, you’ll need to log in to your My Account page and enable the Web access feature from the Change Services page; you do this by checking a box. Although Web access is free, you still need to activate it. You may also choose which phones are allowed to access the Web or do Messaging. For example, let’s say you have three phones. You could allow two of the phones to do both Messaging and Data (access the Web) and only one phone to do just Messaging.
| CONNECT! Plan | Messages | Data (Web) | Monthly Fee |
|
Connect! Lite
(Check Web 1-2 times per week) |
100 | 2Mb | $2.50* |
|
Connect! Ready
(Check Web 1-2 times per day) |
500 | 15Mb | $5.00* |
|
Connect! Active
(Check Web 3-4 times per day) |
1,000 | 30Mb | $10.00* |
|
Connect! Complete
(Check Web 6-8 times per day) |
2,000 | 75Mb | $20.00* |
*Additional use outside of plan: $.10 (ten cents) per message; $0.01 (one cent) per KB for Web.
A Connect! package includes:
- Text and Picture Messaging – You can send and receive text and picture messages. Text messages up to 160 characters are allowed. Plus, you can take a picture and send it immediately — or send a picture from a gallery of photos stored on your phone. If you don’t have time for a voice call, try texting. It’s just as immediate and convenient.
- Web Browsing – In some ways, surfing the Internet with your cell phone can be more useful than performing the same function on your home computer. It’s possible to carry your phone with you just about anywhere you go. And with a Web browsing plan and phone, you still have the Internet at your fingertips. Just remember to use the service wisely. For example, do not watch huge data files, such as streaming videos and music on your cell phone. Save those activities for your home computer.
In addition to selecting the best Connect! plan for your needs, you’ll also need to select a phone that supports Internet access. We currently offer several Web-enabled phones for texting and browsing (with more choices on the way, including smart phones): Nokia 2680, Nokia 2720, Nokia 2760, Motorola EM330, and Samsung A177. For details about your cell phone options, visit the Phones page of our Web site.
As you know, here at Consumer Cellular we believe in the art of simplicity. So, it’s okay if you want to use your cell phone only for voice conversations. But for those who want to expand their horizons and text or browse, we made it more practical and affordable.
To find out more, call us at 1-888-345-5509 or log in to your My Account page and subscribe to a Connect! package.
Your Questions Answered
In each issue we ask our Support team to recommend — and answer — commonly asked questions about our products or services.
How
do I get free ringtones?
If you have a Consumer Cellular web-enabled phone and a Connect! plan (with web
access), you are able to browse to just about any web site. From the Account Overview
page in
My Account you are able to purchase ringtones, wallpapers and games. There
are a number of sites that offer free ringtones. Just be careful, some sites want
you to sign up for a service in order to get the free ringtone. If you need additional
assistance, please give us a call at
1-888-345-5509.
Can I send video or multimedia messages?
If you have a Consumer Cellular device with the capability to capture video, such as the Nokia 2680, Nokia 2720, or Nokia 2760, you can send video or multimedia messages. As is required for picture messaging, you will need a web-enabled phone on a Messaging plan. Plus, the receiving phone must support video to actually watch the video.
How do I add text and picture messaging capability to my phone?
To add our Text and Picture Messaging service to your phone:
- Log in to My Account.
- Click “Change Services.”
- Select the Connect! package that best fits your needs.
- Check “Messaging” for each phone you want enabled to send text or picture messages.
- Click “Submit.”
To remove Messaging from a phone, uncheck the Messaging box.
NOTE: To add Internet access to your phone, follow the above steps and check “Data (Web)” for each phone that should have Web access.
For more quick answers to your questions, go to, visit our Customer Support page.
Refer a Friend, Earn Ten
Put $10 in Your Pocket! That's what you'll do every time you refer someone who signs up with Consumer Cellular. And they'll be happy, too. Not only will they get cell service at great rates, they'll also get a $10 credit on their first bill. Each $10 credit is our way of saying "Thank You!" for telling friends and family about Consumer Cellular.
Spread the word and share the wealth. Email a friend now.
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