PCMAG NAMES CONSUMER CELLULAR “READERS CHOICE” FOR 8TH STRAIGHT YEAR

While we’re no stranger to receiving accolades and awards, it’s always more rewarding when they come based on our customer’s opinions.

That’s why we’re so pleased to announce that the readers of PCMag have honored Consumer Cellular by selecting us as their favorite mobile carrier for the 8th year in a row!

PCMag has been published since 1982, and presents awards annually in a broad array of technological categories. In the magazine’s 2021 Readers’ Choice Awards we received a score of 9.2 on a 10-point scale for “Overall Satisfaction” among mobile carriers for what PCMag describes as “Consumer Cellular’s simple approach of putting customers first.” In fact, we were the only carrier in the survey to receive an overall satisfaction rating of 9.0 or higher!

And that’s just one of the areas where we came out on top. As the article notes, Consumer Cellular “crushes the competition in almost every category.” We received the highest scores in 10 categories in the survey, including Customer Support, Coverage Within Home Area, Coverage Outside Home Area, Family Plan Options and Likelihood to Recommend.

The survey was conducted in February and March of this year. Respondents were asked to only rate products and services that they’ve actually used within the past 12 months, meaning these ratings come straight from current customers.

Recognition from a respected national publication is exciting, but what we appreciate even more is that it represents the experience of our customers. And we don’t rest on our laurels! Each time we receive this type of recognition, it drives us to work even harder to make sure we’re delivering the superior quality you’ve come to expect from our products and services.

Thank you for your kind words—and for choosing Consumer Cellular!

52 Thoughts on "PCMAG NAMES CONSUMER CELLULAR “READERS CHOICE” FOR 8TH STRAIGHT YEAR"

  1. Nancy Wojtowicz says

    06/10/21 I had a problem with my Motorola Android phone which was impossible for me to fix by myself. I lost my qwerty keyboard and was left with only a handwriting option . None of my own attempts worked.

    I called the service line and had the good fortune of being connected to Megan. She was patient , pleasant and encouraging in walking me through multiple attempts to fix this problem. I am thankful for her expertise, kindness and her willingness to help me. Thank you to Consumer Cellular for providing such good customer service

  2. Bob Willey says

    I want to remove the alert CMAS on my phone. PLEASE tell me how this is done. Thank you

    • Nicole at Consumer Cellular says

      Hi Bob, all you have to do is press the Right Softkey for Messages → Options (Right Softkey) → Scroll down to Emergency Alerts → tap the center button to select → Options (Right Softkey) → Delete Broadcast. If that doesn’t work for you, please give us a call at 888-345-5509 or chat with us here.

  3. LINDA ROSELL says

    CC IS A GREAT COMPANY. I RECENTLY BOUGHT MY IPHONE SE FROM THEM. WHILE I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR CHECKING OUT PRODUCTS , I NEGLECTED TO CHECK IF IT HAD AN EARBUD PORT. IT DOES NOT. THERE ARE TIMES THIS WOULD BE VERY USEFUL. MY OLD SE AND ALL OTHER IPHONES HAVE THIS ABILITY. JUST DISAPPOINTED IN MY RECENT CHOICE

  4. Sheila Mon says

    I enjoy my Consumer Cellular Service having an elderly disabled tech challenged partner I would love to see more cells phones that offer 128gb memory 4G minimum 5000mAh batteries, stereo speakers with 3.5 plug in headphone capability, with good camera easy to use smartphone with messaging with a taller visible drafting window that accepts & allows to attach photos, docs, gif & emojis for challenged seniors. And with help instructions & updates notices that are simple to follow vs bring so technical and hard to find help & troubleshooting resources. And the accessibility features are more difficult to use than regular features. There’s got to be a low maintenance smartphone with theses basic features costing under $400 dollars for the traveling seniors & disabled person.

    • Hi Sheila, thanks for your post! We appreciate you taking the time to give us your feedback on our phone line up and we’ve passed it along to the appropriate department for going forward. Thanks!

  5. Whit C says

    ConCel,

    Just a comment about your phone choices.

    You recently sent an email notification to change my brother’s cell phone because of the upcoming retirement of 3G service. I am perplexed at why your company only offers 1 flip phone choice on your website. I am assuming that the majority of your customers are seniors and some don’t want, or can’t use, a smart phone.

    In the case of my brother, he had a stroke and has limited mental ability to use a phone. Anything beyond a simple flip phone would be too much for him. Reading comments on your site shows many customers with relatives in nursing homes, etc. who have the same need of a simple phone.

    I see other senior-oriented phone companies, Great Call, Jitterbug, etc. that offer very good, large button, very simple phones. I am frustrated by your offering of only one phone that doesn’t inspire confidence at its usability or sturdiness based on reviews.

    I’ve done an extensive internet search to find alternatives but a simple 4G flip phone is like finding hen’s teeth. The only decent choices are locked phones requiring a different provider.

    I would think that a major phone carrier like Consumer Cellular would have enough clout to work with a manufacturer to design and provide a good, simple phone for its customers. Technology is requiring the upgrade but you seem to be doing nothing to make it beneficial for your customers. I’ve considered switching providers based on phone choice and still may do so.

    Can you please forward this email to someone in charge of your phone provision or someone who is involved with design/development who will hopefully provide your many customers with some decent simple-phone selections.

    Thanks,

    Whit

    • Hi Whit, thank you for your post. We appreciate your feedback on this and you taking the time to send us that feedback and your suggestions. I have gone ahead and passed it along to the appropriate department for going forward with our phones. Thanks!

  6. steve says

    What are CC’s plans for supporting the Apple watch? Is there a timeline for when this might occur? Seeing that the demographics of CC’s customer base is more mature, the health monitors that Apple watches provide could be a boost to your customer base.

    • Hi Steve, thanks for your question. We don’t have a timeline for if or when we would support the iWatch. That specific device uses an eSIM which is the part we don’t support but I’m happy to pass your suggestion along to the appropriate department. Thanks for taking the time to send over your suggestion!

  7. Branden says

    I think it is a shame I bought 2 new phones and had them shipped and the supposed activation code is nowhere to be found and the company conveniently could not answer the phone call at 615,630,640 even though the message stated they were open til 7pm pst

    • Nicole at Consumer Cellular says

      Thank you for the feedback, Branden. For clarification, our customer service department is available Monday through Friday from 5:00 AM to 6:00 PM Pacific Time and Saturday and Sunday from 6:00 AM to 5:00 PM Pacific. Additionally, an activation code is only used for retail purchases, and activation instructions should have been included with your order.

      I do see that you were able to chat with our team. If you need any further assistance, please give us a call at 888-345-5509 or chat with us here.

  8. Gary T says

    Customer Service is Shite at Consumer Cellular! I cannot call Canada anymore and no one at Customer Service can give Me a strait answer as to why??

    This is 2021…..NOT 1921! I shouldn’t need an international operator to make a call 100 miles away. If there has been some change over the last 6 months, Consumer Cellular should make SOME EFFORT to notify its customers.

    • Hi Gary, thank you for your post. I’m sorry to hear about the trouble you’ve experienced with this feature. If you’re having trouble with the feature at all, we do recommend using the number 201-490-2159 to help you get connected. We do understand that this is frustrating or you can also disable the VoLTE feature in the phone and try making that call as we’ve noticed this helps as well.

  9. Gus says

    On today’s world a company without a 24 hours, 7 days a week service support should not be regarded as a top consumer company. Here, I am on a weekend unable to set up my personal hotspot option in CC.

    • Hi Gus, thanks for your post. We appreciate you taking the time to post your feedback on this and have passed it along for the future. If assistance is still needed with this, feel free to give us a call at 800-686-4460 or chat with us here and we’d be happy to help get that set up.

  10. Wanda and Gary Walhovd says

    My wife and I both have phones and service through consumer cellular. Starting 3 days ago my wife could not send or receive text messages. When she tries to send a text she gets a message, “Not delivered”. Mine worked fine until this morning. Now today I cannot text with my phone either and get the same message “Not delivered”. My wife took her phone to a technician to see if she had done something wrong or changed a setting. He checked out the phone thoroughly and said that everything was fine and that it has to be Consumer Cellular. Please help

    • Hi Gary, thanks for your post. I’m sorry to hear about the trouble you’re having with your texting feature. We definitely want to look into what’s going on with that for you. Give us a call at 800-686-4460 or chat with one of our agents here for further assistance.

  11. Sharin says

    I am a NEW consumer cellular customer. my phone worked for a couple days and now I can’t receive calls.

    • Hi Sharon, I’m sorry to hear about the trouble you’re having with service. We definitely want to help with that and look into what’s going on. Give us a call at 800-686-4460 from a different phone or chat with one of our agents here for further assistance.

  12. John Rajczewski says

    Whatever happened to the “lines are busy, wait is over 5 min, but do following and we will call you back. You won’t lose place in line.”?

    I called today on my cell phone and then after five min of same jingle, also called on home phone. Got same message, in order of receipt. I’ve been listening to the same jingle on two phones now for over 20 minutes!! Hung up cell cause I needed it. What a crock about service. Just wanted to change my auto bill credit card number. Been 25 minutes now. Ultimately I figued out how to do it online, but I decided to wait to see how long, and I’ll let rep know how long it has been! This has happened several times before. Guess I’ll post this on facebook and elsewher, as I fully expect this to be deleted by CC! Mint mobile, here I come; cheaper too!

    • Hi John, thank you for your post. We understand that the wait times are frustrating for our customers, and we are diligently hiring and training new agents to get this resolved for our customers. This process can take time because we want to make sure our agents are properly trained to provide the best customer service possible, and we appreciate your patience during this time

  13. Shirley H Perkins says

    I returned the new ZTE phone because I was unable to continue updating my service. I now would like to start & continue my service with the sending of the new ZTE Avid 579 smartphone. PLEASE READ THIS & UNDERSTAND THAT I WANT TO KEEP MY CONSUMER CELLULAR SERVICE WITH YOUR SENDING THE NEW PHONE!

    • Hi Shirley, thanks for your message. We’d be happy to help to place an order for a new phone to use with our service. Give us a call at 800-686-4460 for assistance or you can also go online to your account here to place the order as well.

  14. Jackie sutherlin says

    To whom it may concern my husband and I have been a customer a consumer cellular for year-and-a-half lately I’ve been trying to get a hold to them and it is running time is almost an hour on the phone I really need to speak to someone but I cannot stay on the phone for an hour could you guys look into that please.
    Frustrated customer

    • Hi Jackie, thank you for your post. We understand that the wait times are frustrating for our customers, and we are diligently hiring and training new agents to get this resolved for our customers. This process can take time because we want to make sure our agents are properly trained to provide the best customer service possible, and we appreciate your patience during this time. Another option that you do have though is you can also chat with one of our live agents on our website here.

  15. Mary says

    Perhaps the problem is that Consumer Cellular has become too popular. I enjoy the phone and the service has been exceptional until recently. I spent nearly 2 days trying to get through to customer service and spent several hours on hold waiting for a representative. Once I reached a person, things went smoothly. This is an issue that needs to be addressed.
    Thank you.

    • Hi Mary, we appreciate you taking the time to post about your experience with this. We understand that the wait times are frustrating for our customers, and we are diligently hiring and training new agents to get this resolved for our customers. This process can take time because we want to make sure our agents are properly trained to provide the best customer service possible, and we appreciate your patience during this time. Thank you.

  16. Peter Turner says

    Consumer Cellular customer service is terrible. Not because of the service reps, but because it is so difficult to reach them. Hold times for phone calls are typically an hour or more. Chat (when it is available) is a little better. I have typically been somewhere between 40 and 70 in the queue. Unfortunately Consumer Cellular has an online timeout function, so chats and chat queues can be cut off by the timeout function.

    Seemingly this has happened since Consumer Cellular was purchased in the fall of 2020 by a private equity firm.

    • Hi Peter, we appreciate you taking the time to post. We understand that the wait times are frustrating for our customers, and we are diligently hiring and training new agents to get this resolved for our customers. This process can take time because we want to make sure our agents are properly trained to provide the best customer service possible, and we appreciate your patience during this time.

  17. Anthony Joseph Jones says

    Why is my Consumer Cellular cell phone service so high? Consumer Cellular asks for more and more every month, and I have the AARP discount. This month’s charges are $34.84, last month and the months before in the $60 range. That’s to much for the $20 fee I was set up with.

    • Hi Anthony, thanks for your post. A bill can increase due to usage that takes place on the account during a billing cycle. We’d be happy to review this in more detail with you, just give us a call at 800-686-4460 or chat with one of our live agents here for further assistance.

  18. david M yeager says

    Don’t know what to say. While this may not be related to the subject at hand, I’m sure it is something that is on your customers’ minds.
    It has become Impossible to connect to customer service. Waited this morning for over an hour. Worst decision I ever made was switching to consumer cellular. Crap system and non-existent customer service.

    • Hi David, thank you for your post. We understand that the wait times are frustrating for our customers, and we are diligently hiring and training new agents to get this resolved for our customers. This process can take time because we want to make sure our agents are properly trained to provide the best customer service possible, and we appreciate your patience during this time. If assistance is still needed, you can also chat with one of our agents here for further assistance.

  19. Barb R says

    We have been trying to reach someone at CC online via ‘chat’, since yesterday, but always over a 100 in line, and when my iPad goes dark, have to reconnect and go to the back of the line! And the only other way CC offers connecting with them, is through a telephone number…that’s all great, but our phones have been out of order since yesterday…so we can’t call anyone!! And no one is getting through to us!! The message we got from CC, at about 4pm EST, is when we discovered the phone service was out, which said something like, ‘connectivity issues, recommend customers to restart devices to restore service’…It does not work…nothing is working…even took out battery, and back on…We both have 4G flip phones, new last year.any help would be appreciated…we’ve been with CC for about 13 years, and never a problem like this one…and if it’s going to be this hard to correct a problem, not sure we’ll be here much longer…

  20. Barb R says

    We have been trying to reach someone at CC online via ‘chat’, since yesterday, but always over a 100 in line…our phones have been out of order since yesterday…so we can’t call anyone!! And no one is getting through to us!! The message we got from CC, at about 4pm EST, is when we discovered the phone service was out, which said something like, ‘connectivity issues, recommend customers to restart devices to restore service’…It does not work…nothing is working…even took out battery, and back on…We both have 4G flip phones, new last year.any help would be appreciated…we’ve been with CC for about 13 years, and never a problem like this one…and if it’s going to be this hard to correct a problem, not sure we’ll be here much longer…

  21. Steve Cataldi says

    How do I know that my new phone has been activated?

    • Hi Steve, thanks for your questions. If you have pushed an activation through, power the phone off and on and if you’re able to make a call, you should be all set. You can also double-check the status by giving us a call at 800-686-4460 or chat with us here for more help.

  22. Steve Cataldi says

    How do I know that my new phone has been activated?
    Thank you

    • Hi Steve, thanks for your questions. If you have pushed an activation through, power the phone off and on and if you’re able to make a call, you should be all set. You can also double-check the status by giving us a call at 800-686-4460 or chat with us here for more help.

  23. Susan Super says

    Why does CC’s webpage “time out” even when you are actively doing something? There’s no warning “you’re about to time out” for inactivity, I’ve been in the middle of looking for something and bam, timed out. Please log back in. Coming through invoices, looking at months worth of info and #s and start all over, is annoying and inconvenient to say the least.

  24. Bullwinkle says

    It appears and customer service agrees that the plan details, exclusions, rates for other not included services can’t be accessed until you purchase a plan? Any links to plans or information takes you to the same plan landing page. No further info available.

    • Hi there, thanks for your post. You can actually view all details on our website. For example, you can view all of our plan options by going to our website here. If you have any questions about our service you’re also welcome to give us a call at 800-686-4460 or chat with an agent here.

  25. Mick says

    Good evening. We’ve noticed a steady rise in the cost each month, by $2-$4. The cost is getting steadily further from what we signed up for. I know the cost of doing business is going up, but something doesn’t add up here. Is it taxes, fees, or the basic cost of the service? Or a combination?
    Thank you.

  26. Tom Hunter says

    I’m being charged for not signing up for automatic bill payments. I am very displeased by this. I don’t want to pay for not letting you take money from me even after my death. Please remove this charge. I’m sure that I can find another cellular service that doesn’t charge me for this.

    • Hi Tom, thanks for your post. We appreciate your feedback on this and have passed it along internally for going forward. I see you were able to speak with one of our customers agents further on this, if we can help further just let us know!

  27. Steven Payne says

    I’m posting this here because I don’t know where else to suggest it. Recently, I had internet problems and had to use my personal hot spot extensively. Of course, this increased my bill and I don’t have a problem with that. In fact, I would’ve gladly paid more.
    My suggestion is to offer true unlimited web data service and name your price for it. After a certain point, send an email saying “from this point on, your web data will cost you X dollars a gigabyte” Ask for the customer’s approval and then provide the service.
    At the time, I was desperate and would have gladly paid a lot to keep my internet access. Fortunately, it so happened that the Comcast tech had finally got my internet working again about an hour before I got the email that my web serviced was disabled. Whew! If that had happened a day earlier, I would’ve been frantic! I’m not rich, but I’m not hard up, either. So, offering unlimited web data, even at a high price, could be a money maker for you and a service for those who get in my position. Think about it.
    Thanks.

    • Hi Steven, we appreciate you taking the time to send that suggestion to us as well as your concerns about this. I have passed this along internally to the appropriate department for going forward. Thank you!

  28. Steven Payne says

    Thank you, Jacob! And thanks Consumer Cellular. You don’t know how much I appreciate your service during the 8 days that I had no internet and no cable TV. Your web service worked flawlessly and allowed me to use the internet and watch TV. It may not seem so important, but, to this senior citizen, the alternative of sitting here staring at the walls for over a week was totally unacceptable.
    Again, thanks so much. Consumer Cellular is the best and I recommend you to everyone.