How has your experience been with consumer cellular

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coffeeblack
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How has your experience been with consumer cellular

Post by coffeeblack »

I'm thinking of changing to consumer cellular phone service from verizon.

For those who use it how has your service been?

What about with international travel? Changing Sim cards etc. Will that change the phone number?

Is the data service good in general. Is is slow/fast?
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oldcomputerguy
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Re: How has your experience been with consumer cellular

Post by oldcomputerguy »

This topic is now in the Personal Consumer Issues forum.

coffeeblack, in answer to your question, my wife and I have been on Consumer Cellular for a number of years, and have had few complaints. What few issues we have had have been with getting set up for international roaming, and they were able to resolve those via chat. We're well pleased.

They use network space on the AT&T and T-Mobile networks, so you might be able to look at service coverage data from these two providers and get some idea how coverage will be in your area.
There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way. (Christopher Morley)
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coffeeblack
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Re: How has your experience been with consumer cellular

Post by coffeeblack »

oldcomputerguy wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 2:52 pm This topic is now in the Personal Consumer Issues forum.

coffeeblack, in answer to your question, my wife and I have been on Consumer Cellular for a number of years, and have had few complaints. What few issues we have had have been with getting set up for international roaming, and they were able to resolve those via chat. We're well pleased.

They use network space on the AT&T and T-Mobile networks, so you might be able to look at service coverage data from these two providers and get some idea how coverage will be in your area.
Regarding the international. Did you have to solve issues once you got to your international destination or was it done before? Did you have to buy a sim card in the international destination or sim card in the US?

Samsung phone s9 with verizon now.
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oldcomputerguy
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Re: How has your experience been with consumer cellular

Post by oldcomputerguy »

The travel we were doing was in Europe, which is covered through T-Mobile. We had to make sure that our phone had a T-Mobile SIM in it, not AT&T. International roaming with Consumer Cellular also requires that they set the appropriate settings on one's account on their back end. They sent me an appropriate SIM. Once I replaced the SIM, I got on chat with them, they handled the conversion and all the necessary configuration changes on their end.
There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way. (Christopher Morley)
niagara_guy
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Re: How has your experience been with consumer cellular

Post by niagara_guy »

Our family has used Republic Wireless (at least 6 people) for about 10 years and it's been a good company to deal with. My plan is about $200/year (paid yearly) and includes 1 gb/month of data (which I never use). I also have bought the Motorola phones they have and I am reasonably pleased (a few software bugs) with them. The phones use wifi when available and only work in the continental USA. I have used them on wifi outside the US to call back to the US. The company was recently sold to Dish so things may change.
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jabberwockOG
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Re: How has your experience been with consumer cellular

Post by jabberwockOG »

We have used consumer cellular for the last 5 years. No issues of any kind.
como
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Re: How has your experience been with consumer cellular

Post by como »

We have nothing but great things to say about Consumer Cellular. We've been using them for 4 years and are far younger than their target demographic. I've only had to call customer service once to turn on tethering and they were very helpful.

The only "complaint" I had was when I bought a cell phone directly through them, it came with a SIM card for the T-Mobile network, which has terrible coverage. My work had recently removed repeaters in my building so it took me a while to realize my new phone was the problem. Target conveniently stocks new SIM cards, so I simply had to pick up an AT&T one there and Consumer Cellular gave me a statement credit for the cost of the new SIM card.

I will also say, our first bill from them in March 2017 was $60. Most of our recent bills have been $56-67, depending on usage. I've been impressed by the way CC has consistently increased the data amounts in each tier without raising the prices.
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coffeeblack
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Re: How has your experience been with consumer cellular

Post by coffeeblack »

My biggest concern is international travel. I don't want to be stuck in some country without phone service. I can buy a sim card in that country but the information from my phone will be on the other card. That could be a problem.

Correct me if I'm wrong. I believe the sim card (t mobile) from CC is used for international travel and can be set up before travel to the country of choice?
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retiredjg
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Re: How has your experience been with consumer cellular

Post by retiredjg »

I was with Consumer Cellular for a number of years and more than satisfied with their service. However, I moved to an ATT shadow (live in the mountains) several years ago and had to switch to Verizon for my cell phone to work at home. I really hated to move.
Woodshark
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Re: How has your experience been with consumer cellular

Post by Woodshark »

We've been with CC for at least seven years or more. Easy to work with and the customer service is good too. They only downside is that they are weak in dealing with international travel so when we travel, we just buy a sim from a local provider.
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