Consumer Cellular Cell phone rip-off--AARP cell phone promotion is useless for anyone with hearing limitations.

I purchased the Alcatel flip phone and basic service one month ago because it was promoted by AARP. I wear hearing aids, and found out none of the pre-programed ring tones are audible, so I can't hear the phone ring. The customer service rep informed me that the phone is unable to be programmed with any other ring tones; she also said that other hard-of-hearing customers have had the same complaint.

I decided to donate the phone to a shelter and called Consumer Cellular to obtain an unlock code. The code they gave me does not work, there is no way to re-set the code and Consumer Cellular basically told me to just throw the phone away or give it to another subscriber because they won't take it back and have no repair resources.

This investment was not a huge amount of money, but it could have been put to much better use purchasing much-needed prescription medicine instead of being wasted on misleading information and a useless phone. AARP needs to do a better job at vetting their vendors and Consumer Cellular needs to do a better job at providing honest and genuine service to clients.