Cricket
I tend to think of Cricket Wireless as the prepaid mobile carrier pushed on me when I shop at GameStop stores, or the masterminds behind the “Unexpected John Cena” viral YouTube video. If you think of them as your mobile provider, you can rest assured that Cricket, which piggybacks off of AT&T’s 4G LTE network, has plenty of support options for you.
I had success with the standard telephone support, but I also got fine service via social media. Cricket’s website is exhaustive, and offers details on phones, plans, data, payment, rebates and warranties, as well as a chat service. —Andrew E. Freedman
Online Support (37/40)
Cricket’s support page is one click off of its home page, and, boy, is it thorough. You’ll get quick access to pages about activation, order tracking, warranties and more. I waded through a ton of information about apps, mail-in rebates, phone plans, and how to bring my phone to Cricket.
I found information about the Samsung Galaxy S7 labeled under “Devices and Accessories,” including a quick start guide (in English and Spanish), a full manual, device specifications and a link to Samsung support. By skimming the manual, I was able to find the information I was looking for about how to use and customize the phone’s always-on display. With all of the online information at your disposal, you may never need to call Cricket at all.
Cricket also offers chat support through its website. Conspicuously located in the top navigation bar, it’s easy to find. Chat is open from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. ET. Those are generous hours, though my first chat session turned out to be a bit of a mess. At 4 p.m. on a Friday, I asked SaniR about turning on Auto Pay for my account; Cricket rep SaniR said it was possible, but I had to prod SaniR to learn how. The representative replied with a link to Cricket search results for “sign up to aautpay,” but at least followed up with accurate instructions (in more clear language). Despite my initial confusion, I got where I needed to go, and SaniR responded within 2 minutes after each of my messages.
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On a second chat at 10 a.m. on a Monday, I spoke with Jamie A. about how to see the amount of data I’ve used. Jaime asked for some personal details to check my account, and provided me with the information, as well as instructions for how to do it myself next time. Jaime was just as quick as SaniR, but had much better communication skills.
Upon logging in to my Cricket account, I had the opportunity to view account information and billing history, change plans, get a new SIM card and see how much data I had for that billing period.
It’s also easy to manage your account from the My Cricket app. Upon logging in, I was instantly provided with my billing information, an option to turn on Auto Pay, and a button to start a chat with a service representative. You can use the app to pay your bills, see your plan features and monitor your data usage.
Social Media Support (6/10)
If you have a quick question and don’t feel like picking up the phone, Cricket will answer your questions swiftly via social media, but those answers may not be terribly detailed. On Facebook, I navigated to Cricket’s brand page and posted a question about how to set up Auto Pay on my account.
Just 2 minutes later, I had a response telling me where to sign up, albeit without specific instructions. Cricket’s response mentioned a credit for using the Auto Pay service, but when I followed up later in the day in a comment on Facebook asking how much that would be, I never heard back.
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On Twitter, Cricket has two accounts: @Cricketnation (the main account) and @CricketSupport (the support account). I tweeted at the support account asking the same question and got a response 7 minutes later. Again, the response was brief and told me only in generalities where to sign up (the app or website), but without specific steps. On Twitter, Cricket didn’t mention the possibility of a statement credit for using Auto Pay. On both Facebook and Twitter, I would have appreciated a link to the company’s support page about Auto Pay, which answered all of my questions and more.
Phone Support (41/50)
Cricket’s phone support begins by offering information about your current plan, followed by options asking you if you want to make a quick payment, payments and Auto Pay, add-ons, voice-mail tips and warranty claims. Pressing 0 took me straight to an operator.
On a call I made at 1:06 p.m., I asked how to turn on the Galaxy S7’s always-on display. I was paired with a very polite service agent named Fergi. (He said company rules prohibited him from telling me where he was based.) Fergi initially misunderstood me, and thought I wanted to have the display showing my home screen all the time. Sometime during the process, however, he found out about the feature and was able to get me to the right settings.
Average Call Time: 6 minutes, 14 seconds
During a 4:54 p.m. call I made to ask how to check my data usage, I spoke to Jenny, who said she was located in Southeast Asia. Like Fergi, Jenny was also very polite. Initially, she checked my data usage for me and let me know I had used 18 percent this month. I had to prod her to learn how to check it without calling, at which point she instructed me to make an account in the My Cricket app or online, though she didn’t say where in the app or site to actually check. All I was told is that “everything is there.” (Though, to be fair, she’s not wrong.)
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When I called Cricket support just after 9:30 p.m. to ask about how to turn on Auto Pay, I never needed to speak to a person. I could turn on Auto Pay using the automated phone tree by pressing 1 for payment information and then 2 to set up Auto Pay. Still, in the interest of gauging the accuracy of Cricket’s phone support, I pressed through to an operator to ask about it. I was patched through to a woman whose name I couldn’t make out. Like my first call, she said she wasn’t allowed to tell me where she was located. She offered to turn on Auto Pay after I provided my account information. Alternatively, she pointed me to the Cricket app and website and told me I could turn on Auto Ppay there. She did not, however, give me further instructions on where to go on the site or the app to turn it on.
No matter what time I called, I was instantly connected to a service representative. Only one of my calls was more than 10 minutes, and the rest took less than 5 minutes — and that’s including getting through the phone tree.
Bottom Line
As far as customer service experiences go, my time spent with Cricket Wireless was pretty darn good. I never had to wait when I called, and I was always on and off the phone swiftly. The representatives knew the answers to my questions and were always courteous and polite.
I received responses to my questions quickly on social media, though the answers were bare-bones and not as complete as I would have liked. Cricket’s support site, though, is comprehensive, and I would recommend stopping there first for your support-related needs.
