I used Spectrum Mobile for 4 months. Here's why I went right back to Visible

I’ve switched phone carriers more in the last 18 months than I have in my entire adult life. After a decade as T-Mobile customers, my partner and I switched to Visible last year and had a really fantastic experience. Our service was great, the plan features were just what we needed, and the price was extremely fair. But about a year after using Visible, we got an offer from Spectrum Mobile we couldn’t refuse.

The offer? Two lines of Spectrum Mobile Unlimited Plus and 1Gbps home internet service for just $100/month total ($30/month for each phone line, plus $40/month for our internet). It was a seriously good deal, and despite hearing horror stories about Spectrum Mobile, I went against my better judgment and signed up anyway.

A little over four months later, I’ve canceled my Spectrum Mobile account and moved back to Visible. And at this point, I don’t see myself ever giving Spectrum Mobile another chance. Here’s what went wrong.

Little things were adding up

Why the change of heart? While my actual phone service and coverage with Spectrum Mobile were perfectly fine, there were so many other issues with the carrier that I simply had enough.

It started with activating my partner’s phone number. The physical SIM I received for my phone activated without a problem, but my partner’s eSIM gave us some trouble. The original eSIM activation link Spectrum sent us either expired or was never generated properly, so we had to contact Spectrum to get it fixed.

As I would soon learn, Spectrum Mobile’s live chat is essentially worthless, so we had to call to get things squared away. Easy enough. I called Spectrum customer support, who said my partner’s phone number was never actually set up. Weird, but whatever. Within about 15 minutes, the customer service rep transferred my partner’s number to our Spectrum account, and we were back in business.

However, trouble soon reared its head yet again.

About two months later, I noticed that our bill was higher than it should have been. Instead of paying $60/month for both phone lines, I was paying $70. My partner’s phone number was being billed for the correct $30/month rate, but my line was coming in at $40/month. Because it’s impossible to accomplish anything of value with Spectrum’s live chat support, I had to set aside time for another phone call.

After being transferred to a couple of different agents, it turned out that the $30/month-per-line offer for both of our phone numbers didn’t exist. That’s the offer I was initially given on another phone call when setting up my account, but according to another Spectrum representative just two months later, that wasn’t the case.

I was offered a 12-month promo to bring my line down to $30/month as a consolation for my trouble, but I wasn’t getting the 24-month price lock I thought I was. I don’t know what else to call that other than a bait-and-switch.

Combine the rocky setup process for my partner’s phone number, needing to make a phone call for virtually every customer service interaction, plus being lied to about the promo I would receive, and I had just about had it with Spectrum Mobile. But with my line discounted for at least the next 12 months, I had decided to stick things out until then.

But that didn’t happen.

The eSIMs that broke the camel’s back

About a month ago, I was setting up the Pixel 11 Pro to start testing it for my review. I opened the Spectrum Mobile app and followed the steps on there to convert my physical SIM to an eSIM. Things seemed to be moving along just fine, except when I entered the Pixel 11 Pro’s IMEI, the Spectrum app said the phone wasn’t compatible. Since the Pixel 11 Pro doesn’t have a physical SIM card slot, I couldn’t just take my Spectrum SIM card out of my Motorola Razr Fold and pop it into the Pixel. I needed an eSIM.

Technical issues like this are actually fine for Spectrum’s live chat, so I started a conversation and explained what was going on. According to a couple of different Spectrum Mobile agents I chatted with, the Pixel 11 Pro I was using — a phone that’s fully unlocked and compatible with Spectrum Mobile — wasn’t supported.

I then asked if I could transfer my physical SIM to an eSIM using my Razr Fold’s IMEI, thinking I could easily swap it to the Pixel 11 Pro that way. However, the Spectrum Mobile agent told me that the Razr Fold — a phone I was actively using on Spectrum Mobile’s network and a phone that supports eSIMs — wasn’t compatible with Spectrum’s eSIMs.

At this point, I was completely fed up. I opened the Visible website on my computer, entered my Pixel 11 Pro’s IMEI, and within about 15 minutes, my phone number was transferred from Spectrum Mobile to Visible and activated on the Pixel 11 Pro — all without me ever having to talk to anyone on the phone.

After about a week had passed and I had some time to calm down, I thought maybe the issue was that Spectrum just hadn’t updated its IMEI directory in time. After all, I was trying to activate a review unit of the Pixel 11 Pro before it had officially been released.

However, my partner ran into the exact same compatibility issue. When they tried to activate their unlocked Pixel 11 Pro on Spectrum Mobile days after the phone was on store shelves and actively being sold by Spectrum itself, Spectrum again said the phone wasn’t supported. Another 15 minutes later, their phone was up and running on Visible without a hitch.

I’m done with Spectrum Mobile, and I don’t plan on going back

Shortly after I published that article in late April about switching to Spectrum Mobile, my colleague Andrew Grush messaged me on Slack and said, “I look forward to your eventual piece about how you left Spectrum and returned to Visible.” And he absolutely called it.

There’s a lot of appeal to Spectrum Mobile, especially if you already have internet or TV service through Spectrum. When you get offered a bundle promotion like I did, it can sound too good to pass up. However, let this be your sign that it isn’t worth the hassle.

If you’re looking for a Verizon-powered cell plan on the cheap, I really can’t say enough good things about Visible. Plenty of folks out there like US Mobile, and even Verizon’s own Simplicity plan can make sense for some people.

Spectrum Mobile can look really good on paper, but actually using and living with a cell plan can be very different from what the website says. And unfortunately, based on my four months with the carrier, good coverage and low pricing don’t make up for everything Spectrum Mobile gets wrong — which is a lot. Unless you’re prepared to deal with billing issues, nightmarish eSIMs, and grating customer service, I’d advise staying far, far away.