Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

Customer satisfaction: We're not thrilled with wireless, telephone and TV carriers

By | May 17, 2011, 12:25pm PDT

Summary: Sprint wins and the rest of wireless carriers slip in customer satisfaction. U.S. consumers aren’t glowing about their TV or telephone providers either.

Customer satisfaction scores for wireless carriers fell across the board, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index.

In fact, the only winner of the lot is Sprint, which has improved customer service enough to be the peer of Verizon Wireless. As for the rest of wireless carriers all declined from satisfaction scores a year ago.

Here’s the scorecard, overview and statement:

And when it comes to wired service, we’re not exactly stoked for our choices either.

Come to think of it we think our subscription TV options also stink.

Luckily there were a few winners. Microsoft delivered a score of 78—an all-time high for the company. It’s obvious Windows 7 has boosted the perception of Microsoft. In 2009, Microsoft had a score of 70. Motorola also continues to improve with a score of 77, up from 76 in 2010 and 72 in 2009.

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Topics

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

Disclosure

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn’t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

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It's inherently a lot easier and cheaper to get high-speed internet
adornoe@... 19th May 2011
in a small country, than in a large country like the U.S.

Furthermore, the service providers in those countries don't have as many rules and regulations to comply with as in the U.S.

When upgrades and/or improvements are needed in those smaller countries, it's not as costly to accomplish as in a much larger country.
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Combine the poor service,
JonathonDoe 17th May 2011
the even poorer customer service, and then top it off with all sorts of billing errors and you've got yourself an ATT ... and apparently the grass isn't much greener in the next yard over either.

What are you going to do; go to a competitor who is just a bad ... perhaps even worse? Are you really going to give up your phone, TV, and internet? That's not likely.

Since they *all* offer sub-par service and there's really nowhere else to turn, so as a result they still have customers despite that lousy service, why would they ever change? That would require effort, and money, and ... ya know ... some ethics. As long as the cash keeps flowing in, the current crop of off-shored multinationals simply don't care that much.

Regards,
Jon
@JonathonDoe
"What are you going to do; go to a competitor who is just a bad ... perhaps even worse? Are you really going to give up your phone, TV, and internet? That's not likely."

I only watch what I get OTA for the TV. Phone is tracfone (dumb phone). Internet is a little harder to get rid of and choices are crappy cable or crappy phone (with phone charging more for less bandwidth - currently).
@delerious
Amen to the Tracfone, most if not all the cellphone services are overpriced, and quite frankly, not needed, convenient perhaps.
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Samsung Galaxy Tab from Verizon a Big Disappointment
FeralUrchin Updated - 17th May 2011
I like Verizon vanilla cell phone service just fine. They've got good coverage where I need it, and their customer service and rates meet my needs.

However, I bought my Samsung Galaxy Tab (running Froyo) from Verizon expecting a similar experience compared to buying a PC from, say, Best Buy. I expected that I would be able to uninstall any crapware that Samsung or Verizon preinstalled, and most importantly, that there would be no critical defects in the product.

Unfortunately the Verizon GT is littered with non-removable crapware, and most importantly email service--when using an account on an ISP--is unreliable. Email arrives in one's Inbox, and then after a few seconds disappears without any action by the user. When only one or two emails arrive they are deleted before the user has a chance to view the Inbox, giving the impression of a "phantom email notification". A popular alternative to the stock Android email client, K-9, deletes all email existing in the Inbox each time it polls for new incoming email. Again, this behavior occurs when using an email account on an ISP, such as Cox Communications or CenturyLink. All my attempts to resolve this issue with Verizon, Samsung and my ISP yielded no solution other than resorting to some form of webmail. Now, every other OS can retrieve email reliably from a POP server--why can't Android??

In view of this defect I tried to get my money back and have my 3G contract cancelled without penalty. Verizon stonewalled me because I had had the device for longer than the 14 day return period. This period is for a "no questions asked" return, and being unable to return a device due to a software defect means there is essentially no warranty at all that the product will perform as advertised. During my conversation with the store manager, he acknowledged that he had been aware of this issue for some time, and stated that the Android email client "does not coordinate correctly with an ISP email server".

The Verizon tech rep disclaimed responsibility and refused to accept a bug report. The Samsung tech rep stated that "Samsung takes no responsibility for the software".

In summary:
1) The device has non-removable crapware.
2) It has a critical software defect.
3) There is neither warranty nor technical support for Android defects.
4) Verizon will give no slack on the 14 day return even if you've spent all this time and
more trying to get a critical function like email to work.
5) Samsung disclaims responsibility, essentially stating that it's Google's problem.
6) There is no prospect of a fix, in the foreseeable future, from anyone including Google.

As a postscript, the GT can be used as a cell phone in Europe and Canada. In the US Verizon and the other carriers want you to buy a cell phone and contract, plus pay additionally for a tablet and its contract.
@FeralUrchin You can setup Pop for some clients but that can get pretty big...

As for the Galaxy Tab, I agree! The presentation is second to none with the touchwiz but stability is Crap!
Too bad Wide Open West wasn't on the list for cable / phone / internet companies. Their customer service is excellent. I dropped Comcast like a rock when WOW was available.

As a former AT&T and new Sprint customer - I am very satisfied with Sprint's customer service.
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Tragedy Of The Commons Carriers
Claude Rallins 18th May 2011
Its time the public took back the "Public Airwaves" and reclaim the Public Easements -used for "telephone poles".

Where is the "Universal Service" promised by cable companies and Tel Co's in exchange for the easements?

Why are private wireless firms controlling the public airwaves?

Public taxes built, and maintain, the backbone of the internet now some greedy corporations want to 'cap' our connection to it.

The public was promised an open, competitive, market. One that would serve the best interests of consumers.

We have been betrayed.

The public interest has been sold to private corporations for the price of campaign contributions.

In the Age Of Information its critical that The People control the "Information Superhighways" they own.

As it is now, corporations have communities on their "service" menu with -you milk that one, I'll milk this one- insider agreements.

We all know communication services, from every company, should be on the consumer menu no matter where you live along the superhighway --of airwaves and easements.

The Information Network should be has nationalized as airspace and Interstate Highways. And we must do it NOW! Because its clear, after a generation of info-globalization, the Information Society is here to stay.

Failure to act, on our responsibility as Founding Citizens of Info-Society, will very likely result in future generations being held hostage -with perpetual ransoms, by the corporate-gov powers we let be today.

This future-present form of Corporate Info-Societal Slavery, if allowed to continue, will not end well.

Let's nip it in the bud here and NOW!
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and that, most importantly, means no control by government of our delivery system for news and information.

But, believe it or not, what we have is the "free market" at work. The law of supply and demand is at work. What the people demand, the networks and the ISPs and communications companies, are delivering. What the communications companies are offering, is being bought by the consumers, otherwise, those companies wouldn't be making money and some of them would've had to shut down. If people aren't happy with a service, then they don't have to use it or pay for it. People don't have to pay for a $200/month wireless plan when they could get by with a $30-70 plan, but, people do and they still complain about the "outrageous" prices.

It's mostly a matter of perspective. However, I agree with many who believe that we need competition in every market.
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Be thankful for what you have
david@... 19th May 2011
I sure would hate to have blistering fast internet and features like what's on phones in Japan and South Korea. They must be worn out trying to slow the thing down. They don't pay millions to bigwigs over there, they re-invest. How un-American is that! It's the American way to have crap and pay royally for it. And for the big wigs to make millions and you be grateful that they are rich and you are poor. Can you imagine what would happen if an Asian telco/cellular provider set up shop over here!
in a small country, than in a large country like the U.S.

Furthermore, the service providers in those countries don't have as many rules and regulations to comply with as in the U.S.

When upgrades and/or improvements are needed in those smaller countries, it's not as costly to accomplish as in a much larger country.

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