AT&T ranks last in Consumer Reports mobile service survey
A survey of users of the four major cell phone providers in the U.S. has ranked AT&T, the exclusive carrier of Apple's iPhone, last in terms of customer satisfaction.
Consumer Reports surveyed more than 50,000 readers in 26 U.S. cities, asking about carriers in a number of different categories related to service and customer support. In 19 of those cities, AT&T ranked worst.
Overall, AT&T came in fourth place with a total score of 66. It ranked worst in voice service, and average for messaging and Web/e-mail. Customer service on the phone and via Web ranked poorly, as did staff knowledge and whether the customer's issue was resolved.
Coming in first was Verizon, which ranked highly across all categories: voice, messaging, Web/e-mail, and customer service. Verizon had an overall reader score of 75.
In second place was T-Mobile. Though customers feel the nation's smallest wireless carrier has decidedly average service, the customer support was found to be superior. It earned an overall score of 70.
Sprint came in third with a score of 67, with average service and sub-par customer support, particularly in the area of issue resolution.
The survey is not the only that has found customer satisfaction with AT&T to be relatively poor. In September, another survey found a significant decline in brand perception for AT&T after the carrier faced intense scrutiny over the quality of its network following the launch of the iPhone 3GS. That study found that AT&T lagged well behind competitor Verizon in terms of consumer perception.
AT&T's issues prompted the company to launch an aggressive public relations campaign in which the carrier publicly acknowledged customer complaints and promised to address them.
AT&T came under scrutiny again in October, this time directly from competitor Verizon, which launched a series of ads mocking the iPhone's "There's an app for that" tagline with the slogan "There's a map for that." The commercials, which contrast Verizon's 3G coverage map with AT&T's, have led to a lawsuit in which AT&T has alleged the TV spots are misleading.
This year, numerous reports (1, 2, 3) have suggested that a Verizon-compatible iPhone will arrive in the summer of 2010. For that to happen, Apple would have to build a new handset that could operate on Verizon's unique CDMA network.
The study also found that 98 percent of iPhone users would buy the handset again. That extraordinary total is in line with a study from August, which found that the iPhone 3GS had a 99 percent satisfaction rate.
Consumer Reports surveyed more than 50,000 readers in 26 U.S. cities, asking about carriers in a number of different categories related to service and customer support. In 19 of those cities, AT&T ranked worst.
Overall, AT&T came in fourth place with a total score of 66. It ranked worst in voice service, and average for messaging and Web/e-mail. Customer service on the phone and via Web ranked poorly, as did staff knowledge and whether the customer's issue was resolved.
Coming in first was Verizon, which ranked highly across all categories: voice, messaging, Web/e-mail, and customer service. Verizon had an overall reader score of 75.
In second place was T-Mobile. Though customers feel the nation's smallest wireless carrier has decidedly average service, the customer support was found to be superior. It earned an overall score of 70.
Sprint came in third with a score of 67, with average service and sub-par customer support, particularly in the area of issue resolution.
The survey is not the only that has found customer satisfaction with AT&T to be relatively poor. In September, another survey found a significant decline in brand perception for AT&T after the carrier faced intense scrutiny over the quality of its network following the launch of the iPhone 3GS. That study found that AT&T lagged well behind competitor Verizon in terms of consumer perception.
AT&T's issues prompted the company to launch an aggressive public relations campaign in which the carrier publicly acknowledged customer complaints and promised to address them.
AT&T came under scrutiny again in October, this time directly from competitor Verizon, which launched a series of ads mocking the iPhone's "There's an app for that" tagline with the slogan "There's a map for that." The commercials, which contrast Verizon's 3G coverage map with AT&T's, have led to a lawsuit in which AT&T has alleged the TV spots are misleading.
This year, numerous reports (1, 2, 3) have suggested that a Verizon-compatible iPhone will arrive in the summer of 2010. For that to happen, Apple would have to build a new handset that could operate on Verizon's unique CDMA network.
The study also found that 98 percent of iPhone users would buy the handset again. That extraordinary total is in line with a study from August, which found that the iPhone 3GS had a 99 percent satisfaction rate.
Comments
Not in the beginning, but now.
But I can appreciate the problems facing any carrier when there are 300 million people to cover in such a vast area.
But in terms of service, I think it is the worst. Almost every time I call the customer service, they add feature I did not ask for. It has gotten so bad that I have to beg them not to add anything else.
They have been for years as I've mentioned on here numerous times only to be called a whiner and complainer. Don't say I didn''t warn you'all.
Where's solipsism to defend them as he always used to? Lately he's changed his tune.
I wonder why? perhaps he can explain.
I am happy with their service in all aspects. Customer service has been very helpful the small amount of times I have spoken with them and cell service is rock solid for me here in Houston.
Ditto. I can't complain about AT&T in any way. Maybe Verizon paid off CR.
Talk about excellent timing by CR given the ad war between Verizon and AT&T. Should be interesting to see what (if anything) they do next.
Verizon really should advertise the hell out of these results.
But I can appreciate the problems facing any carrier when there are 300 million people to cover in such a vast area.
That is a point many from other countries don?t readily see when they talk about their coverage, bandwidth and mobile plan costs. The US? average population density is quite low, even if you remove the areas that aren?t inhabited or are agricultural, but leaving major road coverage. What country are you from?
Weird, of all the US carriers, AT&T had the lowest churn rate and highest new addition of customers this past quarter... Understandably, the iphone could account for highest rate of new customers, but churn rate should have reflected this report. In Central Florida, it is the best carrier by far, though my friends in NYC say it is rather awful in their area.
That is the problem with the US for mobile coverage: so much depends on your area of use. I just moved from an area with poor Verizon coverage and great AT&T coverage to one with poor AT&T coverage ( I have no idea how Verizon?s coverage is here but it can?t be worse).
Horrible network. Lousy 3G network. Persistent dropped calls and many other issues.
I hear all the time that ATT service sucks, and some say its perfectly fine. Iv'e been on all the major carries over the years and honestly none of them seem any better than the other. Who hasn't had a cell call drop off from time to time. Throw a few million iPhones on the network and guess what? - you better be ready to accommodate the bandwidth.
I'd like to see what happens with any other carrier when you dump a few million bandwidth hungry smartphones on it. I bet the complaints would be the same.
In central Florida, I have no complaints with ATT.
This survey is already old news.
Wonder if all the negative press has affected this. I do applaud them for being the first to bear the brunt of the new mobile browser age.
I would argue this. There are way too many factors in the mix. Where are you located in the country? What phone do you use - smartphone or voice only? Are you using edge or 3G?
A properly designed survey with a large enough sampling should statistically smooth out all the different factors.
The point of a survey is that it is the average of all responses... not an absolute prediction of the exact results in any circumstance at any time.
I have not had to call customer support, but my fiancee has had Sprint for years and has never had a bad experience calling customer support.
I guess it all depends on what you are calling for... I hated calling Cingular support because I had them argue with me... ???
I hate calling AT&T (landline/DSL) because I sometimes get different answers from different people on the same call... to the point where I talked to 8 different people with 8 different answers and then, I unleashed my fury on them and finally got what I wanted and they promised.
Yet 98% of iPhone users would buy an iPhone again.
AT&T Ranked Last in Consumer Reports’ Best Cellphone Service Survey
It certainly would appear that way. With low marks for several key indicators of customer satisfaction–including service availability, circuit capacity, dropped-call frequency and voice service–across 73 percent of the markets Consumer Reports surveyed, it’s pretty clear that AT&T has become overextended by the popularity of the iPhone. Which is bad news for the carrier and, of course, for iPhone owners as well.
As Consumer reports notes, “Apple’s iPhones are the top smart phones in our Ratings–actually, among the best of all phones we tested, period–but their exclusive carrier, AT&T, was middling at best in satisfaction….If you’re readying to buy Apple’s phone, prepare for possible disappointment with its service and expect to love the phone anyway. Despite the network problems, a staggering 98 percent of iPhone users in our cell-phone-buying survey were satisfied enough to say they would definitely or probably buy the phone again. Only 79 percent of respondents who bought other cell phones said the same.”
http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/2...ervice-survey/
P.S. @ Quadra 610: Have to make my answers shorter. But it is nice that somebody else takes a little more time to ferret out the info.
Weird, of all the US carriers, AT&T had the lowest churn rate and highest new addition of customers this past quarter... Understandably, the iphone could account for highest rate of new customers, but churn rate should have reflected this report. In Central Florida, it is the best carrier by far, though my friends in NYC say it is rather awful in their area.
The iPhone is the reason for the low churn rate as well. They have millions of iPhone customers such as myself who are unhappy with the service but remain just to continue using our iPhones. We're like battered housewives.
If you had a graph measuring AT&T churn, the line would probably take a steep drop from 2007 to the record lows of today. In the past that might have meant increased happiness with their performance, but let the iPhone exclusivity agreement expire with an iPhone on every carrier and see how low their churn remains. Only then could you say it's due to more happy AT&T customers rather than happy Apple customers.