Consumer Report Ratings – AT&T is the worst-rated!
You may have already seen this on the news or read it somewhere online, but just in case you missed it were here to share the news with our members. Consumer Reports recently released their latest customer service report based on a survey of 58,000 readers and subscribers to cellular carriers including AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile and US Cellular.
The overall conclusion shows that customers continue to hold AT&T's customer service in last place even after the carrier boosted its wireless spending by $2 billion this year. Wow, looks like that money wasn't put on any customer service trainings! Another stunning fact is that Consumer Reports found that the "iPhone owners were, by far, the least satisfied with their carrier."
Here is what AT&T had to say about the results.
"We take this seriously, and we continually look for new ways to improve the customer experience."
With that being said, let's just wait and see what AT&T plans to do to step up their game. The investing they did was obviously not for customer service, so maybe they should think more about who's working for them and why they got such a horrible grade from this report.
Who expected US Cellular to come in first place? Did anyone see that coming because I sure didn't. I haven't really heard much about their customer service, good or bad, but obviously they are doing the 'right' things wouldn't you agree?
Verizon fell in second, very close to US Cellulars position. Verizon's customer service ratings have always been among the top positions so this is no surprise, well it shouldn't be anyways.
What most of you are probably really excited about is the 3rd position winner, Sprint. Looking back a few years they really have done major improvements to not only their network but customer service. As a result, their overall satisfaction rating pulled nearly even with Verizon's leaving them in third place on the charts. Go Sprint!
Of course AT&T was in last place but I wrote about that first in this article so I won't torture them too much more. I do want to know with all their investing they claim to be doing, why did AT&T get the lowest ranking on eight of nine measures of customer support, service and value? I just don't get it. Are they really putting all that money into the 'network' and not making sure the company is being run right?
What do you think about this report? Are these the results you expected to see? I can sure say I was shocked to see the number one and five positions!! Let me hear your thoughts.
Source: Wallstreetjournal
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I think the whole report is bogus. How can these results be taken as legitimate? They surveyed 58,000 people, across 4 carriers. Futhermore, out of the ones surveyed, over half were iPhone users on the at&t side. If you are going to carry out a survey such as this, it has to come from equal portions, all across the nation, with the same amount of customers surveyed for each area type (ie: rural, urban, suburban, metropolitan etc etc), with the same amount of people per type of device surveyed. This has to be the same across ALL carriers as well, with the same amount of people surveyed from each carrier. Also, why do the “Website”, “Email”, and “Phone” portions all show “-”‘s for US Cellular. Do they not have phone support? Email Support? Website support? Or did they just simply not gather enough data to put together a comprehensive set of results so they just omitted that area? Anybody else feel this way besides me?
@Oridus
Let me guess your an iphone user with att?
This report is crap. T-MO and Sprint better than ATT? Please, ask any dude off the street and they’ll tell you its BS. I had all three and both Sprint and ATT had great customer service, but for coverage, ATT blew both of them out of the water.
I used to subscribe to CR for the last 15 years but am planning on quitting them, they’re ratings and coverage of products is starting to lack big time. The ratings on products on Amazon are more accurate than CR these days.
Also how the hell is Verizon a better value than than T-Mo and on par with Sprint? VZW is the most expensive of all carriers and a pure ripoff. The best overall value would be Sprint, not Verizon. With VZW, you pay at least double than Sprint.
@yankees45us – Actually no, I do have at&t, but I also have Sprint service. I’m pretty un-biased. I wouldn’t be any way shape or form upset if the survey was done with proper controls, and at&t came in last. I’m all for fairness though, and I feel that none of the companies were given a fair, equal chance in this survey.
lol a 100% wireless company (sprint) on par with a tv, wireless, and landline company (Verizon) with All that financial backing……think someone dropped the ball. go sprint! lol
I’ve been with US Cellular for 8 years I think, and listened to all my friends compain about their service from other companies. I was with Sprint years before that and hated everything but the price. USC goes above and beyond with customer service and their price is good with free nights/weekends/incoming calls. Not the best selection of phones, but they are getting better. In the Midwest the coverage is unbeatable.
These reports have been controversial every time they come out, but when uneducated end users see it on the news or on the internet, they don’t know any better and sometimes make decisions based on those reports.
Their sample pool was too small, like Oridus said. If they want something more accurate, they need 500,000+ people, with varying smartphones and feature phones. If you go to any smartphone forum that talks about carriers, you’ll see that some people that switched from the iPhone to another smartphone noticed improved signals and less dropped calls on At&t. Yet, the iPhone is still the most popular smartphone out there.
Like someone else said, how is Verizon the best value when they’re one of the highest priced carriers?!?
I’ve had both Sprint and At&t. IMO, Sprint is one of the better values, especially with their roaming agreements. At&t has had GREAT coverage for me, just not great 3G coverage unless you’re around major cities, but I’ve had EDGE coverage everywhere I’ve gone. I’ve usually only dropped calls in known dead zones, like any other carrier.
To each their own though
As a long time Sprint customer, I will say that their service has improved considerable from that of two years ago. They have made changes to customer service and continue to lead in the price/services value.
I have no interest in leaving them anytime soon.
Im with alohanela, my wife an I both have the EVO.
sprint will be at the top in years to come. this time around they’re thinking about the costumer, and not jus profit. contract agreements will one day be gone. sprint has the best with boost mobile.