Consumers’ love-hate relationship with the wireless industry appears to be as contentious as ever. The latest survey and rankings released by Consumer Reports showed that despite the near-record-level of customer growth during the past year, customer satisfaction scores for wireless services continue to lag behind most service industries tracked by the nonprofit organization.
The survey, which included more than 39,000 ConsumerReports.org subscribers and is becoming an annual event for the consumer advocacy magazine, noted that its overall satisfaction index for wireless services has increased only one point since the survey was initiated three years ago. Consumers Union President Jim Guest added that the wireless industry’s satisfaction index rating of 66 was on par with similar surveys for cable TV companies and HMOs.
Consumers Union publishes Consumer Reports magazine and the ConsumerReports.org Web site.
“While new cell phones offer more bang for the buck, there is a hole in the bucket,” said Guest. “That hole includes reliable basic service that is easy to understand.”
The survey results also showed that only 45 percent of respondents said they were completely satisfied with their cellular services.
Of the individual wireless carriers included in the survey, Verizon Wireless emerged from the rankings as the clear winner, as subscribers in the 17 markets Consumer Reports included in its survey ranked the nation’s second-largest carrier highest in overall customer satisfaction. Verizon Wireless also topped Consumer Reports’ customer satisfaction rankings in previous surveys.
While not declaring Verizon Wireless as the country’s “best” network, the magazine noted that consumers should begin their search for a wireless carrier at Verizon Wireless.
Despite the strong consumer support shown in the survey, Consumer Reports also noted that Verizon Wireless was not above scrutiny, citing near statistical dead heats in a number of markets and the carrier’s fair share of problems.
“In 10 cities, it wasn’t ahead of the pack in a statistically meaningful way, however,” the consumer advocate organization noted in its report. “And Verizon wasn’t problem free. It simply had fewer problems than other carriers.”
T-Mobile USA Inc. also posted strong showings in a number of markets, finishing second behind Verizon Wireless in 12 of the 13 markets in which it garnered sufficient consumer feedback. Consumer Reports noted that T-Mobile USA is “usually a solid choice,” and that the carrier posted high-though not consistent-customer-satisfaction scores in the survey.
Sprint PCS, which announced plans last month to merge with rival Nextel Communications Inc., received “middling levels of customer satisfaction” in the survey, while Nextel suffered from low levels of customer satisfaction and a lack of service in the four markets where the carrier generated enough consumer responses to be included in the survey.
Cingular Wireless L.L.C.’s ratings were considered “middling to low,” though the carrier consistently posted better results than AT&T Wireless Services Inc., which managed to post the lowest customer satisfaction score in 15 of the 16 markets where it was ranked. Consumer Reports-which opposed the Cingular/AWS merger arguing it would lessen choices for consumers-added it does not expect a strong improvement in customer satisfaction for Cingular following its acquisition of AWS.
“We don’t think it’s good when companies with middling levels of customer satisfaction get together,” the organization said.
Overall, Consumer Reports noted that while the industry has made notable achievements in launching new services, the industry continues to lag in offering the basics that most consumers still rely on. “We wish the industry would work as hard on the nuts and bolts as they do on the bells and whistles,”the magazine said.
Wireless operators have been cool in their support of externally derived consumer rankings-especially unfavorable results-with most citing their own internally generated testing.
