Consumer Reports Rips AT&T; Yet Again
Verizon Still Tops Amongst Larger Providers
Consumer Reports has released its 2011 customer satisfaction ratings for U.S. mobile providers and once again Verizon Wireless finishes ahead of the pack. Bringing up the rear, as was the case last year, is AT&T.;
Consumer Reports released the survey, which is based on responses from 66,000 mobile subscribers, on Tuesday. It found that Verizon Wireless, which is lauded by customers for top-notch customer service, finished first once again with a rating of 73 out of 100. Verizon has beaten its major competitors every year since 2003, though it won by the narrowest of margins this year. Verizon Wireless’ ranking actually slipped in 2011, primarily due to just average phone support and issue resolution ratings.
Coming oh-so-close to knocking Verizon Wireless down a notch was Sprint, which finished with a rating of 72. Sprint received high marks for its value, something that can't be said for T-Mobile. At 67 points, T-Mobile just wasn't in the race for first, primarily because customers didn't like the voice quality and customer support the carrier offered.
Of course, no one did quite as bad as AT&T;, which received a pretty terrible 59 points. Customers ripped the carrier in virtually every category, though the firm took the survey's results in stride. "While we'll of course evaluate and learn from the Consumer Reports survey, we made significant progress in our network in 2011," noted AT&T; spokesman, Mark Siegel.
Siegel also believes that a proposed merger with T-Mobile, which didn't exactly tear up the ratings chart either, will help improve customer satisfaction. "As customer demand continues to skyrocket, our proposed T-Mobile merger will enable AT&T; to improve our customers' experience even more," Siegel said. Right now the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are reviewing the merger because there's widespread concern it could have a negative impact on subscription pricing.
It’s worth noting that, across the board, all four major U.S. mobile providers finished with lower ratings than in 2011.
Consumer Reports didn't just focus on the big carriers, either. It found that a number of smaller, regional providers received much higher ratings than their bigger cousins.
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