AT&T gets lowest marks in latest Consumer Reports survey

[guandalf ACE - Wizard]

AT&T seems to have gotten slammed in the latest survey.

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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guandalf wrote:

AT&T seems to have gotten slammed in the latest survey.

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rank CR reports right up there with BBB reports, take all of them with a grain of salt.

[gfmartino]

So, AT&T what are you going to do to improve your customer satisfaction ratings? You are ranked last out of the six major cell phone service providers in the USA according to Consumer Reports recent ratings. You even dropped from last year's rating. Does this tell you anything? Get a clue AT&T.

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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gfmartino wrote:

So, AT&T what are you going to do to improve your customer satisfaction ratings? You are ranked last out of the six major cell phone service providers in the USA according to Consumer Reports recent ratings. You even dropped from last year's rating. Does this tell you anything? Get a clue AT&T.

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personally have had very little issues with dealing with ATT on problems, they have always be courteous and understanding. The few times I did have issues with their cs things where resolved in a few days. The resolutions where ot always to my liking but they where resolved.

Customer service is in the eye of the beholder, a person can call one time and get everything they want and more and the customer service is the greatest thing in the world, that same person can call back a couple of weeks later then not get what they want the the same CS that was the greatest thing int he world a couple of weeks earlier is the now the worst thing in the world and that customer would not recommend them to their neighbors dog for anything.

Any post about cs is one sided, people tend to post inofmration with the slant that they where the wronged party.  You will NEVER here the true story or have enough validated information to make the correct decision. One of the divisionsof my company does online support for a couple of onli9ne games, I really wish we could publish the true conversation recordings or transcripts of what actually occurred on the cs call that the people are yelling about on the forums, it is hillarious, they don;t even sound like the same support call.

Take any CS post with a grain of salt. Personally rank CR right thee with the BBB - who by the way recently had some very interesting press.

[inganh]

At&t customer service sucks, and now there is proof.  so sick and tire of these at&t employees as moderators to defend them. 

[robhuff46]

Consumer Reports: AT&T is U.S.'s worst cell phone carrier

[BrianfromNO]

That survey is proof in much the same way last night's Pats game is proof that "zOMG, Tom Brady is the best QB ever".  If you've ever taken a social science research class, you would know that survey construction goes a long way towards establishing the scientific validity of a survey.  To me, this is about as scientific as when the nightly news says "Go to our web site and take a survey".

Seriously, I'm not buying it.  AT&T's that much worse of a value than Verizon, when they feature largely the same pricing structure?  Clearly, there's something else going on here, and it appears that "coverage rage" is causing an emotional response that people are translating into across the board negative rankings.

And while the moderators ARE AT&T employees, their job is to make sure everyone plays nice in the sandbox, not defend AT&T.  More specifically, they enforce the Forum Guidelines, which you can read in the upper right hand corner between Feedback & Help.

Anyone else who's an AT&T employee (and I am not now, nor have ever been, one) are here on their own time trying to help people answer their questions and fix their problems.  There is substantially little value in a "Consumer Reports says AT&T stinks" thread being started, followed by a million half-witted, half-baked "Me Too's" clogging up the forum.

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inganh wrote:

At&t customer service sucks, and now there is proof.  so sick and tire of these at&t employees as moderators to defend them. 

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[mightyjeeper]

Honestly, Looking at this particular review and using it to analyze the entire spectrum of AT&T's service is completely bogus. As would it be with any company. First and foremost, how many people were surveyed vs. the actual total number of customers that AT&T has. Secondly, what is the demographic in which the survey was taken/administered? Third, were the questions and or the structure of the survey biased toward a specific result one way or the other? These are just a few examples of the things to consider when reading an article like this. The same is true in the news media and politics. One news network may have the president's approval rating at 39, while the next has it at 51. There are factors to be considered as to why this is. The same scenario applies here.

[mikewho]

I didnt read the article yet so i wont comment on it yet in terms of att

. Right after i got out of the military i worked for a company that dealt with lawn products as well as home products like washers etc.  This is just my opinion but it seemed like the ratings were very biased at that time. The company i worked for dealt with various products across the board(big names, little names etc). I got to test out different products and clearly some of the reviews were biased. Some of the best products that i tested were given mediocre reviews at best.

After that i didnt take cr ratings as being that of gold. Some of their reviews are good while others dont seem to be.

I will say that a negative review from cr whether right or wrong, correct or incorrect, doesnt help att and actually hurts them. So att does need to try and get more favorable reviews from cr since cr is such a big publication and many do seem to follow it when buying new products and services.

thats my opinion on the whole thing.

[belome]

More than half of the people surveyed had an Iphone.

I wonder how many percent of their clientel own an Iphone?

Will be scary if Verizon really does get one, I can see tons of customers jumping ship.

[tonester]

Of course, had CR come out and said that AT&T was #1 in customer satisfaction, all of you pro-AT&T folks will undoubtedly say that CR got it right and/or not be making the kind of arguments you're making right now trying to explain away AT&T's low ratings.

Look, it's great that AT&T has been good to/for you but clearly your opinion(s) do not represent and/or are indicative of what the majority of folks feel about AT&T's overall service.

[mightyjeeper]

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tonester wrote:

Of course, had CR come out and said that AT&T was #1 in customer satisfaction, all of you pro-AT&T folks will undoubtedly say that CR got it right and/or not be making the kind of arguments you're making right now trying to explain away AT&T's low ratings.

Look, it's great that AT&T has been good to/for you but clearly your opinion(s) do not represent and/or are indicative of what the majority of folks feel about AT&T's overall service.

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Seriously, one consumer reports article/survey does not represent the majority of ATT. And, no I wouldn't have said "AT&T" got it right, as I know how these reviews are. I base my opinions on MY personal experience, not that of others, or what others say.

[gfmartino]

In my original message I called attention to the recent Consumer Reports rating of cell phone service providers. Some question the validity of the survey and its demographics. Typically Consumer Reports asks its subscribers to respond to an annual survey regarding products and services these use. In general the results are a reflection of a subscribers evaluation of a product or service. As with any survey results need to be taken with a grain of salt. But, with AT&T wireless we see a pattern emerging with surveys year after year ranking AT&T at or near the bottom of customer satisfaction rankings.

Personally, I have found AT&T's retail staff and customer service representatives very accommodating. They try to the best of their ability to resolve billing and technical issues. What I take fault with is overall wireless service. As a longtime user of the iPhone I have found AT&T service as average to poor. My signal strength at my home is marginal and vastly fluctuates  from no bars to 5 bars. I rely on my cell phone for work and need consistent service. I installed a 3G Microcell in my home in an attempt to improve cell phone reception. When it works it's great. Unfortunately, it's signal strength varies almost as much as my standard 3G service. I consistently get dropped calls, disconnects when talking to my wife or daughter on their AT&T iPhones, or inability to complete calls I am attempting to make. 

For me the CU article was the straw that broke the camel's back. There must be a solution to this consistently poor service ranking of AT&T. I am paying a premium price for AT&T service for three iPhones each month and expect quality service for this premium price. AT&T should rank with the top cell services providers and not bring up the bottom year after year. We wouldn't tolerate such poor quality from a new car we had bought. Would you want a car that may or may not start when you go to use it? Would you want a car that just quits on you as you drive down the road? Would you want a car that suddenly slows down and then speeds up? Right now as I write this my iPhone has lost it's microcell signal and 3G connection and has defaulted to EDGE. Ooops, I lied it is now 1 bar 3G. Ooops, lied again it is back on EDGE. Okay, now it's back on 3G with 4 bars. What happened to my microcell signal? This happens so often you would think I would get use to it by now.

AT&T you need to get your act together!

[Whitekenyan22]

I was a former Verizon costomer and only switched to At&t 3 years ago because my girlfriend had At&t as her provider and her contract was not going to be up anytime soon.  I have had more dropped calls with At&t than Verizon hands down.  And I am not just talking about not getting coverage in the sticks (which is pretty bad), I'm talking about dropped calls in the middle of a major city.

They also have basically decided to give the standard 450 minute/250 text message costomer the cold shoulder when it comes to phones they can use.  There are about 6 to 8 phones that can be used without being stuck with a data or messaging plan and they are of bad quality.  I truely think there were better non-data phones available four years ago than was is available now.  In fact, I am using other peoples old phones rather than downgrading to a new phone.  I'm not wanting a smartphone, but when my basic flip phone from 2005 is of better quality, something is wrong. Check any other providers phones and they look and feel of better quality and have much better reviews for their phones battery, speaker, durability, etc.  It seems as if At&t is just trying to force people into data and messaging plans that are not needed.

Once my girl's plan is up, we are jumping ship unless things change drastically.

[UNSC_REACH]

I have ATT, no problems at all. Love the service.

[MrKroppcircles]

1st off, the survey says that it was from 58,000 CONSUMER REPORT READERS...58,000....how many of those "readers" are AT&T customers? How about actually surveying the CUSTOMERS of EACH cell phone provider (and im not saying all of the customers) and not just in large cities/metropolitan areas, but small areas as well, and then see who gets better ratings, Just because Im an employee doesn't mean im going to defend AT&T, if they did a survey like i mentioned and AT&T still came out last, then i would believe it, but CONSUMER REPORTS is not as reliable since you will have people say that AT&T are terrible because their MOM, DAUGHTER, SON, DAD, GRANDMOTHER, DOG, CAT, HORSE, say AT&T are terrible, not because they actually believe so or have tested it...I think a real survey needs to be done...

[hazelBernstein]

Ha! Just look at all the posts on all of the forums here and you will see that none of the claims are ONE SIDED! There is definitely an issue with AT&T's network -- non-3G and dropped calls seems to be the MAIN number one complaint. And AT&T  denies this and denies helping anyone with this PERIOD - END OF STORY - Thank you AT&T

[UNSC_REACH]

Hazel your right, I'm cancelling tonight.

/thread

I think for as "big" as CR thinks it is, it could have conducted a lager and more thorough poll.

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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inganh wrote:

At&t customer service sucks, and now there is proof.  so sick and tire of these at&t employees as moderators to defend them. 

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Number 1 - I am NOT an employee, I don;t have the signature block that si required by ATT for their employee's to have, bad to make assumptions in todays worlds, 99.9 percent of the time you are dead wrong

Number 2 - Customer service is a client perception, good or bad. If the client doesnt get every little thing that they demand becasue they claim to be a loyal long time customer they believe and post about how bad CS is for a particular company.

Bottom line, if the customer is unhappy with the "terrible supprt" then leave, pay the etf, walk away and go somewhere else, but would be willing to bet that the first time the new vendors cs refuses the demands of the call, the customer will be right in the website yelling about how bad their new vendors customer support is. Make book on it because it happens.

Sorry thjis is not "proof" is a a minor survey, if there was a way of vaidating the people that filled the survey out would be willing to make book that most of the "poor" response where given just out of spite. I know a few people that just down check everything when a survey comes out on a company, just for grins.

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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belome wrote:

More than half of the people surveyed had an Iphone.

I wonder how many percent of their clientel own an Iphone?

Will be scary if Verizon really does get one, I can see tons of customers jumping ship.

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contrary to popular belief, the iphone is not the largest percentage of ATT total wireless customer base. This has been documented here and on other sites.

Would love to see the iphone comes as Verizons first 4g network phone then watch the screams of pain when the people that jump find out what the LTE networ data plans will cost

At launch, Verizon will support two mobile broadband plans for LTE users: $50 for 5 gigabytes of data per month and $80 for 10 gigabytes. Users who exceed those guidelines will be charged $10 per gigabyte.

[hazelBernstein]

Hi Everyone

Hope everyone that is complaining about 3G service and dropped calls gets a good laugh out of this morning's news! Coming from someone who has been challenged with AT&T's customer service for months -- this DOES not surprise me! I plan to pay a couple hundred dollars JUST to get OUT of My contract very soon!

[MrKroppcircles]

Yeah we all have been talking about it here:

http://forums.att.com/t5/General-Care/AT-amp-T-gets-lowest-marks-in-latest-Consumer-Reports-survey/t...

and I'll say it again:

1st off, the survey says that it was from 58,000 CONSUMER REPORT READERS...58,000....how many of those "readers" are AT&T customers? How about actually surveying the CUSTOMERS of EACH cell phone provider (and im not saying all of the customers) and not just in large cities/metropolitan areas, but small areas as well, and then see who gets better ratings, Just because Im an employee doesn't mean im going to defend AT&T, if they did a survey like i mentioned and AT&T still came out last, then i would believe it, but CONSUMER REPORTS is not as reliable since you will have people say that AT&T are terrible because their MOM, DAUGHTER, SON, DAD, GRANDMOTHER, DOG, CAT, HORSE, say AT&T are terrible, not because they actually believe so or have tested it...I think a real survey needs to be done...

[UNSC_REACH]

Agreed Kroppcircles

[WirelessForeman]

Thank you all for taking the time to post your opinions related to the Consumer Reports survey. I would just like to add that AT&T takes this seriously and we continually look for new ways to improve the customers experience.

The fact is, wireless customers have choices and a record of them chose AT&T in the third quarter significantly more than our competitors.

Hard data from independent drive tests confirms AT&T has the nation's fastest broadband network with our nearest competitor 20% slower on average nationwide and our largest competitor 60% slower on average nationwide.

Our drop call rate is within one-tenth of one percent, the equivalent of just one call in a thousand of the industry leader.

The Consumer Reports survey is based on anecdotal feedback while AT&T's data and voice performance results are based on third-party drive tests all across the nation.

We continue to invest in improving our mobile broadband network including an additional $2 billion planned this year.

AT&T offers its wireless customers simultaneous voice and data on our mobile broadband network and more choices in operating systems apps, smartphones, WiFi hotshots and connected devices than our competitors.  

[hme83 ACE - Professor]

Of course you have to take the survey results with a grain of salt - however, that doesn't mean it's completely misrepresentative either.  I don't agree/disagree with the ratings because it is Consumer Reports or because of what family or friends "say".  But my own overall experience certainly correlates with the downward trend over the last several years in using at&t's wireless service, as has been noted in these historical "anecdotal" survey results for approximiately the same timeframe.

It's difficult to find much "value" in something when the service doesn't work effectively - regardless of how the plans/pricing may compare with other carriers.  Value is inherently a measure of quality vs. price.  It's difficult to feel you receive much in the way of "customer service" when widespread service related complaints/concerns aren't addressed in a timely manner - no matter how nice or genuinely sorry actual at&t representatives may be.  Customer service is about much more than how you are "treated" by a rep when you call in with a specific complaint.  So yes - are ratings in individual categories probably unfairly skewed downward?  Of course - but the customer experience is one of a "whole", not of isolated parts and pieces.

I've been an at&t customer since Sept. 2005.  Certainly would have considered myself to be largely satisfied with the service until Winter of 2008 (when 3G was introduced in the OKC area).  Huge degradation in data service with the rollout of 3G (and I don't have/never did have an iPhone).  After approximately 2.5 years(!!), the overall level of data service does seem to have been restored to pre-3G rollout levels in Summer 2010.  (I still experience a tremendous decrease in voice quality; however, since I rarely use my phone for voice, it doesn't really make that much difference to me.)  I can make the same general comments re: time spent in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area over the same time frame.  Pleased with data service in that area until about 3 years ago - at that point any time I have attended an "event" of any significance I cannot get a data connection to save my life until well after the event is over and the crowds have virtually dispersed.  I can accept that these "events" are problematic for the carriers - however, they don't seem to be problematic for the carriers providing service to others around me.  lol.

Family all has Sprint and they are comparably reasonably happy with Sprint and have been for a number of years - none of the customer service "complaints" in their opinion that were so prevalently noted in prior CR surveys.  I've heard "first hand" good things regarding Verizon who has recently come to the area, but I don't really know enough users who have switched to Verizon to make an informed opinion yet.

It's not the specific results that I find so interesting [with 58,000 responses across 23 metro areas, you are probably looking at somewhere around 500 customers from each carrier (on avg., per metro area) actually included in the final ratings], but the fact that in every single metro area at&t was the lowest performing of the top three to four carriers.  And in only three of those areas (Boston, Kansas City, and St. Louis) was the spread between at&t and the next lowest carrier "insignificant".  That's pretty telling if you ask me - as my own personal experience has been better over the last several years when I am *outside* of the OKC metro area in more rural locations; and the OKC metro area was not included in the CR survey. 

I do appreciate that at&t's 3G network is faster than that of their competitors; but how meaningful is that when you can't get a data connection at all or you are in an area that lacks widespread 3G coverage?

What I can say is that I am still with at&t as I hate to give up the flexibility of GSM service with a non-branded device, and at this point at&t is still the best choice for national GSM coverage (at least outside of just the major interstates).  But imo it is sad to see how at&t's overall satisfaction ratings have deteriorated over the last several years, and sadder still because I wish it weren't so but my own experience mirrors that.

Just my two cents.  

[UNSC_REACH]

Thank you for taking the time to address this topic WirelessForeman. Kudos.

[whozethere]

"Customer service is in the eye of the beholder, a person can call one time and get everything they want and more and the customer service is the greatest thing in the world, that same person can call back a couple of weeks later then not get what they want the the same CS that was the greatest thing int he world a couple of weeks earlier is the now the worst thing in the world and that customer would not recommend them to their neighbors dog for anything."

1 Your attitude on the phone affects the Customer Service Rep.

2  Not all customer service reps are created equal.

3 If you sense you have a poor rep, don't get into the entire problem.  Wait and call back later.

[BrianfromNO]

First, I'd be suspect of anything that Consumer Reports did, as I'm not certain they use methods that would pass any kind of social science "sniff" test as far as survey construction.  It sounds like they disproportionately surveyed iPhone users, and I would guess every other vector of the construction of their survey was likely flawed as well.  This is only slightly better than surveying your 400 Facebook friends on the same topic.

Smartphones are still a minority of AT&T's customers, and iPhones are an even smaller slice of the pie.  It's fairly well established that, even among smartphones, the iPhone does not get the greatest reception, so CR's whole survey sounds fatally flawed in its construction.

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tonester wrote:

Of course, had CR come out and said that AT&T was #1 in customer satisfaction, all of you pro-AT&T folks will undoubtedly say that CR got it right and/or not be making the kind of arguments you're making right now trying to explain away AT&T's low ratings.

Look, it's great that AT&T has been good to/for you but clearly your opinion(s) do not represent and/or are indicative of what the majority of folks feel about AT&T's overall service.

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[turbo46032]

It's not just a smartphone or an iPhone question. I love Nokia equipment that in my experience tends to have very good RF section (the transmit/receive stuff for those out of the loop :-)) and it's not good.And it's not just a single issue. I have seen a number of things going wrong since 2007.

- the iPhone debacle that pretty much brought the network to its knees since 2007.

- AT&T's attitude that growth of customers trumps an improved customer experience... Bad assumption

- overpromising (unlimited data plans) and underdelivering with less 3G coverage than VZ etc.

- leading the way with consumer unfriendly arbitrary decisions like forced data plans on smartphones, or bloatware

- focus on 'network speed' versus 'reliability'. A lot of good 3G will do if I can't get signal

- perhaps placing their bets on the wrong horse, given how pitiful the current 3G implementation is inside buildings.

- AT&T's refusal to take a leadership position in the 'frill' aspect of using wireless services and block content or charge separately for it (for a very quick network improvement, block streaming media for a week and see the improvement :-))

- slow-ness of getting new quality devices (where's the Nokia N8?)

I could write more, but he fact is that at this point once VZ gets the iPhone then things will turn bad in a hurry.

[Starfall]

Consumer Reports? The same bunch that refuses to give the iPhone 4 a recommended rating despite high marks and glowing reviews, because consumers might have to get a case to protect against a perceived antenna issue?

Right.

Forgive me if I don't take anything they say seriously anymore.