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AT&T ranked last in cellphone service survey

There's bad news for AT&T in a recent customer satisfaction poll. Consumer Reports asked 50,000 readers across 26 U.S. cities to rank cell service providers on a variety of scales. Verizon came out ahead in 19 of the 26 cities. AT&T was dead last.

Dropped calls and voice service were among the chief complaints, and that's no surprise to us. We've heard the frustration of fewer bars in more places and experienced it ourselves.

But here's the interesting part. Despite the dissatisfaction with AT&T, 98% of respondents said they'd buy another iPhone. It would seem that the overall experience is good enough to eclipse the gaping hole in what should be the device's main function: making and receiving calls.

Last summer, I spent a week in the middle-of-nowhere, Pennsylvania. Everyone's Verizon-powered phone worked perfectly while my iPhone had gone deaf and dumb. Frustrating for me, and bad PR for my relatives. If the iPhone does go non-exclusive in the US, I'll be the first in line to switch.

When reached for comment, AT&T had this to say:

"We appreciate and value all customer feedback. We learn from it and it helps us serve our customers better. Without question the surest indication of customer satisfaction is churn, or turnover. For the last quarter, our postpaid churn was just 1.17 percent."

There's bad news for AT&T in a recent customer satisfaction poll. Consumer Reports asked 50,000 readers across 26 U.S. cities to rank...
 

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wacka23

att is making no effort to address the company and network issues customers keep mentioning.

Instead, Att has these customer surveys that are sent out via email, phone, or text with 2 questions. How was the representatives customer service? and Are you willing to recommend Att.

for the most part Att representatives are really good at what they do. Ive never had a problem with politeness, clear understanding and being offered the right solution. I always give them %s on the first question.

What bothers me is that i have heard from inside sources, that Management has begun to tell their reps to tell customers that both questions are based on the Rep. Which is a complete lie. Ive heard reps go as far as saying "the second question is a trick question."

Shame in att for repremanding your reps for doing their jobs and trying to cover network issues with lies.

Customer Service--- 5
Willing to Recommend---1

February 22 2010 at 4:46 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Heath

I've had my iPhone for 10 months and can't believe how miserable it's been. Yes, the phone is great, but only when I can actually make/receive calls. Every day I make calls and they connect to the other person, but I cannot hear him/her. I drop calls like they're on fire...It got so bad I went to Apple and they replaced my iPhone, then I went to AT&T and they replaced my SIM card. Guess what: nothing got better. Oh, and for those who have had no problems: I used to live in Boston, and now I am in Columbus, Ohio (15th largest city in the U.S.), plus I've been up and down the East coast and the Midwest. I hate the service I am getting. I don't care if AT&T became overwhelmed with so many users - I am paying a lot of money to use the best phone in the world and I expect it to work.

December 11 2009 at 9:44 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
macserv

What's funniest is that if Apple's device does become available from carriers other than the crapfest that is AT&T, customers certainly aren't going to want to be force-fed Verizon's shit sandwich, either.

I'd drop AT&T in a heartbeat for a T-Mo iPhone, though. Or a Sprint CLEAR (WiMAX) iPhone. *drool*

December 05 2009 at 7:09 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Larry Flynn

I have been with Sprint, Nextel, Alltel, Cellular One, and ATT. I think ATT is great. I never get a dead spot. I don't understand the report.

December 03 2009 at 3:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
budo

Verizon truly rules. AT&T and Sprint are TERRIBLE and well overpriced. Good survey.

December 03 2009 at 10:07 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jash Sayani

I agree to Dale.

BTW, its good, atleast Att got Ranked! I thought they would be Unranked.

December 02 2009 at 3:43 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
levar

What this says to me is that ATT better keep the iphone exclusivity. People are more than willing to compromise for the iphone, but once it's available on another carrier, ATT will be in trouble.

December 02 2009 at 1:53 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
William

Verizon scored 75, T-Mobile scored 70, Sprint scored 67, and AT&T scored 66. Consumer Reports said that a difference of 3 points is meaningless. So basically, T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T all suck equally according to them. And Verizon isn't much better. If Verizon is "winning" with a grade of C, that's not much of a victory.

And before anybody rails on me, I have an AT&T account, a Sprint account, and a Verizon account, and I don't have problems with any of them. I just wanted to point out the apparent bias in this article in smashing on AT&T.

December 02 2009 at 1:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Munford

"the device's main function: making and receiving calls."

Making calls is the number 3 or 4 use for me on my iphone. Checking email, SMS or calendar, surfing web are more frequently used functionalities.

December 02 2009 at 11:48 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
steve humann

another AT&T iPhone user just itching to up those churn numbers a bit. but like the article said, the overall iPhone experience is worth the dropped calls for me personally. if the android phones I've played with weren't so kludgy interface-wise I'd consider jumping ship to Verizon as their phones seem to work here in LA when mine doesn't. But the android just-as-good nonsense reminds me of nothing as much as Windows 95 vs. Mac back in the day. But major urban area dead spots? There's a carrier for that.

December 02 2009 at 11:39 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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