Verizon beats T-Mobile for top spot in J.D. Power Customer Satisfaction Suvery
By Will Park on Monday, November 12th, 2007 at 1:23 PM PST In AT&T, Alltel, Announcements, Services, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon
Why do we always have good things to say about T-Mobile (NYSE: DT)? It’s not their wireless service (reception and data speeds are a bit lackluster), but rather their customer service that keeps the Magenta-trademarking company at the top of our list of US carriers. You see, T-Mobile has been on a customer satisfying stint – T-Mobile has taken first place in the past five J.D. Power customer satisfaction surveys.
We were a bit surprised that Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless actually inched out T-Mobile for the top spot in the J.D Power customer satisfaction ranking. The most recent customer satisfaction survey put Verizon Wireless just one point ahead of T-Mobile’s score of 725. AT&T (NYSE: T) garnered third-place with 708 points, and Alltel and Sprint (NYSE: S) Nextel bring up the bottom two spots with scores of 695 and 679, respectively.
But, we’re not going to dole out any praise to Verizon Wireless just yet. You see, average customer satisfaction scores have been sliding downhill since last year – a 12-point decline year-on-year, and a 7-point decline since the previous survey. It looks like these guys better get into customer-satisfying mode soon. Those pro-rated ETFs might help.
[Via: Mobile Burn]
It is astonishing that T-Mobile USA ever finished first in customer service rankings — and that it finished even as high as second more recently. Who are these customers? I work for an organization that uses T-Mobile for corporate cell phones because its inferior coverage and service domestically is compensated by superior reception internationally. A trade-off. In our experience T-Mobile domestic customer service is laughably, consistently abysmal, with disempowered agents unable to access basic company information or solve accounts or hardware problems. As I write this, I am in the third week of waiting for a replacement for a stolen phone; every day I am informed by T-Mob reps that it is either 72 hours away from delivery, or eight days maximum, or eight days minimum, or on back order somewhere, or the order is delayed because the line is suspended (correct, Ms. Catch-22, the phone was stolen), but no, sorry, I cannot cancel the order and buy a phone at the shop around the corner, because it is ‘on order’…..and thanks for using T-Mobile.