Verizon Wireless tops in Consumer Reports' annual survey

[Fire14]

Cell phone users' satisfaction still low

In an era when cell phone companies have consolidated and promised customers major service improvements, people still don't have a great experience with their cell providers, according to Consumer Reports' annual cellular survey, released today.

The ratings for wireless phone service companies fell below the satisfaction levels of other industries measured by Consumer Reports, including health maintenance organizations and digital cable television.

The poll asked more than 50,000 people in 18 metropolitan areas across the United States to rate their experiences with their cell phone companies. Respondents this year gave the same overall satisfaction rating as last year's respondents.

Of the country's four major cellular networks, Verizon Wireless rated best overall, followed by T-Mobile, Sprint and Cingular. Respondents judged the companies on how well they dealt with questions and complaints and on how often calls were dropped, marred by static, or impossible to make because of lack of service.

San Jose was not one of the 18 cities polled, but in San Francisco, cellular carriers stacked up in the same order as in nationwide ratings.

The survey found 31 percent of respondents were seriously considering changing their cellular service provider. Their top reasons given were poor phone service and high prices. Thirty-eight percent had switched cellular companies.

Recent mergers, such as Cingular's 2004 acquisition of AT&T Wireless, didn't help matters. Former AT&T Wireless customers who did not buy new phones through Cingular had more connection problems and lower satisfaction overall than former Cingular customers, the survey found.

To deal with these problems, many customers ended up paying more because they had to buy new phones or pay cancellation fees to switch to a different carrier, the magazine found.

Sprint's merger with Nextel in August was too recent for Consumer Reports to gather useful information for this year's survey. But the magazine considered the outlook for customers to be even worse, because the companies' network technologies are even less compatible than those of Cingular and AT&T Wireless.

[ComicalMoodyDan]

Verizon Wireless tops in Consumer Reports' annual survey
By Kelly Hill
Dec 6, 2005

YONKERS, N.Y.-Wireless carriers struck out for a fourth straight year in the annual survey of cellular service and phones conducted by independent evaluator Consumer Reports. Cingular Wireless L.L.C. acquisition of AT&T Wireless Services Inc. came under particularly harsh criticism because of problems reported by former AWS customers.

Only 47 percent of the 50,515 survey respondents in 18 metropolitan areas reported being either satisfied or very satisfied with their cell phone service. The magazine gave cellular phone service a score of 67, essentially the same as last year's score of 66. A score of 100 would mean that all participants were completely satisfied; 80 would mean an average customer was very satisfied, and 60 would reflect somewhat satisfied customers. Typical complaints included static, blocked called and lack of service.

"Despite fierce competition among carriers and cell towers seemingly sprouting up overnight in many places, cell phone service isn't getting any better," the magazine reported.

Verizon Wireless kept its top survey ranking for most metropolitan markets and was Consumer Report's pick as the best national carrier. T-Mobile USA Inc. took second, followed by Sprint Nextel Corp.; Cingular trailed behind. For the first time, regional carriers U.S. Cellular Corp. and Alltel Corp. made the list with U.S. Cellular performing well in Chicago and Alltel performing well in Phoenix.

Sprint Corp. acquired Nextel Communications Inc. shortly before Consumer Reports' survey went out, so they were evaluated as separate carriers in this year's survey. Sprint earned middling marks and Nextel received low customer satisfaction scores in the survey.

Consumer Reports noted that more than half of the Cingular customers who participated in the survey were former AWS customers, and customers who kept their old AWS phones were far less satisfied with their service than those who bought new Cingular phones.

In addition to carrier rankings, Consumer Reports also asked customers to rate handsets. Motorola Inc.'s E815 was rated top for Verizon Wireless' network. The PalmOne Inc. Treo 650 headed up the list of Sprint Nextel phones, and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.'s e335 garnered the highest ranking of GSM phones.

http://www.rcrnews.com/news.cms?newsId=25008

[larry]

How often does Consumer Reports do wireless surveys? It seems like every two or three months now.

[bobolito]

Hehe....It looks like that, but between them and JD Powers they keep doing different studies and surveys based on different metrics so it looks like every two monts a new one comes out. It seems to me they keep on surveying the same people all the time. Statistically, if every person they intended to survey actually took the survey, then the results would be much more realistic. Unfortunately, they can't do that and that's why these surveys don't seem to reflect reality.

The question that remains unanswered is why does T-Mobile always scores so high in these surveys, yet their churn is the highest. If we were to measure churn using the results of these surveys, then T-Mobile's churn would be almost as low as Verizon's.

[bobolito]

Originally Posted by Fire14

Former AT&T Wireless customers who did not buy new phones through Cingular had more connection problems and lower satisfaction overall than former Cingular customers, the survey found.

Using some basic logic, you can easily figure that by now most of the people still using Cingular blue accounts have old phones. So why is it surprising they are having more problems than those on Cingular orange accounts?

[Matt]

Consumer Reports has been publishing their survery every February. This year it's in the January issue. I got my copy last week, didn't get a chance to read it though. Seems like I got my copy early....

[Fire14]

Originally Posted by bobolito

Using some basic logic, you can easily figure that by now most of the people still using Cingular blue accounts have old phones. So why is it surprising they are having more problems than those on Cingular orange accounts?

Well we know Consumer Reports won't put it in that perspective, then it might make sense to the people of why they may be having problems with there coverage and they wouldn't want to give anything positive to Cingular for something that might be out of there control.

[bobolito]

The thing is Cingular can avoid this very easily, but they just don't want to get their head out of their butt. They are simply leaving blue customers out in the cold when it comes to getting new phones.

I read a post by someone on a blue account who said he talked to a Cingular top exec about getting new phones and this exec recommended to try Ebay! Can you believe that? Why can't Cingular simply build orange phones to accept blue SIMs? I think it is costing Cingular more in unhappy blue customers and churn than if they had chosen to reload blue phones with orange software. Most of the blue phones were also available on the orange side, so the orange version of the software was already built for most phones. I don't see what the big deal is.

[observer]

I like the paragraph in the RCR news story outlining the point system used.

By my reckoning, saying Verizon is the best is like saying it's the tallest midget!

(And apologies to those like me who are vertically challenged)

[bobolito]

You are very observant!

If you think about it, the difference between the best and the worst isn't that great. However, the way they write the report portrays the carrier with the highest points to be something wonderful and so far above everyone else while putting down the carriers with less points making them look like they are so horrible in comparison. As a result, they give the illusion that there is such huge difference between the best and the worst. News writers specialize in being very sensasionalists. This is why it is best to look at the numbers and forget about the article. Anyone who reads the articles would start to hate Cingular and Sprint automatically and would fall in love with Verizon and T-Mobile immediately, just for a couple of points in difference.

[Gman]

Originally Posted by bobolito

You are very observant!

If you think about it, the difference between the best and the worst isn't that great. However, the way they write the report portrays the carrier with the highest points to be something wonderful and so far above everyone else while putting down the carriers with less points making them look like they are so horrible in comparison. As a result, they give the illusion that there is such huge difference between the best and the worst. News writers specialize in being very sensasionalists. This is why it is best to look at the numbers and forget about the article. Anyone who reads the articles would start to hate Cingular and Sprint automatically and would fall in love with Verizon and T-Mobile immediately, just for a couple of points in difference.

Absolutely true-insignifigant statistical difference between them. But with some spin it sure makes the top carrier sound fantastic.

[bobolito]

Originally Posted by Matt

Consumer Reports has been publishing their survery every February. This year it's in the January issue.

It might just be strategic timing to screw up some carrier's December holiday sales to favor another carrier.

[larry]

Originally Posted by bobolito

It might just be strategic timing to screw up some carrier's December holiday sales to favor another carrier.

Of course it is. They don't want Sprint or Cingular having a good holiday quarter.

[bobolito]

Anyone wants to read the actual CR article?

http://www.vaciloneros.com/images/misc/CR_article/

I couldn't believe how biased they really are until I read this:

If you live in an area not covered by the Ratings:
Verizon would be worth considering first, based on its generally higher performance overall. In several of the metro areas. T-Mobile was a strong performer compared with other carriers. (Page 22)

This basically makes a blanket statement implying that no matter where you are in the US, Verizon is most likely the best. Honestly, I thought I was reading something written by a Verizon cheerleader or a forum troll making the classic mistake of assuming that "just because it works in my bedroom then it must work everywhere else." I suppose even in the areas where Verizon doesn't have coverage they are still the best.... Oh wait! I forgot that according to CR, Verizon covers every single inch of the US.

If you often travel to other countries:
Consider T-Mobile or the generally less impressive Cingular, both of which use the GSM (global system for mobile) network and are more likely to provide coverage overseas. (Page 22)

So, it doesn't matter what advantage Cingular may have, they still label it as inferior regardless. Did anyone say BIASED?

[Fire14]

Originally Posted by bobolito

Anyone wants to read the actual CR article?

http://www.vaciloneros.com/images/misc/CR_article/

I couldn't believe how biased they really are until I read this:


This basically makes a blanket statement implying that no matter where you are in the US, Verizon is most likely the best. Honestly, I thought I was reading something written by a Verizon cheerleader or a forum troll making the classic mistake of assuming that "just because it works in my bedroom then it must work everywhere else." I suppose even in the areas where Verizon doesn't have coverage they are still the best.... Oh wait! I forgot that according to CR, Verizon covers every single inch of the US.

So, it doesn't matter what advantage Cingular may have, they still label it as inferior regardless. Did anyone say BIASED?

I think Verizon & T-Mobile send them donations since they are suppose to be an independent not for profit testing company & by every article they have written about wireless, it's been AWE was horrible, now Cingular and now your hearing & seeing more about T-Mobile being up there with Verizon.
I think they have it out for Cingular & Sprint.

[Matt]

Originally Posted by Fire14

I think Verizon & T-Mobile send them donations since they are suppose to be an independent not for profit testing company & by every article they have written about wireless, it's been AWE was horrible, now Cingular and now your hearing & seeing more about T-Mobile being up there with Verizon.
I think they have it out for Cingular & Sprint.

I'm not defending CR, but the rankings this year are similar to those a year ago. Additionally, believe it or not, there are many happy TM subscribers, and some of them live in the metro areas surveyed

[jimbo]

Just a thought for everybody...

While Consumer Reports may or may not be biased for Verizon/T-Mobile and/or against Cingular/Sprint, do any of us really have enough information to make that accusation? I mean, since none of us have access to the raw data provided by the 50,000+ survey respondents, how do we know that the article is not accurately describing the survey results? On the other hand, I think it would make more sense to question the results themselves...how well does a sample of 50,000 Consumer Reports.org subsribers represent the wireless-phone-using populace?

One thing I do know is this: the best advice in the article was this excerpt from the "How to Choose" section...

Ask people who travel the same streets that you do or make calls from the same buildings whether the carrier they use provides consistent service.

[viewfly]

I know someone who is a statistician for CR, and he readily admits (after a few beers) that CR doesn't do a good job with high tech devices. Basically they don't have the resources to properly evaluate them, and the reliance on surveys is less than desirable or representative. After all it is a preselected group that they survey and not everyone of the subscribers bothers to answer, nor do they ask everyone. The best they can do is be some kind of resource to give information to members on what to look for.

And they can be out of touch. Their ratings for NYC were way off the mark from what one sees posted here. For buying cars and washing machines they are a good place to go. Digital cameras and high end phones? They just can't cover them well.

I get CR, and I wasn't asked for my opinion on this one!

[bobolito]

Originally Posted by jimbo

Just a thought for everybody...

While Consumer Reports may or may not be biased for Verizon/T-Mobile and/or against Cingular/Sprint, do any of us really have enough information to make that accusation? I mean, since none of us have access to the raw data provided by the 50,000+ survey respondents, how do we know that the article is not accurately describing the survey results? On the other hand, I think it would make more sense to question the results themselves...how well does a sample of 50,000 Consumer Reports.org subsribers represent the wireless-phone-using populace?

One thing I do know is this: the best advice in the article was this excerpt from the "How to Choose" section...

I'm sure that even if we had access to the raw data of the 50,000 respondents, we'd still not find anything wrong or substantially wrong to launch an accusation. The problem has to do with their respondents of choice and their choice of words to write the articles. There are many techniques one can use to tweak survey results one way or another without doing anything illegal. If I was to do a survey and I wanted to favor Verizon, all I have to do is find out which cities Verizon is doing the best and ask there. Using this method, which carrier you think will come out on top? Also, their respondents pool could've been much larger including more metro areas. They could've simply discard those metro areas where Cingular and Sprint had higher scores.

Another thing is their choice of words. Notice that whenever they refer to Cingular, the words to follow are usually very deceptive, which is a way to prepare the reader's mentality against the company and that's something that should not exist in an article that claims to be "fair and unbiased". For example, on page 21, at the bottom left box it says:

"Middling to low levels of consumer satisfaction. Static is a widespread problem."

Can we say misleading? Since when there's static on digital networks? Last time I checked, this survey was done in major metro areas where no one is using analog phones. I can see some people still using their good old analog bag phones in rural areas, but not in the areas where this survey was made. Also, if you look at the scores, the difference between them is not that great to describe one carrier as being so inferior to others in comparison. I think the words they choose to describe a carrier's performance should reflect the scores more closely, so there is no need to say something like "static is a widespread problem" implying that most customers have this problem and obviously positioning readers negatively against this carrier. If that was the case, then Cingular's churn would be much higher than what it is.