AT&T takes top spot in mobile customer service

[Reflexx]

Whoa.

AT&T takes top spot in mobile customer service - SlashGear

The survey found that 69% of AT&T customers surveyed were ?Very Satisfied? with their customer service experience. This is an improvement from the 65% ratio the year before. AT&T also dethroned the Now Network, which dropped 12 points to 59%. Tying with AT&T a year ago at 65%, T-Mobile has dropped 17 points to a miserable 48%, while Verizon remains unchanged at 60%.

 

[speedtouch]

It's hard for me to believe T-Mobile did so poorly. I have called them *so much* over the past two weeks. Each time I have gotten excellent service with each rep. I suppose I have talked to 8 different reps and every one of them has been helpful, pleasant, and easy to do business with.

 

[HeyCori]

AT&T sales iPhones en masse. iPhone owners are very happy with their devices so they are also happy with their carrier.

 

[HeyCori]

Also note, JD Power gave the top spot to Verizon.

Verizon Wireless wins top spot in J.D. Power customer care study

 

[bigkevbosky]

I have to admit, I've been really happy with AT&T. My wife rarely uses data on her iPhone 4S, and recently unknowingly used an app that took her well over her 200 MB data allowance. I called AT&T, not really expecting them to do anything, but they offered a $15 credit to cover her overage. Really great customer service - I've been happy with them ever since I got rid of that POS iPhone 3GS.

 

[anon(5335877)]

What?! AT&T top in customer service?

And for T-Mobile, I'm not surprised, customer service went down the drain back when the merger was announced. Your call experience generally would depend on whether you got someone who was working at an outsourced call center or someone who was in a US call center.

 

[willied]

This doesn't mean much. Many other surveys show the opposite.

 

[Reflexx]

I've personally had a pretty good experience with AT&T.

Sure, over the many many years I've been with them I've had moments where I hated them, but overall they've been pretty good.

I think that no matter what provider I could possibly have, I'd have moments I'd hate them.

I think that generally, AT&T's bad reputation is greatly exaggerated.

 

[anon(5335877)]

I think that generally, AT&T's bad reputation is greatly exaggerated.

Like their coverage and service? I think it came from like 2008 or 2009 when AT&T just couldn't handle all the iPhones on their network. Supposedly if you were in a big city, data was slow and you'd get dropped calls.

Right now I have Straight Talk and the plan that I'm on now, it's using AT&T's towers. So far I have found AT&T's indoor coverage to be better than T-Mobile's, but in places where both get signal, I think T-Mobile always had more bars (not that bars are a proper way to measure and compare signal strength, actually you should use dBm).

And for both carriers, I'm never really on the phone enough to have ever experienced a dropped call.

 

[Clara James]

I agree and as I am also very much satisfied with their services.

 

[ninjaap]

If you don't count the fact that ATT acquired Cellular One then Cingular, I have never been on any other carrier and have always been satisfied. Can't say there was ever a time when I wanted to switch to another. It was just a great smear campaign by VZW.

 

[speedtouch]

Like their coverage and service? I think it came from like 2008 or 2009 when AT&T just couldn't handle all the iPhones on their network. Supposedly if you were in a big city, data was slow and you'd get dropped calls.

Right now I have Straight Talk and the plan that I'm on now, it's using AT&T's towers. So far I have found AT&T's indoor coverage to be better than T-Mobile's, but in places where both get signal, I think T-Mobile always had more bars (not that bars are a proper way to measure and compare signal strength, actually you should use dBm).

And for both carriers, I'm never really on the phone enough to have ever experienced a dropped call.

You're using a Dell Venue Pro on Straight Talk? How did you do that?

 

[willied]

If you don't count the fact that ATT acquired Cellular One then Cingular, I have never been on any other carrier and have always been satisfied. Can't say there was ever a time when I wanted to switch to another. It was just a great smear campaign by VZW.

It's definitely not a smear campaign. Verizon's coverage is factually much better than AT&T's.

 

[bigkevbosky]

It's definitely not a smear campaign. Verizon's coverage is factually much better than AT&T's.

By smear campaign, I think he means that Verizon took advantage of the iPhone people who hated AT&T because of a poor design in the iPhone 3G and 3GS antenna. I was one of those people. I *almost* got frustrated enough to jump to Verizon, but stuck with AT&T and I'm glad I did - now I get first crack at all the great WP7 phones coming up, or I could go iPhone if I wanted, or I could get a top of the line Android device like the Galaxy Note if I wanted.

AT&T simply gives you more options in devices, and their prices are comparable to Verizon. Now that both are LTE, I really don't see a difference unless you're simply in an area with bad AT&T coverage.

 

[threed61]

If you don't count the fact that ATT acquired Cellular One then Cingular, I have never been on any other carrier and have always been satisfied. Can't say there was ever a time when I wanted to switch to another. It was just a great smear campaign by VZW.

As a new AT&T subscriber, who switched specifically to get a better Windows Phone, any good news about the 'deathstar's' improving service is welcome.
That would be quite an accomplishment by VZW to get tens of thousands of people to smear AT&T in satisfaction surveys. Most analysts have generally attributed the bad rep to unhappy iPhone users, and that VZW just plain has better coverage. The good news is, that has inspired AT&T to spend a lot of money and effort to get better, and it seems to be paying off.

 

[ninjaap]

It's definitely not a smear campaign. Verizon's coverage is factually much better than AT&T's.

If it was just about coverage areas, then ATT wouldn't have placed behind TMo and Sprint in the past couple years. Like others have said, VZW simply played with disgruntled iPhone users emotions, which was the majority of ATT. The commercials just pushed a lot of them over the edge. I mean, come on, a lot of my coworkers worked in the same building as me and I didn't have coverage problems. But of course it wasn't their phones fault. It was ATTs, right? Before my Focus I had a Motp Q and a Fuze. My Moto Q was rock solid, but my Fuze had the same problems as iPhone. It had a lot to do with device.

 

[scottcraft]

I switched from AT&T to Verizon because of reception issues before I had a smartphone.

Sent from my Windows7 Phone using Board Express

 

[ninjaap]

I switched from AT&T to Verizon because of reception issues before I had a smartphone.

Sent from my Windows7 Phone using Board Express

I know people who have switched from VZW, Tmo, and Sprint for the exact same reason.

 

[N8ter]

It's hard for me to believe T-Mobile did so poorly. I have called them *so much* over the past two weeks. Each time I have gotten excellent service with each rep. I suppose I have talked to 8 different reps and every one of them has been helpful, pleasant, and easy to do business with.

T-Mobile is terrible.

They're shady.

This has been my customer service experience with T-Mobile:

1. REP changed my Rate Plan when I called to downgrade the data plan on one line (3 lines on my account), triggering all of my contract dates to be reset to 2 years that day. He didn't tell me, ask me, nothing. Apparently I wanted 1k minutes for the same price even tho between all three lines we never used more than 100 minutes a month.

Called back and the rep told me, untruthfully, that I was notified and it was noted on the account.

BUT, if I wanted to contest it I could write to some obscure address in Houston, TX to contest it. After a flurry of profanities slamming the phone in her face (hanging up), I called back and finally got a manager on the line, and he fixed the issue.

2. Call to get a replacement phone. New phone arrives completely borked. Obviously broken. Probably was taken out of a return boxed and put in a ship box instantly to come to me. And yea, I was super pissed cause I had a flight in < 1 week and my primary SIM goes in that phone (switching SIMs in Android, WP7, etc. phones logs you out of all kinds of stuff, it's a PITA to deal with that).

3. Their My Account app is completely broken - on all platforms. It only gives you the number of minutes that one line used unless all lines have Admin Access to the account on the website. So, when I was moving and setting things up I apparently went over my minutes, by like 150, but the My Account app kept telling us we used 750 minutes (out of 1000). Apparently the app is broken.

Oh, and then they shut my phones off and tried to charge $25 per line to turn them back on the same day (why were they shut off to begin with, the bill wasn't even due). That didn't fly. I was ready to turn them off right then and there.

The only time the customer service reps have been "flawless" is when you want to buy something, and that's when they aren't quoting one price and charging you anotehr one (bought a Bold 9780 and returned it instantly because of that). Also had one rep tell me I had 21 days to return the phone, and then when I called to return it they told me they'd charge me something like $299 if it wasn't there in 14 days - it was a Business Account purchase for those wondering and there is generally a larger return window (and lower prices) for corporate customers - you purchase through a different division than normal consumers.

AT&T has always been flawless when I had them. I've even had reps from AT&T reach out to me on Facebook and follow-up call me about issues, do bill credits, etc. the whole 9 yards. Actually, Sprint is really good with Social Network support as well. T-Mobile is terrible there, as well.

The iPhone doens't have anything to do with AT&T's rising ratings, because 3 carriers now have it. SPrint has the iPhone now, and their rating is falling, so it's not because of that device.

However, it could be linked to AT&T's vast device and platform portfolio which at this point surpasses every other carrier (they carry all the newer high end WP7, Blackberry, Android [minus Nexus] devices in addition to the iPhone).

Verizon's ratings will likely remain high because people adore their coverage, their CDMA data speeds are slow, but they're manageable. The same cannot be said for Sprint.

 

[anon(5335877)]

T-Mobile is terrible.

They're shady.

This has been my customer service experience with T-Mobile:

1. REP changed my Rate Plan when I called to downgrade the data plan on one line (3 lines on my account), triggering all of my contract dates to be reset to 2 years that day. He didn't tell me, ask me, nothing. Apparently I wanted 1k minutes for the same price even tho between all three lines we never used more than 100 minutes a month.

Called back and the rep told me, untruthfully, that I was notified and it was noted on the account.

BUT, if I wanted to contest it I could write to some obscure address in Houston, TX to contest it. After a flurry of profanities slamming the phone in her face (hanging up), I called back and finally got a manager on the line, and he fixed the issue.

I've had something like that happen before. I don't know telling them to change your plan automatically authorizes them to also extend your contract.

And their contract resolution department or whatever it's called can only be reached by mail or e-mail. No phone number available. They seem pretty backed up too, they should reply within seven days, but it took them almost two weeks before they replied to my e-mail. Thankfully, they sided with me and terminated my contract, no ETF.