Verizon tops T-Mobile in J.D. Power customer care survey

T-Mobile may have once been able to bank on J.D. Power's customer care survey to bolster its bag of bragging rights, but it looks like that's no longer the case, as Verizon has now finally edged it out, following a similar shift in J.D. Power's retail sales satisfaction survey last year. Not only that, T-Mobile actually fell to third place, behind Verizon's merger-mate Alltel. There isn't much of a spread between the top-ranked companies, however, with Verizon snagging a score of 103, Alltel scoring 102, and T-Mobile garnering a respectable 100. Only Sprint Nextel, which got a lowly 79, scored below the industry average. Among the other tidbits to be found in the survey, which included more than 11,000 respondents, is the fact that customers spent an average of 4.4 minutes on hold with customer service, a jump of 34% from the previous survey, while 49% of all wireless customers said they called in for help at least once, a minor uptick from the 47% reported last time around. That, J.D. Power says, is at least partly due to the "increasingly complex" wireless phones and services available nowadays.

[Isaac @ Aug 14th 2008 4:52PM]

JD Power & Associates are awards you can buy. It seems every product has at least one award form them.

[Bob @ Aug 14th 2008 4:57PM]

That's been my impression too, though I'll admit I've never really done any homework on the matter.

[nerdtalker @ Aug 14th 2008 4:59PM]

Surprising that Sprint didn't fare better considering how much better their customer service has gotten in the past 4 months or so. That, and the popularity of the simply everything and Inspire (although... yeah let's not go there).

I can't complain, getting grandfathered into the old SERO plans that is.

[kjb434 @ Aug 14th 2008 5:16PM]

I get that feeling too. It seems like every large consumer related company has one of these. At one time it seem like all car companies had one at the same time.

Hell, I'm sure i have one for "most prolific commenter on several blogs in an hour category"!

[Hold McGroin @ Aug 14th 2008 5:17PM]

You might be able to buy them, but Verizon's popularity should be a strong indication that American's are just brain dead. Crappy, locked phones, high prices with no benefit, just terrible.

No, I don't care that it works for you, you're overpaying, period. There are so few people that only have VZW service as a choice I just don't care to hear anyone's sob story. Defend them if you want (why?) VZW is the worst value in wireless even with a discounted service through a job.

[Goatee Man @ Aug 14th 2008 6:21PM]

@Hold

"American's [sic] are [...] brain dead"

... Says the guy with the name "Hold McGroin".

And if you think we're so stupid, you can go ahead and give us back that whole "telephone" thing we gave to you lot in the first place, okay?

[R Herrera @ Aug 14th 2008 7:53PM]

Has anyone noticed how Engadget hasn't picked up the Andriod news regarding the Sept 17 launch? Of course, if it was Apple related news, they would be all over it.. I'm disgusted.

[Sean @ Aug 14th 2008 4:56PM]

They didn't survey me...

[Tony @ Aug 14th 2008 5:07PM]

...and why would they?

[nerdtalker @ Aug 14th 2008 4:58PM]

You failed it, hard.

[Matt O @ Aug 14th 2008 5:01PM]

It cant be too hard to have a streamlined customer service system when everyone of your phones use the same os.... except for the windows mobile phones they carry that is.

[Tubes @ Aug 14th 2008 5:14PM]

I'm still trying to figure out why I switched to AT&T. Not only does their customer service suck compared to my old carrier, but they have had more network issues in the last 3 months than I've ever had with a cell provider. Heck, two days this week, their network was down for hours in some parts of LA: MY part of LA! A call to support yesterday and they said the outage will last 250-something odd minutes.

Ugh.

If this keeps up, then I can't imagine I'll be on their plan for a full year.

[CraigJ @ Aug 14th 2008 5:23PM]

JD Power sells to the highest bidder.

It's all marketing. Anyone that makes purchasing decisions based on these "awards" isn't too bright.

[kjb434 @ Aug 14th 2008 5:25PM]

The trick to ATT customer service is to research on their forums online first. Rarely you ever have a problem that no one else has had.

If you read a couple of threads you'll find out the quickest way to get through the customer support and solve your problem.

Did you know that all ATT phones come with a full replacement warranty that you don't have to pay for. The phone has to be older than 30 day but not past 1 year after you bought it. If it is younger than 30 day you get a no questions asked replacement. The trick is that the damage or problem cannot be cause by you....

I didn't know any of this until my Tilt's screen went all white on my. I could barely make out words. The phone still completely worked, just the screen wasn't visible. After doing some reading (about 30min) online, I went take care of the phone. In the end it took me about 2 hours to replace the phone. If I lived in a more remote location, they would have just overnighted me a new one and I send the old one back in at there expense.

In the Houston area I've only had an outage twice, it was due to the high volume of calls because a potential hurricane was coming, so it wasn't much their fault. All services were dealing with this.

In the end, the best way to deal with all customer service reps is to do you homework. Don't assume they will help you, have all your information and don't go nuts when talking to them.

[oakie @ Aug 14th 2008 5:43PM]

uh, all the providers do this. it's called a "1 year manufacturer's warranty" that comes with most new phones. the same way you take your broken but under warranty TV to where you bought it, you do the same with your broken phone if it's still under warranty. sounds more like customer ignorance in your regard.

as for Verizon being tops in customer service, i'll still never forget the prerecorded message they kept trying to call me with for 3 days straight to "personally thank me for joining the Verizon family". IMO, they'd have been better off not calling me at all rather than do something so impersonal that it was insulting... especially redialing me 8 times over 3 days because i wouldnt listen to the whole message. i ended up canceling and going back to T-Mobile since the reception in my area ended up no better on Verizon yet i was about to pay 30% more per month for only a fraction of the minute and messaging bucket i had with TMO.

[oakie @ Aug 14th 2008 5:46PM]

uh, all the providers do this. it's called a "1 year manufacturer's warranty" that comes with most new phones. the same way you take your broken but under warranty TV to where you bought it, you do the same with your broken phone if it's still under warranty. sounds more like customer ignorance in your regard.

as for Verizon being tops in customer service, i'll still never forget the prerecorded message they kept trying to call me with for 3 days straight to "personally thank me for joining the Verizon family". IMO, they'd have been better off not calling me at all rather than do something so impersonal that it was insulting... especially redialing me 8 times over 3 days because i wouldnt listen to the whole message. i ended up canceling and going back to T-Mobile since the reception in my area ended up no better on Verizon yet i was about to pay 30% more per month for only a fraction of the minute and messaging bucket i had with TMO.

[foolthrottle @ Aug 14th 2008 5:27PM]

yeah - JD Power is a crock. Everyone is number 1 in something.

Verizon may have shorter hold times, but they have crappy phone selections, they cripple the features of the phones, charge you for every little thing, and yeah, they're just Evil.

[James @ Aug 14th 2008 6:51PM]

to fail...

[Wayne @ Aug 14th 2008 6:25PM]

Engadget is mixed up on J.D. Power's surveys for wireless companies. This is the third time they've made a comparison between two different surveys. At least keep it apples to apples.

There are many different wireless carrier surveys. See J.D. Power's page for info:
http://www.jdpower.com/telecom

I'm tired of posting these corrections.

[Branden @ Aug 14th 2008 7:50PM]

I'm so tired of hearing J.D. Power Gives it's awards for the highest bidder. I work here and it's all based on surveys that come from the consumers. The only thing J.D. Power does is sell their name and the rights to advertise if you won. So many companies rate best and pass on spending any money on saying that they won.

[chai guy @ Aug 14th 2008 7:52PM]

"but it looks like that's definitely no longer the case"

yep, looks like - definitely. uh-huh.

[HunterXI @ Aug 14th 2008 7:53PM]

As far as I'm concerned, T-mo should be dead fucking last. They're so incredibly aggravating, especially with regard to international travel. You ask them any question (such as, "do calls from abroad cost their local rates or the 99¢ you quote?"), and 4 time out of 5, they're dead wrong or lying through their teeth. You ask them to do something for you (like disabling your voicemail so you don't get hit with $8/min voice messages), and 4 times out of 5 they just don't do it. The only thing that saves me from their idiocy/deviousness is the FCC.

[mingkee @ Aug 14th 2008 8:32PM]

T-Mobile had tons of works and issues recently
espcially focus on massive 3G rollout, that gives CS more stress
once massive 3G rollout settled, they'll focus back on CS

[Jon Doe. @ Aug 14th 2008 9:08PM]

Hence the reason I will not go with anyone other then T Mobile when I get off my company phone later this year.

[Jon Doe. @ Aug 14th 2008 9:11PM]

Sorry I meant Verizon. I was eyeballing T Mobile. But Verizon has somehow slipped back up into #1 slot.
My only complain with then right now is price for all you can eat internet.

[Alex @ Aug 14th 2008 10:40PM]

Sample call to Sprint customer service. Attempt number 1: "Due to high call volume we cannot accept your call at this time." Attempt number 2: computer automated prompt: please enter your telephone number so we can better serve you. -roughly 15-17 minutes holding time- "HI! this is customer service agent can you give me your phone number" (didn't I just type it in for faster service?). "Okay whats your problem?, how can I help?...Okay you are in the wrong department let me put you on hold I'll get someone that can help you"... "Hi whats your phone number?... how may I help you? okay you are in the wrong department let me get you someone that can help... " Result of 30 minutes with Sprint customer service: No solution, headache, anger, and most likely loss of money via robbery from a Sprint billing error.

[AlphaTeam @ Aug 14th 2008 10:55PM]

It's worse when they transfer you and you find out your got transferred to the same department!

[thewalrusking @ Aug 15th 2008 1:22AM]

The funny thing is we have like 0.7% churn, meaning people who have service and then leave, compared to ATTs at like 1.6% and Tmobile and sprint at like 2.2% I mean those seem like low numbers but thats millions of people. Sprint NEEDS to cut prices, and guess what 1.5 million people left last quarter alone, Verizon gained that many. And when Allcell or what ever its called rolls into the company theyll have like 10 million more customers than ATT, like 87 million. Im sorry but 1/3 of Americans with one company is not bad

I work for Verizon obviously, but on a day to day buisness my local store had 16 port ins, 12 were from sprint 2 were from Tmobile and Att, Sprint is sinking whether their prices show it or not. Also the 3g network of verizon has 10s of millions people more coverage than ATT.

Now the IPhone that is a sweet phone I wont lie, I hate verizons lock down on phones. I mean that new HTC will be amzing, but they cut the proc, accelerometer, and a bunch of things on our version compared to Sprints WHY I have no Idea I hate it as much or more than you guys.

[irfan @ Aug 15th 2008 12:21AM]

tmobile is awful as well. we had them a few years ago and when i asked for a replacemtn phone for the 4th time, the CSR walked me through the trouble shooting for the 4th time and tried to tell me my SIM card was at fault, even though I just got done explaining to him that it worked perfectly fine on all other phones i tried. the fact that i told him his theory was flawed angered him. i mentioned how their customer service was pretty poor that day.. his response with a chuckle was along the lines of "well actually JD Power & Assc rated us #1! (this is in 2002)".

im surprised sprint even got a 79... considering the 'manager' (since i got transferred 3 times trying to port a number).. told me that i needed to cancel my month-to-month AT&T contract so they would release the number to sprint.. and i had to explain to him that i couldnt do that because I could lose the number forever then. took sprint 3 weeks to finish the port so i still got charged by AT&T for 3 weeks!

[John Mason @ Aug 15th 2008 10:31AM]

ATT's score was 97. I did not see it anywhere so I looked it up.