Our love-hate relationship with cell phones

Herb Weisbaum • Profile • E-mail

We love our cell phones. Most of us couldn’t imagine getting through the day without them. But many of the 250 million subscribers in this country are less than thrilled with their wireless phone company.

In the last three years, more people complained to the Better Business Bureau about cell phone companies than any other industry — and the bureau tracks more than 3,800 industries!

Unhappy customers are annoyed by dropped calls, static, and poor coverage. They’re frustrated with billing errors that often seem impossible to resolve and customer service representatives who can’t help or don’t seem to care.

Consumer Reports says cell service is one of the lower-rated services it surveys. It’s been that way for the past six years.

For its annual report on cell phone service, published in the January 2008 issue, the magazine surveyed 47,000 readers. Fewer than half of the respondents were completely or very satisfied.  Based on this feedback, the editors conclude that cell phone service “seems to stubbornly resist improvement.”

As you might imagine, the wireless industry hears things differently. Joe Ferran, a spokesman for CTIA — The Wireless Association, says you’d get more favorable results if you surveyed the general public and not readers of a specific publication.

Best by region How the carriers stack up according to J.D. Power and Associates 2007 survey. Northeast Region: T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless rank highest in a tie. T-Mobile performs particularly well in service plan options, customer service, cost of service and billing, while Verizon Wireless performs well in brand image and call quality. Mid-Atlantic Region: Verizon Wireless ranks highest overall, performing well in call quality, service plan options and brand image. Southeast Region: Alltel and T-Mobile rank highest in a tie. Alltel performs well in service plan options and billing, while T-Mobile performs particularly well in cost of service, brand image and customer service factors. North Central Region: T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular and Verizon Wireless tie to rank highest in customer satisfaction. T-Mobile performs particularly well in cost of service and billing, while U.S. Cellular performs well in customer service and Verizon Wireless performs particularly well in brand image and call quality. Southwest Region: T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless rank highest in a tie. T-Mobile performs particularly well in cost of service and billing, while Verizon Wireless performs well in call quality and brand image. West Region: T-Mobile ranks highest, performing particularly well in billing, service plan options, customer service and cost of service.

I’m not so sure. Consumer Reports is not alone in citing widespread customer dissatisfaction. J.D. Power and Associates finds the same thing. “Wireless services tend to rate much lower than other industries, such as auto, finance, and health care, says Kirk Parsons, Power’s senior director of wireless services. “Typically, they’re in the bottom third of the overall rankings.”

CTIA’s Joe Farren says customer service is something carriers are always trying to improve. “In a competitive marketplace that has to be fixed or you’re going to have a problem,” he says. The question is, how long will it take the industry to fix its customer service problems?

But wait, there is some good news!
Wireless companies have spent billions of dollars the last few years to upgrade their networks. That investment is starting to pay off – fewer dead spots, fewer dropped calls, and less static.

“We do see improvement,” says J.D. Power’s Kirk Parsons. “It’s going in the right direction, but we still have a long way to go.”

The industry is also becoming more customer-friendly. The big companies just started to prorate their $150 to $200 early-termination fees. These steep penalties have kept many unhappy customers from switching to a competitor.

The major carriers have also announced they will stop forcing customers to extend their contract for two years just because they make a change to their service plan. These mandatory contract extensions were one of the top two complaints in the Consumer Reports survey, tied with the high cost of cell service.

And more change is on the way. Last month, Verizon Wireless promised to allow “open-access” to its network by the end of 2008. This means customers will not be forced to buy their phones from Verizon. They’ll be able to use any phone that is compatible with the Verizon Wireless network. AT&T already offers a wide open network. Sprint Nextel will launch one next year.

Why is the industry removing these strong arm tactics? Consumer Reports says they were pressured into doing it by a constant stream of lawsuits filed by consumer groups and state governments.

The Wireless Association says the industry is not reacting to lawsuits; it’s listening to the marketplace. “The customer is making his or her demands very clear and the carriers are responding,” says spokesman Joe Farren.

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