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Survey: Cell phone customers can't get no satisfaction
SiliconValley.com ^ | 9/8/05 | Jessie Seyfer

Posted on 09/08/2005 11:35:11 PM PDT by Crackingham

Customer satisfaction among wireless phone users declined 10 percent over last year, and recent mergers in the industry may be the reason, according to a survey released Wednesday.

California-based J.D. Power and Associates polled 24,096 customers nationwide and found that from 2004 to 2005, satisfaction took the largest dive in the annual survey's 10-year history. J.D. Power pointed to two recent mergers -- AT&T Wireless and Cingular last year and Sprint and Nextel last month -- as sources of customer irritation.

``Given the number of major changes consumers have experienced over the past couple of years, the gap between customer expectations and actual service experience tends to widen,'' said Kirk Parsons, J.D. Power's director of wireless services.

Customer desire to switch carriers increased 5 percent over the last year, and even wireless carriers that weren't involved in mergers were probably affected by uncertainty in the industry, according to the study. Over the preceding two years, customer desire to switch held steady.

The Utility Reform Network, a consumer advocacy group based in San Francisco, received a wave of complaints after the AT&T Wireless-Cingular merger, said spokeswoman Mindy Spatt.

``There was a huge issue,'' she said. ``A lot of customers couldn't switch to Cingular with their phones and were told they had to pay termination charges or buy new phones.''

In computing overall satisfaction, the survey measured six factors: call performance and reliability; customer service; service-plan options; brand image; cost of service; and billing. The leading carriers were then ranked for six regions across the country.

In the West, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless tied for the top satisfaction ratings, and were considered ``among the best'' for most categories compared with Cingular, Qwest and Sprint. Sprint came in next highest, with more average ratings. Cingular and Nextel fared slightly worse with ratings mixed between low and average. Qwest, which does not serve residential California customers, received the lowest ratings.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cellphones; mobilephones; wireless
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1 posted on 09/08/2005 11:35:11 PM PDT by Crackingham
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To: Crackingham

T-Mobile is bugging me. Recently switched to them from Cingular, and I can't get a signal indoors to save my life. At least Cingular got me 1 or 2 bars...


2 posted on 09/08/2005 11:38:26 PM PDT by Terpfen (http://www.pattonhq.com/unknowntext.html)
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To: Crackingham
Eh. Sprint/Nextel hasn't been too bad, IMHO.


3 posted on 09/08/2005 11:38:26 PM PDT by martin_fierro (_____oooo_( ° ¿ ° )_oooo_____)
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To: Crackingham

Nextel Blackberry blows. It's a piece of crap. Drops calls, won't place calls. Worst mobile phone I've ever dealt with. It's a fact.


4 posted on 09/08/2005 11:40:36 PM PDT by daguberment (The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish....)
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To: Terpfen

Ugh, I'm with you. I can't wait to get rid of T-Mobile in Dec when my contract is up. I cannot use my phone in the house AT ALL and it drops calls left and right. I was actually thinking of going with Cingular next. lol


5 posted on 09/08/2005 11:45:31 PM PDT by misty4jc
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To: daguberment
Nextel Blackberry blows. It's a piece of crap. Drops calls, won't place calls. Worst mobile phone I've ever dealt with. It's a fact.

You and my boss appear to have identical experiences with the Nextel Blackberry. Makes me glad I didn't hop on that bandwagon.

6 posted on 09/08/2005 11:46:24 PM PDT by Prime Choice (E=mc^3. Don't drink and derive.)
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To: Crackingham
As a first generation Palm Pilot user, I'm dying for one of those "unlocked" Treo 650's, but they cost almost as much as their model number.

Plus, what's up with these tiny little sreens on all the new phones?

For those of us that have to wear reading glasses, all the new tiny little phones suck.

I think there's a hugh market for larger screen phones.

7 posted on 09/08/2005 11:47:15 PM PDT by benjaminjjones
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To: benjaminjjones

sreens = screens


8 posted on 09/08/2005 11:52:01 PM PDT by benjaminjjones
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To: daguberment

My father got a trio. Swears it's the best phone he's ever had. I hear rave reviews about them. As for service I really like cingular. I have service almost everywhere and almost never lose a call.


9 posted on 09/08/2005 11:52:23 PM PDT by volchef (The only time to eat diet food is while you're waiting for the steak to cook-Julia child)
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To: Crackingham
This would make a good "Freeper Question":

Which carrier, on a national level, delivers the most??

10 posted on 09/08/2005 11:55:59 PM PDT by JoeSixPack1
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To: benjaminjjones

Mrs. F. has one of the 650s and likes it pretty well.

We've used Handsprings (Palm OS) since their inception and gradually migrated over to the Treo phones.

But the 650 (unlike my 600, above) does away with at least one standard calendaring feature that's been around in the Palm OS since the beginning -- the "floating appointment" feature.

To get it, you have to buy another application that adds it to the calendar app. Go figure.

There are a couple of other minor quirks with the 650 that I've heard her grouse about. But other than those, that thing'll do everything except whistle Dixie (and it can do that with the right MIDI tone).


11 posted on 09/09/2005 12:17:44 AM PDT by martin_fierro (_____oooo_( ° ¿ ° )_oooo_____)
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To: Crackingham

This article is hilarious!!!

Phone customers are all up in arms because their company merged, yeah right!

Read the first few comments on this thread and you will know all you need to know about why customers hate their cell phone carriers.


12 posted on 09/09/2005 12:21:25 AM PDT by Straight Vermonter (John 6: 51-58)
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To: Crackingham
I've got relatives that are Nextel customers, and their Nextel phones don't work at all up here. They were going to go with Verizon because Verizon also has the "walkie-talkie" feature that Nextel has, but the Verizon customer rep recommended Nextel.

Beyond that, Nextel uses a proprietary system, which is why it's coverage area is far and few between, as opposed to the other services, which uses the more standardized carriage system.

My folks have Verizon and have been able to make calls on AT&T towers.

13 posted on 09/09/2005 12:27:39 AM PDT by BigSkyFreeper (Liberalism is a form of insanity)
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To: martin_fierro
I just wish the Treo 650 had a bigger screen. I have to find and put on my reading glasses to read the dang thing.

For the price of the thing, I could have at least one eyeball get that new short sightness fix done, but why risk messing with my eyesight? I've got great distance vision, 17-20, and I like that.

Just build me a bigger G-Damn screen!

I'm also curious about the "unlocked" Treo thing I've seen on eBay. As I understand it, each wireless provider locks your device into their network, yet eBay vendors claim to sell unlocked versions which will work with any cellular network if you decide to switch wireless vendors.

The history: I migrated to Handspring after I maxed out my early edition Palm and had bought all the extra memory that would fit. That, and after taking it apart countless time to fix it from drops, lint on the undersurface, etc, the screen got a little wobbly.

Just like typing, I got pretty good at PalmScript, or whatever the heck they call it.

I switched to the Handspring next as a replacement. It was too cool, because of that add-on slot they had. All those cool things like cellular, GPS, and memory.

Ya know what?. I never bought a single thing for that add-on slot!

Still, my Handspring was a good investment and served me well. I used it to log onsite client hours for billable hours and Tech notes, as well as countless other things.

It was a my "offsite" memory, reminding me of family birthdays and such, freeing a little brain space from remembering stuff.

I'm not sure if that was a good thing. It's like when calculators came out, I stopped doing numbers in my head.

It got busted up when I got bashed, but I still had my "Palm Desktop" on the PC and Laptop so I didn't lose any data. I still miss the "brain" on my hip however.

14 posted on 09/09/2005 1:17:37 AM PDT by benjaminjjones
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To: misty4jc
You should always check any phone service you get in your house , before you buy it. ALL services have dead spots.

T-Mobile has been the very best service for me, with the best reception, and I had gone through almost all of the others before settling on T-Mobile.
15 posted on 09/09/2005 1:21:45 AM PDT by sd-joe
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To: misty4jc

I wish I had talked to you before I went with T-Mobile. Ugh.


16 posted on 09/09/2005 1:44:02 AM PDT by Terpfen (http://www.pattonhq.com/unknowntext.html)
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To: volchef

Just goes to show that YMMV....I currently have cingular and my phone drops calls constantly and places that I had service a year ago no longer have signal. I plan on changing as soon as my contract is up in November.


17 posted on 09/09/2005 1:48:17 AM PDT by I Luv Bush
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To: benjaminjjones

Two more of us here will back you up on that one.


18 posted on 09/09/2005 2:31:33 AM PDT by Spirited
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To: Crackingham

I'm perfectly satisfied with my cell phone. It's been resting conmfortably in the closet for the past 10 years and I haven't missed it at all. I use the money I'm saving to pay my income taxes.


19 posted on 09/09/2005 2:53:28 AM PDT by ravinson
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To: ravinson
It's been resting conmfortably in the closet for the past 10 years

You should be able to upgrade by now.

20 posted on 09/09/2005 2:56:33 AM PDT by Larry Lucido
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