Every year or so J.D. Power and Associates gives out customer care awards to wireless carriers based on telephone calls, in-store visits, and online experiences. In the past, T-Mobile has reigned supreme in this department (except for August 2008, when Verizon snagged the title).
This year, however, the customer care award ended in a three-way tie, with Alltel (recently acquired by Verizon Wireless), T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless all grabbing the top spot, each with a score of 747. The highlights are as follows: Alltel did well with store visits and automated response systems; T-Mobile was great at transferring customers from an automated response to a live representative (even though it does charge $18 upgrade fees); and Verizon was particularly good at identifying problems quickly and handing them off to a representative.
What do you, dear readers, think of this? Do you agree that these carriers offer excellent customer service? Let us know in the comments.
Every so often (we can't discern a regular pattern), J.D. Power and Associates hands out awards to wireless carriers. Though we don't doubt that J.D. Power's methodology is thorough and careful, we do have a hard time keeping track of them all. There are awards for customer care, call quality, retail sales satisfaction, and overall customer satisfaction. And within each award, there can be multiple categories and individual winners in each region of the country.
This time around, T-Mobile has taken the customer care prize with an index score of 755 points on a 1,000-point scale. Verizon Wireless trailed just behind with 749 points and Alltel, which is merging with Verizon, garnered 744 points. AT&T came in fourth place with poor Sprint Nextel bringing up the rear.
T-Mobile has had a good record in the customer care category with several wins over the past few years. Last August, Verizon Wireless edged out T-Mobile for the first time, which perhaps gave T-Mobile the motivation it needed to try just a little harder. In any case, its efforts paid off.
What do you think? Does T-Mobile deserve its award?
Verizon Wireless has earned top marks in another customer satisfaction survey from J.D. Power and Associates. Less than a month after it won the No. 1 ranking in customer service, the nation's second largest carrier won the most accolades in call quality.
Out of the six U.S. regions surveyed, Verizon held the No. 1 spot in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and West regions and tied with Sprint in the Southwest region. To win the top ranking, Verizon Wireless had to have fewer problems with dropped calls, initial connections, static and interference, and voice distortion. Meanwhile, Alltel had the best quality in the Southeast region and it tied with U.S. Cellular in the North Central region. AT&T and T-Mobile did not win call quality honors in any of the regions.
It has been a good second half of the year for Verizon Wireless. Though the carrier has long won call quality studies, it surged past T-Mobile last month to get the best reviews in a customer service satisfaction study. T-Mobile had won that prize for five consecutive years, but it still holds the title in retail sales satisfaction.
So what do you think? Does Verizon Wireless deserve the top marks?
In a time when CNET's two top-rated HDTVs of the year are Panasonic's TH-50PZ800U and Pioneer's PDP-5020FD, we have to wonder why a salesperson would recommend flat-panel LCD HDTVs at the rate that J.D. Power and Associates claims in a recent report.
Pioneer's Kuro PDP-5020FD, one of our top plasma HDTVs
(Credit: CNET Networks)The report, which surveyed more than 2,000 shoppers on their experience in big-box electronic retailers, a specialty television retailer, a mass merchant, and a warehouse store, found that retail salespeople recommended LCDs over plasmas at a three-to-one rate.
Sure, plasmas have a long list of supposed failings: they're allegedly bulky and power hungry, and have image burn-in issues and leaks, and a short lifespan. However, most of these problems--image burn-in being the most common with early plasma sets--have been resolved on modern plasma displays.
According to the report, however, "37 percent of salespersons warned their customers that images may be permanently burned onto the screen of plasma TVs." The lifespan argument doesn't hold up either, as both LCD and plasma lifespan claims are basically the same now at 60,000 hours each. And, with LCDs still costing more at equivalent screen sizes, it's certainly convenient for retailers to promote the LCD technology over its less expensive rival.... Read more
OK, now it really is getting boring. T-Mobile announced today that it won yet another title from J.D. Power and Associates. This time the carrier took top honors in a survey of wireless retail sales satisfaction by hitting top marks in the four considered categories: sales staff, store display, store facility, and price/promotion. But T-Mobile wasn't alone at the top. trailed by two points to take second place while Verizon Wireless came in third. was rated as average and Sprint Nextel came in last with a below average rating in all four categories.
This is not the first time T-Mobile has won accolades from J.D. Power. Earlier this year the carrier held the number one ranking in a customer service satisfaction survey. That's the seventh consecutive time T-Mobile won that prize. As I've said before, T-Mobile must be doing something right.
So what's your story with T-Mobile? Is the carrier as hot as J.D. Power thinks? I welcome your comments and experiences. You get bonus points if you're T-Mobile's 30 millionth customer. The carrier announced it had reached that milestone yesterday. And considering T-Mobile launched its 3G network on Monday, it's been a big week. Congratulations to T-Mobile.
Actually, T-Mobile does several things right. Yet again, America's fourth-largest wireless carrier was ranked No. 1 by J.D. Power and Associates for its customer service. For the fifth consecutive reporting period (I'm not exactly sure what constitutes a "reporting period"), T-Mobile gets the highest rating for positive customer care experiences. It also gets the highest retail sales satisfaction for the fifth consecutive period and the highest business customer service satisfaction for the second period. As for the other carriers: Verizon Wireless places second, AT&T and Alltel tie for third, and Sprint Nextel places last.
With T-Mobile constantly taking the title, I admit this contest is beginning to get a little boring. However, I commend T-Mobile for taking the prize. I'm interested if T-Mobile customers agree. So please leave your comments below and tell me what you think.
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