Sprint finishes dead last in Consumer Reports' latest cell phone service survey

Shawn Knight

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sprint consumer reports survey customer satisfaction

The nation’s third largest wireless provider has come in dead last in Consumer Reports’ latest cell phone service survey. According to the report, the company turned in “dismal marks” in 4G reliability, text messaging, value and voice service. A year ago, Sprint finished in second place behind Verizon Wireless.

Sprint is in the middle of a massive overhaul of their network which will ultimately provider better and faster service but in the interim, things are pretty rough. As a result, a number of customers have ditched the carrier over the past couple of years.

A representative for Sprint told CNET that while the Consumer Reports survey is disappointing, it isn’t necessarily surprising. During the past year, Sprint has asked customers to “pardon their dust” so to speak as they build out and upgrade their network.

Part of that new effort is an enhanced LTE network dubbed Sprint Spark. It’s already available in select areas and according to the company, customer satisfaction has improved accordingly among those with access to it.

Elsewhere, Verizon once again topped the charts as the highest-rated carrier while rivals AT&T and T-Mobile received “ho-hum” results. One thing to note, however, is that AT&T was the only carrier of the bunch to earn the top rating for 4G reliability.

The report also found that many consumers are paying for more data than they actually use. A full 38 percent of those surveyed used half or less than half of their monthly allotment of data. This of course isn’t applicable to Sprint and T-Mobile as they continue to offer unlimited data plans.

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I've been a Sprint customer now for about 5 years. I remember when the Evo 4G came out, I bought into it on the promise that "4G is coming," and here I am years later, in a somewhat decent market, where AT&T and Verizon have excellent 4G coverage, and I'm stuck on 3G. Needless to say, as soon as my contract gets close enough that the ETF is doable, I'm popping hatch and switching, never to look back.
 
I have been with Sprint since my employer gave me an iPhone 4S back in October 2011. Voice and SMS are fine but data is a joke. I guess the joke is on my employer paying what they do for data that I never use (I leave the cellular data service turned off). Recently I wanted to fully unlock my 4S and Sprint says the won't/can't/'whatever. Then they say I should pay a third-party to service to fully unlock it. Honestly I am tired of Sprint and am seriously considering switching myself to T-Mobile if my employer continues to insist Sprint is the best.
 
Hi,

I know Sprint had some challenges this summer when closing down the Nextel network and upgrading all of their towers. Be patient. I called in with complaints and the customer service was very apologetic, but the upgraded network is everything promised. It works great - even in areas where coverage was poor before. Maybe it is not Verizon, in rural areas, but overall coverage is great and customer service is second to none. If you have left sprint in the past several years - now might be the time to reconsider.
 
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