T-Mobile ranked first in Consumer Reports survey

[Shawn Knight]

T-Mobile may only be ranked third in terms of subscriber count but according to Consumer Reports’ fifth annual customer satisfaction survey, team magenta is the best option among the top four carriers in the US.

Consumer Reports asked its readers to rank their wireless carrier with regard to voice quality, text messaging service, data speeds, overall value, web-related issues and customer service. The results may surprise you.

T-Mobile earned a score of 73 out of a possible 100, narrowly edging out Verizon which finished with 70 points. John Legere and company scored favorably in the categories of customer service and value but didn’t do as well in terms of call and data quality.

AT&T came in third place with a score of 68 with Sprint bringing up the rear at 67. Interestingly enough, it’s the first time that Verizon wasn’t ranked #1 among the nation’s four major wireless providers.

As you can see, there isn’t a significant difference between first and last place. What may surprise you, however, is that each of the major providers was outscored by regional carriers and MVNOs including Consumer Cellular, Credo, Jitterbug, Ting, U.S. Cellular and Virgin Mobile.

Verizon spokesperson Chuck Hamby said his company has always maintained that the most accurate performance measurement comes from scientific-based testing, not from crowd-sourced or survey data.

While Hamby isn’t wrong, public perception certainly shouldn’t be ignored. After all, there are undoubtedly countless mobile service shoppers that ask around to friends and family before selecting a carrier - feedback that can certainly weigh heavily on their ultimately decision.

Image courtesy Nata-Lia, Shutterstock

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https://www.techspot.com/news/63025-t-mobile-ranked-first-consumer-reports-survey.html

 

[Evernessince]

It's pretty pathetic that the best cellular company only has a 73% satisfaction rate. In what world is it acceptable for an industry that deals with your vital and frivolous communications to only work for you 73% of the time?

 

[TrueBooleanFals]

It's pretty pathetic that the best cellular company only has a 73% satisfaction rate. In what world is it acceptable for an industry that deals with your vital and frivolous communications to only work for you 73% of the time?

It really depends on what metric they are talking about. Net Promoter Score (NPS) is based from -100 to 100, where anything over +50 is considered outstanding. Just because they spit out a 73/100 doesn't tell you the scoring system.

I get metrics on my job, they use NPS, but they use it wrong as well. I have to have a 98.7% satisfaction rate, however, one of ten NPS evaluation of 5 or less means I make 80% NPS - Not 90% like math says.

 

[CrisisDog]

I'm happy with them. Coverage could be better, but I don't feel taken advantage of with their data plans. Even if I go over limit, they may begin throttling, but doesn't charge extra. Always seems like AT&T do their best to nickel and dime you to death on overage charges.

 

[Evernessince]

It really depends on what metric they are talking about. Net Promoter Score (NPS) is based from -100 to 100, where anything over +50 is considered outstanding. Just because they spit out a 73/100 doesn't tell you the scoring system.

I get metrics on my job, they use NPS, but they use it wrong as well. I have to have a 98.7% satisfaction rate, however, one of ten NPS evaluation of 5 or less means I make 80% NPS - Not 90% like math says.

Could be a possibility. I've seen some pretty terrible systems in use.

 

[Branded]

We've been with them since the Spring of 2013... been generally happy. Their coverage where we live is excellent, and we don't suffer much performance loss when we do travel out of our primary area. Our only gripe is that they trashed my wife's G3 with the Lollipop update... and then gave her a refurb. We figured any of the cellular crooks would have done the same. I was ready to make legal claim to get a new phone, my wife just grumbled and moved on. We'll stay with them for a while longer (the competition is still far behind the value T-Mobile offers) but we won't be doing anymore updates...

 

[VernonDozier]

It's pretty pathetic that the best cellular company only has a 73% satisfaction rate. In what world is it acceptable for an industry that deals with your vital and frivolous communications to only work for you 73% of the time?

Well... Remember, this is just in the customer service interactions. It basically means that 73% of the time, you won't have to raise your voice to get the customer service rep to do something to the account. I imagine this is because T-Mobile doesn't charge extra for anything... and doesn't have overage charges or fees.

Basically, with flat-rate service, T-Mobile customers don't have any reason to call customer service. However and as far as coverage is concerned, well, that's another issue all together; leaves a lot to be desired.

 

[Cycloid Torus]

"What may surprise you, however, is that each of the major providers was outscored by regional carriers and MVNOs including Consumer Cellular, Credo, Jitterbug, Ting, U.S. Cellular and Virgin Mobile."

I would like to hear more about them.

An update to an article like this one (http://www.whistleout.com/CellPhones/Guides/which-network-is-behind-your-MVNO) would be really useful.

Also, information on what is happening at Google's Project Fi (sounds like a super-MVNO) would be really neat. (See https://fi.google.com/about/ ).

 

[RustyTech]

John Legere and company scored favorably in the categories of customer service and value but didn’t do as well in terms of call and data quality.

That doesn't surprise me, people are just sick and tired of lip service while knowing full well that it's a bunch of lies.

 

[MoeJoe]

It's pretty pathetic that the best cellular company only has a 73% satisfaction rate. In what world is it acceptable for an industry that deals with your vital and frivolous communications to only work for you 73% of the time?

Well... Remember, this is just in the customer service interactions. It basically means that 73% of the time, you won't have to raise your voice to get the customer service rep to do something to the account. I imagine this is because T-Mobile doesn't charge extra for anything... and doesn't have overage charges or fees.

Basically, with flat-rate service, T-Mobile customers don't have any reason to call customer service. However and as far as coverage is concerned, well, that's another issue all together; leaves a lot to be desired.

Coverage complaints are anecdotal at best.
All carriers have coverage issues.
Flawed argument and irrelevant.

Tmo F T W !

 

[MoeJoe]

Ting + Tmo = Win !

 

[psycros]

It's pretty pathetic that the best cellular company only has a 73% satisfaction rate. In what world is it acceptable for an industry that deals with your vital and frivolous communications to only work for you 73% of the time?

Well... Remember, this is just in the customer service interactions. It basically means that 73% of the time, you won't have to raise your voice to get the customer service rep to do something to the account. I imagine this is because T-Mobile doesn't charge extra for anything... and doesn't have overage charges or fees.

Basically, with flat-rate service, T-Mobile customers don't have any reason to call customer service. However and as far as coverage is concerned, well, that's another issue all together; leaves a lot to be desired.

Coverage complaints are anecdotal at best.
All carriers have coverage issues.
Flawed argument and irrelevant.

Tmo F T W !

Anecdotally (and factually), T-Mobile has no coverage outside of most cities with less than 250,000 inhabitants. They don't have coverage anywhere in my entire state. That's not a flawed argument - its just poor coverage. A darn shame, too, because I'd jump to them in a heartbeat.

 

[Evernessince]

I see plenty of surveys and reports but what I rarely see is proper explanation of the methods, metrics, and devices used in said publishing. I think in modern times, actually being accurate and correct has in many ways lost itself for the need to increase clicks.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

Well I think TMobile has been getting better... I've been with them for two years now from Verizon and I'm very happy. Coverage is everywhere I need it to be and speed has been good. Speed is better than Verizon when I was with them, and prices are better. So in my eyes this survey makes sense. I will still admit Verizon has more coverage, but that isn't always beneficial when speeds are terribly slow (as I recall being the case for quite a while before I left them).

 

[Camikazi]

It's pretty pathetic that the best cellular company only has a 73% satisfaction rate. In what world is it acceptable for an industry that deals with your vital and frivolous communications to only work for you 73% of the time?

Well... Remember, this is just in the customer service interactions. It basically means that 73% of the time, you won't have to raise your voice to get the customer service rep to do something to the account. I imagine this is because T-Mobile doesn't charge extra for anything... and doesn't have overage charges or fees.

Basically, with flat-rate service, T-Mobile customers don't have any reason to call customer service. However and as far as coverage is concerned, well, that's another issue all together; leaves a lot to be desired.

Coverage complaints are anecdotal at best.
All carriers have coverage issues.
Flawed argument and irrelevant.

Tmo F T W !

Anecdotally (and factually), T-Mobile has no coverage outside of most cities with less than 250,000 inhabitants. They don't have coverage anywhere in my entire state. That's not a flawed argument - its just poor coverage. A darn shame, too, because I'd jump to them in a heartbeat.

109 thousand in my city (one of the biggest in my state BTW) and excellent coverage wherever I go here and in adjacent (smaller) cities.