Cable and Internet service providers offer the worst customer service

[Shawn Knight]

Cable television providers and Internet service providers are among the worst around with regard to customer service. A recent poll of 235 companies across 19 different industries found cable television providers ranked dead last followed closely by ISPs according to research firm Temkin Group.

The firm asked participants to rank the satisfaction of their experience with various companies on a scale of 1 (very dissatisfied) to 7 (completely very satisfied). From there, Temkin did the math and ranked each company with a net satisfaction score as a percentage.

Television service provider Charter Communications ranked dead last at 22 percent followed by Time Warner Cable at 25 percent, Cox Communications at 28 percent and Comcast and Verizon at 30 percent each. As for Internet service, Qwest, Verizon and Charter Communications finished at 31 percent while Comcast ranked nearly as low at 32 percent.

On the opposite end of the scale, banks, fast food chains and grocery chains all scored favorably among consumers. At the top of the list was USAA as an insurance carrier and a bank with a score of 76 percent and 75 percent, respectively. Fast food chains Chick-fil-A and Sonic Drive-In finished at 70 and 69 percent while grocery chains Hy-Vee, Trader Joe’s, Publix, H.E.B. and Aldi all ranked 67 percent or better.

Data for the study was collected from a third-party online survey of 10,000 participants during January 2013. Survey takers were asked to identify and rate companies they had used within the past 60 days.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/53715-cable-and-internet-service-providers-offer-the-worst-customer-service.html

 

[tipstir]

CATV and this Internet Service only are nice when your a new customer. Once your in the system for more than a year your don't have much say in how they can charge you so much for a poor service.

Equipment failure rate on non-newer DVR all they do is fix it and re-wrap it as new one for you to use and then find out it fails again and again. If you really want a new one you have to go down to the local CATV office and wait in very long line for hours just to get new box where you need to carry the defective one back along with the power cord and remote control. If you don't you will be charged more money for a box you have to rent per month.

Internet service from dial-up, dsl, cell, cable and fios is not cheap can get very expensive. Faster speeds always rack-up more cost.

So CATV you can ditch if you have a good HDTV Over-the-Air Free Service. A lot of customers are ditching CATV service for this. I did it last year and it wasn't easy to get off the CATV bandwagon, they don't want you to leave.

Now that I don't have CATV nor their Digital Phone (line-land) they charge me more for Internet service. If I say well I going with AT&T they offer less service but it doesn't cost so much. Internet service from CATV will say hey we don't want to loose you we'll take off $20 a month for 6 months. This is to keep you with them even longer.

As for Supermarkets not all are so nice, their prices are high, they don't have everything you want you have to run around. Walmart SuperCenter and Super Target have better offerings than your regular Super Market Chain.

Here Publix rules they can tell cities who can be near them, so that was the case with Albertsons and WinnDixie they get pushed out for Publix. So now all you see is Publix Super Markets. But good that Super Target and Walmart Supercenter now have their own Supermarket sections. Their prices are lower they offer food products that are not available at Publix.

Publix does make some nice expensive Apple, Apple Dutch Pies. The also carry Organic Greenwise Ice Cream only to flavors though cost you around $4.99 1.5 Gal.

As for Sonic Drive-In is the worst now because they don't serve you with a tray they say they get taken so they bag the food and drop it into your vehicle, plus want you to tip them. Since they have to rollerskate to your vehicle and bring your food. The food is not so great either. The only thing on the menu is the after 8pm Sonic Shake for larger it only cost $2.88.

 

[NTAPRO]

They are also nice when you threaten to switch services xD

 

[Tanstar]

The only problem I've had with Comcast is that if you actually need a service tech to come to your house to fix a problem you can have wait times upwards of a week and a half. I've had no trouble bringing defective equipment into the local Comcast office to switch out a bad modem or a glitchy cable card.

 

[psycros]

If you're a cable provider and you force your reps to upsell customers calling in with problems, you're doing it wrong.

 

[tipstir]

The only problem I've had with Comcast is that if you actually need a service tech to come to your house to fix a problem you can have wait times upwards of a week and a half. I've had no trouble bringing defective equipment into the local Comcast office to switch out a bad modem or a glitchy cable card.

They charge now if the tech has to come out too switch boxes like $50 here. That's why my local Comcast Office which looks like a huge department store is crowded always. They have number system that displays your name. When your name flashes you go to the counter number 5 an etc.

Tech will come out in 2 days or less if you pay for him to come out. I use to have the service included but it was costing me money. I just folded in and gave them back their DVR boxes. I had purchased my modem so I don't rent it through thus saving on rent.

 

[p51d007]

I haven't had too bad of luck with my provider, but, I have a direct access site that I can message a tech directly. It's so much easier than calling the phone number, or using the online "live chat" (with someone who's knowledge is limited to did you unplug it?).
One of the biggest reasons I think the telcom & cable guys don't give a rat about customer service, is most cable providers are a "one shot pony" in most cities. When you have a monopoly, what can a customer do? You have option A: Cable, or option B: telco. No real competition...

 

[cliffordcooley]

Bad customers make for bad customer service experience. I don't blame the customer service rep, I blame the people they have to deal with everyday. Anyone that has worked in retail, knows what I am saying.

 

[Railman]

Nice to know that things Stateside are worse than Europe. There seems to be a reasonable level of competition with Internet and mobile phone providers in the UK. We also have some excellent supermarket chains selling up market goods.

 

[Railman]

Bad customers make for bad customer service experience. I don't blame the customer service rep, I blame the people they have to deal with everyday. Anyone that has worked in retail, knows what I am saying.

That is a bit arrogant on your part. I know there are some akward customers but that is no excuse for poor customer service. My wife works in retail and she is often commended for her good customer service.

 

[cliffordcooley]

That is a bit arrogant on your part. I know there are some akward customers but that is no excuse for poor customer service. My wife works in retail and she is often commended for her good customer service.

You are speaking for your wife, when I would be more interested in hearing what she thinks. I'm sure not everyone is as tolerant as your wife if what you say is true, I know I sure as hell don't fit the bill.

I am a nice person at heart and would do practically anything for anyone. I do enter bad moods that are terribly hard to shake off, if dealing with id-iots and as-sholes. As a consumer when dealing with automated phone systems I am pissed off within 10 minutes of waiting for someone to pickup the phone. I'm sure the irritation weighs on everyone by the time customer support joins in, especially when combined with the reason for calling. These irritations can be extremely hard for customer support to ignore. I know this but for some reason, I don't care after having to dial the phone number a half dozen times just to get someone on the phone. And after patience is all gone, the support tech questions the intelligence of the caller.

No I am not arrogant when I can distinctly tell a difference, in customer support attitude based on my own attitude at the time. And I know what effects my own attitude when dealing with others.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Bad customers make for bad customer service experience. I don't blame the customer service rep, I blame the people they have to deal with everyday. Anyone that has worked in retail, knows what I am saying.

That is a bit arrogant on your part. I know there are some akward customers but that is no excuse for poor customer service. My wife works in retail and she is often commended for her good customer service.

It's a broad sweeping statement and I tend to agree with Cliff in general although there are still good customer service reps and customers around. People tend to have little time for one another nowadays, it's the society we live in.

 

[Railman]

Bad customers make for bad customer service experience. I don't blame the customer service rep, I blame the people they have to deal with everyday. Anyone that has worked in retail, knows what I am saying.

That is a bit arrogant on your part. I know there are some akward customers but that is no excuse for poor customer service. My wife works in retail and she is often commended for her good customer service.

It's a broad sweeping statement and I tend to agree with Cliff in general although there are still good customer service reps and customers around. People tend to have little time for one another nowadays, it's the society we live in.

She works for Waitrose an organisation that believes in good customer care. On the whole she has very few difficult customers and she does get on with the vast majority. One good thing about Waitrose is that they also believe in looking after their staff.

 

[tipstir]

It's training! If they're not trained correctly then they will not even care about the customer. I had to call 20 CSR (customer service reps) from FL to MS for Comcast just to have my service changed. None of them could solve my issues.

I had to escalate it Corp ECS (executive customer service) she was told me she was sorry and will have all those who didn't help (because they were inexperienced, hang me up, lowered my internet from 50 mbps to 12mbps, was rude on the phone an etc)

But ECS was rude also and I had to go over her head by contacting the VP for Customer Service who gave me another ECS but was higher than the last one. She told me it will be taken care of. Gave me $120 for a year off my bill which was only internet.

I am not the sort to swear or get upset or even loose it on the phone to me it doesn't make sense to do that. These CSR are no different then anyone but they need to be nice and friendly and not rude! None of these calls were overseas CSR they were all in the USA.

 

[Jad Chaar]

I can believe this. Optimum and TWC suck in terms of customer support.

 

[tipstir]

Comcast has some nice CS but they're limited number the rest are rude..

 

[RenGood08]

You know...it all depends on the company if you get good service or not. I have TWC and they are really nice to me. I don't even have high end services. I have nearly the lowest possible in internet connection (recently upgraded to 15MB from 3 MB.) They are nice to me. They are courteous to me. It seriously depends on the company. And you know what you can get horrible service at fast food restaurants about as easily as you can at a ISP or cable provider.

 

[tipstir]

I've had a few companies.. WBC, Adelphia, SNET, SBC Yahoo DSL, AT&T Broadband DSL, COX, Comcast New England and Florida. Out of all of them COX was the best in CS and service.

 

[mojorisin23]

The only problem I've had with Comcast is that if you actually need a service tech to come to your house to fix a problem you can have wait times upwards of a week and a half. I've had no trouble bringing defective equipment into the local Comcast office to switch out a bad modem or a glitchy cable card.

They charge now if the tech has to come out too switch boxes like $50 here. That's why my local Comcast Office which looks like a huge department store is crowded always. They have number system that displays your name. When your name flashes you go to the counter number 5 an etc.

Tech will come out in 2 days or less if you pay for him to come out. I use to have the service included but it was costing me money. I just folded in and gave them back their DVR boxes. I had purchased my modem so I don't rent it through thus saving on rent.

FIOS overnights the box to your house free of charge. You then put the old cable box in the shipping box, affix the label provided and ship it back... easy.

 

[Guest]

I would say the worst one is Rogers.com in canada. They keep passing you from one representative to the next one, each time you have to wait 20 minutes plus. They need to have the ability to serve the customer in a holistic fashion.