AfterDawn: News

AT&T sucks, says latest Consumer Reports survey

According to the latest Consumer Reports survey, AT&T has received the all-around worst scores in customer satisfaction for 2010, ranking it last behind US Cellular, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile.

AT&T got the lowest scores in eight out of the nine categories, and tied for worst in the last category.



The categories included overall value, voice service, data service, texting services, phone support, staff knowledge, and resolution of issues, and other customer support issues.

AT&T scored a 60/100, putting it 9 points behind T-Mobile, and 22 points behind the leader, US Cellular.

The U.S.' second largest carrier scored a 66 in 2009.

Consumer Reports says "AT&T is now the worst carrier." It is also the only carrier to see its numbers drop significantly from last year.

Apple iPhone owners were particularly displeased with AT&T, giving much lower scores than smartphone owners on other carriers.

AT&T responded: "We take this seriously and we continually look for new ways to improve the customer experience."


Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 6 Dec 2010 15:50

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• 28 comments

• stuntman_

  how about you improve your network then you won't have to worry about customer service so much
  

  
  
  
  

  6.12.2010 15:53 #1

• attar

  Quote:AT&T responded: "We take this seriously and we continually look for new ways to improve the customer experience."
  Attaboy - throw a Mission Statement at them;that'll fix it.

  6.12.2010 16:51 #2

• molsen

  I had lack luster service from them as well. When they were Cingular, they not bad.

  6.12.2010 17:04 #3

• GryphB

  It's nice to see AT&T fail. I have their service and after getting their survey about a month back, I gave them the lowest scores and satisfaction ratings. And then I gave them a piece of my mind about how crappy their services are and they are raping their customers for garbage services.

  6.12.2010 17:58 #4

• hikaricor

  I could have told you that much.

  6.12.2010 18:08 #5

• bankai987

  Thats a shocker, at&t sucks as a cell phone carrier. I guess no one at consumer reports uses the at&t network.

  7.12.2010 00:25 #6

• KillerBug

  People only believe whatever the last BS story was. Now that super-biased article from PCmag (the one where they picked and chose test points; they only tested from airports and from the alleyway behind a prototype AT&T tower...and then they dropped the tests where AT&T failed to connect and all others worked fine) has lost all of the power it had.
  
  Sure, AT&T can still make false claims that they have the fastest network, but they could always do that. The laws against false advertising are essentially a forgotten relic of the past.
  

  7.12.2010 03:32 #7

• Ben79

  AT&T needs to bring back unlimited data, put money into their cellular infrastructure, and stock crippling their damn phones with the crapware that they install. Just my jaded p.o.v. Their customer service is fine. Their services are not.

  7.12.2010 10:00 #8

• Hyasuma

  no need to say more, the comments says it all

  7.12.2010 16:50 #9

• ZeusAV

  I switched to AT&T back in 2008 to get the iPhone 3G and was amazed by how high their prices were. Absolutely ridiculous how much they charge for their plans. I believe unlimited text messaging (which costs phone companies almost nothing) was around $25 in addition to the forced $30 data plan along with however many minutes you wanted to pay for.
  
  Glad I switched to T-Mobile and now I pay less for more services on my phone.

  7.12.2010 20:34 #10

• mukhis

  there is no doubt that at&t sucks. if iphone would be offered from another carrier, i am sure at&t would do better because they would be under "competition" then. their cell phone signal sucks everywhere. their DSL internet performs so bad. customer service is OK, IMO.
  

  10.12.2010 09:46 #11

• graystroke

  Originally posted by bankai987: Thats a shocker, at&t sucks as a cell phone carrier. I guess no one at consumer reports uses the at&t network. Which is why I refuse to use Consumer Reports they are about as unbiased as AARP....they both SUCK and only because my vocabulary is challenged to find a decent but more powerful manner to express how they suck......
  

  10.12.2010 10:53 #12

• Irocz005

  Originally posted by Ben79: AT&T needs to bring back unlimited data, put money into their cellular infrastructure, and stock crippling their damn phones with the crapware that they install. Just my jaded p.o.v. Their customer service is fine. Their services are not. Being with AT&T since September of this year, I totally agree!

  10.12.2010 11:20 #13

• oldfrench

  The interesting thing to me about this article is that even the top rated service had only an 82% rating! I'm not excited about switching from Alltel to AT&T after the change takes place, but as far as I'm concerned, ALL cellphone companies rob us blind.

  10.12.2010 12:36 #14

• bankai987

  I agree oldfrench all cellphone companies do rob people blind, but the irony of all this is that people pay through the roof for crappy cell phone service, i.e At&t. But in contrast Verizon wireless rips you off but gives you good cell phone service. Wow I feel a lot worse for acknowledging that I get ripped off every month.

  10.12.2010 14:18 #15

• blueboy09

  Yep, AT&T sucks. Enough said, move along, move along.
  

  Life is about walking on thin ice, if you make too much drama, youll crack under pressure. - BLUEBOY

  12.12.2010 12:06 #16

• Mike the Bike (unverified)

  I have AT&T for my business phones and they are the worst. It cost me an arm and a leg to get the thing set up, and they sent some guy who knew nothing about the building, and no trainer. Then they told me my bill would be about $120.00 per month. In six month it is now $162.00 per month. WTF??!! What am I getting for the extra $42.00. They just decided to reach in and take an additional $500.00 a year from my business. Then I bought one of their telephones. You guessed it!! Doesn't work after six months of use. And if you want to avail yourself of your rights under the warranty, you have to jump through so many hoops, it's cheaper just to buy a new phone and forget it. I absolutely hate these motherf--kers.

  16.2.2011 17:37 #17

• JustBeingFair (unverified)

  Is this about ATT as a whole or ATT Uverse alone? You see, ATT has lots of departments and they are like separate companies (but they are not).

  28.2.2011 06:26 #18

• KeyserSoze01 (unverified)

  I give AT&T a big fat ZERO out of 100... Thats right 0/100 for customer service ranking... I will NEVER do business with AT&T again as long as I live and will go out of my way to tell everyone the same... AT&T SUCKS...

  27.6.2011 11:52 #19

• KeyserSoze01 (unverified)

  Originally posted by JustBeingFair: Is this about ATT as a whole or ATT Uverse alone? You see, ATT has lots of departments and they are like separate companies (but they are not). YES, and they ALL SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  
  Idiots, the lot of them... They give a ratz azz about customer service...

  27.6.2011 11:53 #20

• tibniky (unverified)

  Originally posted by KillerBug: People only believe whatever the last BS story was. Now that super-biased article from PCmag (the one where they picked and chose test points; they only tested from airports and from the alleyway behind a prototype AT&T tower...and then they dropped the tests where AT&T failed to connect and all others worked fine) has lost all of the power it had.
  
  Sure, AT&T can still make false claims that they have the fastest network, but they could always do that. The laws against false advertising are essentially a forgotten relic of the past. Att customer service is absolute garbage. Phone reps don't know anything. God forbid you have a problem with your service, you will be on the phone for hours & hours trying unsuccessfully to get it resolved. You will be transferred from phone rep to phone rep endlessly , and NONE of them know ANYTHING about ANYTHING. I'd LOVE to get a job with them, getting paid to do nothing but put people on hold all day, then after your lunch break, get back on the phone, tell the caller you cant help them and transfer them for the 27th time on that call.

  13.8.2011 08:47 #21

• garmoon

  You think it may be the phones? My wife and I are on AT&T. I have a Nokia flip phone 4years old & never drops a call. We have texting disabled. Yes we are dinosaurs. My wife has a 3GS iphone-supreme POS -unlimited data. Weak signal strength and drops calls all the time. Net is slow. The iphone4 seems to have a similar pedigree also-weak signal. There are some app that do work nicely but I'll keep my Nokia. One reason AT&T is good for us is it gets a signal in the Gulf and in our swamps. Somebody's coming for you if you break down fishing.

  13.8.2011 10:05 #22

• HateATT

  We've moved, so we're trying to cancel our land line service. We're locked into cellphone service for another few months, and that's okay. What's not okay is that ATandT made it impossible to cancel the land line service yesterday. It's important we cancel, because we don't want anyone squatting in our old home and plugging their phone into our phone jack. However, AT and T did nothing but ask us why and put us on hold. We were on hold two separate times - once for fifty minutes, once for forty-five minutes. We finally gave up. We wasted a total of two and a half hours on these jerks, and still didn't cancel! We emailed them, demanding cancellation. They'll probably ignore that, so we'll try again by tomorrow. They're closed Sundays, of course.
  They've offered us internet and U-Verse service many times. We never took them up on those offers, even though the price was cheaper than the service we had. Why? Because ATandT puts its customers through hell to do anything. They don't believe in giving customers what they want - they believe in bullying and manipulating them. That's a horrible business model - just ask AOL (AOHell). In fact, I should record the next time I'm on the phone with these people, just like the guy who wanted to cancel his AOL account did a few years ago.

  4.9.2011 15:39 #23

• NIcpub (unverified)

  Originally posted by attar: Quote:AT&T responded: "We take this seriously and we continually look for new ways to improve the customer experience."
  Attaboy - throw a Mission Statement at them;that'll fix it. This was a JOKE then and its even a bigger JOKE today. AT&T needs regulation and fines for flase advertising. Thier service is about five steps below mediocre. Every day my business loses because of the poor service of the so called SPPED

  9.5.2012 08:18 #24

• scotty3 (unverified)

  AT&T refuse to let me change my number over because I moved to a different state. That is just outrageous. I live in AMERICA, therefore youd think any state should work...nope...now customer service says I have to call from a land line with my cell also? WTF is wrong with these primitive cretins.

  18.5.2012 08:45 #25

• Jeffrey_P

  Originally posted by scotty3: AT&T refuse to let me change my number over because I moved to a different state. That is just outrageous. I live in AMERICA, therefore youd think any state should work...nope...now customer service says I have to call from a land line with my cell also? WTF is wrong with these primitive cretins. AT&T changed my cell number for free last week. Kept my old area code even though I now live in a different state. AT&T gave me the option of which area code I wished to have at no extra charge.
  
  Something doesn't sound quite right.
  
  Jeff

  18.5.2012 10:03 #26

• attsucks (unverified)

  Knowbody has to tell me at&t sucks, I work for them ! Most of the employees try to do a good job but we are constantly blocked from doing a better job by the desk jockey cowboys in Texas that run this company.Lie,cheat, steal is the companies true motto. They are just interested in profits,not the employees and not the customers. At&t is a monopoly, so they don't have to care. They make 10-16 billion dollars a year in PROFITS,even during this recession. I dont use at&t services and wont until they act more like a responsible company. At&t ceo Randall Stephenson recently caused a 4 billion dollar loss on a failed deal to take over T-Mobile. Was he fired ? Of course not. He was docked $2 million dollars & 25% of his 20 million dollar plus 2012 salary & stock options.The rest of that loss will be recouped from the employees(now in contract negociations) and a rise in costs to customers.

  29.5.2012 17:04 #27

• jus1 (unverified)

  ATT is the absoulutely worst company I have ever used or even had to deal with! Their service is awful, false advertisement and plans, customer service is a JOKE!!!

  28.11.2012 10:04 #28