Cingular Receives Most Consumer Complaints [Archive]

jbjtkbw00

03-29-2005, 10:37 AM

We shouldn't feel as bad....

"According to the Wall Street Journal's calculations based on figures obtained from the FCC, Cingular Wireless had the highest rate of customer complaints in the industry last year, with 4.6 complaints per 100,000 customers. T-Mobile USA came in second with 4.3 complaints per 100,000 customers. Sprint posted complaint rates of 3.6 per 100,000 (including affiliates) and Nextel followed with 2.3 complaints per 100,000 customers. Verizon Wireless boasted the lowest complaint rate, with 1.4 per 100,000 customers. By the end of 2004, Cingular had 49.1 million customers and Verizon Wireless had 43.8 million subscribers. Sprint, including its affiliates, had 21 million subscribers, while Nextel and T-Mobile had 15 million and 17.3 million, respectively. For the industry as a whole, complaints were up 38 percent over the prior year, according to the Consumers Union. The merger of Cingular Wireless and AT&T Wireless may have contributed to its high complaint rate, although FCC data show that the complaint rate at both Cingular and AT&T Wireless was higher than competitors even before the merger. [bb]

Wall Street Journal, "How cellular services rank on complaints," Li Yuan, Jesse Drucker, 3/29/05, p. D1"

:eyebrow:

Viktor

03-29-2005, 12:09 PM

I like my Sprint Service, I can't really say I have any complaints, CSRs have always been helpful every time I've called and changed my services and asked specific questions about some things. :)

jbjtkbw00

03-29-2005, 12:21 PM

I like my Sprint Service, I can't really say I have any complaints, CSRs have always been helpful every time I've called and changed my services and asked specific questions about some things. :)

I'm an employee and I've had some 'unique' experiences as of late. I won't say any bad words about them here, but we tend to have more seasoned reps dealing with employee accounts. Go figure.

:eyebrow:

flipn0tic

03-29-2005, 12:24 PM

I'm surprised Verizon ranked that low. Pretty much everyone I know with Verizon isn't happy with their service. Maybe just the location, I guess.

coolqf

03-29-2005, 12:35 PM

I'm surprised Verizon ranked that low. Pretty much everyone I know with Verizon isn't happy with their service. Maybe just the location, I guess.

I hear complaints about Verizon, but just listen to the stigma of hate for these companies. Sprint is clearly liked less than Veriozn

fever

03-29-2005, 12:36 PM

The way I have come to understand Verizon's customer service, from talking to people who have it, is that setting up an account, getting a phone, and using it is generally really easy, and fail-safe. However, once you have an issue, and someone looks at your account, everything goes to hell, and not just sad, unfortunate Hell, you end up in a level of Hell Dante couldn't have imagined with absinthe. I have a lot of friends who are currently in school, or were, and for whatever reason they all have Verizon. The first time they miss a payment, which happens to everyone at that time in life, the Verizon Billing Monster rears it's head and renders their account into mush. All of they sudden they have huge overages, and it takes like two months to work out. I guess the reason they're complaint number is so low is that Verizon's customers only call once, and then wait for it all to work, whereas Sprint users call every hour. As is their right.

f

bluecoyote

03-29-2005, 03:02 PM

NO surprise with Cingular getting complaints, but Sprint didn't do so great, either.

mcurtiss1970

03-29-2005, 03:31 PM

guess what, they all stink.

Jaggrey

03-29-2005, 04:03 PM

Silence2Poetry

03-29-2005, 04:07 PM

ClutchMaster21

03-29-2005, 04:33 PM

Everyone has different opinions of different companies...me personally I like sprint a hell of a lot more than Cingular and TM. I've never once had a problem getting answers with cs through sprint. Although I probably just jinxed myself :(

mcurtiss1970

03-29-2005, 04:35 PM

a lot of those problems are from former AT&T customers filing before the merger. Let's see what happens over the next few years as opposed to the last few.

That said, they still all stink. :D

sneak

03-29-2005, 06:36 PM

I'm surprised Verizon ranked that low. Pretty much everyone I know with Verizon isn't happy with their service. Maybe just the location, I guess.

I haven't encountered too many people upset with Verizon. Many times the reason people leave them is due to their prices, something you know when you sign up. Verizon works very well here in the midwest, and I bet that it receives the fewest complaints out here (between them and CellOne/Western Wireless and Alltel).

Deval

03-30-2005, 02:58 AM

Well thanks to my boredom at work, I've calculated the actual number complaints factoring in the amount of subscribers and the number of complaints.

# of Complaints

Cingular = 2258.6
Sprint = 756
T-Mobile = 743.9
Verizon = 610.4
Nextel = 345

*frantically looks through phone DIR in florida for 'Rent a Life' services for Jaggz*

Darkflight

03-30-2005, 03:16 AM

Sorry Deval... page can not be found...

All I can say, is that progress will go somewhere.. the question is will it be better or worse...

aatm

03-30-2005, 03:18 AM

wow...so on average, Sprint only has 2.07 complaints a day. that's seriously not that bad...

Jaggrey

03-30-2005, 07:56 AM

*frantically looks through phone DIR in florida for 'Rent a Life' services for Jaggz*
lol i get bored at work!

that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

um.............yea........... :o

Deval

03-30-2005, 10:54 AM

lol i get bored at work!

that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

um.............yea........... :o

its ok..i'm on vacation 1/2 way across the states right now...anyone in LA wanna meet up :hee:

RemusRM

03-30-2005, 11:28 AM

a lot of those problems are from former AT&T customers filing before the merger. Let's see what happens over the next few years as opposed to the last few.

That said, they still all stink. :D

actually you are wrong. att had problems with service. not billing and cs. i would say real cingular has the most problems. i had so much overage from previous month since it could of nto make it to the cut off for the bill. i think cs from cingular sucks, but not as bad as sprints. also, recently all calls fror business accounts are routed to att cs, not cingular. but i say that cingular has billing issues, nto reall cs issues...

mcurtiss1970

03-30-2005, 11:39 AM

actually you are wrong. att had problems with service. not billing and cs. .................

exactly what did i say that was wrong? problems are problems and AT&T was a disaster pre-merger and around the advent of number portability. all carriers have issues: cingular has them as well, but any company that merged with AT&T would inherit those issues in a survey for 2004.

so yes, I am most likely right.

ocelectroboi

03-30-2005, 12:10 PM

actually you are wrong. att had problems with service. not billing and cs. i would say real cingular has the most problems. i had so much overage from previous month since it could of nto make it to the cut off for the bill. i think cs from cingular sucks, but not as bad as sprints. also, recently all calls fror business accounts are routed to att cs, not cingular. but i say that cingular has billing issues, nto reall cs issues...

Cool Have a great trip! Stay out of San Diego North county..Sprint does not work there :hee:

Jaggrey

03-30-2005, 12:14 PM

its ok..i'm on vacation 1/2 way across the states right now...anyone in LA wanna meet up :hee:
now how is NJ to LA 1/2 way across the states.... wouldn't that be across all the states? :p

jh101_7

03-30-2005, 12:19 PM

wait til the sprint-nextel merger happens, i am sure we'll see sprint get as bas as cingular/att.

coolqf

03-30-2005, 01:18 PM

wow...so on average, Sprint only has 2.07 complaints a day. that's seriously not that bad...

It refers to FILED complaints. I remember reading a study saying that normally only 12.5% of customers actually file a complaint. This number may be slightly lower for wireless companies. I remember another study stating that the less reliable a person finds a service the less they would complain about it BECAUSE they have grown accustomed to such 'quality.'
Out of all the services I pay a monthly fee for, wireless fares the worse.
I can assure you the one time AMEX had a goofup in my account in the past 4yrs I filed a complaint.

langued0c

03-30-2005, 01:30 PM

Hmm. Coming from VZW I would say my whole experience with them was pretty good. I can say the same with Sprint, and Nextel. I think a lot of wireless companies have a bad rap; service levels have definitely improved over the last ten years (I guess that's how long I've been using cell phones).

ericsimpson1

03-30-2005, 05:53 PM

i used to have cingular but i switched to sprint because cingular's coverage here in the part of texas i live in sucks. which is sad because isnt cingular supposed to have better rural coverage than sprint? anyways they also overcharged me twice-like $600. anyways i called and actually got threw most of the time but they would allways say that their was nothing wrong with my bill and would ask me how i would like to pay! so rude..... and isnt their cs in like mexico or something? i swear no one there speaks english.

jander

03-30-2005, 10:01 PM

Deval

03-30-2005, 11:14 PM

now how is NJ to LA 1/2 way across the states.... wouldn't that be across all the states? :p

hmm...sprint works great here though :p

danny.boi

03-30-2005, 11:39 PM

Something doesn't add up. I just saw a commercial on TV tonight for T-Mobile bragging how they have the highest customer satisfaction of any other wireless provider by JD Power.

So, just found that interesting now that I have seen this thread. Looks like T-Mobile is trying to hide the true customer facts.

Anybody else see this commercial yet?

The latest round of reports offered by JD Powers & Associates did rank T-Mobile right above Verizon Wireless for highest customers satisfaction.

Remember, there are a lot of independent polls out there gathered from specific areas. Depending on who you ask, ones' perception on what makes their carrier shine will differ. Most place coverage as most important followed by customer service, billing, then phone and features.

Out of the people polled, JD ranked T-Mobile the highest but that award has not always gone to them.

"Satisfaction" had to do with customer service. Claire has something to do with Sprint's overall customer service ratings although she has improved. Long wait times holding for customer service or unfriendly/unknowledgeable reps will bring a carriers score down.

That award had nothing to do with coverage or innovation.

odin

03-31-2005, 10:05 AM

Well thanks to my boredom at work, I've calculated the actual number complaints factoring in the amount of subscribers and the number of complaints.

# of Complaints

Cingular = 2258.6
Sprint = 756
T-Mobile = 743.9
Verizon = 610.4
Nextel = 345

i think your number is a little misleading from what i read on websites. From the stand point of view in ratio complains,
http://www.mobiledia.com/news/28511.html
another source is
http://cdn.consumerreports.org/content/Special/Electronics/Reports/Images/cell%20complants_L.gif
so 1.Cingular, 2. T-mobile, 3. Sprint, 4. N, then V by the ratio per million customers.
I would say this is more close to reality world responding to JD Power rating. This is really MAD and screwed-up cases their customers filing to FCC. so T-Mobile's commercial is ha-ha to me now.