Face It: Cell-Phone Service Sucks
 

Your cell-phone company knows you hate it. Mobile-phone service was the second-lowest-ranked industry -- beating only cable providers among the 40 rated -- in the University of Michigan's newest customer satisfaction index.

And there's more: Mobile companies were the No. 2 sector in complaints last year to Better Business Bureaus, dropping from first place in 2002. Only auto dealers did worse.

"The industry claims that people love their cell phones and they're very happy with the service," said Carl Wood, a commissioner on the California Public Utilities commission who fought the industry for four years to establish state wireless regulatory power. "That's half right."

Consumers complain of frequently dropped calls, lousy customer service and exorbitant penalties for exiting a contract. Then there are the fees -- Verizon Wireless plans to collectively charge customers more than $173 million a year in fees for number portability alone.

The complaints range from mundane to dramatic.

"It shouldn't take up to six months or a year to fix a bill," said Tracey Griser, 31, of Clinton, Iowa, who had a series of problems with her Sprint PCS phone and the company's customer service. Sprint blamed her problems on the phone she was using, then gave her a free replacement that had the same problems.

Carl Hilliard, president of the Wireless Consumers Alliance, heard from a woman who had a Verizon Wireless family plan with her husband. After he died, Verizon Wireless charged her an early-termination fee on his service.

"I just happened to be in a meeting with Verizon Wireless' attorney and mentioned it to him," Hilliard said. "It was reversed."

California last week adopted a Telecommunications Bill of Rights that requires companies to inform customers about rate increases, bill customers only for services that they request and allow customers to drop a service, without penalty, within 30 days.

A tougher measure failed to pass. "In the last year or so, the industry has just gone all out on every front to stop this," said Wood, the utilities commissioner. The industry has promised to challenge the new regulations in court.

The new rules offer fewer safeguards against deceptive marketing and advertising than Wood's proposal, which also would have blocked companies from changing the terms of an existing contract.

Eric Rabe, a spokesman for Verizon Communications, said the company thought even the watered-down rules unnecessary.

"We do the majority of this stuff already," he said. "This is an attempt by a regulatory body to exercise regulatory authority where they have not heretofore had it."

But many consumers are frustrated.

Claire Smith, 21, of San Diego, set up automatic payments for her Cingular Wireless bill. Cingular charged her credit card, then sent paper bills. When she didn't pay the duplicate bill, they cut off her service, saying she was delinquent. "They tried to double bill me," she said.

Neil Coleman, 34, of Jersey City, New Jersey, asked for a national plan when he signed up with AT&T Wireless. He worked inside his local calling area for months, then was sent to Dallas. His next mobile bill was $600, most of it roaming charges.

Calls to AT&T Wireless's customer service ended with a representative telling him it was his responsibility to review his bill. There, on page four, in the left-hand corner, in small print, the bill said "local plan."

Even simple things, like making a call, aren't always possible.

"Wireless carriers have been the victims of people believing their advertising," said Roger Entner, director of the wireless mobile services practice at The Yankee Group. "The carriers have been able to position it as a utility in the eyes of the customers, but it can't live up to that."

Companies insist they're working on improvements, that they're investing in their networks, simplifying billing and tying bonuses to customer satisfaction.

But they've got some ways to go.

Sprint PCS ads even acknowledge consumer's frustration. A four-page ad in USA Today asked, "What if the rest of the world were like the wireless industry?"

It showed a group of children outside a fenced playground, reading the rules, which included, "You have to guess how many minutes you're going to use your ball -- for the next two years. Don't guess too high or too low, or you'll be sorry."

The final rule: "If you don't like the rules, try another playground. It'll be exactly the same."

To improve service, the company has increased training for customer service employees to 10 days a year, introduced a new plan it said addresses common complaints and tied executive compensation to customer satisfaction, said Cindy Rock, senior vice president for customer solutions at Sprint PCS.

Cingular Wireless's chief operating officer, Ralph de la Vega, claims the company's service is also improving.

In April, it started giving new customers a summary of contract terms and costs. It also gives them a sample copy of what their first bill will look like.

AT&T Wireless, the industry leader in complaints according to Federal Communications Commission statistics made public by Consumers Union, was bought by Cingular for $41 billion in February. Cingular is in the process of merging the two companies.

Verizon Wireless said it added 1,600 customer service employees last year.

The company has led customer-satisfaction surveys, although the Michigan survey, a quarterly index that this past week included wireless for the first time, said it was tops in "a lackluster field."

Asked about the ranking, Verizon's Rabe said, "Compared to what? Lands' End? You have to compare apples to apples. I wouldn't compare the customer experience of dealing with a complicated technology with buying a shirt. It's just a whole different challenge."

Cell-phone troubles even dogged the reporting of this story.

Twice, representatives for different wireless companies called on cell phones whose signals faded to silence.

Carl Hilliard, president of the Wireless Consumers Alliance, heard from a woman who had a Verizon Wireless family plan with her husband. After he died, Verizon Wireless charged her an early-termination fee on his service.

I guess every of your broke ass guys have no money to get a cellphone or what ?

I bought my first mobile phone in Australia in 1986/86 and have had them ever since. The network is fantatsic in Australia and almost everyone has a cell phone including small children! :thumbsup

In The Netherlands the service is pretty good actually..

service in Oz is pretty adman good
for a country so big - you can be miles form nowwhere and still get coverage.
plus they have a national highway coverage scheme in place
so whenever you are driving on a national highway you get coverage 100% of the journey

about the only place in big cities the phones drop out is underground

That's why I've gone the pre-paid route....if the service sucks dog ass, I'm not tied to it for 2 years....

with AT&T Wireless, it was a nightmare..I had spots in my own house where the fucking thing would drop calls and lose its signal...

trying to get ahold of a human being in customer service was a nightmare because I had to go through the automated voice shit and it didn't recognize my account number...and if it does that, I had to jump through 20 more hoops to get to a human and when she went to transfer me, she accidently (?) hung up on me...

The other day, I put my AT&T Wireless phone under the tire of the van and backed over it. I'm mailing the pieces to AT&T.

lol I only got 3 :P

thoses are all yours ?

I have Verizon, and I don't hate it too much. The network is pretty great in California. I used to have ATT and it made me homicidal...

Never used it . I dont think they are arround here in canada. I use telus wich isnt too bad lately

i hate it but i can't live without it... it's need dude...

i love sprint, and being with them for almost 5 years now, they love me and give me all kiinds of deals...and I have never had to wait more than 5 minutes to talk to them....

the only thing I hate is my actual phone has terrible service, the antenna is shit......anyone know how to boost signal without buying one of those crappy plastic tape on strips?

About 6 months ago I switched from Fido to Telus. Since that day, I've been kicking myself in the ass. Telus has been nothing but a freaking pain, it took them 4 months to straighten out my bill. They had a promotion where if you traded in your fido phone you'd get a free phone and a match it rate plan that was better then fidos. I should of realized the day I made the switch, things would go downhill. The damn girl working at the Telus store didn't even program my phone right, had to do it all myself. For the first 4 months they were billing me for a match it at&t plan when in fact my plan was the match it 45 fido plan. This continued despite me calling every month and telling them things were fucked. I was stupid and signed a contract and that's the only reason I still have my cell. As soon as my contract is up I'm gonna go throw it at the girl I got it from. Not only do they fuck up the billing but the signal fades at least 5 times a day.

Dunno I had a telus like 5 years ago .
It really sucked ... I bought the phone 500 $ and paid per carrd . I wanted to kill myself ...

But after checking like 10 plans, I found out that for 3 cell phones and a lot of minutes, they were the cheapest and their network arround here is very good nowdays ... my phone is better then all other phones when I go arround some clubs about 1 hour drive from here .

I'm wondering if maybe Telus sucks so bad here cuz of all the different providers and compared to them Telus is still small??? Or maybe it's just the phone I got that sucks lol

Yep, cellphone service in US sucks.
Over in EU I barely ever have problems with networks.

It depends on the area, it some areas it works flawlessly, in some in some it sucks badly... but overall it's not great, but reasonable...

I have ATT-wireless and I guess they just got bought out by singular, but tell me if this makes any fucking sense. I get the worst reception in the entire area when I'm on the University of Utah campus! In fact, I don't really get any service there at all! You would think they would want to capture that student market and put up a special fucking tower or something!!!

opt for PREPAID...they can't charge you extra and you can terminate services instantlY!

What a collection!

i have nokia prepaid wireless, and it works just fine. might be a lucky phone, though. ;-)