Cable scores lowest in paid TV customer satisfaction survey
October 7th, 2009, 6:00 am · 44 Comments · posted by Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress
In a report out this morning, traditional TV service providers continued to get pounded by consumers. Ratings company J.D. Power and Associates ranked cable companies the lowest out of all available TV services in the company’s 2009 TV Service Satisfaction report.
Here in the West, Time Warner Cable and Cox Communications scored the lowest out of the six TV services available in Orange County. Newer TV alternatives AT&T U-verse and Verizon FiOS took the lead, with satellite TV services DirecTV and Dish Networks tied for third place.
The annual report said overall scores improved from 2008, indicating that TV providers really are paying attention to their customers, said Frank Perazzini, director of telecommunications at J.D. Power.
Consumers said they didn’t have to wait on hold for as long as last year — falling 13 percent to 9 minutes, 5 seconds. Customers also experienced fewer outages — 11 percent this year, compared to 15 percent last year.
Overall scores were at 632 on a 1,000-point scale, up 23 points from last year. This year’s study was based on 28,118 U.S. households who were surveyed in January, March and July 2009.
Still, 632 out of 1,000 doesn’t sound too hot. Here’s where the local companies landed:
Time Warner scored below the region’s average. But at 616 point, Time Warner improved from last year’s score of 582, and 557 in the previous year.
Cox, which scored 646 this year, remained about the same. Cox scored 644 last year and 650 in 2007.
Even with the improvements, the cable companies lost loyal customers. Says Perazzini, “In fact, the percentage of cable customers affirming their loyalty to their provider has declined to 25 percent in 2009 from 27 percent in 2008.”
AT&T U-verse led the group for the second year and it also added 24 points to its ranking.
As mentioned earlier, while the most satisfying TV services are no longer traditional TV companies, the same is true for telephone services. In J.D. Power’s last telephone report, Cox was rated at the top with Time Warner’s phone service ranked evenly with AT&T and Verizon.
Previous stories on customer service:
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Time Warner likes to rip people off. Very unethical.
My Father in Law died 6 months ago and we have sent Time Warner a copy of his death certificate two times and have called them 6 times and they still send a bill to us and now are turning him over to collections.
You can’t collect from a dead person. You are not responsible for his bills; only his estate is. If there is no money then they will write it off. Besides, what are they going to do, lower his credit rating? You could also write each credit rating service to say that he is no longer living.
Ha! You should wait for the collection agencies to start calling, pretend you are your father in law, and tell them to go F themselves sideways!
I HATE collection agencies, and LOVE to F with them whenever I get the chance!
BTW, sorry about your loss (RIP).
Yea Bay Bay Yea!
Caseclosed, send them a certified letter and once you get the signature back your home free, watch free T.V.
And why do we have to pay for channels the don’t speak english? almost a third of the channels I have are in different languages. Can’t we pay for what we want?
personally, I see all the problems my father in law has with ATT U-Verse & they need to get their act together, its always crashing, he has had like 10 boxes through out the house replaced cause they are crap. My husband and I on the other hand have had Time Warner for a few years as have my parents and I have never had a problem with them, good service rarely goes down and if it does it is for maintenance and usually in the middle of the night when nothing major is recording. I will stick with Time Warner, love their customer service when we call & paying our bill is the easiest I have ever had.
I hate paying for t.v. They are overwhelmed with infomercials, cooking channels, foreign channels, etc. Not to mention commercials in general. Then if the channel is quality you probably have to pay extra for the privilege. I don’t pay for t.v., probably never will again and I don’t miss it! What a joke! All you people supporting these white collar criminals making you pay for something that should be free. They double dip. They charge companies for advertising time and charge you to watch it. Wake up!! Get a t.v. antenna . Whats the matter with all? Get your behinds off the couch.
Hate Time Warner, AT&T UVerse. Hate ‘em all. Had Adelphi, that became Time Warner. When I was moving, I called Time Warner to switch my cable to new address. They said they could come out in 4 weeks. I said that was unacceptable. I couldn’t be without TV for a month, so I called AT&T. They were out the next day. Had nothing but problems: picture freezing, having to reboot. Was told I was 1 of only 10,000 people in the country that had it(2007). They said they had some bugs. I said they should’ve tested this before releasing it. After 30 days, I said come pick up your equipment. Called Time Warner as a new customer and they said they could come out the next day. Got it installed and now not one day goes by without some kind of problem. Every time I turn on my TV I cuss TW. I got so mad at them that I decided to go back to UVerse. Did lots of research. Made phone calls. Asked questions. Probably didn’t ask proper questions. “I have some VCR’s I’d like to hook up. Is that possible?” Yes sir we can do that. So I set up an appt. I explain to the tech that I want everything to work as it does now. Says I can’t hook up VCR without going through the box. Don’t want to do that. Finally agree to not hook up VCR’s. While he’s working outside, I ask about picture in a picture. Can’t do that. All want to do is run the box into one input of the TV and no box in the other like I do with TW. Can’t do it. Can’ t have you hook it up. Bye Bye.TW has me believe that if I change my DVR, that all my problems will go away. Same problems plus 1. My IR emitter won’t work on new DVR. Called TW, no help. Call Motorola, no help. They tell me to call mfg of emitter. Why does it work on one DVR and not the other? Everyday I get pissed off at TW and hope someday that there will be an alternative.
Time Warner needs competition in the 92831 zip code of Fullerton. $105 for basic cable and Internet. Ridiculous. Let’s get AT&T off the @#$%! dime to provide broadband in this part of Fullerton.