Verizon and Nextel Tie For First In J.D. Powers Customer Service

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://www.jdpower.com/news/releases/pressrelease.asp?ID=2003074">http://www.jdpower.com/news/releases/pressrelease.asp?ID=2003074</a><br /><br />"Nextel and Verizon Wireless rank highest in a tie in customer care performance among the seven largest wireless service providers. Nextel performs particular well in the ARS area, specifically in navigation as it relates to instructions/prompts, while Verizon Wireless consistently performs above the industry average in all areas, particularly in having service representatives who understand customer issues and in shorter hold times."<br /><br />T-Mobile was very close behind in third place. The study ranks customer service, which basically boils down to how long you are on hold when you need to talk to a human being and how the resolution process goes. T-Mobile doesn't have the best coverage, but when it comes to customer service, I have been very pleased. I've probably called more than the average consumer, as many of us have, because getting data services set up and figuring out the seemingly unique and crazy dial strings different phones need to access their GPRS networks from different phones usually requires one or two phone calls to the data center.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/2003/20030901-jdpowers.gif" /><br /><br />You can read the full report on J.D. Power's site.

[Fabulas]

As a Sprint PCS employee, I can honestly say that customer service it sprint's new focus. I totally agree, we need work, but are trying to "roll out the red carpet" for our customers. :lol:

[Ed Hansberry]

As a Sprint PCS employee, I can honestly say that customer service it sprint's new focus. I totally agree, we need work, but are trying to "roll out the red carpet" for our customers. :lol:
I would hope so. The last two support calls I made to Sprint PCS (over a year ago) were both at least 30 minutes on hold. Never again.

[that_kid]

As a former Sprint pcs employee I can tell you that even when I worked there I hated calling "Customer I don't care". It's been 4 years since I worked for them and things are still the same. I've been a sprint customer since 1996 but once number portability comes I think I'll take my number and go. Besides Sprints "Customerless Service" they don't offer a good variety on phones and their plans increase each quarter by $15 for the same features. As far as service I haven't had much of any problems with sprint but between customerless service, phone selection and plans I'm about fed up.

[Foo Fighter]

I can certainly vouch for Verizon's customer support, which is world class. My only real gripe is with their selection of mobile phones. The available offerings stink to high hell. Most are cheapy Audiovox and LG phones. They do have one PPC Phone (Samsung) and a Palm phone (Kyocera), but beyond that it's all downhill. Hell, Verizon is only JUST NOW offering its first camera phone! 8O

I really had my heart set on the upcoming Treo 600 but I know it will be at least a year (if ever) before Verizon even considers offering it. And God only knows what their plans are concerning Windows Powered Smartphones. I'm sure those will never be supported. :roll:

[yawanag]

I'll give T-Mobile two thumbs up for it's Customer Service regarding the phone, but for the PDA portion, well, it's not that they leave you on hold, it's they don't have an answer when they return.

IMO I think they are more interested in phone customers than PDA. It's too bad because as much as I love the product, I just think twice about asking for help with a problem. That's when I'm glad there's PocketThoughts. :multi:

[trachy]

Mark me down as one of those who can't stand the lack of customer service Alltel provides. I've been with them for a couple of years, and have yet to run into an employee that didn't act hassled when I asked them a question. I, too, will be running for the hills this coming November. It so happens my contract with them runs out just about the same time as number portability goes into effect. :lol:

[shawnc]

As a Sprint PCS employee, I can honestly say that customer service it sprint's new focus. I totally agree, we need work, but are trying to "roll out the red carpet" for our customers. :lol:

I've been a SprintPCS customer for well over 5 years and I can say without equivocation that I have noticed a SIGNIFICANT improvement in customer service over the past two months.

Keep up the effort.

[Fabulas]

Glad to be of service :mrgreen:

[aroma]

I'm just glad to see that others (Verizon at this point) are starting to offer "Push-to-Talk" services like NexTel has had for so long.

- Aaron

[trachy]

I'm just glad to see that others (Verizon at this point) are starting to offer "Push-to-Talk" services like NexTel has had for so long.

I just wish someone would come up with a different connect tone than that chirping noise. I hear it so much these days that it's really starting to get annoying. Aren't different ring tones available for this?

O/T - anyone seen the Antennalope commercial? Freakin' hilarious. :rotfl:

[piperpilot]

I'm just glad to see that others (Verizon at this point) are starting to offer "Push-to-Talk" services like NexTel has had for so long.

- Aaron

As far as I'm concerned that's a reason for not going with either of these two companies. I thought listening to one end of a cell phone conversation was irritating, but with that STUPID walkie talkie feature, I now have to listen to both ends of somebody else's cell phone conversation! Now I'm doubly irritated!!!! :bad-words:

[don dre]

i hadn;t thought of that piper pilot. good point, that woudl be irritating. I guess I'm glad I don;t know too many people with this service. I've had T-mobile for a few months (after switching form ATTWS) and have been pleased with the customer service. One afternoon I couldn't get service at all ("network busy"), which I never had with my three years with ATTWS but I can't complain. I have a Samsung S105 and the coverage may be less but I get better service in buildings, train stations, etc. which is more important to me since I live ina city. They also have the best phone deals though ATTWS FINALLY aded some decent phones to its lineup.

[piperpilot]

I should add that I think people talk louder when using the walkie talkie mode, which increases the irritation factor.

[ironguy]

So how does this statistic relate to quality of service? If I use a service and it works all the time with no problems, then I never call customer service. On the extreme rare occassion something goes wrong, I may have to call and they may be bad. SO what's better, good customer service or good quality of service?

Do you want a phone service that rarely works but you get good customer service, or a service that is nearly flawless with lousy customer service?

[CameronK]

The nextel walkie talkie feature isn't that bad, in fact I love it! I agree that people seem to talk loud when they're using Direct Connect, but it's very easy to switch to private mode (which is what I have my phone set to use when I get a Direct Connect). As for phone selection, no-one has it as bad as nextel customers. I think we get a total choice between 6 phones (3 flips, and 3 regular style).

[Brad Adrian]

[rant] Frankly, I'm surprised to see Cingular rated as highly as it is. I've called them several times with the same question/problem and gotten completely different responses each time. And, when I tried to calmly express my dissatisfaction, the customer service representative interrupted with a "thank you" and hung up on me.

The customers might not always be right, but they MUST be the focus of everything any customer-facing company does.

[[email protected]]

I don't know if you guys are aware of this, but my company also won this award, and a little tidbit of information. the winners of the award pay big $$ to advertise that they won. that's how JD Edwards makes there money. once they choose the winner, the winner has to pay to be able to advertise that they won...just an interesting fact. :wink:

[Janak Parekh]

As far as I'm concerned that's a reason for not going with either of these two companies.
Add Sprint to the list in about 6 months, then... they're working hard on their own PTT implementation. CameronK makes some good points, though; it's just that people don't know how to use the PTT functionality effectively in a public space.

--janak

[piperpilot]

It would probably help if they advertised the privacy function and highlighted it in their "getting started" materials so that the rest of us could have some modicum of peace and quiet. I know I am having a purely visceral reaction to this whole "push-to-talk" thing, but it seems to me that it really doesn't offer any benefits over just calling somebody the regular way. The person is either going to be there to take the call or they're not. Too me, it's just a gimmick and an annoying one at that.

[Janak Parekh]

The person is either going to be there to take the call or they're not. Too me, it's just a gimmick and an annoying one at that.
The fundamental difference is the time-to-communicate -- it's on the order of a few seconds, instead of having to dial, waiting 10-20 seconds for the person to pick up, etc. Think of the difference between IM and email, but on a lesser scale. Also, since you're not using actual phoneline service, you're not using your allotted voice minutes. But yes, people do abuse it badly. :(

--janak

[piperpilot]

Think of the difference between IM and email, but on a lesser scale.

I don't really see the utility of IM either, although I use it from time to time. Saving a second or two seems to me to be reaching the point of diminishing returns. With e-mail, for example, it may take a couple seconds longer to send the message, but I know that the message will get to the recipient regardless of whether they're signed in at the moment or not. That's not the case with IM. Further, while I have all of my friends' e-mail address, many of them are very wary of IM and won't sign up, so I don't have full coverage on IM like I do with e-mail. I think this might be a generational thing. Everyone in my IM group is under 35. I, however, am not.

[ux4484]

I agree, direct connect can be annoying for others to listen to, but I wouldn't call it stupid. Radio sevice is a great boon to even small companies, but even I have friends who have the radio service on all the family cell phones, being able to give the same call to everyone in your talk group (like: be home by 6:30 for dinner, or you're grounded) with say.....your kids can be VERY usefull as you only have to broadcast it one time. What I do wish, is that more direct connect users would turn off/change the 10-4/roger tone that beeps at the end of every recieved transmission. It's especially annoying to me, as it's the same tone Motorola police/fire radios give out when their battery is low...which I hear all night long at work........drives me NUTS to hear it away from work, as I'm subconciously/automatically thinking of looking for a charger with a spare battery to replace it with.

On Verizon: Been with them for 5 years now (since they were Ameritech mobile in my area), Nothing but good for me. The phone selection is not such a sticking point for me as Foo, as I prefer a simple phone-only solution and have been VERY happy with my original Nokia's and both my old Startac (ran over by a van and still worked), and my current V60i (dropped down a plumbing chase from two stories up, and only suffered some minor abrasions). My plans (on my third renewal now) have become less expensive with more coverage & services EVERY time, hard to gripe about that.

[Janak Parekh]

I don't really see the utility of IM either, although I use it from time to time. Saving a second or two seems to me to be reaching the point of diminishing returns.
It depends on what you use it for. As a business/productivity tool, it's far quicker than email, especially when you need interactive answers to formulate your next thoughts. If you've ever had a very fast email conversation with emails flying back and forth, they rapidly get increasingly difficult to control -- especially if multiple people are CC'ed.

Similarly, PTT is very common amongst the business and construction industry, where people are making very short, but interactive, bursts of communication.

--janak

[Janak Parekh]

What I do wish, is that more direct connect users would turn off/change the 10-4/roger tone that beeps at the end of every recieved transmission.
I've never had a Nextel phone, so I don't know: is it easy to change the tone on the Nextel Motorola phones?

--janak

[ux4484]

What I do wish, is that more direct connect users would turn off/change the 10-4/roger tone that beeps at the end of every recieved transmission.
I've never had a Nextel phone, so I don't know: is it easy to change the tone on the Nextel Motorola phones?

--janak

yes (AIR), you can turn it off, change the volume, and there is a built in selection (albeit limited) of tones to choose from.

[shawnc]

I'm just glad to see that others (Verizon at this point) are starting to offer "Push-to-Talk" services like NexTel has had for so long.

- Aaron

As far as I'm concerned that's a reason for not going with either of these two companies. I thought listening to one end of a cell phone conversation was irritating, but with that STUPID walkie talkie feature, I now have to listen to both ends of somebody else's cell phone conversation! Now I'm doubly irritated!!!! :bad-words:

Couldn't agree more! Anytime I have seen someone with a walkie-talkie type phone, its as if they think they are talking into a tin can with a string attached to it. One of the all-time worst ideas (IMO).