Customer Satisfaction at AT&T and T-Mobile Drops

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According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index Survey, AT&T and T-Mobile's customer satisfaction has dropped, and Sprint has accelerated to tie for first place with Verizon. Here's how the index breaks down:

1. Verizon and Sprint Tied for 1st place, with score of 72
2. T-Mobile in 2nd place drops to 70, from 73 last year
3. AT&T is stuck in last place after dropping from 69 last year to 66

Here's a quote from the Yahoo! News article explaining some of the changes,

The American Customer Satisfaction Index also shows tentative declines in customer satisfaction at the other two big carriers, AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA. That comes as AT&T has agreed to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion in a deal that could close next year.

The acquisition could make AT&T and T-Mobile customers even less happy. Claes Fornell, professor of Business Administration at the University of Michigan and the designer of the ACSI survey, said it is common to find that customer satisfaction drops after a merger.

Cellphone-company mergers bring struggles to combine billing systems, customer support and other functions. Snags can frustrate consumers. One reason Sprint had the worst score in the industry for many years was its disastrous merger with Nextel in 2005.

Sprint and Verizon Wireless both rate a 72 for customer satisfaction in the ACSI survey, which polled 8,000 households in the first quarter. For Sprint, that's a big jump from a score of 56 three years ago, while Verizon's score has been steady. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has made improvements in customer service a centerpiece of his turnaround plan for the troubled company.

It's not surprising to see the drop in satisfaction with AT&T and T-Mobile, but it's pretty surprising to see such a huge increase for Sprint over just the last 3 years. What do you guys think of these results? Share your experiences with your respective carriers with us in this thread.

Source: Yahoo! News