Verizon takes the top spot for JD Power’s customer care award

By Cory Gunther
on 8 Feb, 2013

Just like last year and the year before the folks from Verizon Wireless are the number 1 ranked wireless carrier in terms of customer care and service. According to the popular JD Power and Associates, who’ve awarded Verizon the top spot for the fourth year in a row, Verizon isn’t showing any signs of slowing down and continues to offer great customer service.

The full report and awards are based off of feedback from thousands of customers and questions in a series of online surveys. Telephone, walk-in, and online customer care is all tallied up for a total score with a possibility of 1000. Verizon once again tops the chart with a score of 766. AT&T took a close second but still didn’t outscore Big Red.

Interestingly enough the folks from T-Mobile have taken a turn in the wrong direction, and actually scored last among the 4 major US carriers. A full 50 points below Verizon while AT&T was just 7 points behind the leader. That’s pretty much dead last and certainly not a good sign.

jd_power

Verizon has quite the social network customer care plan especially over on Twitter, so that probably net them a few additional points. The survey also calls out non-contract pre-paid customers and MetroPCS was leading the pack, with Cricket Wireless down near the bottom. T-Mobile use to have the best CS around. So what’s changed? We don’t want to call anyone out but feel free to drop a horror story or two below. Good experiences are also nice to read too so lets hear em.

[via CNET]

Byron Palmer

I have T-Mobile and love them. I have never had an issue that they have not resolved quickly, and it has been very cost effective. They even gave me a free month recently, I assume because I have been with them a long time.
- http://www.androidcommunity.com Cory Gunther
  
  I was with them for like 7 years and I never got a month free. that’s crazy talk.
  
  Thanks for the comment though
Kyle Cordiano

AT&T for 12 years. Never a problem.
phor11

In the past 5 years I’ve had AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile.
IMHO, there’s more to customer service than retail stores and call centers. Verizon’s data pricing is the biggest ripoff in the entire industry. That puts them dead last in my book.

After experiencing ludicrous SMS pricing with AT&T and then seeing Verizon follow suit with their data plans a few years later, I recently picked up a Nexus4 and T-mobile’s Monthly 4G service.

I had a definite setback when trying to activate. When my phone came in, I ran to the local T-Mobile store to pick up a microSIM. The retail store wouldn’t sell me a SIM unless I activated a plan with them, but they wouldn’t activate the plan I wanted because it was only available online. So even though they had microSIM’s in the store, I had to order one online and wait for delivery. When the SIM was delivered, the activation code they sent with it gave me a “this code has already been used” error. It took about 10 minutes talking to the call center to get it resolved, but by the time they got my number transferred after activation, I ended up having to pay for 1 day’s service on the next month’s bill with Verizon. So I wasn’t all too happy with the way that was handled.

But once I got passed that initial hurdle, it’s been really great. If you use data and SMS more than you talk on your phone, $30 a month for 100 minutes/unlimited text/unlimited data simply can’t be beat if you live in an area that gets T-mobile’s HSPA+.

The fact that JD power didn’t even mention T-Mobile in the non-contract section is pretty fishy to me. Their “Monthly 4G” plans are by far their best plans.