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Why Americans Loathe Cable Companies
HughPickens.com writes: Vikas Bajaj writes in the NYT that the results are in and the American Customer Satisfaction Index shows that customer satisfaction with cable TV, Internet and phone service providers have declined to a seven-year low. Of the 43 industries on which the survey solicits opinions, TV and Internet companies tied for last place in customer satisfaction. "Internet and TV have always been among the lowest scoring," says David VanAmburg, director of the Index. "But this year they're at the very bottom." The study, which is based on more than 14,000 consumer surveys, gives companies a rating from 0 to 100. The ACSI reports huge drops in customer satisfaction for Comcast and Time Warner Cable, following their failed merger. Already one of the lowest-scoring companies in the ACSI, Comcast sheds 10 percent to a customer satisfaction score of 54. Meanwhile, Time Warner Cable earns the distinction as least-satisfying company in the Index after falling 9 percent to 51. Joining Time Warner Cable in the basement is ACSI newcomer Mediacom Communications (51), which serves smaller markets in the Midwest and South. "Customer service in these industries has long been bad," says VanAmburg of Internet and TV providers. "They don't have a good business model for handling inquiries with efficiency and respect. It goes back a decade plus."
Even though those complaints are longstanding, customer frustration has risen along with the ever-rising prices. "You compound all that with the prices customers are paying, and that's the final straw," says VanAmburg. "They're opening bills each month and saying 'I'm paying how much?'" In an age of over-the-top viewing options like Hulu and Netflix, customer dissatisfaction may increasingly translate to companies' bottom lines. "There was a time when pay TV could get away with discontented users without being penalized by revenue losses from defecting customers," says Claes Fornell, chairman and founder of the Index. "But those days are over."
Even though those complaints are longstanding, customer frustration has risen along with the ever-rising prices. "You compound all that with the prices customers are paying, and that's the final straw," says VanAmburg. "They're opening bills each month and saying 'I'm paying how much?'" In an age of over-the-top viewing options like Hulu and Netflix, customer dissatisfaction may increasingly translate to companies' bottom lines. "There was a time when pay TV could get away with discontented users without being penalized by revenue losses from defecting customers," says Claes Fornell, chairman and founder of the Index. "But those days are over."
If only google fiber rolled out across the country, then these "providers" would shit their pants as they became irrelevant and insolvent.
For a service that I used only a handful of times a week, the straw the brolemthe camel's back for me was the automatic rate increase every year until you call to complain. That's just abusive and degrading. I don't want to haggle for my service. Offer me a price that is fair to both of us and make it the same for all customers with the same service. Allowing me to haggle just means you don't value my time.
I see the glass as full with a FoS of 2.
I just moved to a new city. In my old city, I had Charter. I was paying ~$60/month for 30 meg service but my speed tests would show I could sometimes get 50 meg service. Unfortunately it one occasions, it would drop to 0.01 meg service.
In my new city, I have to use Comcast. Where there closest to the same price as my old service is only 6megs. Speed tests show the actual is 7 megs and pretty consistent. I get the Xfinity cable modem to find to my dismay that it's got a useless router build in. Ok I go into the setup to see if I can turn off the wifi etc... Nope there is no way to turn of all the useless router. So I bought my own modem so I can set it up the way I want and not need to pay their rental fee. Install it once they provisioned it works fine. So I return the modem to Comcast and they give me a receipt. Next month, there is still a charge for modem rental fee on my bill. Call them to have it removed. They can find no record of me returning the equipment. So now I need to fax the receipt to them because they have never heard of this thing called email.
Voter initiatives to install municipal infrastructure (fiber, cable, etc) and outlaw monopoly franchise agreements. This way you don't have to wait for corrupt politicians to do it.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
I think the biggest issue is that you're locked into a provider by area. What makes people (including myself) angrier than having terrible customer service is having terrible customer service and no real alternatives to choose from. For TV you pretty much have one cable provider, maybe verizon/AT&T as an alternative, and the various satellite providers - which isn't the worst. However for internet, the satellite providers are slow - so only useful if you can't get DSL or cable. So you have one cable provider and maybe one DSL. Both have jacked up prices and terrible service; then you just accept it, pick the cheapest one(which isn't that cheap), and grumble on reviews. Oh and if you live in one of the few places that have google fibre or similar then you naturally take that. What it comes down to is that the monopolized system has hurt the customers (surprise, surprise).
suck it cable companies, we dont need you anymore, we just need internet access and-DAMMIT. well played cable companies, well played.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
The more interesting question is "Why do American cable companies loathe Americans?"
The major source of frustration is tied to the lack of compatition. Most areas I know have little option to leave their cable contract because the industry has made sure there are no competing services that would spur their customer service into actually playing nice to retain their customers. They know that they don't need to care because all other options have reduced quality. I for one have no options other than pulling the plug to go with multiple antennas for terestrial broadcasts from 40 miles away, or satellite. No real internet options. The 'last mile' predicament leaves me wondering how much Comcast actually pays to keep the compatition out of my community. Any mergers will only make their position stronger so they can afford to raise prices even more as they reduce what channels I get on my plan. I currentlt have less than half tha channels that I had with Adelphia before that merger, and what I have left is mostly junk other than PBS where there is actually more selection through terestrial.
So, what actions are you taking to circumvent the monopolies?
Oh right, bitching and moaning as an Anonymous Coward.
Lead by example.
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
In the many places thanks to the move to digital you can get all the networks for free but many people don't bother which I think is dumb. In many other locations the cable companies have changed the way TV stations work. I can get about 12 channels on my TV with a simple antenna. Only two are networks! The cost of entry is low but the major networks do not want to be in this OTA market because the cable companies have to pay to carry them now.
I think that the law should change so that cable companies only have to pay for the broadcast channels that customers can get with an antenna. TV used to be free and we need to go back to that. It is insane to pay for a TV with ads!
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Cable did it to themselves.
They figured out they could jack up prices with impunity. Then their content providers figured out all the cash they were bringing in, and jacked up their money (and carriage) demands, too. Cable largely didn't care because they knew they could just pass on these costs to their customers.
Now that they've bled the pig, it's squealing and getting its feed elsewhere.
Except that the city having Google Fiber isn't every house having access. Google announced that Google Fiber was coming to certain neighborhoods in Atlanta. Guess what, AT&T and Comcast both announced new faster speeds for less money! But only in the same neighborhoods that are getting access to Google Fiber. It's obvious they have the capability and would still make money, but have no incentive to unless someone comes into the market offering something better. And if they do up their speeds and lower their prices, they sure as hell aren't going to offer it to the poor bastards that don't have a choice.
Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
I prefer free-markets where I can get them, but the last mile is anything but a free-market.
It's time to declare the last mile a public utility - just like roads, sewer, and power. Build and maintain fiber networks just like we build and maintain roads, sewers and the power grid.
Any number of companies could compete to offer data, voice, and video over that publicly maintained infrastructure.
This way maximizes competition where possible and minimizes monopolistic control over things that are "natural" monopolies.
As someone who has a choice of one cable provider (Brighthouse) or one telecom company (AT&T) I've been following fiber deployments fairly closely. There are a few companies deploying Google Fiber style networks in my state but they are moving slowly and not hitting my area any time soon. As such I contacted Google to ask if there was anything on the net to help interested communities build out their own networks. Within a few hours they got back to me with this: http://www.ftthcouncil.org/ While Cable and Telecom companies continually try to stamp out such efforts there are a number that have gone through. If we can get more communities on this bandwagon it would help make them harder to stop. Head to the page, share the information, and start evangelizing in your area.
Coffee: The lifeblood of intelligence in civilization.
While I have many issues with ISPs that have been covered fairly well by other responses here, one issue that few have talked about is reliability of the service, and the ability to get it fixed when it breaks.
At least around here, it seems almost 1 out of every 2 people has some significant reliability problems with their Internet connectivity, and isn't sure how to fix them. When they call the ISP (whether it's cable, DSL, fiber, LTE, ..) the first thing they ask them is to reboot their modem and/or router and/or computer. When that doesn't fix it, the tech doesn't know what else to do. They often send out a guy to take a look, who'll say that your cable modem is shot, and have you get a replacement. If it's under warranty or owned by the cable company, sometimes that might be free; if you own the equipment and it's out of warranty, you have to put up for a new one.
But 8 times out of 10, replacing your modem / routers does not fix the problem. Nor does going from WiFi to ethernet -- another common "fix". Sure, WiFi has problems, but if your issue is actually with some part of the cable, especially if it's a part that's buried underground, it can be nearly impossible to convince the company that the problem is there, and moreover, to get them to dig it up and replace it.
I'm on a grandfathered unlimited LTE data plan as my primary Internet connection, now. Cellular towers are pretty reliable due to their centralized infrastructure and the number of users it would affect if they were having a problem. I've had a few persistent issues with my LTE connection that lasted for weeks, but each time, it magically went away after very little effort on my part, likely after they received hundreds of calls from other customers about the same problem, and had to send someone up the tower to fix it.
Those with landlines to the premises are in a much more difficult situation. The company is likely to pin the problem on hardware that is owned by you, or wiring that is installed within the walls of your house. They will not be willing to admit that the problem may lie with the line buried underground. Acknowledging that problem would effectively cause them to have to outlay a significant cost to a contractor to dig up and replace the cable, so instead, they treat each individual support call as a new incident, and forget all the history of your problem where you've diligently worked by process of elimination to determine that it must be something in the line.
I remember years ago when we used deduction to determine that our DSL problem must lie with the phone line beyond the premises of our house. We replaced all our devices, hooked up to ethernet instead of WiFi, and even completely replaced all the DSL filters and phone line wiring in our house. The problem persisted. But the tech support guys kept experiencing a case of amnesia; every time we called, despite trying to ask them to refer to previous tickets and things we'd already tried, they just wanted us to reboot our modem, over and over and over and over again, as if that would help. This would happen even if we got the same tech support person on multiple calls.
At work, a lot of people come to me for advice on problems they're having with tech at home. I don't know why they do it; they just do. I get my fair share of laptop problems; Windows won't boot; they have a virus; whatever. But the #1 most frequent problem I get is that their Internet is unreliable and drops out all the time. Occasionally I'll find that replacing their cable modem fixes the problem, but in many more cases, we narrow it down to the landline, or at least to an ONT or something exterior to their dwelling that isn't owned by the resident -- at which point, you're basically at a dead-end.
The willingness to address problems, and to refer to case history to eliminate potential sources of problems, is seemingly absent from nearly all ISP support employees. And you wonder why their ACSI score is low...