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Survey Reveals America's Most Hated Cable Companies

...and the usual suspects round out the list.

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Earlier this year, a report from the American Customer Satisfaction Index showcased America’s overwhelming distaste for cable companies and ISPs. The survey ranked Comcast and Time Warner Cable dead last in customer satisfaction—below airlines, health insurance providers, and even the USPS.

But the funny thing about that study was just how unsurprising the results were. Everyone who reported on the news essentially responded, “Well, duh.”

Comcast and Time Warner Cable continue to vie for last place in a never-ending Kafkaesque landslide of public disapproval.

This week, J.D. Power and Associates released the findings of a similar customer satisfaction survey, this one focusing exclusively on the telecoms sector (including TV, broadband, and telephone services).

The survey assessed customer satisfaction on a regional basis within the U.S., but the conclusion was applicable nationwide: Comcast and Time Warner Cable continue to vie for last place in a never-ending Kafkaesque landslide of public disapproval. But to be fair, Charter, Frontier, and CenturyLink all fared nearly as poorly.

So who came out smelling like roses? AT&T and Verizon. Both companies offer next-gen fiber-optic services, which afford their customers much faster broadband speeds than traditional cable. The problem is that Comcast and TWC users usually don't have access to fiber-optic broadband because of local monopolies.

Those who do have access to Verizon FiOS or AT&T U-Verse may want to get onboard while the gettin’s good. AT&T recently revealed one heck of a deal: $39 a month for broadband, basic channels, an Amazon Prime membership, and a HBO subscription. To put it mildly, that's the kind of deal that engenders customer satisfaction.

But J.D. Power says it's really all about the uptime: “The ability to provide a high-quality experience with all wireline services is paramount as performance and reliability is the most critical driver of overall satisfaction,” said Kirk Parsons, senior director of telecommunications, in a statement.

Comcast and TWC users usually don't have access to fiber-optic broadband because of local monopolies.

“While customers may be leveraging the same network or connection across multiple services," he continued, "their experience can be different given the equipment type, connection to the home, service plans used and the different activities performed on each.”

Of course, bad customer service—in all its humiliating, hair-pulling, unjustifiable forms—can torpedo even the most reliable, affordable service.

We took the liberty of averaging the regional customer service scores for each company in the broadband and cable sectors. Check it out:

Cable ISP Customer Service Averages

Further Reading: Sympathy for the Devil: Comcast on Net Neutrality


Via: BGR Hero image: Flickr user "small_realm" (CC BY 2.0)

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