BBB Lists AT&T Lowest Complaints Among Mobile Carriers

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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May 9, 2000
Messages
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We are forever hearing about the complaints against AT&T for bad this or that, but according to the Better Business Bureau, AT&T has the lowest amount of complaints out of all the major cellphone carriers. Sounds like AT&T customers complain a lot to each other, but not through official channels.

Obviously, there are a lot of factors here -- just because a company does or doesn't get a lot of BBB complaints doesn't necessarily reflect 1:1 on its service.
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Well, from what I know about the BBB is that it has become increasingly unreliable, since companies can buy good ratings anyways. I'd trust Consumer Reports more than the BBB.
 
The numbers would be higher if not for the dropped calls...
 
I used at&t since cingular days and verizon on the side a few times.

Honestly I don't understand the whole drop calls because it doesn't seem to really exist for me at least.

My best bud has verizon and he is always full of himself about verizon propaganda and always trying to compare his cell phone signal against me at various places. Almost 95% of the time were at the same amount of bars and the other 5% times sometimes he has signal (a bar or two) and sometimes it is the other way around.
 
I've received very good customer support from AT&T over the past few years and I was taken care of very well.

I went to change over from my T-Mobile rate plan to AT&T prepaid and I was given a new SIM card plus $25 credit on the plan for free. Can't complain since the SIM cards are supposed to cost $6 a piece, and I actually had to get 2 because the first was for being able to use a different phone (gophone sims are locked to the phone theyre activated to, not sure why) and the second one was for my old number transfer. The first was useless to me but I got to keep it anyway.

That's how a company keeps my business. The other companies' cu
 
Sorry for the extra posts (lack of edit button), but I do want to say that dropped calls are at the mercy of the phone you're using. Since iPhones (read: phones with crappy reception) are probably the majority of phones on AT&T's network, then yeah, I see how people tend to associate AT&T with dropped calls, but on just about any android phone I've used with AT&T, I've never had a dropped call.
 
another satisfied AT&T user here - willing to pay more for something that just works
 
I've had AT&T -> Cingular -> AT&T for almost 10 years now, and I may get one dropped call a year, if that. I haven't had a problem with them other than their slow roll-out of some of the phones I want.

That being said, the BBB is the biggest joke organization on the planet. I worked for this company once that didn't have any complaints against it, until some schmuck comes along and files one. I checked the BBB site for our company and they had listed my name as the owner of the business since I had been one of the people the complainer had spoken with. I contacted BBB to tell them their information on our business was incorrect, and they refused to update the filing with the accurate info I had given them. So much for accuracy...
 
They are so low since no one with ATT can actually complete a phone call to register the complaint in the first place.:p
 
When I used to have them, the customer support was fantastic. The two or three times I called I instantly got a US support rep who quickly helped me.

My problem was that it was a complete pain in the ass to get coverage and in some cases, would consistently drop the call in a few minute period. I switched to Verizon and it is SO nice never even thinking for a second whether or not I have a signal and usually I have a full 4G signal at that.
 
Considering the fastest way to get a AAA rating from the BBB is to pay for it, I do not believe a singe thing spouted by scam artists.
 
I think one difference with ATT is whether you are associated with a business account. I find it to be one of the best of any company I deal with. Thankfully I've never had to deal with the consumer side of the house which is where I think most of the problems are.
 
Thats because AT&T gives every one of there customer service reps a 250 dollar allowance per call to make the customers happy. So if someone calls in mad there bought off quickly.
 
I hear only negative things and bad press about ATT. Yet I wonder if they are so bad, why do they have over 100 million customers and that in their wireless division alone? You'd think if they were so bad, people would be leaving them in droves. :confused:
 
My guess is that AT&T's shitty service in some (many?) markets has already driven all the heavy data users over to Verizon.

Even today, the vast majority of users just talk and text on their phones. Some use email, and fewer still browse the web.

Those who are heavy data users are in a rather small minority, and are probably also likely to be the most vocal about the service.

AT&T has likely gotten to the point where most of their remaining users are either in decent markets (Boston isn't bad for AT&T) or are regular mom&pop users who are happy as long as they can place their one or two calls a day on their entry level phone.
 
I am not sure everyone realizes the BBB is NOT A GOVERNMENT AGENCY. (not that being a government agency would make it more reliable, but people think that way anyhow)

The BBB is a FOR-PROFIT company and they make their money from the businesses they claim to rate. Obviously that's a conflict of interest in the core of their business model. Pay more money to the BBB and you get a better rating. Large corporations almost never (or perhaps actually never) have a bad rating with the BBB, because they give lots of money to the BBB.
 
ninehunid said:
I get about 3+ dropped calls PER DAY
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Where do you live?

I have found that the quality of service depends very heavily on your location with AT&T, probably because of how Cingular came into existence 11 years ago, through the conglomeration of over 100 small local companies.

In western Massachusetts (I went to college at Umass) I found that my Cingular service at the time was actually superior to the Verizon many of my friends had.

Now that I live in the Boston area, and they have changed names to AT&T, I find that their service is not as good as Verizon's, but not terrible either.

My house does not have great coverage, but not bad enough that I drop calls. I can only think of two places where I repeatedly drop calls. I probably average one or two dropped calls per week.

I'm not much of a phone talker though, (I have a 450 minute plan, and usually use about half of it in a month) so that might explain why I don't drop many calls :p )
 
I live in the SF Bay area and Seattle and have found my reception with ATT to be pretty much perfect. Out in the middle of no where I've noticed that my dad's Verizon BB sometimes has better reception especially for data, but it's usually pretty close. I can't remember the last time I've gotten a dropped call either and that's including the time with cingular.
 
I used at&t since cingular days and verizon on the side a few times.

Honestly I don't understand the whole drop calls because it doesn't seem to really exist for me at least.

My best bud has verizon and he is always full of himself about verizon propaganda and always trying to compare his cell phone signal against me at various places. Almost 95% of the time were at the same amount of bars and the other 5% times sometimes he has signal (a bar or two) and sometimes it is the other way around
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.

That story is the truth.
Hell I even had a friend in highschool that was the exact same way. Always sucking Verizons e penis I swear.
 
ninehunid said:
I get about 3+ dropped calls PER DAY
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It could be your phone. I had the problem with a bad phone that I imported.

I don't do much calling, but I get about a dropped call once every 2 months, living in an otherwise isolated city of around 80k people. I think the problem is overblown.
 
most of the time complaints are from people who do not have att same with iphones "issues" that people complains about death grips and battery problems when they don't even own an iphone
 
sleepeeg3 said:
It could be your phone. I had the problem with a bad phone that I imported.

I don't do much calling, but I get about a dropped call once every 2 months, living in an otherwise isolated city of around 80k people. I think the problem is overblown.
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both my personal phone (galaxy s) and company phone routinely drop calls. rumor is that the local network doesn't switch towers/cells fast enough
 
Maybe AT&T has an inferior network, but Verizon phones seem to be more restrictive. That damn "Get It Now" button comes to mind, and they didn't offer Wifi on their phones at the time. I do not know what has changed, I am just not motivated to re-evaluate at this time. The point is that every company has strengths and weaknesses. AT&T has the best phones, Verizon the best network, maybe T-mobile the best plans, but most of these vary by location.

And just because you see that "4G" indicator doesn't mean everything will be fast, it is just the speed of your connection to the tower. Your phone could be slow, the website slow, or the tower could be saturated with traffic. With all the advertisement making 4G out to be the Holy Grail of wireless, they really should have some kind of end-to-end speed verification before displaying that moniker. 3G here is no better than EDGE, so it is really meaningless. Mostly a marketing gimmick.

And yes, I have seen fast 3G. I was drooling, and I used three times my monthly bandwidth in two days. Though it was still only 35 MB. :)
 
Could be a couple of factors, like lowered expectations, or the loud minority phenomena.
 
thats only because you either lose the will to live after fighting with their customer service phone tree, or nobody has the extra 3 hours it takes to get through the erratic line system at at&t stores. jesus that place is worse than the dmv
 
christianw said:
thats only because you either lose the will to live after fighting with their customer service phone tree, or nobody has the extra 3 hours it takes to get through the erratic line system at at&t stores. jesus that place is worse than the dmv
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While I have found that Verizon typically has better network coverage, their customer service has proven to be MUCH worse for us.
 
aireyc said:
I've had AT&T -> Cingular -> AT&T for almost 10 years now, and I may get one dropped call a year, if that. I haven't had a problem with them other than their slow roll-out of some of the phones I want.

That being said, the BBB is the biggest joke organization on the planet. I worked for this company once that didn't have any complaints against it, until some schmuck comes along and files one. I checked the BBB site for our company and they had listed my name as the owner of the business since I had been one of the people the complainer had spoken with. I contacted BBB to tell them their information on our business was incorrect, and they refused to update the filing with the accurate info I had given them. So much for accuracy...
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This.

If you look up 'Tassimo' online, you will find out it's owned by 'Gevalia'.

Last time I checked, Tassimo was owned by 'Kraft Foods, Inc'. :p
 
nerdydesi said:
I hear only negative things and bad press about ATT. Yet I wonder if they are so bad, why do they have over 100 million customers and that in their wireless division alone? You'd think if they were so bad, people would be leaving them in droves. :confused:
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really? you give your fellow man far too much credit bro, look at how many still have and are paying for completely unused AOL dial up service. Look around in your daily life as people do all sorts of mindless things like blocking the passing lane in traffic or driving in the pitch dark with no lights on at all. Watch as people follow what everyone else around them is doing without ever giving it a moments thought......yet somehow you think most of america has the wherewithal to actually do something about sub par service and take the initiative to actually call the BBB or call customer service or even change carriers? they are far too busy being absorbed in themselves to give a damn about anything that requires effort. humanity as a rule of thumb are mindless idiots
 
fatrat said:
This.

If you look up 'Tassimo' online, you will find out it's owned by 'Gevalia'.

Last time I checked, Tassimo was owned by 'Kraft Foods, Inc'. :p
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And Kraft owns Gevalia.

Anyhow, this is something that people who are aware how confirmation bias or peer pressure can influence their opinions known for a while. You want to make sure you didn't make the wrong choice in service so you are going to be protective of it. And at the same time if all you hear is that Brand X is bad, and you have Brand X anything that happens tends to make you believe that your service is going to eventually be that bad.

Two years ago reviewers complained about AT&Ts service because most of them are in AT&T's worst areas. This lead normal people to overreact to issues they ran into that also happens on other carriers and this added to the chatter. Now that things have improved and most of the reviewers/complainers have moved on or at least admit there's improvement the scores that AT&T had before for service are going back to normal.

Since I'm sure someone's going to say it, I'm not trying to imply that AT&Ts service is perfect and yes they do need to improve in several areas but as others said if it really was as bad as it's been made online they would be the distant #4, not T-Mobile, and the iPhone isn't the only thing that's keeps them within spitting distance of Verizon's numbers.
 
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