Mobile Carriers and Dishwashers

I hate my wireless provider, Verizon. I am constantly in a state where I have little to no reception, and my friends and I are getting fed up with the amount of dropped calls. One time, my call dropped ten times in fifteen minutes. I have reason to believe my house is a dead spot and it's one of the areas on that map in the ads that isn't covered in red.

I also hate Consumer Reports. My problem with them is that they publish scores based on what the "average Joe" thinks. Unfortunately, I have found that average Joe is an idiot. Consumer Reports also has no idea what it's doing when it comes to categorization, as I've noticed in their camera ratings. Sometimes, two models that are identical in every way except megapixel count will be in different size categories. Sometimes, a within the same manufacturer, a smaller model will be in the bigger category. But more on that later.

An average person can only tell you average things. I am an average person in many ways. It is therefore wise that you not ask me to rate a dishwasher. I can't tell you much about it, or whether it's better or worse than other models in the range.

One time, the Lotus Elise was rated very poorly because the interior was cramped, the suspension was stiff, and the boot was small. I'm not sure if average Joe was expecting a sports car or a Crown Victoria.

Anyway, the lastest survey from Consumer Reports has concluded that Verizon is the best wireless carrier in the U.S. by ranking first in all 26 cities surveyed. AT&T, which Verizon has claimed on its ads to have spotty coverage, finished last in 19 of 26 cities.

As much as I don't like Consumer Reports, when the sample across 26 cities and they all say the same thing, there must be some truth to it. Cell phone providers are rather easy to rate, so hopefully average Joe hasn't made a hash of it. Can I hear you? Can you hear me? Good. I'm not so sure about the customer service categories, because I've never contacted them.

Likewise, I'm not sure how you can rate messaging to be significantly better than average, which is what average Joe has done here. The other day in Washington, D.C., I was able to place calls without issue but I everything incoming didn't get through for some reason. I missed a text message, a phone call, and the subsequent voice mail. When I finally got the voice mail, I had flown to New York, having been unable to meet up with a friend in Washington that day because I was unaware that she had called me to tell me she had some free time.

For that, I'd probably dock off a point but on average, I expect all of my messages to be delivered, whether incoming or outgoing. Therefore, I will never rate that service to be above average.
Anyway, there has been lots of press lately about how Verizon's ad campaign has been targeting how much AT&T sucks. The sad truth is, bad though Verizon may be, it's not as bad as the other choices. This is why I shouldn't rate a dishwasher; I may hate it with all my heart but maybe it's still better than everything else out there.

I don't hate my dishwasher; I find it distinctly average.

"Without question the surest indication of customer satisfaction is churn, or turnover. For the last quarter, our postpaid churn was just 1.17 percent.”

Let's evaluate this statement. If I have a contract with AT&T, no matter how terrible it is, I am unlikely to switch because they will slam me with a hefty early termination fee. When the contract is up, I may want out. Because I am not an iPhone user, I would be able to leave without hesitation. But if I were an iPhone user, I wouldn't have a choice. This is one factor for a low churn rate; the fact that I don't like the iPhone isn't going to change the fact that the general public perceives it to be in style.

Now, I'm not sure if they mean to say that the 1.17% of customers that do leave AT&T are replaced by an equal, if not greater, number of new customers. Given the expanding market, I would assume the answer to that is yes.