Net10 and TracFone Top J.D. Power Survey

The J.D. Power and Associates 2009 U.S. Wireless Prepaid Customer Satisfaction Study was released on July 30, 2009, and Net10 and TracFone finished #1 and #2.  Carlos Slim must be proud.  (Carlos Slim controls América Móvil, which controls TracFone).

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You can see how each carrier rated in each category here.  I found it interesting how Net10 and TracFone ranked differently, even though they are owned by the same company.

For example, Net10 got 4 stars for Initial Activation, while TracFone only got 3, yet the process is virtually identical for both.  

A bigger surprise, however, is that TracFone got 5 stars for Customer Service, while Net10 only got 3.  Who knows why this is.  Maybe Net10 users are more demanding than TracFone users.  For all the abuse TracFone takes over its customer service, you would think they would have been 1 star in that area, but in fact only TracFone and Alltel received 5 stars.

Now, before you flame me, I will readily admit that there many legitimate cases of less-than-stellar customer service by TracFone, but overall they stack up very well against other prepaid carriers.

Anyway, I hope you find the survey results interesting!

Comments

[ralph]

I agree, tracfone customer service sucks so bad that I left tracfone and went back to verizon. YES, went back to verizon. UGH!! I wish I could find a really good cell provider!!

Ralph

[shay]

i actually have had a few upsetting experiences with tracfone customer service. but i find that if you go off on them they eventually will credit you minutes or resolve the problem.

[GeoC]

Ordered a phone (Motorola w376g). Arrived promptly, but with an incorrect SIM card. Took an hour for a C.S. rep (in South America) to go through all their stuff to confirm that.

New SIM card arrived several days later, but again was an incorrect card. (Same lengthy procedure to confirm that fact.) OK, we'll send you another SIM card. A week later, when the card had not arrived, called only to find that they had cancelled the order, because I had already been shipped a card (the second card). Ok, we'll send you another one, hopefully correct. Same problem, someone intercepted the order, saying that I'd aready received a card (the third card). Now, a month later a "correct" SIM card is supposedly on the way---this will be the fourth card, including the one which was originally in the phone!

This is our second phone from TracFone---the first phone, purchased early this year, also had an incorrect SIM card in it, but that phone they got corrected on the first try, so they do (or should) know how to update their phones!

So far, I'm very unimpressed with TracFone Customer Service.

(As an aside, why at every step does the overseas TracFone C.S. person have to first apologize for asking the next question, then spend more time always saying, "Thank you for that information"? They could save a lot of my time and their time simply being concise (which they're not) and courteous (which they are) and get on with the job!)