No love connection: Survey finds few Americans happy with cable service

A new survey confirms what many people already suspect: Few Americans are satisfied with the service provided by their cable or telecom company.

Consumer Reports looked at all of the nationwide cable bundlers -- those companies offering "triple play" packages of Internet, cable and phone -- and found that Verizon FIOS scored the highest in customer satisfaction, but still got low ratings when it comes to value. Meanwhile, cable giants Comcast and Time Warner, which have announced plans to merge, scored low across the board on everything from customer support to value to billing.

"Telco providers rate among the worst services in terms of satisfaction that we survey," said Consumer Reports electronics editor Glenn Derene, in an interview with CBS Radio News. "And when you specifically ask people about value, they score terribly."

"Our latest report on telecom services revealed that very few consumers think they're getting a great deal, in part because of soaring prices and confusing bills," Derene said. In fact, the survey found that cable prices have far outpaced inflation over the years, costing the average household some $1,700 more in today's dollars, as compared to 1999 prices.

In other words, what was a moderate household expense 15 years ago is now a major expense. "Internet, television [and] telephone comes out to around $154 a month," Derene said. "We worked that out to almost $2,000 a year, and that's more than the average household spends on clothing, furniture or electricity."

There are ways of mitigating the expense. One way is to join a growing movement to "cut the cord."

"Provided you're relatively close to the broadcaster, you can get high-definition, over-the-air TV through a conventional pair of rabbit ears," said Derene, while noting that this often isn't an option. "There's a lot of talk and discussion about cord-cutting, but not everybody is actually pulling the trigger."

Another idea, and one that can save consumers big bucks, is to haggle with their telecom providers. "Get on the phone, and literally just tell them I think I'm paying too much -- I think my bill is too high," said Derene.

Consumer Reports found that 46 percent of consumers who asked for a better deal got one, sometimes seeing a drop of as much as $50 in their monthly bill. Some 44 percent said they got an extension on a promotional rate, and a third said they were offered extra channels for free.

"There's never a down side to try to haggle a little with your provider," said Derene.