AT&T: Worst Wireless Phone Company in America?

If you're an AT&T subscriber like me, you've probably heard it all. The service nightmares. The complaints. And all those dropped calls.

My colleagues over at the Consumerist even refer to the wireless giant, which is about to devour T-Mobile, as the Death Star. (It was a finalist for its Worst Company in America award this year.)

So it should come as absolutely no surprise that readers of this site named AT&T the worst wireless carrier in America by a wide margin. More than half (56 percent) identified it as the wireless company with "the worst service." It was followed by Sprint (20 percent), T-Mobile (13 percent) and Verizon (11 percent).

But how bad is AT&T, really?

I begin with my own bias. I'm an AT&T subscriber because I had no choice. A few years ago, if I wanted an iPhone, it was my only option (other than jail breaking the phone).

I'm no hacker, so I went with AT&T.

My experience reflects Vocal Laboratories' latest survey results (PDF), which suggest AT&T has issues with call quality and customer service. I have a real problem with its restrictive contracts and the way in which it tries to charge extra for tethering to my laptop. I also am less than pleased with its international wireless plans, which charge out the wazoo.

The comments from readers were equally unflattering.

"AT&T has the worst rate of dropped calls," says Matthew Russell. "I had them for around a year in Iowa and it was atrocious. I recall having to step outside of my workplace to send or receive a text message."

When Russell asked AT&T to investigate the service problem, it sent him a terse note that said, "We show coverage there and won't need to send an engineer out to investigate further."

Tom Measday said he, too, felt like a prisoner of AT&T, thanks to his preference for the iPhone. (You can now get an iPhone through Verizon.)

"Love my iPhone," he says. "Hate their service."

Measday lives in Cape May NJ, part of the year. "On most days, there's no service for four or more hours a day -- neither voice nor data," he says.

He recently received letter from an AT&T vice president thanking him for his "loyalty" and boasting of the company's improving service in northern New Jersey. He wrote back, asking about its spotty coverage on the shore.

AT&T didn't respond.

As much as I want to give AT&T a break, I find it difficult to do so. For example, I could say AT&T is bigger, and therefore gets more complaints. But that's not true. Verizon, with its 102 million subscribers, is the largest wireless company. It also received the fewest votes for "worst" carrier. AT&T, which has 97 million subscribers, is the nation's second-largest.

I could even say that my own survey results were somehow biased, because of my disclosure that I'm an AT&T customer, and because of the Vocal Laboratories results. But I can't even do that.

In a market where there's a lot of choice, being bad isn't a problem. Customers can just take their business elsewhere. But with the likely T-Mobile merger on the horizon, consumers will have even fewer choices, and AT&T will be able to offer whatever "service" it wants.

Many will have no real options.

I'm trying to think of some clever Star Wars quote to end this post, but I can't. This Death Star seems too real.

Related:

• Does Every Business Really Need Twitter?
• Can You Be Low Cost When You Tack On High Fees?

Photo: (M)factr/Flickr