Annual Cell Phone Survey by Consumer Reports

The Annual Survey of Cell-Phone Service conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center found that less than half of cell phone users are satisfied with their service. The survey highlights cell phone service being among the lower-rated services surveyed in the past 6 years. According to the survey:
Verizon and Alltel scored higher than other providers this year, as they have in the past.
T-Mobile matched satisfaction rates for Verizon in almost all the cities surveyed.
T-Mobile plans generally offer more for the money than those of Verizon and Alltel.
Cell carriers are getting more consumer-friendly by prorating their hefty $150 to $200 early-termination fees and ending their heavy-handed practice of mandatory contract extensions when you make changes to your service plan.
Mandatory contract extensions were one of the top two complaints of survey respondents, tied with high costs for service.

Problems that the survey uncovered:

Poor coverage. Substandard service quality was the biggest reason our survey respondents switched carriers in the previous three years, our survey found.
Unsatisfactory customer service. The trouble spots include serious or persistent billing errors, maddening voice-mail menus, and the need to spend lots of time and effort yielding little help from customer service.
Early-termination fees. About one in seven survey respondents said they were seriously considering a switch to a better carrier but were discouraged from doing so by penalties that can run as high as $200 per phone line. Termination fees are especially onerous when a carrier keeps charging former customers a monthly service fee until they pony up the penalty.
Mandatory extensions. In the wake of legal actions, there’s movement on this issue, too, by some carriers.


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Annual Cell Phone Survey by Consumer Reports

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