March 30, 2005

Consumers Union said that customers considering a switch in wireless carriers should first consider Verizon Wireless, instead of Cingular Wireless, due to the number of complaints the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) received: 288.9 Cingular complaints per 1 million subscribers, a percentage judged too high.

"If you're considering a change of wireless carrier, you may want to look first to Verizon. It had the lowest number of complaints per customer among national carriers, and among all the carriers, relatively few complaints about service quality and billing," said Consumers Union.

Cingular and AT&T Wireless Services Inc. had the worst combined record for 2004, said CU, noting that AT&T Wireless had the worst complaint record two years running. Cingular acquired AT&T Wireless late last year.

"Cingular Wireless has a strong record of customer service. In fact, we recently introduced a number of significant initiatives to improve the customer experience," said Rochelle Cohen, a Cingular spokeswoman.

"The combined companies ended the year with 49.1 million customers. While we take each complaint very seriously and are always striving for improvement, the number of complaints represents an infinitesimally small portion of our customer base."

CU said a major factor in the number of complaints about AT&T Wireless was the carrier's much-publicized difficulties in implementing wireless local number portability during 2004.

The FCC said it could not confirm the CU data because it cannot share somebody else's Freedom of Information Act request. CU said it had received the complaint information through a FOIA request.

Source: RCR News