The US mobile-telecommunications industry has an extraordinary number of dissatisfied customers: mobile carriers are the target of more consumer complaints to Better Business Bureaus—upward of 21,500—than any other kind of company, having taken the number-one spot away from automobile dealers.1
Some 20,000 complaints against US mobile carriers during an 18-month period ending in 2003 were analyzed to shed light on this phenomenon. Then 5,000 of these received a more detailed examination in hopes of further clarifying the problems and the way carriers responded to them.2 The sample included complaints about all major mobile carriers and from all 50 states. There were significant variations: the worst-performing carrier received 5.7 times as many complaints per million subscribers as the best.
Nearly two-thirds of the incidents involved billing problems (Exhibit 1). Three major categories emerged: setup and access, including difficulties retrieving statements online or getting detailed call logs; errors, many involving calls made while phones (according to their owners) weren't in use; and the failure of statements to reflect terms, such as credit or rate-plan changes, negotiated in discussions with customer service agents. When adjusted for size, the worst-performing carrier in the three categories received 3.8 times more billing complaints...