 Verizon's repair complaint rate has doubled over the last five years to well over twice the average at AT&T and Qwest. Citizens and CenturyTel are even higher. Verizon's installation complaints have also more than doubled, from best in the industry to worse. Jonathan Kraushaar's FCC report concludes
- Repair intervals are increasing on average 5.8% annually for the industry overall, 4.9% annually for the larger companies, and 7.3% annually for the smaller companies.
- Percentage of customers dissatisfied with residential repairs is increasing on average 4.3% per year for the larger companies.
- Percentage of customers dissatisfied with residential installations is increasing on average 7.3% per year for the larger companies.
Nearly all the increase came from a few companies, especially Verizon. I've sent a note to their state commissioners asking "What should be done about this?" Particularly interesting was that the CenturyTel complaint rate was as much as ten times as high as the rate at Embarq, which they took over earlier this year. I've asked the FCC commissioners who approved that takeover what role the problem played in their decision to allow the takeover; I doubt I'll get much response.
Here's some more details from the report:
The large company average trouble report rate increased from 169.2 troubles per thousand lines in 2007 to 176.2 in 2008, as shown in chart 2A. Similarly, the average large company
residential repair interval length increased from 26.7 hours in 2007 to 30.8 hours in 2008, with most large entities shown in Chart 7A reporting increasing repair interval length for 2008. The average repair interval for the smaller companies increased from 17.0 hours in 2006, to 21.5 hours in 2007 and to 22.7 hours in 2008, as shown in chart 7B. The average large company residential customer dissatisfaction with repairs increased from 13.1 to 15.1 percent dissatisfied in 2008, and it is now at its highest level in the six year period shown in Chart 6.
By way of contrast, the average length of the residential installation interval for large companies has remained constant over the past six years, as shown in chart 5A. Nevertheless, the
large company residential installation dissatisfaction level, as shown in chart 3, increased for the third consecutive year from 6.2 percent dissatisfied in 2005, to 6.5 percent dissatisfied in 2006, to 7.0 percent dissatisfied in 2007 and to 8.7 percent dissatisfied in 2008. For the smaller companies, the average installation interval, as shown in chart 5B, has also continued to increase from 2.7 days in 2005, to 2.9 days in 2006, to 3.1 days in 2007, and to 3.7 days in 2008.
The weighted average number of complaints per million access lines among the large price-cap carriers, as shown in chart 1A, increased for the fourth consecutive year from 93.9 in 2004, to 102.0 in 2005, to 119.1 in 2006, to 124.1 in 2007 and to 147.7 in 2008. |
