A new survey of customer satisfaction by the American Consumer Satisfaction Index shows that while satellite providers top the list for TV service, the industry as a whole stinks. Cable and satellite providers scored the lowest amongst all industries covered by the ACSI including incumbent phone companies. (There isn't much love there either; landline phone companies have been sliding in customer satisfaction substantially since the 1996 Telecommunications Act.) Echostar, DirecTV, Time Warner, Comcast and Charter all showed substantial drops amongst their customers. It probably has something to do with steadily increasing rates, a lack of a la carte channel pricing, poor customer service and, at least in the case of Comcast, capricious enforcement of the terms of service.
As further evidence of the cableco's disconnect from Joe User, Comcast is talking about letting you watch a movie in your home the same day it opens in the theatres for $30-50 per screening. While it might be nice to beat the lines and put that fancy surround sound and digital projector to good use, that sounds like a whole lot of crazy to me. What can you expect from a company that charges $3.99 for a pay-per-view movie that's years old?
(See full articles here and here. Check out the ACSI scores here.)
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