Americans have more hate for cable and Internet companies than ever before. A new survey by America's Customer Satisfaction Index has shown that Comcast and Time Warner Cable, two companies that are looking to merge with each other, are the most hated cable and ISP companies in America.
The companies ranked second to last and last, respectively, in the subscription TV and Internet service market. This should be worrying for both companies as an angry consumer means that as soon as something better comes along, these consumers will not think twice about jumping ship.
America's Customer Satisfaction Index surveyed 70,000 Americans, with eight companies placed in the spotlight. Time Warner Cable, according to the survey, came in last place with 56 points from 100. Comcast, on the other hand, came in at second to last place with a score of 60. Both companies also were at the bottom of the pile last year, though this time their scores are lower
If regulators should approve the planned merger, it is likely the scores will trend lower next year. With the rise of Google Fiber in several states, these companies might want to suck up to their customers if they want to keep them around for the years to come.
"Comcast and Time Warner assert their proposed merger will not reduce competition because there is little overlap in their service territories," says David VanAmburg, ACSI director. "Still, it's a concern whenever two poor-performing service providers combine operations. ACSI data consistently show that mergers in service industries usually result in lower customer satisfaction, at least in the short term. It's hard to see how combining two negatives will be a positive for consumers."
While Time Warner Cable and Comcast are very much hated, consumers seem to have love for Verizon Communications (FiOS) and AT&T's U-Verse. However, with AT&T looking to acquire DirecTV, which has gone down four points in the survey, it is possible AT&T might experience a sharp fall. We expect Verizon to hold on to the top spot while Time Warner and Comcast should keep the bottom spots occupied for quite some time.
You might be wondering, if consumers have no love for the cable and Internet company, then why not make the switch? That's a good question, but something that is easier said than done. Time Warner Cable and Comcast are massive companies with much of everything consumers want, but the same can't be said about others. So while consumers might have a lot of hate for these companies, there's isn't much they can do about it until a worthy alternative comes along.
The ACSI report includes the annual measure of ISPs, subscription TV service, fixed-line and wireless telephone service, computer software and cell phones, as well as findings for the top-selling smartphone brands available to U.S. consumers. It uses data from interviews with roughly 70,000 customers annually as inputs to an econometric model for analyzing customer satisfaction with more than 230 companies in 43 industries and 10 economic sectors.
