With the clock winding down on its pending merger with Comcast, Time Warner Cable ended the year on a slightly sour note, being named the least popular brand in not one but two categories (Internet and Video service) in a consumer satisfaction survey done by the University of Michigan.
Time Warner Cable placed dead last in both categories in the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index, a comprehensive survey that involves about 70,000 interviews covering 230 brands.
According to ACSI, Time Warner Cable scored a 54 out of a possible 100 for its Internet service and its pay TV service scored a 56, to take the two worst spots in the survey. The second worst spot for ISPs belonged to – you guessed it – Comcast’s Internet service, which scored a 57 out of a possible 100. Comcast also finished second to last for video service, scoring a 60 out of a possible 100, compared to 63 in the previous year.
“We are always looking for ways to deliver improved value, reliability and service to our customers,” Time Warner Cable said in a statement. “We are investing nearly $4 billion into our network and operations in 2014 alone to provide faster speeds, new set-top boxes and better overall customer experiences. Specifically, we have added new channels and On Demand content; expanded access to live TV and On Demand via our TWC TV app to eight different platforms such as Kindle, Xbox and Roku; and provided access to more than 300,000 WiFi public hotspots. We now also offer popular one-hour appointment windows and expanded weekend and evening appointment options."
All pay TV providers scored lower in the most recent survey than in the previous year, especially when it came to video service. Charter Communications scored 60 for video service in 2014, down from 64 in the prior year; Cox Communications scored 63, down from 65 in 2013. DirecTV (69) and Dish Network (68) also fared worse than in the previous year, when they scored 72 and 70, respectively. Survey leader AT&T U-Verse with a score of 69 was below the 71 it scored in the prior year as was Verizon’s FiOS TV’s 68, five notches below the 73 it scored in 2013.
On the ISP side, telco competitors Verizon Communications’ FiOS and AT&T U-Verse topped the list with scores of 71 and 65, respectively, matching their previous year’s tally. Rounding out the ISP scores were Charter with 61 (compared to 65 in 2013); and Cox with 64 (compared to 68 last year).
The ACSI survey was started in 1994 and was developed to provide information on satisfaction with the quality of products and services available to consumers
