The cellular phone-industry remains high on the list of the most complained about industries in the United States, according to 2003 data from the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB).
The CBBB said it processed 18,323 wireless-related complaints in 2003, improved from 21,534 complaints in 2002 when wireless was ranked the most-complained-about industry. Still, for 2003, the industry ranked as the second-most complained about, behind only automobile dealers, which generated 23,729 complaints.
“BBB complaint data concerning cell phones is in part attributable to the growth in popularity of a new technology,” explained Ken Hunter, president and chief executive officer of the CBBB. “The rapid increase in customers and the complexity of the marketing and the technology probably combined to cause a surge in volume of complaints in the past few years.”
The CBBB said most wireless industry complaints were about billing, quality of customer service, and misrepresentation or miscommunication by sales or customer service personnel. In addition, “the BBB complaint review found that it was not uncommon for small misunderstandings, related to service, equipment or billing, to balloon into much larger customer service issues, enraging the customers and, in many cases, overwhelming the original issue,” Hunter added.
The CBBB plans to implement a more industry-specific complaint process in 2004 in an effort to better monitor trends in complaints against the wireless industry and to evaluate their impact on customer satisfaction.
