AT&T tries to tell you they don't suck

What’s the key to having the nation’s best wireless network? Well, since your everyday, regular consumer comprises about, oh, 99.99 percent of cell subscribers, we’re apt to think that general service and customer satisfaction would be the answer. Apparently, we’re wrong, at least according to Frost & Sullivan. See, they’ve selected AT&T as their 2007 U.S. CXO’s Choice Award for Overall Best Wireless Service Provider. The people covered by the CXO Choice Award: C-level executives, meaning CEOs, CFOs, and the like. Basically, the highest executives in a company. What’s worse is what Frost & Sullivan had to say about the incident.

“This proves that AT&T is committed to providing better service to its customers and as a result, has enhanced its position in the highly competitive U.S. wireless service market,” says Tonya Fowler, Frost & Sullivan’s director of competitive benchmarking services. “AT&T has earned the top preference among business leaders, which is a demanding and powerful reference group with the ability to influence purchase decisions and enhance credibility for companies’ products and services.”

Yes. We always base our decisions on the influences of the CEO of Proctor and Gamble. Ooh, he likes the Microsoft Zune. Time to trash our iPod and do what the CEO says! Clearly, he has the best interest of the consumer in mind. Ms. Fowler, we are calling shenanigans on you. This in no way proves that AT&T is committed to providing better service to its customers. It proves that big executives prefer big telecom. Nothing more, but it certainly could be something less. And what’s this about a highly competitive U.S. wireless service market? Look, if it was competitive, we wouldn’t have baloney like early termination fees and two-year contracts. In fact, this report proves contrary to the executives. Regular people, you and me, don’t like AT&T. They don’t provide us adequate service. Yes, they might have quality network coverage in some areas of the country, but we’ve seen more than one AT&T phone fired across our living room in frustration. Most consumers do not like AT&T.

“This honor from Frost & Sullivan is significant because it represents a validation by the business community — our customers — that our strategy of focusing on the unique needs of business customers is the correct one,” says Kent Mathy, president, Business Markets Group for AT&T.

It’s a sad, sad day when the president of the Business Markets Group doesn’t understand the customer base of his company. Yes, AT&T has business customers, and it’s good to be satisfying them. However, they have far more — how can we describe this — regular customers. This validates nothing! It just means that some aristocratic schmucks prefer an aristocratic company. Big shocker there, we know. Things like this make our blood boil. AT&T sucks, and it seems their No. 1 priority is to give off an image of not sucking. Rather than actually not sucking. [San Antonio Business Journal]]]>