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Best & Worst Wireless Carriers: Grading the Support

Dec 29, 2010 02:22 PM EDT by Sean Ludwig  

Report Cards and Final Verdict


Carriers In Store Web Support Phone Support Overall
C+ C+ B- C+

B+ C+ A- B
A- B+ B B+
C C- B+ C+

There are many factors that go into choosing a wireless carrier, from quality of reception to data speeds to pricing and selection of handsets. For many consumers, getting friendly, knowledgeable tech support may be less important than having the latest smart phone. However, when you need answers to basic questions like “can I tether my phone to my laptop,” you deserve accurate answers.

Both Verizon and AT&T provided friendly brought up the year in our undercover report. Both carriers fared pretty well on the phone, but our in-store and online experiences didn’t measure up. If you choose either of those carriers, assume that you’ll need to find at least some answers on your own. Sprint’s phone-based support was best, and we were generally pleased with the knowledge and attitude of associates.

Overall, T-Mobile offered the best support of the big four carriers. Not only were reps friendly, they were willing to go to the extra mile to dig up helpful tips. That’s service.


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Comments (3 Responses) 

3 Responses to “Best & Worst Wireless Carriers: Grading the Support”

  1. DJ Smith Says:
    December 30th, 2010 at 1:32 pm

    I tethered my Droid using the PDANet app but ended up leaving Verizon for T-Mobile and a G2 which I like much better.

  2. cm Says:
    December 30th, 2010 at 5:37 pm

    One correction, tethering IS support on the BB Tour with Sprint. I have 200 devices using it.

  3. K De Says:
    January 4th, 2011 at 4:38 pm

    I think you are biased in your grading of T-Mobile phone support experience. This carrier shoud have received a C or a C- grade for Phone support instead of the generous B. You said the phone tree was laborious, you got transferred to another rep for the answer to one of your three questions, one of them incorrectly told you the Cliq can be used as a modem, one of them told you to power cycle the phone regularly to conserve battery (wow!), one call took 25 minutes and the other took 16 minutes (and you said T-Mo reps were fast?), and one of them even told you to root the phone in order to tether, which would void your warranty. Are you being objective about this?

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