Charter Communications Inc., which provides cable service in East Alabama, ranks last in customer satisfaction in a new nationwide survey released earlier this month.
The report comes from the American Customer Satisfaction Index at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.
It ranked companies in from a variety of sectors — accommodation, food service, health care, social assistance, information, transportation, warehousing and utilities — in customer service.
The report put Charter’s approval rating at 54 percent, down almost two percent from 2007.
The company tied for last with Comcast Corporation among communications companies included in the report.
DIrect TV Group, DISH Network, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable Inc., all came in ahead of the St. Louis-based cable company.
Lynne Coker, director of governmental affairs for Charter Communications, said the report is not a clear picture of what’s going on with the company.
Coker said the report may be measuring customer satisfaction only in regard to cable services and not the increased bundled services — cable, phone and Internet — the company offers.
“As people take advantage of those bundled services, those numbers should improve,” Coker said.
Coker said the Auburn market remains strong.
“Auburn is still a fabulous market for us,” Coker said. “There is the presence of a large college community that depends on reliable, high-speed Internet service, which we have and will continue to work hard to provide."
Opelika Mayor Gary Fuller, who has been trying to attract other cable operators to the area, disagreed.
“They absolutely abuse us with their high prices, and their customer service is non-existent,” he said.
He said the company has the worst customer service he has seen for a company of its kind.
In December 2009, Charter’s contract with Opelika comes up for renewal.
“(I am) anxious to negotiate because I’m angry with them, because I’m angry with the way they’ve treated us in Opelika,” he said.
(Brittany Whitley contributed to this report.)
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