Findings Misleading in 1999 J.D. Power & Associates Cable/Satellite Customer Satisfaction Study, According to Charter Communications

Business Wire, Sept 3, 1999

ST. LOUIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 3, 1999--

Charter Communications has formally notified J.D. Power and Associates that its 1999 Cable/Satellite TV Customer Satisfaction Study, which was released Wednesday, contained serious flaws, and does not accurately reflect Charter's true performance in the area of customer satisfaction.

Charter obtained information from J.D. Power and Associates concerning people interviewed in the survey by geographic location. The survey reported customer responses from numerous areas not served by Charter, including four states in which Charter did not have operations. Furthermore, questions still exist about the validity of other reported Charter respondents. Similar flaws exist with respect to Marcus Cable, as the survey also included data from three states in which Marcus Cable did not operate.

Ironically, even among all of those surveyed, including the non-subscribers, Charter customer satisfaction actually increased between 1998 and 1999, as measured by the J.D. Power survey question: "Overall, how satisfied is your household with the cable TV service carrier you are currently using?" Yet, the published study and press releases from J.D. Power indicate a decline in Charter's purported customer satisfaction because of the J. D. Power organization's internally developed weighting formulas.

"I have personally lost all confidence in J.D. Power's ability to provide accurate ratings. The J.D. Power and Associates' survey has no relevance to Charter's operations," said Mary Pat Blake, Charter's Senior Vice President of Marketing and Programming.