JD Power just released its cable customer satisfaction ratings – guess who ranked dead last?

Three things are certain in life: Death, taxes, and low customer satisfaction ratings forComcast and Time Warner Cable. DSLReports points out that the cable industry’s non-dynamic duo have come in last place in JD Power’s latest customer satisfaction survey of cable customers.

Although cable companies as a whole have always had poor customer satisfaction, Comcast and Time Warner Cable have distinguished themselves over the years as truly being the very worst of the worst. Comcast in particular this past summer got routinely humiliated after several customers recorded their phone calls with its customer service representatives and posted them on the Internet.

Comcast has, of course, vowed to fix these problems just as it’s been vowing to fix them for years. Last week the company appointed an executive named Charlie Herrin as its new senior vice president of customer experience. In its announcement of Herrin’s hiring, Comcast said that its customer service has been poor recently because it’s been too focussed on being “innovative” when it comes to thinking up exciting new products.

Comcast has been lobbying lawmakers and regulators about the merits of its plan to merge with Time Warner Cable, although given how much both companies’ customers dislike them, it’s hard to imagine many people being persuaded by these arguments.