Facebook Tanks in Customer-Satisfaction Survey

If Facebook can remember these five facts about user privacy, its headaches may begin to fade.

Facebook is set to reach the 500 million user mark, but it's suffering from some relationship issues with its current crop of friends. The social-networking site, included in this year's American Customer Satisfaction Index, scored in the bottom 5 percent of all private-sector companies, according to TG Daily.

Facebook's 64 on the ACSI's 100-point scale puts it on par with airline and cable companies and below the U.S. Internal Revenue Service e-filing site. Facebook's one saving grace is that MySpace, it's chief rival, is the only company that scored lower. Apparently users are satisfied with social networks about as much as they trust them.

According to the report, there were no shortage of complaints about Facebook, Computerworld reports. The main issues users had with Facebook weren't surprising: privacy concerns, interface changes, advertising, navigation problems and notifications from applications.

Dan Olds, an analyst for The Gabriel Consulting Group, sums up the situation nicely:

Facebook is the dominant social network. The site definitely has been hurt by the turmoil surrounding their privacy policies but there really isn't a strong alternative right now. So even though their customer satisfaction scores suck, users are going to continue to flock there because Facebook is where their friends are.