Y'all can complain about WalMart all you want but . . .

I can get a prescription filled there for $4 that would cost me 5 or 6 times that much elsewhere, even with medical insurance.

I bought a video game disc at a WalMart 300 miles from here. When it stopped working (got scratched) I took it in to a Wal Mart here and they exchanged it immediately - no receipt and no questions asked. To me that's Customer Service with a capital C.

Pat

1) Best Buy -- may they rot in hell for the busted TV they sold me. It took me nearly ONE YEAR of phone calls and house calls (and countless hours of my life I will never get back) for them to finally admit this and then replace it. Never EVER again will I buy more than a CD from this pile of dung.

2) Comcast -- they have a near monopoly where I live (Chicago) and are impossible to deal with. Not to mention if I even call with so much as a question they try to upsell me to death.

Comcast by far, ATT and their wonderful takeover of Bellsouth is second . . .

I vote for Sears for total incompetence when it comes to customer service, but AT&T gets a close second. It is amazing how many hours a person can spend on the phone trying to resolve issues with these two companies, getting cut off, listening to computer voices, being told it is resolved only to discover it hasn't been. I thank everyone for the head's up about Best Buy. I will definitely not do business with them. What is the alternative to Comcast?

#1 worst Sprint! #2 would be Bank of America.

Comcast gets my vote.

Bank of America. I am sick of being @$$ raped by their non-boa ATM fees. Sometimes, I go to areas (in the US) that have NO boas and I still get punished. I am sick of all their hidden fees. (NEVER get a savings account there.) Also, arbitrary rate increases? Please.

Nick: RIAA
Carrie: Blackwater
Billybobgeorgebob: For me it's Sears. I had to go through hell and back to get them to fix my refrigerator (thank god I had an extra one in the basement). Their repair guy was incompetent at best and took four visits to my house to try and fix it when he finally took our suggestion and replaced the compressor.
Barrett: Comcast.

The categories where Comcast excels for the worst company: Abysmal customer service, manipulation of their own networks, and just plain stupidity over their own operations.

It started when I moved down to my new place in Miami which was previously inhabited by my mom. First, Comcast came with a requisition form to pick up my mom's old cable receiver and the internet modem. After looking over the form that seemed legit, I procured the cable box and the internet modem left by my mom and handed it to the Comcast guy that showed up at my doorstep at 9:30 p.m. After conversing with my mom about a week later, my mom wonders where her internet modem went. I discover the internet modem was hers, bought through a non-Comcast affiliated party, yet it was on their requisition form anyway. Through her own dealings with Comcast's customer service and after 6 months of dealing with them, she has yet to receive her modem back.

Of course there's the whole torrent manipulation thing too. You guys already know about that one, so I won't even bother.

This part is dedicated to my own experience with Comcast's award winning customer service. I was taking online classes but lacked the internet. I had an online exam coming up within the week, so I was debating between AT&T's DSL and Comcast's internet service. Because Comcast had already wired the house for my mom, plus the fact that they promised to have the internet up and running by the Sunday when I needed to take the exam, I went with them. They promised to arrive Thursday to hook up my internet. They came and set up the cable, but no internet. The technician said he couldn't install internet in my house, saying my house wasn't properly configured (my mom previously had internet not a month before). I wasn't there and my wife was watching the baby, so I couldn't bitch the guy out. I called Friday and spoke to a guy named Jeremy, I believe, who said the technician was a "retard", and that he would send someone on Saturday to have my internet set up between 8a.m. and 12p.m. Well, 1 o' clock rolls around and I'm on the phone with a lovely associate named Nelonge or something and she tells me she doesn't know wtf this Jeremy guy did to my account, but that I was shit out of luck because I wasn't getting internet that day, or by Sunday when I needed to take the exam. Lovely. I ask to speak to a supervisor and she tells me in the rude ebonics that they apparently train their staff to communicate with, that no one can do anything.

Comcast promised me timely service twice before giving me the middle finger and telling me to roll over. On Monday, with Consumerist's assistance in procuring e-mail addresses, I e-mailed the CEO my gripe who then forwarded my e-mail to executive customer response. Mel, the associate assigned to me told me she understood my situation and would get the internet hooked up the next day. The next day I still had no internet. I politely remind Mel that I still have no internet, and I'm quite upset over the way Comcast has treated me. She swears she'll get right back to me. No call the next day. I call back and find she's on vacation for a week. Nice. (Meanwhile, I get my first bill. So it seems at least one person knows how to do their job…unfortunately that person works in billing.) After she returns, Comcast decides that for my troubles I can get a whole month of free cable. At least I got something, and thankfully I was able to take the exam with the help of my friend's Verizon-wireless equipped laptop, so I wasn't too upset in reality and finally let the issue go. However, if it wasn't for you guys I would have been truly shafted up the rear like many poor fellow consumers who don't have the knowledge of your website.

Comcast deserves the award for worst company in America because it seems to be the only company that is capable of making money without knowing a single thing about its own operations. No one seems to know or want to know how to do their jobs (technicians, schedulers, executive customer response reps., etc.), their reps are consistently rude and reliably inept, and in many places in the United States, people have no other option than to choose Comcast or to live in a nice apartment filled with static television and computers equipped with little more than solitaire. Not to mention I think your site has more articles exposing shitty Comcast customer service than any other company out there.

It's Comcastic.

Martin: Bayer. 22,000 died amid delayed Bayer drug recal. My nomination for the worst company of the year. As bad as the rest of
them get, they don't kill this many people by withholding information
about their products.

[news.yahoo.com]

Ivan: 'd like to nominate Allstate please.

Twice that I've been in an accident they've put me through hell (one sided phone tag) and I never saw a single penny from them and my car is sitting in my garage crashed. The worst customer service I've experienced in my life.

And I'm not just complaining because it happened to me. I've been through hell with BestBuy and Chase credit services, but not as bad as Allstate.

ipinguping: AT&T

Bob:
Why don't they just make the concerts free!

Okay, if I want to go to the show, I've got to get not only a Citibank card, but an Amex. And I've got to join the fan club too. So in this rolling wave of pre-sales, maybe I can get a seat. Which won't be too close to the stage, because those seats NEVER go on sale to the general public!

And Live Nation is rebranding all of its smaller venues "Fillmore", to trade on the good will of the man who helped build this glorious business. Bill Graham is rolling in his grave. Live Nation doesn't give a shit about the public, and neither do the Police.

As for the band, rather than leave a good taste in the public's mouth, they want to eke every last dollar from the landscape with a scorched earth policy. And if you believe this is the band's last tour, then you're betting that one of the three croaks in the dead pool. Because money will bring them back. Are you aware of Sting's OVERHEAD? And the other two, while not homeless, can't make a dollar on the road without Mr. Sumner.

We need a concertgoers bill of rights. What can it contain?

Well, let's start off with a seating plan that illustrates which seats never go on sale, so people won't buy fan club memberships in hope of buying these ducats.

A rebate if the final tour is not. Or guaranteed seats up close and personal if the band goes back on the road.

No t-shirt over $25.

No parking fee unless you're in an urban center. Even if the lot is paved. Unless space is at a premium, parking is free!

Fan club fees must guarantee a seat within a certain area of the building. So people know what they're getting.

One on sale date. No rolling dates based on privilege. Isn't this what's wrong with America? The division between the haves and the have-nots? Not everybody can afford an American Express card. Not everyone QUALIFIES for a Citibank card. Even if you have the cash, you might be shit out of luck. You end up sitting in the back no matter what.

No seat over $125. I'd say $100, but the industry would freak out. As for prices higher than that, those seats must be auctioned from the get go. The act can reap the reward of the upside, but it must be clear what seats are auctioned and how many of them there are, so the fan can make an informed decision.

But Live Nation doesn't give a shit about the fan. Live Nation is as bad as radio. Live Nation is playing to Wall Street, not the concertgoer. Just like Clear Channel is playing to Madison Avenue, despite lip service to the listener. Hell, did you see that Clear Channel is increasing the number of minutes of advertising on the radio? Why not turn every station into an infomercial. Make the whole CHANNEL an ad!

And you wonder why terrestrial radio is dying and the concert business is a minefield. Grosses might be going up, but the key is to get people in the habit of attendance. That's how you grow the business. But we've got the labels not wanting any more people to own music than in the CD days. New technologies allow more people to own more music at a lower price? FOUL! We're married to the old business model!

The music business is fucked up. If you' don't believe this, you're part of the problem.

[www.billboard.biz]

[www.privatepass.citi.com]

[online.wsj.com]

Tom: I've got to nominate Charter Communications. Their cable internet is
up-and-down, considering they sign up more customers than their hub in
Atlanta can hold, which means everyone in the southeast gets horrible
ping times. Cable TV is notoriously bad, especially their HD TV. And
their customer service lines are restricted to only phones from their
service area, which means a transplant from the NE like me can't just
call up customer service. I have to call their billing department and
get them to transfer me over.

Brandon: DirecTV.

Shoddy service on install, channels being added/subtrcated at will. threat of early termination fee, shoddy equipment, prmised loacl channels in HD-Lied, I can keep going you get the point....Once my "contract" that I never signed is up I am switching back to Time Warner Cable

Max: If it hasn't already been nominated then I have to put up Best Buy. As a former employee for 2 years I can easily state more about BB and the GS then your blog has written about them. When I started there it was a decent job, they already treated their customers like garbage but the job wasn't too bad if you could get past that. When I finally left it was absolutely unbelievable how bad they treated people. I had to fight just to get my vacation time paid. I had more than one occasion of them changing my time cards without my knowledge. This lady with the $54m lawsuit was a long time coming. I dealt with someone in that same situation or even worse at least once a month. She should have started a class action.

G: Best Buy

Why?: Cheating customers (me) out of rebate checks, after doing everything by the book.

Don: 1.Comcast/Time Warner
2.ATT

Jay: AT&T. Why? NSA Wiretapping.

Robert: I nominate best buy for worst company in america. Laughed in my face
regarding my computer-building plans, among other regular best buy nonsence

Andrew: I'm voting for Sprint as the worst company in America. My drummer has
Sprint and his phone is often screwed up, making scheduling rehearsals
difficult. Sometimes that's just his own fault though. :)

David: Paypal - because of their warped sense of fairness during a dispute resolution. The buyer is always right if he claims the item isn't as described. No matter how much proof the seller provides, it is ignored. Same with chargebacks. Paypal says you can contest a chargeback. They then charge you a fee...and then decides they don't want to follow through with your chargeback escalation (no reason given)...but they won't refund the chargeback fee. Classic bait and switch...or even "significantly not as described."

Jonathan: My nomination for Worst Company in America is Facebook.

(I'm surprised nobody nominated them).

Although they offer a free service, they also keep data on their servers after you've canceled your account (until you email them requesting to delete those). And let's not forget the little marketing ploy-slash-invasion of privacy that is Beacon.

Linzi: Has to be Countrywide Financials for their part in the sub-prime mortgage mess.

Zak: I vote Haliburton/KBR for using sleazy lawyers and slim loopholes to get the men who gang-raped that woman off the hook. This is the most terrible thing I think I've heard of a company doing in a long time, even beats Wal-Mart sweat shops by a mile. Additionally they are evil by association with Dick Cheney. Haliburton/KBR is fully capable of a second year sweep.

Comcast:

For bad ISP service for 1 month (40 percent to 80 percent packet loss) and taking 12 truckrolls and over 70 phonecalls to finally fix the problem. Then raising my rater from the "intruductory" $20 to $47 right after they fix the problem. I told them to give me another introduction to why I should stay with them and they refused. So now I do business with ATT. I'm getting a premonition.... something about a frying pan.... and fire... not sure.

1. GM
2. Ford
3. Chrysler

All had at least 30 years to learn from the oil embargo; didn't learn shit. I'll see them in hell. (if i believed in it.)

comcast takes second place for their traffic shaping but basically earn my ire for being the only option (that's an option?) for broadband in my neighbourhood. never wanted my internet from the useless cable guy ...

I nominate all of the major credit card companies. They sell a service: lending of money. They are all now engaging in a number of awful practices: egregiously high late fees, overlimit fees and sky-high interest rates. They try to make you incur these charges. Note that they could tell you when you are about to go over your limit (e.g. by sending a message when the vendor runs your card) or they could decline the charge; instead, they approve the charge and then tack on a $39 additional fee. You might not have purchased that latte if you had known it would cost 42.95 instead of $3.95. In addition to charging late fees of $39 (even if your (late) minimum payment is relatively small), your late payment may also up your interest rate to over 30%; some cards will increase your interest rate if you are late on a different credit card account(a practice called universal default).

While they did not pay many of the Katrina claims, Pantagraph.com reports that "State Farm Insurance Cos. rewarded its leader with a $5.26 million, 82 percent raise after posting a record profit last year. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ed Rust Jr. earned $11.66 million in 2006, including a base salary of $1.77 million and results-based bonus of $9.89 million, spokesman Dick Luedke said Friday. Rust made $6.4 million in 2005 and $5.5 million in 2004."

Also, think about the lavish trips that State Farm organizes for its agents every year. They spend untold amounts of money on these "spare no expense" trips. If people only knew the kind of money that is spent on those trips in light of how they are denied claims, well, they would be in an uproar.

You can do your own research and check what State Farm customers are saying. . . even customers that have been with them for many, many years.

P.S.1 If you ever get a call from your State Farm agent to come for an Insurance and Financial Review (IFR), then run as fast and far as you can because otherwise you will have to hear how you need the extra life insurance, or loan (yes, they have a bank), or upgrade the limits you already have, or etc, etc, etc.

P.S.2 All is not lost, some justice is being done as this news snippet shows: On January 11, 2007 a federal judge ruled that State Farm must pay $223,292 in damages to a couple whose home was damaged by Hurricane Katrina. The judge also ordered State Farm to pay $2.5 million in punitive damages for the company's failure to pay the claim. Less than two weeks after this ruling, State Farm entered into an agreement to settle hundreds of other suits brought by angry policyholders. Under the settlement, 300 homeowners who lost everything will receive their full insurance coverage. It has also bee reported that 1,000 other policyholders would receive at least half of their full coverage amounts, with an opportunity to negotiate for more.

Unfortunately, State Farm has an army of attorneys fighting these cases, and the average person has little change against the giant.

How does Monsanto keep escaping this prize? More than any purveyor of crap you don't need, they're the ones that can kill us all.

1) Sears--good company gone bad

2) Countrywide--what housing bubble?

3) RIAA--It's not downloading killing the music industry, it's the suck that is today's music. And 17 bucks for a CD.

4)Microsoft--They must be in cohoots with the RIAA, with the footprint Vista has, who has room to download songs?

5) The Chinese Government--Polution, human rights abuse, profit above all else, and of course the Poison Train. The Chinese government has a stake in most industies so that counts as selling goods and services.

I have no problem with Blackwater. Am I missing something? They are mercinaries, plain and simple. "Contractors" is just another word for hired soldiers. They get paid to kill, guard, or whatever. Yes they are expensive, but that is in the contract the Government signed. Now should the U.S. Government employ mercs is a discussion for another thread, but I don't think they have commited fraud or not provided a service they were hired for.

And for the record, you can hire Blackwater, if you have the money, and you can find them...oh, wait, that's the A-Team. My bad...

It's like mailing pictures of steak to the starving.

Apple.

From shorting people with a too early iPhone price drop, to constantly breaking the jailbreaks, keeping people held to AT&T, Jobs saying the idea of Zune was made by drunk people, crappy, misleading, unfunny ads, a sub-par OS upgrade comparable to a service pack, lack of HDD touches, lack of Wi-Fi in the classic or nano, shorting iPod touch owners of five apps that were already made, unless they paid, a laptop that lacks features like a disc drive or enough ports, and a lackluster tech support, as well as the elitist mac fanboys that don't know how to keep their mouth shut about how great their Mac is.

Now come and get me Stevedrones.

Wal-Mart for being a horrible company in general.

Regions Bank
Best Buy
Suddenlink-They suck!Their cable tv is fine, but their cable internet sucks!
Wal-Mart-I hate that place for far too numerous reasons to ever list here.
Lowes
Ford
Toyota

I was a very loyal Best Buy customer for years and years,but my last experience with the Geek Squad a year ago ticked me off big time. I haven't stepped foot in a Best Buy since, and I have spent untold thousands of dollars with them. I do have a gift card from there for Christmas,but I haven't used it yet. It will be an online purchase for sure though.

Best Buy

for NOT honoring their warranties!

AT&T. Their malfeasance was more long term and not in the last year per se, but the whole wiretapping fiasco and the recent complete whitewashing/absolution of their complicity makes the veins in my head throb. Though they were not the only Telco involved, they are the bigger target.

1. Time Warner. Here in L.A; they somehow manage to be worse at everything and everything than Comcast (which they took over sometime last year). Try to wrap your head around that one.

2. Apple. They do make good products, but be honest. Their products are no longer revolutionary (save the iPhone, but still managed to screw up on several key features), charges premium, wrecks the environment, and we love them nonetheless. Is Apple truly a bad company? No. But at the same time, they could've done so much more (Amazon was the first with no DRM music... Major labels) for the end consumers. In some ways, they are more reactionary than Microsoft and that to me speaks volumes.

3. Speak of the Devil, Microsoft. Vista and 360 weren't bad products, but they could've used more refinement and polish before release. Had they been making cars and airplanes... Wait, they make softwares for Cars and Airplanes now, right. Ah Crap!

And Starbucks for selling burnt coffee and good coffee. But I need it every once in awhile, nonetheless. And for making me actually like espressos... Damn you Starbucks!!

My vote for worst company of the year goes to Comcast. They are just awful.

Allah/God/SpaceInvaders have mercy on you morons that don't know why.

Comcast, go fuck yourself.

There, I feel better.

Time Warner Cable comes in a close second.

Agree with those who think we should cover both ends of the spectrum, good and bad:

Absolute BEST Company To Do Business With: BH PHOTOVIDEO, an Internet company selling cameras, electronics, etc.

Hands down the best company I've ever done business with - as good as Best Buy is bad (sorry - couldn't resist) Best prices anywhere, spectacular service, great inventory. Never have had a problem with an order (out of probably 50 individual orders) so can't comment on what would happen if there was a problem, but I'd bet money it would get resolved immediately.

Second best: Amazon.com I buy a lot from them and almost never have a problem of any kind. Fast shpment, answer questions quickly, one small problem I have had was resolved immediately and money credited to my account immediately (none of the 3-4 week crap you usually see.) I have the membership that lets you have inexpensive 1 day shipping or free 2 day shipping and every one of my orders have arrived as scheduled.

Pat

Flee before police arrive, of course. Or, for better video, challenge them to tase you. (Someone must always suffer for good art). Your call.

Bonus points if you make Carey try to look like Michael Moore in Roger & Me.

Seriously: if it's possible, it'd be a GREAT video. Well worth the effort. Taser burn scars - not so much.

AND then to have them call me five days later to inform me that since I am more than 13,000 feet from the central office I cannot realize the full potential of 3.0 thus I am saddled with my pre-order speed of 1.5Mbps with the ADDED BONUS of a FULL YEAR CONTRACT!

GO VERIZON! GO!

@n8srq:

But other than the product shortage, has there really been a *bad* customer service or product story about Nintendo?

Mattel for continuing to support the Chinese Poison Train despite having millions of their toys recalled because of lead.

And the usual suspects: Monsanto, Comcast, Bank of America, Halliburton, any health insurance and pharmaceutical companies, etc....

AT&T
Best Buy
Time Warner
Microsoft
Wachovia Bank
WalMart
Pfizer
Home Depot

I think there should be a best and worst category, I'd be curious as to who'd get the best.

Worst: monsanto, microsoft, us govt (bush admin)

Best: Zappos.com

He claimed the markup wasn't very high. AHHAHA I told him that I knew about the monster cables markup.

The US Government. If WE could get them to do their jobs correctly all these other companies wouldn't be so damn shitty. I guess we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Apple.

TotallyFakeAd [consumerist.com]

Leopard wreaking havoc on machines. [www.tomsguide.com],review-1028.html (comma in the URL :'( ) (Wouldn't mention this, but Apple "solved" the problem that MS had with Vista by simply not allowing you to buy a copy of Tiger ever, period, end of story, after Leopard's launch. Why aren't people downgrading? Because they have no frigging choice.)

SlightMisrepresentation [consumerist.com]

Look at Those iPods Go. [consumerist.com]

LCDs! [consumerist.com] [consumerist.com]

Not accepting gift cards. [consumerist.com] [consumerist.com]

What the crap? [consumerist.com]

[consumerist.com]
Oh, wait, those are different apples.

Yeah, that's safe. [consumerist.com]

YOU SHOULDN'T FREAKING HAVE TO DO THIS. [consumerist.com] [consumerist.com]

Huh? [consumerist.com]

Frequently not honoring AppleCare or the standard warranty (even when they should). [consumerist.com] [consumerist.com] [consumerist.com] (Oh, damn, that last one was 2006. It was really late 2006, though.)
(I have more, but since they're rejected claims through the ASP I work with, I can't exactly provide them. MacBook Pro LCDs cracking spontaneously, more iPod LCDs, defective 25" Mac screens...)

Bad [consumerist.com] Customer [consumerist.com] Service. [consumerist.com]

Look, even HP will send it back. [consumerist.com]

Oh come ON. [consumerist.com]

iPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhone
iPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhone
iPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhone
iPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhone
iPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhone
iPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhoneiPhone
(I could link to all the articles, but that was less time-consuming.)

Lastly: [www.overlawyered.com]

Sure, that one is way late. But come ON. Not even Microsoft...

BEST BUY SUCKETH........

best buy is a misnomer .....

To those who said Best Buy, I'm with you. I'm sure Wal-Mart will make it to at least the Final Four...

Sprint!!!!!!!!!!

I think you're sorta whiffing on the "only direct-to-consumer" thing. As many have pointed out, entities like RIAA impact consumers in fundamental, unfair ways. And tax-supported companies contributing to cluster-f*cks that lead to $3.50/gallon gas impact consumers FAR more than, say, sketchy rebate schemes.

I HEARTILY plead you have two tracks: one direct-, one indirect-to-consumer.

Jack up the APR? Check! Submit to binding arbitration? Check! Change how average daily balance is figured? Check! Jack up late-payment penalties? Check!

If you manage to find the paragraph explaining how they want to rape you, you then have to send them a letter (no calls, no emails). To a separate address. In its own envelope. Written to specific conditions. Within 30 days. To basically tell them, "No, I don't want you guys to sodomize me even worse than MBNA tried to over the years. But THANKS for asking!"

Makes rebate schemes seem upfront and straight-forward.

**

And, needless to say, AT&T, for the spying, we'll-sell-our-customers'-data, but only if the price is right, and to Hell with Federal law thing. Then wrap ourselves in the US flag when caught. And use our lobbyists to carve retroactive immunity because we know we're criminal bast*rds who will lose in any court in the land.

Verizon and/or Comcast

Bank of America.

[Isn't it a shame we have to go through this...]

It's gotta be a healthcare company this year. I'd say United Healthcare.

And to put in your credit card information they prompt you to SAY it outloud. Which I refuse to do while at work. So you have to wait until the 4th oppourtunity to dial it in.

Horrible.

[www.nytimes.com]

Service-wise, you'd be hard pressed not to go with Comcast or any other utility, for that matter.

Best Buy- I cannot agree more. I cannot for the life of me understand how the stores even function with so many of the employees and management completely incapable of even trying to do their jobs.

One more nomination - Blackwater USA, or as I like to call them, ruthless modern mercenaries publicly abusing people's most basic right - the right to live.

Despite all the votes for Best Buy, Comcast, and other corporate ogres, I think Wal-Mart takes takes the prize. They haven't been named Worst Company yet and I rank them up there with Halliburton and the RIAA. They consistently bend rules, violate ethics, and encourage mass-consumption of cheap, shitty goods (excuse my French). Wally's Waste World is a beacon of uncompromising evil in the vast corporate-feeding structure that is our economy.

1 - I accidentally bought two tickets for the same flight. I realized this 10 days later and called them to clear it up. No refunds. $100 change fee. You don't get your money back.

2 - I tried to use a portion of the money, minus the $100 they took out. After the new ticket was purchased with the old funds (less $100), I'd have another $75 left. Except no - US Air takes that money too.

3 - My future brother in law had a relapse of his lymphoma and needed inpatient chemotherapy. His folks called US Air to cancel their flight. "Can we get our money back? Our son is going to go through chemotherapy."

"No."

US Air - Chemotherapy? $100 change fee!

1. The entire health insurance industry

2. The entire airline industry (except Singapore Airlines)

3. The US Postal Service

Most of the Best Buy comments seem to be about their extended warranty.

If you are smart enough to be reading the Consumerist you should be smart enough to avoid extended warranties.

Has anyone ever heard a positive story about extended warrAnties from ANYWHERE?

I would vote for Comcast based on what I have read here and elsewhere on the net but I have never actually done business with them (thank god).

I vote for Sprint. I successfully escaped about two years ago after being with them for over 10 years. I feel like a VIP with Verizon Wireless after Sprint's horrible service.

Comcast Comcast Comcast Comcast Comcast Comcast

Comcast. If what they are doing to internet users manages to stand, we could eventually find ourselves unable to reach the Consumerist because Comcast is doing "traffic shaping".

My vote, Comcast.

Alltel!!!!!!! The worst customer service and poorest cell phones in the business!

Sorry but screwing the customer is Best Buy corporate policy, NOT the result of "some idiot in the store." I say this after having spent 2 months trying to get their corporate headquarters to resolve an extended warranty issue and being told "We just can't do that." It's funny, but after 1 simple letter from a lawyer they could do it. @Part-Time-Viking:

1) Best Buy for all the reasons listed over and over again.

2) Chrysler for refusing to replace parts that fell off my new Jeep on the trail because I didn't have the old parts. Good thing my transmission didn't fall out. No wonder they're in such trouble.

Anyone running for political office.

Boost Mobile- They are ultimately criminals. They have always screwed with me and the last time was the worst. I put $60 on my account with my bank card online and they charged it 3 times so they took $180 out of my account. I called them within 5 minutes of the mistake and they said that it was a glitch in the computer and they would have my money back to my account in 48 hrs. I was happy and then 48 hours later I was sad, they money was not back yet. I gave it one more day just in case the money was slow coming through. It never came so I called them and they said give it 48 more hours. When the money still didnt come through I called again and this time they said that it should take 15 to 30 days and they dont know why someone quoted me 48 hours. I was pissed but I said okay whatever I will just deal with it. After about a week I got a call from a lady named April in the escalation department and she said she picked up my case and would stay on it until it was completely solved. She continued to call every week to check if it came through. She eventually promised to give me a credit worth a month of service since I explained that I had to borrow money from family since Boost Mobile stole my money, and I have bills to pay. She even gave me her direct phone line so I could call her with any problems. After a few weeks she stopped calling and I called her and left at least 10 messages and she never returned them. After more than a month went by I called them and they just told me that they show that they sent the money and I should have it already. I went to the bank and they said that there was nothing pending and I was able to file a chargeback . I did and then the bank went to battle with them and after a little bit I called to check in with the bank and they told me that Boost Mobile doesnt believe that they are a bank and that I paid someone to pretend to be a bank to get money. My bank ended up issuing me a credit and they kept fighting Boost Mobile and I am guessing they won because I havent heard any more about it.The REAL SLAP IN THE FACE was after 2 months of all this I called them and told them about the credit I was promised they said there was nothing in my file and then they offered me a $5 "courtesy" Credit, Which was far less than the $60 credit I was promised.
Sorry this is so long-winded but I needed to get this off my chest.

I vote for Circuit City. They suck

HP

They will be rising to the top of the bottom very shortly.

Any company in the business of letting people die is a bad one.

A company with a business model this flawed deserves to go down in flames as spectacularly and decisively as they continue to.

Seriously though, as a new Comcast "customer" they are the worst.

If we want to take on a slightly, but not much, less wealthy target, Microsoft stands tall and proud. Even with updates turned off, they can reboot your computers.

Bill's will be done.

and personally, i know a few people who work at some best buys in MA, and most of the people i know have always had a good time at best buy in the south shore area.

@ncboxer:

the lines at walmart are about average when u compare them to albertson which usually has huge lines and aveeraging albertsons with gay stores with no line walmart has medium sized lines, which is a good thing for a store to have.

Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy Best Buy.

Why? Becuase they're not a-holes because of poor communication, or just simply bad corporate policies, being an a-hole is the major function of all Best Buy employees. No excuse. Best Buy is the absolute worst.

Chase is on my shitlist too

Can we nominate Scientology as one? I mean they sell all sorts of nonsense right?

Wal-mart

Best Buy, RIAA still, Verizon, and Comcast

People do actually buy their products, they are actually overpriced and mostly worthless. But most importantly, they sue everyone who uses the dictionary word "monster".

My favorite lawsuit? Suing Mike Shkolnik who sold stuffed monsters online in his "Monster Shop" at monster.biz, who responded:

Would a reasonable person confuse a giant alien creature with an analog interconnect? [www.madmartian.com]

Also see his response to their eventual self-serving apology:

Number of times "monster" appears in the script for Young Frankenstein: 185
Number of times Monster Cable Products Inc is referenced in the script for Young Frankenstein: Zero

Number of children who imagined there was a monster under the bed: probably millions
Number of children who imagined there was an audio interconnect cable under the bed: probably none.

Cox........just nearly doubled my in-state long distance rate.....no explanation, just "have a nice day"

That said, Monsanto has had their hands in an extremely long list of things that have hurt a lot of people, and nothing you say can convince me that they are not the most evil company in the world.

1. riaa
2. walmart
3. bank of america
4. washington mutual

---------------------

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION

---------------------

With all that special interest money and back room deals, I think they qualify as a company. They suck bigger than just about every other company out there. The Bush administration is helping all of these "Worst" companies make more money off the backs of us "working class" folks!

Bank of America, they are the worst!

I add to my previous nomination, whatever parts of the Church of Scientology that exist as public corporations.

TheBard, I just saw that video (YouTube) of the Church of Scientology having a celebration gathering of some kind and part of it was a progress report on some of the "campaigns" they are engaged in around the world. Scary stuff! They are clucking so loudly. The language is downright imbecilic, just as their war on psychology is taken to imbecilic degrees. Check it out if you haven't seen it, everybody. Should be easy to find, not so easy to follow.

For their outstanding achievement in gaining from others' pain and the erosion of our country's foundations:

1) All health insurance organizations

2) The banking/credit industry, world bank included

3) AT&T

4) Exxon

5) Monsanto, a truly global affliction

Change begins at home. Roll out the guillotines.

I also nominate Comcast and RIAA...

I also vehemently despise ATT but I guess they're rather small potatoes in the grand scheme of things.

Blackwater* (which, in military terms, means "human blood"; "black water")

*I'm bored with submitting Halliburton.

Exxon Mobil reported Friday that it beat its own record for the highest profits ever recorded by any company, with net income rising 3 percent to $40.6 billion, thanks to surging oil prices. The company's sales, more than $404 billion, exceeded the gross domestic product of 120 countries.

Exxon Mobil earned more than $1,287 of profit for every second of 2007.

best buy

Cablevision is charging me 22c a month to rent their remote control. That's aside from the $75 they're docking me for family cable. How could they not be on this list ?

Runner up would be Bank of America, for sheer wickedness in how it views its customers (or should I say serfs).

The RIAA is so easy, it should simply have an honorary 1st place award every year. But it's such a shoo-in, that it would be unfair to all the other horrible companies out there to have to "compete" against them.

Cablevision is charging me 22c to rent their remote. How could they not be on this post, am I the only with Comcast ?

I bought a bad hasbro star wars toy in Disney. They promptly sent me a return label. I did have to email and bitch at them 8 weeks later but we did receive replacements of higher value because they didn't have the broken toy any longer. So my experience was not too bad with them.

I not-so-secretly make a daily wish that all of their stores and related services/franchises/holdings will simultaneously combust.

Shitty CS

Shitty to work for.

It all started there!

So I've changed my vote to Wal-Mart, not the worst company of the years, but the worst company of the last 60 years!

Um, for seriousness though, I'll nominate comcast.

National Association of Realtors

For profiting off the American Dream with lies and half-truths and being one of the the key players that caused our current housing meltdown.

Comcast, WalMart

Comcast No need to explain why.
Verizon They half-ass build networks and then tease those without accessibility to their service with advertisements to sign up for their service. It pisses me off that they claim they are available in Baltimore County and for the past 3 months, I've been seeing advertisements for it while for the past 3 months, I have yet to see the service as available in my area.
RIAA Same reason as last year.
Every healthcare company no need to explain why
United States Congress (Both House and Senate) For having no testicular fortitude. And there is no way anyone can tell me they don't provide a service.

Best Buy, hands down. Cumatively speaking last year was a collection of the worst experiences I ever had with a company. I even hate them more than Verizon now (and I NEVER thought I would say that about any company). Best Buy sucks. They really need to win this award--perhaps it would even wake up the retail sector to how sick and tired consumers are of their shtik.

Best Buy. They have consistently had the worst customer service of any retailer I shopped at last year. On top of which they do not stock on items very well: they rarely have much more than the few current hits for any software, games, music or movies. Customer service at almost all big retailers is pretty much nonexistent these days, but Best Buy employees take the cake for the way they combine rudeness with ignorance. And I haven't mentioned the stores marketing and sales policies yet.

I nominate the Church of Scientology

I think I would have said Sears, but that's like kicking something that's already fallen down. Plus, they're already admitting that they're a shitty company, unlike Comcast or the Mortgage industry that are still pumping out positive propaganda like there's no tomorrow.

Countrywide - for consumers and investors both!
GAP (no explanation needed)
Google (just wanted to see if you were paying attention)
Congress (I know they are not a company - their financials prove it, but boy have they been useless in the past year)

I am not including any electronics retailers, cell phone companies or WalMart. Enough with the repeats already!

This nominating in the comments must be hell for the intern! I am so sorry you have to read and edit all of these posts. My hats off to the intern!!

Comcast - illegally throttles p2p traffic
Microsoft - xbox360 RRoD (though they did the right thing with the warranty extension) and Vista.
Oil Companies - make obscene profits.
Geek Squad/Best Buy - horrible service, $54 million lawsuit, porn-smugglers.

Blackwater (from Wikipedia, take with grain of salt but check sources) -

On September 22, 2007, U.S. federal prosecutors announced an investigation into allegations that Blackwater employees may have smuggled weapons into Iraq, and that these weapons may have been later transferred to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a Kurdish nationalist group designated a terrorist organization by the United States, NATO and the EU.[108][109][110] The U.S. government was investigating Blackwater for these alleged crimes.[111] On October 4, 2007, the FBI took over the investigation.[112]

In January 2008 Marshall Adame, a Democrat running for Congress in North Carolina's 3rd District, took part in a live question-and-answer forum where he was asked a question about Blackwater. Adame who had served as a State Department official in Iraq recounted; "I saw them shoot people, I saw them crash into cars while I was their passenger. There was absolutely no reason, no provocation whatsoever." He then stated "There is no place in the American force structure, or in American culture for mercenaries, they are guns for hire; No more, no less."

Now I understand the stated caveat that the nomination must be a company that sells goods or services to the average consumer so Blackwater is excluded, but Blackwater should have won this competition hands down. No matter how shitty the sub-prime market is or how shady the companies are that contributed to the meltdown, no matter how shady Comcast is in illegally hurting our ability to download the new linux distro (*cough* porn *cough*), no matter how much the oil companies are screwing us over, these all pale in comparison to the company that is under investigation for smuggling weapons that ended up in terrorists' hands as well as shooting innocent Iraqi civilians without being held accountable.

@homerjay: Good call, I second

BestBuy for being deceptive.

@Kathlene: But they sell goods in America. It's "Worst Company In America" not "Worst American Company". (Besides, America = Continent, USA = Country)

Perhaps one of the editors/mods can clarify but I think companies based in countries outside the United States are eligible if they sell goods or services in United States of America.

Best buy for their bait and switch tactics with regards to ad and website prices differeing from the actual store prices.

buy.com for their black hat practices, like selling refurbished products as new OEM, and then denying returns or refunds.

DirectTV: trying to reach live telephone tech support is agonizing. You must first sit through a 10 minute (no joke) troubleshooting lecture for a "snowy screen" even if that's not what you're calling about BEFORE you get to the queu. Even the tech reps say they get lots of complaints but the higher ups are oblivious.

Clear Channel or possibly News Corp.
But definitely Clear Channel, as they have destroyed so much of this country I love.

@Joafu: Yikes at that run-on sentence; you get the idea.

Since RIAA isn't a formal company so much as it is a mob, and I'm not sure if they're able to run after last year's victory. Okay, then I nominate the internet. Yes, the entire thing.

Comcast.

ANY AIRLINE

@jbalsle: I never excused ExxonMobil; they have problems themselves that qualify them for this list. Payment of $250 million to the departing CEO, still fighting against taking more responsibility for the damage done to Prudhoe Bay, and generally being anti-green in any and every way possible. But just saying they had obscene profits are a non-starter when other "evil" companies being bantered about either had lousy years or suffered enormous losses. Exxon deserves the title because their business practices are the worst, NOT their profits.

Outsourcing causes problems, ethically and practically in any business. However, the idea of outsourcing to a foreign country when you're in the business of financial aid is so outlandish that I have no faith in Sallie Mae's concern for their customers.

The financial aid industry is complex and poorly understood by the average borrower, yet student loans are often a student's first financial venture.

Sallie Mae thinks that adding a cultural barrier to this mix is a good idea for their customers. In my experience, this isn't about understanding foreign accents. The people that I have spoken to are quite understandable. But culturally, they have no concept of the higher education system and simply cannot answer complex questions.

We have to do better by our students since they must have an education to get ahead and thus we are sending them off into the world already in debt. Shame on you, Sallie Mae!

I sumbit Alienware. I spent over $3,200 on a gaming laptop. Within a week the graphics card was overheating and crashing my system.
I called tech support, and after 90 minutes of painful and pointless troubleshooting the tech told me to "put the laptop on 4 bottle caps to increase the airflow to the computer."
You read it right. I spent over 3k on a laptop and when it broke I was told that propping it on bottle caps was the fix.

Walmart.
Bank of America.

Do the presidential candidates count as companies? They have millions and plenty of people are buying the crap they are selling?

If not I'll toss AT&T's hat into the ring.

how can you not, when they're inseparable?!

take the stimulus plan, it's point in simple terms is, hey america, the corporate numbers aren't looking so good, so go buy more stuff. who does it benefit? big business. who pays for it? we the united consumerists of america.

Heave you heard of Blue Cross sending physicians letters requesting them to spy on patients? It helps them find new ways to drop avoid paying their clients' claims. Tsk Tsk

(1) Mattel. The nation's largest toy manufacturer had the majority of recalled lead-tainted toys last year. On top of that, they recently flat-out refused to recall a known tainted product.

(2) ConAgra foods - They generously provided us with salmonella-tainted peanut butter and pot pies.

I'd like to include the company responsible for the tainted pet food that killed so many pets, but alas, it is Canadian (not eligible).

In that case I'd nominate Woot. Despite their crappy shipping they have great service!

They delete email accounts and only give a $50 gift card, change plans without the customer's permission and refuse to go back to the original plan, lie, lie, and lie again.

I would also say Bank of America for arbitrarily raising interest rates on credit cards and charging an additional fee for customers using other banks' atms as well as being a lousy company in general.

Ameren is also pretty lousy. Last year they drastically increased rates when their inability to maintain their systems led to blackouts. Now they're trying to raise rates AGAIN.

and I suppose I would rank Best Buy and Sprint as tied for fourth. :p

the list goes on, but I have to get back to work...

Seconding Chase. They also like to play musical payment-due-dates.

Monsanto

Blue Cross

And American Apparel for their pornified ads and sleazebag CEO.

Spank of America

Comcast screwing up your bill constantly isn't going to matter if your dead.

@homerjay: Seconded!

For screwing my and my kids into debt larger than I could ever imagine.

2) RIAA

3) Exxon

Largest profit in history while us consumers are spending far more on energy than every before.

1. There wasn't any doubt that Nazi Germany was working on a nuclear bomb.
2. We had no idea of their progress, but certainly knew about the V-1 & V-2 operations from the damage done to London. The V-2 was expected to carry an A-bomb.
3. The original target for the first A-bomb was Berlin, but the Red Army ground up the Wehrmacht a lot faster than anyone could have predicted.
4. The work continued because Japan had no intention of surrendering. Their best offer prior to the use of the bombs was that their troops would stay where they were, meaning a continued occupation of China & Korea.
That was unacceptable to all of the Allies. Japan was also working on the bomb, but their effort went nowhere, due to a lack of resources & scientists.
5. After the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Hirohito finally came to his senses & gave that surrender speech, which was recorded on a 16" disk & taken to NHK for transmission to his subjects. A small group of junior officers tried to intercept the disk & destroy it & stage a coup, so that the war would continue on.
6. There was no way that Truman could allow an invasion of Japan, one that would have dwarfed the D-Day landings by a factor of ten & casualties that would have gotten him executed for treason when the knowledge of the bomb's existence came out. That is, if he wasn't assassinated first!

7. And most importantly, those two bombs not only saved a million American lives, they saved at least 10 million Japanese lives!
The Japanese military government was determined to have their country go down in one gigantic suicidal effort!
Just look at the insane defense of Iwo Jima, Saipan & especially Okinawa, where they sacrificed their giant battleship, Yamato, in that insane defense of that island, & managed to kill at least 100,000 Okinawan civilians in the process.
That forced Truman's hand!

RIAA
MPAA
Best Buy
Comcast
AT&T
T-Mobil
Sprint/Nextel

Comcast. By far.

I have two--Walmart, and Charter

I don't expect it to win, there's a ton of Comcast and BB haters posting, so it will be a toss-up between them, but Hasbro deserves to be on this list.

I just think not a lot of Consumerist visitors buy toys...

1) Comcast: This one's easy... for excessive rates, throwing sand in the face of net neutrality, and their "Putting Fans... We Mean Profits First" stance on the Big Ten Network. Makes me glad I have FiOS (which will be getting the BTN in April, from what I hear).
2) Macy's: They destroy decent department stores (Marshall Field's for one) with overpriced, shoddy private-label merchandise, clueless employees, and cluttered store layouts. Way to shop? More like way to stop!
3) Microsoft: Windows Vista. Need I say more?
4) NBC Universal: Must-Flee TV... they refuse to put TV shows on iTunes, they're prolonging the high-definition format war by refusing to go to the Blu-ray side and dump Toshiba's HD-DUD format, and they continue to pump out crap shows that no one watches.
5) Halliburton: They deserve to be back for an encore just for screwing American taxpayers every year with no-bid contracts.
6) Countrywide: Because 12% of your loans being subprime can cause 120% of your troubles (and nearly wreck the American economy in the process)

Best Buy

Bank of America. How could it lose? Between now owning Countrywide and shafting its credit card users, it's a no-brainer.

Comcast and Verizon (all businesses)

MEGA Health Insurance.

Sleazy-ass scam. Two words...Balance Billing

There was some company that did something awful early in January and I seconded someone's suggestion that they be the Worst Company but now I can't find that post. Does anyone remember that? I think several people seconded that.

exxon mobil, blackwater, countrywide

Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co

Let's put it this way, the IEEE code of ethics can be summed up in 1 short page and many ethical engineers have major complaints over this. So please do not fault a whistleblower, fault the corporations and all the dishonest people. I can't believe you would attack me over admitting the horrible tactics used against you and others unwittingly.

If I had to take a guess, you are maybe suggesting all the unethical company's should not consider me for employment over being a whistleblower. Fortunately for me, I work for an ethical company.

***COMCAST*** by a landslide. I hope they got out of business!

Anything that Rupert Murdoch touches, Haliburton, Blackwater, KBR, Best Buy, Sears, Office Depot, Amazon and their partner who supplies boxes, and your MOM!! She sucks the most, but thats the sucking we all have come to LOVE!! happy v day from best buy. While you think we are working on your computer, one of our techs is making love to pictures of your loved one! <3

Welcome to Corporate America.

Comcast.

Aetna Health Insurance, I could write a novel about the problems I had last year. Any way they could come up with to not honor coverage, they have thought of it.

Right. We're supposed to excuse them for their obscene profits simply because they're doing alot of business. And according to Bladefist, I shouldn't make this political. Right.

Nice try to shape the debate. May I be so bold as to say the reason they have so much income is that they benefited from the political and economic climate that allows them to take in $90+ per barrel of oil? Oh, yeah, the 'Terrists' that Bush is in such fear of? Yeah, they reap those $90+ per barrel oil prices too.

@choinski: OK, Exxon makes a lot of money but keep this in perspective:

ExxonMobil 2007 Profit Margin: 10.04%
Apple 2007 Profit Margin: 14.56%:

ExxonMobil 2007 Operating Margin: 17.42%
Apple 2007 Operating Margin: 18.37%

ExxonMobil makes money becuase they had 400 Billion in revenue last year. In reality, their profit margin shrank from 12% in 2006.

@dwhicks01: Sorry, but "screwing the customer" is Best Buy corporate policy, not the result of some yahoo in a local store. We dealt directly with corporate headquarters for 2 months and were repeatedly told they "just couldn't" honor their extended warranty. It's funny, but after 1 letter from a lawyer and - what do you know?! - they could honor their warranty after all.

Pat

Best Buy
Comcast
Best Buy
Bank of America
Best Buy

P.S. No one has nominated Dish Network yet?

In no particular order:

Starbucks

Amazon

Target

Hmmmm, hard choice:

1) Best Buy (for all the obvious reasons already cited - but mostly because they REALLY SUCK)

2) Chrysler Corp (for refusing to replace parts that fell off my Jeep under warranty because I didn't have the old parts - hey, if they hadn't fallen off on the trail I'd still have the old parts, but wouldn't need them - but mostly because they REALLY SUCK)

Pat

Yeah, Best Buy can screw you over every once in awhile. I have a brother and good friend who work there. They are both on working to fight the, "everyone who works at Best Buy is an ignorant electronics fool and wants to sell me a bunch a crap I don't need, and especially don't want". My brother is a certified A+ Comptia tech(not huge qualifications but he knows a system inside and out), and my friends is an Electrical Engineering student with me (I am a Computer Engineering student).

My vote is for Comcast. I have had them for a year and lets say my traffic has been thoroughly throttled!

The New England Patriots (Spygate, anyone?)

(hey, what do you expect from a Colts fan?!)

Put me on the Best Buy evil train as well.

I nominate the Federal Reserve. Whithout them, the dollar might actually be worth something.

TicketMaster!
Only company I know that gets away with charging $23+ for tickets they advertise are $15.
65% markup? eat shit.

Merck for their lobbying for government mandated, forced Gardasil injections to make up for the Vioxx debacle.

Comcast for the throttling and BT blocking.

MTV because I hate every aspect of them.

Video Professor, no doubt.

Second up is Best Buy.

Comcast!

Vista is a dismal failure that is filled with bugs. There is a massive problem with thousands of people who can't update new security patches and Microsoft is doing nothing to help them. It has been months. It is a security problem and a customer service problem all in one. Lord knows that any Windows machine needs security updates.

Lets look a a few reasons why Microsoft should be named the worst.
Windows VISTA
Windows Defender
Windows Update
Windows Firewall
Attempted Takeover of Yahoo
Monopoly
Zune
Red Ring of Death
Poor Customer Service
Predatory Practices
Privacy Concerns
Windows Live
Patent Violations
Bill Gates
Security Updates

I could keep going. Feel free to add your own. I need to get back to work.

... ooh, and Countrywide, for enabling the credit crisis.

Exxon-Mobil, posting record corporate profits for all time, instead of reducing the cost of their products in a way that would boos tthe rest of the economy. Why settle for excessive profit when it can be for obscene profit?

(too bad about the contest 'product' requirement, or I would have nominated Blackwater)

j/k.

Bestbuy gets my vote, maybe sprint too

BEST BUY, DUH!

Pains me to say this, but Sears.

Oil Companies, Pharmaceutical Companies, Insurance Companies, Cable/Internet Providers and Credit Card Companies... Those kinds of companies screw more people over in an hourly basis than Best Buy has screwed over in the entire length of its existence.

Comcast and Blackwater :-)

1) Walmart

2) RIAA

3) Country Wide

Possible back to back for RIAA? Dynasty?

[consumerist.com]
[consumerist.com]

Not sure if they're the worst, but Mattel has to be up there for their inaction with regard to lead tainted toys.

All those companies that make profits. BOOOO profit! Yay losses!

Bank of America

Sears

Sears, best buy.

No. I have two for the top spot. I've only done business with one, though, so I nominate it in the spirit of American Freedoms.

AT&T, boot-licker of the Federal Government, bad custodian of my liberties and rights, and tool of the right-wing fascist cabal that has taken control of the United States. I nominate them as Worst Company of 2008. Verison gets dishonorable mention as well for being like AT&T.

On the contrast, Qwest is a good guy for protecting our liberties. Unfortunately, you defy the Bush Cabal, and you pay the price...as Qwest's being locked out of government contracts shows.

I think Best Buy takes it. Objectively, they may not be as evil as some, but they've certainly had a very bad year in the public relations sense and haven't seemed to attempt to rectify the problems on a global level. Offenses include: secret in-store website, company employees stealing data from people's computers, losing a woman's computer and getting sued for $54 million as a result, etc. This is pretty bad stuff.

Exxon Mobile...um record profits, and crazy high gas prices? Rat bastards!

Federal Reserve

1) Microsoft
2) AT&T

That's like claiming Rolex is a horrible company because their watches are expensive.

Walmart, for generously helping to destroy the US economy.

Give them a poop pile this year, making up for years of past utterly fraudulent behavior (the McGwire vs Sosa race especially).

The only competition to Countrywide is Blackwater, but since they neither MAKE nor SELL a product that we buy, they are out of the running.

In my opinion, the worst company should be one that you have little choice in doing business with, such as a cable company. It's all too easy to avoid a Best Buy or Sears, but if you want cable service or broadband, your choices are usually limited.

ShopNBC and Renato Watches. They lie about the diamond quality that is used in the Renato Watches that are sold on ShopNBC and neither company could care less. They make megabucks on their customers who are diamond illiterate and are trusting them. Do not buy any diamond Renato Watches that are represented as G color and VS clarity as they are not....they are much worse in quality than represented.

Seconded: How to be a Gawker

Tough question, so many horrible services out there.
1) Bank of America cost me hundreds of dollars in bogus fees plus the hassle of trying to straighten out their mistakes and then my time to change my bank accounts to a different bank. After I left them, they still rip me off for $3 each time I need to use one of their ATMs.
2) Best Buy screwed me by not honoring their costly extended warranty and that cost me $65 plus the headache of dealing with non responsive employees.
3) U.S. government for costing me thousands of dollars each year and wasting our money on making themselves and their friends rich.
4) Sprint always messes up my billing whenever I make any kind of adjustment to my plan. This usually takes months to fix and many calls to their CSRs.
5) Comcast internet went down constantly, their CSRs were never helpful and they were more expensive than FIOS.

Best Companies:
1. Verizon Wireless: (I know I'll get flack for this) Anytime I've had an issue, they were more than willing to either offer a refund, discount, or something acceptable. I've never had a bad experience with them. The fact that they spend a lot of money on customer service training says something.
2. Newegg.com: great prices, good service.
3. Google: Granted, google is just like Microsoft, except with a better PR firm. But so far, they are doing things right: from fighting the government when they wanted searches of some people to hitting the price trigger for the C-Band.

Best Buy
perhaps Fredrick's of Hollywood.

Best Buy, Comcast, Sears, Verizon, Arlines(United, Spirit etc etc), TJ Maxx, Walmart, BOA and the rest of mortage companies.

United States Congress. Even when they pass a bill they manage to screw over the taxpayers.

(And YES this is a business! They have free medical and retirement funds which is more than most taxpayers have!)

@warf0x0r: Excellent logic, my friend. In fact, we couldn't even bitch and moan about being spied on but for the roof over our heads.

Subprime lenders it is!

They spit on the U.S. constitution getting in bed with the NSA to spy on citizens of this country, pay lobbyists to bribe politicians to grant them "retro-active" immunity, and then raise rates on their overpriced services.

AT&T!

At least those are the ones I have first-hand experience with.

I'd have to nominate Comcast for the bit torrent throttling, but I suspect that Contrywide or another nasty sub-prime lender should win.

Bad internets requires that you have a home to internet from.

I vote Comcast!

However, Verizon does keep setting people's houses on fire installing FIOS ...

Bank of America

1. Bank of America (buying countrywide and arbitrarily raising interest rates)
2. Comcast (torrent throttling)
3. Sprint (cell phone company)
4. Sears (incompetance)

Comcast, Comcast, Comcast. Not only are they the worst, they're actually proud of it. I do think there should be a special category for the Geek Squad though.

Exxon Mobil.

Best Buy, Comcast and Sprint should be made to fight to the death for the golden pile.

I hate these bastards more than anyone right now.

Best Buy
Health Care Companies- the ones that let people die.
Oil Companies- Exxon Mobile.
AT&T
RIAA
Microsoft

God, it's like an avalanche!!

COUNTRYWIDE!!! For creating moral hazzard and helping to destroy our economy.

1) Comcast
2) Countrywide
3) Microsoft

Another vote for Sears.

- Bank of America (can't avoid them)
- Comcast (a must in some places)
- Sears (damn shame*)
- Best Buy (don't get me started)

*Sears was one of the US's most expansive companies (retail, vinyl siding, houses, etc) and one of the best retail brand names in the US yet that has all gone in the crapper as of late, and it is the sadest of the lot.

wouldn't it just be better to list the few good companies & give the pile o' turd to everyone else?

I vote Best Buy

1.) Haliburton

2.) Wal-Mart

3.) Best Buy

For screwing around with their customers' bandwidth and blocking bit torrent traffic.

Sprint

Countrywide

As for best...I guess somebody will have to mention Apple and American Apparel eventually. So let it be ME!

It would have to a subprime mortgage lender. I vote for New Centruy Financial.

@MDSasquatch:

seconded

Countrywide.

Toyota for not fixing the sludge issue in the Camry, the tailgate on the Tundra, The Prius for accelerating under its own power, & building the Lexus GS400h and exploiting the Hybrid badge on cars.

@FitJulie: I'll second Exxon Mobile. While gas prices go up and up and up, their annual profits match the rise, while their government tax incentives also keep going up.

Not everyone in the country has comcast (and you don't *have* to have cable tv, you choose to), and there are plenty of alternatives to shopping at best buy. But pretty much everyone uses gas or oil and is getting hit by their profiteering.

COMCAST! ITS COMCRAPTIC!

#1: Best Buy
#2: RIAA
Tied for third: GexaEnergy, Discount Tire, Papa John's Pizza, CitiBank, Chevrolet, AT&T...

Microsoft (Vista, propping up HD-DVD, 360 failure rates, etc.)

Also, how about running in tandem with this, we have a Best Company in America

i completely agree.....microsoft is practically sabotaging the market with hddvd and xbox360 using halo like crack. but best company hmm....thats a challenge, im going to take a random whack...Paul Newman's Newman's Own Food Line. It's organic, affordable, good, and 2/3 of america is overweight.

1800flowers. Look up my rant in past comments if you need an explanation. 1800fuckups.

How about Disney for being ruthless and hypocritical about copyrights?

Comcast every time. Price gouging, monopolistic behavior, incompetent engineers, abusive customer service, and I haven't even mentioned P2P traffic interference. They deserve a lifetime achievement award.

Toyota & Chrysler

United Health Care. Why? All their rmployees upstairs got to the cafeteria before I did (at 11:55) and bought up all the Chicken Parm Rotellos for lunch. I really wanted one... I had to settle for crappy pizza.

Best Buy
Comcast

They rolled out many aggressive strategies to take advantage of their customers in every way imaginable from eliminating the bad customers by tracking their purchases through reward zone and excluding them from offers.

They forcefully signed up ignorant customers for internet contracts and magazine subscriptions without the customers knowledge (I was trained in the way of how to act like the credit card wasn't recognized the first time through since we needed to scan it once for the contract and later for the purchase, and also to do a little X on the screen for them when they had to sign the contract).

They give the run around on just about anything related to services and warranties. I remember when BBY corporate had to take over handling cell phone exchanges because if we found one single scratch on the phone, we would tell the customer it was sign of abuse and refuse their warranty (I think I saw 1 out of 20 phones handled under the service plan because of that? lol).

They are completely relative on their policies and who they want to apply them too. You better be attractive if you want the easy road through a policy or friends with somebody. If you don't have much on your side, you won't qualify for a 'case by case' policy procedure.

They do lots of false advertising and misrepresentation on services. I remember when best buy first started selling VPR Matrix Computers. The machines came with virtually nothing on them but the Operating system, yet we still heavily pushed a system optimization to eliminate background programs and make it work so much better. I think all we did on this particular PC was turn on automatic updates, and install the latest patches... There was no unnecessary programs on boot.

Hmmm... should I keep saying more?

Xbox / PS2 / Xbox360 forced bundling at launch. You want the 299 advertised core system? We have plenty in stock!!! But it's only available in the package with 10 extra controllers, all 32 games, 15 memory cards, 2 extra hard drive kits, and the Replacement plan! Oh and 10 years of xbox live subscription!

Yea like I said, "enough said"

Any improvement you are seeing at the store level is directly related to this arrogance getting out of control and corporate seeing customers waiting for the next big retailer to emerge that they can jump ship too. The second they feel safe, these practices will all come back. Just like The Scorpion and the Frog, it is only the scorpion's nature to do such things.

CompUSA. Let's kick them while they're down. Or we can nominate whomever is running their going out of business sale, which frankly leaves much to be desired in the way of discounts.

Damn, I hate typing fast while I'm at work, my grammar is all out of wack!

I don't expect it to win "worst company", but I feel Microsoft should be nominated.

We all agree the RRoD was a bigger issue than they acknowledged, they did to the right thing by extending the warranty. Unfortunatly they have had many more problems. Poor quality control on refurbished units that were shipped out, online content that can't be used on the replacment units THEY sent out unless you are online. This means that for the next few years, if you want to play Street Figther II on your 360, you have to contiune to pay for broadband internet access even if you have no other need for it. As well, Live was down for quite awhile, which also resulted in Achievement points being lost, rankings getting screwed up, etc.

Their first line of customer service is also known to be almost no help, which is why so many people just skip past it and contacted Bill Gates.

While this many hardware companies have manufacturing issues like this, and many service providing companies have down time and subscription issues, it is rare to find both in one package.

On top of that, this is for a video game console. What should be (compaired to PC gaming) an easy thing to set up and jump into. Did we have problems like this with the NES? Genesis? Playstation? While some may have had hardware bugs, sucessfuly playing a game was not nearly as stressful as it is with the 360.

SPRINT!

Thank God I got away...

Oh, my vote goes for Time Warner, long wait times, higher and higher prices, dropping quality... though they don;t sound as bad as Comcast.

Also, how about running in tandem with this, we have a Best Company in America thread? I know, optimism is totally counter to internet postings, but that doesn't mean we cannot occasionally focus on the good.

MEDIACOM

COMCAST

SPRINT

Can't I also buy Blackwater's services?

Here you go
Sears

Exxon Mobil and their record setting profits can eat a dick too.

@Kavatar: I came here to say the same thing. If you have to ask why Comcast deserves a pile of shit, then you need to spend some more time reading this site.

Hell, I'd go one step further and send them a real pile of shit - They'd probably just melt down and sell the golden one, and figure out a way to add $5/month to their customer's bills because of it.

But then there's Wally World which has sent more US jobs to China & ultimately is the cause of the housing meltdown here because so many have lost good jobs.

Office Depot is much worse, imho.

@Phildawg: seconded!

enough said.