American Airlines: canceled 3,300 flights last week to make sure some wires were properly wrapped and tied, disrupting travel plans for hundreds of thousands of travelers. Granted, their lives would have been much more disrupted had any of their planes caught fire, but as this repair was on the FAA top list of things to check for, it should have been part of routine maintenance. That aside, American was the most-complained about of the big airlines for the past year, ranking in the tops for complaints about customer service and overall flight problems.
Blockbuster: is a crappy video store dittoed across the face of America. The worst thing about them is that they never have any movies that we like and sometimes they edit controversial movies to make them more mainstream-friendly. And based on reports from our readers, some of their in-store personnel seem to have discs stuck up their bum.
]]> This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2008 series. The companies nominated for this honor were chosen by you, the readers. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america/STILL OPEN FOR VOTING: Time Warner Cable vs Radioshack, Wellpoint vs Charter Cable, Dell vs Home Depot,
Sears vs Citibank, Wal-Mart vs TJMaxx, Mattel vs ATT, Capital One vs Video Professor, eBay/Paypal vs COX, Apple vs SallieMae, Diebold Vs Pfizer, MTV vs TransUnion, CompUSA vs DirecTV
Target vs Best Buy
Allstate vs Verizon,
DeBeers vs 1800 flowers, Starbucks vs United Airlines,
Exxon vs Crocs, Google Vs Sony, Ticketmaster vs Wachovia, Facebook vs The American Arbitration Association, Comcast vs Menu Foods
The problem with American Airlines is NOT with the recal of the planes... that is a condition of a much larger issue. Lets take a look at how many of the employees who took a pay cut for the COMPANY after 9/11 have gotten their pay and benefits back. The mechanics are now in negotiations with the union and the head company and since AA has taken a first quarter loss, due in fact to the planes being taken out of service AA now once again has the upper hand in the negotiations. Is it a coincidence? NO! Look at how much money the management gets for bonuses. It is an insane way to run a company- screw the guys who are actually making it all work and greedy corp america gets paid. And by the way- mechanics do not get to make decisions on what they begin to repair. They could not have changed those wore bundels without first getting direction from the Corp office. They go by a manual. Feeling better about flying with America's Largeest Airline? Greedy Corp America spells bad conditions for you amd me.
]]>Blockbuster is dying too, so I'm kicking them when they're down with my vote.
]]>Blockbuster may suck, but they don't depend on a Federally-subsidized system to operate. And they have good competition from Netflix, whereas most airlines are uniformly bad.
]]>I don't remember if I've ever even used AA, but I long ago stopped using Blockbuster.
Once everything went to DVD format, I couldn't seem to rent one movie from Blockbuster that wasn't scratched up to the point of unwatchability. Then their prices started going up. I'd rather just buy a DVD from Target or Wal-Mart for 7 or 10 bucks than rent from Blockbuster.
]]>Although I don't rent from Blockbuster, I do buy used DVDs from them once in awhile if there's a sale going on. I don't remember any of the movies having the "this film has been edited for content" message before the film, which any decent studio would mandate. I would hate to find out that my DVDs are actually edited.
Does anyone have any info other than this Salon.com article?
[machinist.salon.com]
Between the article and the comments, I'm just not sure what to believe.
]]>Then again I was flying into MIA. MIA makes people irritable.
Other than that my major problem with American is that every flight I've had with them has been late coming and going to airports. I'm so happy that I can not use American to fly to my home airport anymore.
]]>[upload.wikimedia.org]
American Airlines easy!
They're a company that can actually make your life hell, as shown above.
Blockbuster has nothing on them. Besides I can shut that store out of my life, since I don't need to rent movies, when I can borrow them for free.
]]>AA is worse because they can trap you on an aircraft for hours on end, or in an airport in a strange city where you know no one and are hungry, tired and filthy. They can ruin your honeymoon or your family's long-awaited, long-saved-for trip to (God forbid) Disneyland or that booze cruise. The worst that can happen at Cockbuster is they don't have that sappy movie or the pimply-faced idiot at the counter is rude to you. It's really no contest...AA wins, shit down.
]]>My wife and I went to Blockbuster for the fist time in ages this weekend. The "kid" who checked us out was clearly stoned out of his mind and since we had not rented anything in a long time had to verify everything. I think we were literally there for twenty mins and he was hysterical in a OMG they let you work here kind of way. The manager was walking back and forth behind him and found him just as humourous.
]]>I wish blockbuster had been seeded agianst someone else. I feel like they deserve to move to the next round, but certainly AA is a worse company.
]]>@SlappySquirrel: come on squirrel rock the vote! everyones doin it!
]]>After the fiasco last week for American Airlines, they are going to be leaving a bad taste in people's mouth for a long time to come.
]]>Blockbuster may suck, but if they screw up, it probably won't cost you as much. Or get you trapped in Fresno or Bangor or someplace far from home.
]]>AA contstantly tries to route me through Dallas, despite my orginiation point or intended destination
DISAPPROVE
This seems like a pretty weak paring. I doubt the winner here will survive the next round. Both of these companies are annoying, but neither of them is really over the top in a "Walmart/Best Buy/That Company with the Killer pet food" sort of way.
I didn't bother voting on this one.
]]>I have Netflix and do Fly AA. Kinda disgusted that they were able to fly putting lives at risk.
]]>@jimv2000: Pardon my ignorance, but isn't AA's problem in that regard that they FAILED to notice the problems in advance or have preventative maintenance in place so that hundreds of thousands of passengers wouldn't get abruptly screwed?
Noone's suggesting the planes should fly if unsafe, merely that the airlines blew it by being caught completely unawares. Am I wrong about this?
]]>Damn America Airlines for making sure that all of those angry customers didn't get on planes with electrical problems!
]]>:)
]]>I'd rather not be able to find a movie I want than have my flight delayed . . . or cancelled.
]]>@theblackdog: Does that make them better or worse?
]]>![[upload.wikimedia.org]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/79/IT_%28South_Park%3B_The_Entity%29.jpeg){kind=link}