Since switching my bank accounts to WaMu from Wells Fargo about 7 years ago, I haven't had any real problems. Their online banking page could use an uptime number closer to 100%, but that said, it is a really easy page to use. Stained though they may be by the subprime debacle, is there a major American bank whose hands are clean?

Their cards division, however, sucks. I got zero useful help from the overseas client service reps the few times I needed to contact them. Their usurious eagerness to raise your APR, hit you up for fees, and change the terms of your agreement is at least equal to that of other major card issuers.

USAir, on the other hand, is probably the poster child for the sorry state of affairs in American-run airlines. They're essentially a rush-hour subway car that flies.

I say USAir takes it.

US Airways 50% (3111 votes)
Washington Mutual 50% (3058 votes)

So the plane in Philly gets delayed because of snow. There is another one scheduled to leave later, but obviously, not everyone can get on it, so I talk to a person at the desk about being put on standby for the next plane, because the issue is time sensitive. I am informed that I am the only person on the standby list! Yay!

Later, from a different person, I was told that by being put on the standby list, I had queued myself to be last priority, after the people who were scheduled by -didn't- request to be put on standby. I was now absolutely last on the list. When I asked them why I wasn't informed of this when requesting to be on the next flight, I was told that I should've had an understanding of how the standby list works. I thought I did. I was wrong it seems. The next flight was leaving entirely too late for me to have any chance of making it to my parents' anniversary party.

So I tried to call my brother in VT, and couldn't get ahold of him. I next called my parents' house and explained what happened, and she called US Airways right then and put them through on a three way call and reamed them out. Eventually, they conceded that they had pulled a dick move on me, and suggested I fly to Manchester NH, and have someone from VT drive there and pick me up.

So I ended up sleeping in the Philly airport, flying to NH, and my brother drove up from VT to pick me up, then drove all the way back down again.

So much wasted time. Thanks, US Airways.

Though, I suppose a company who willingly involves itself in the destruction of an entire nation's economy gets the "edge". Voting WaMu.

Easy vote. When I had to get home from a business trip early to attend my grandmother's funeral in January, USAir told me they couldn't change my flight because she wasn't "immediate family"

Unfortunately, they have taken over the Philly airport and I don't really have a choice other than to book their flights.

neck and neck

And for laying me off when I temped there in the loan review dept a few years back. ; )

Can we start the "who seeded these brackets" argument again?

My now-husband's aunt flew me out to the East Coast for his college graduation using her massive stash of frequent flyer miles. My flights ended and began at a small airport in Connecticut (Hartford-Bradley, I believe), which was about an hour away from the college and two away from his house. The way in, we had no problems. There was a massive storm on the way out, though, so I was stuck at the airport for over three hours.

When I got to Philadelphia to connect, I was sent to about five different ticket counters to find my flight which I thought I had missed. After two hours of counter-tag, I found out that not only had I missed my flight, but it didn't even exist anymore.

At first, they tried to pin it on me, telling me that they sent me an email regarding the change and that I'd need to rebook. There was no email in my box or his aunt's. Even so, why did the ticketing ladies put a tag with that flight number on my luggage at Bradley? Why didn't they tell me I'd be stranded in PA?

They wouldn't give me a free room, only an $80 voucher. I had no money to my name, so my guy drove another three hours down to PA, then drove another hour and change to the closest hotel with vacancies. When I got back to the airport the next day, I tried to use my free food voucher at the food court. Nobody accepted it.

I will never fly US Airways again.

The only time my luggage was ever lost, it was flying US Scareways. I was flying to Maryland for my aunt's funeral last March. I was in a terrible state of mind to begin with (my aunt died in a car accident), and after nearly missing my connecting flight in DFW because we were running late, got into BWI three hours late to discover my baggage was missing. The staff was unbelievably rude. They told me I would just have to wait until they delivered it (their exact words). I left my sister's address in Laurel and they said it'd be there in the morning. Next day, nada, not even a phone call. Meanwhile the funeral was the next day and I had nothing, not even a toothbrush.

I ended up borrowing a dress from my sister. To add insult to injury, they had the nerve to finally deliver my luggage the morning I was supposed to fly back to Phoenix (apparently they couldn't find my sister's house in Laurel). That was the last time I flew US Scareways.

wow. if it didn't feel like we'd be voting well into the next century to finish it, I'd ask if we could have a loser bracket, because whichever one loses here would certainly do well.

Didn't work. They put a hold on my card EVERY THREE DAYS for the entire trip. And sometimes the next day if I had used the card in a different city the day before. So, not only did I have no access to cash, but I needed to spend at least 2 hours every three days talking to a variety of non-helpful customer service idiots.

Oh and you know that "call from anywhere" 800 number on the back? It doesn't work. You get a recorded message, 30 seconds of dead air and THEN an operator that can accept the collect call. So if you're in a country where the telephone operator doesn't speak English (Italy, I'm looking at you) then you are screwed.

Unless you have enough cash left over from the last withdrawal. If you don't, you end up spending your last euros on a phone card which works just long enough for someone to put you on hold.

Nothing like standing next to the Grand Canal in Venice cussing your head off because your phone card ran out while you listened to hold music. Kinda spoiled the wonder of it all.

As of 3:45 pm Central, vote stands at 1828 for US Air, 1827 for WaMu.

I placed an order online and the retailer used Google Check Out. Anyway, I was charged twice, leaving me with a negative balance. The company / Google refunded the 2nd charge right away but they still charged me the overdraft charge and would not refund me. I let it go but that will always be in the back of my mind....

But my recent experience of horrible customer service by a USAirways rep at the airport counter - and that I got no response to the complaint email I sent - wins out here. You can tell some of the USAirways employees hate their jobs - but please don't take it out on the traveler. And management needs to be more responsive.

So either they're completely incompetent about fixing a problem, or simply don't care about prospective customers who've been affected by ID Theft.

WaMu is also being sued for their questionable appraisal practices.

[seattletimes.nwsource.com]

Tough choice. But, I gotta go with US Airways as it's part of the US airline oligopoly. Anyone can move to another bank.

W.T.F.

WaMu. You had me at sub-prime.

US Airways is still the worst airline in world history (and I flew Aeroflot in the Soviet era!) but they never played a huge role in tanking the nation's economy.

WaMu all the way to the championship, baby!

@plustax: There are always going to be tough 7 vs 8 seeds in the first round...

This is not a good matchup here, it seems more suited for a later round once we get rid of the fluffy non-competitors. But as always, banks get my vote unless satan himself is up and then I'd have to think about it a bit and come back later and vote.

@silver-spork: I live in Charlotte, right there with you

I also have not flown with US Airways, but I know how it has gone downhill since they took over AMWest.

Tough call, btu US Airways has fucked me over the last 2 times I flew with them, so they get the vote.

This is so close. I fly US Airways a lot and don't deal with Wamu. US Airways is actually improving the Philadelphia baggage handling (it couldn't get any worse, I guess) and it has one of the best perks in the industry for frequent travelers (free upgrade to "first" class if available).

I don't think I have ever heard anything positive about Wamu. I guess I have just talked myself into voting for Wamu.

Don't have WAMU but do fly US Airways. I haven't had any bad service from them but I can't use my miles.

I suppose, given how they contributed to the subprime mess, there's an argument to be made about their larger impact, but from a customer service point of view, I have no complaints.

Airlines, on the other hand, seem to have been waging a war of attrition on the whole idea of customer service for the last 20 or 30 years. When it gets to the point that it's less painful to take two days to drive across the country with all of horrors of inflated gas prices, fast food, nothing on the radio but Rush Limbaugh and country music, and the state of Nebraska, you know something is terribly, terribly wrong.