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Isn't this a bit like saying \"who should win the baseball MVP this year, A-Rod or Babe Ruth?\"
1 replies
Isn't this a bit like saying \"who should win the baseball MVP this year, A-Rod or Babe Ruth?\"
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50:50!
So who gets the award if CC wins? Do you send it to the liquidator? Can I get a share since they stiuffed me out of a $50 rebate when they sell it?
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@MormonChristmas_GitEmSteveDave:
I want to know too, more especially, how much % off the award is gonna be!
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@MormonChristmas_GitEmSteveDave: You too? I'm also out a $50 rebate. They are bastards. I hope all of their management gets nasty skin diseases or something else equally horrible.
@sprocket79: Well, according to the company that handled the rebate, they cut a check and sent it out, but I don't know how to get in touch with them. I sent an email in to Consumerist, as they seem to have helped some people, but no response yet. I might actually start pounding the grass morrow to find out some info.
@MormonChristmas_GitEmSteveDave: They lied to you. I also got an email that says that my rebate was approved and a check mailed.
They company that handled the rebate is called Parago. I called the rebate hotline a zillion times. I asked for supervisors and was hung up on. I finally annoyed the guy so much that he told me that a lot of checks were cut, but none of them mailed. He said to be patient and eventually they would be mailed. Lies. All lies. I even wrote an email to the CEO and it was ignored. Is there a way to PM on this thing? Maybe we should trade info about what we know about the rebates.
@sprocket79: No PM on these forums, but you could use Lifehacker's suggestion of sc.rim: [lifehacker.com]
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@sprocket79: Seems like involving your state's AG, USPS Postal Inspectors (since they claimed the checked were \"mailed\"), or both would be appropriate at this juncture.
This is like choosing between Stalin and Hitler-they both are jacked up.
But since Circuit City wont be eligeable next year,I vote them in.
And with my vote, ATT pulls ahead!
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AT&T, because spying illegally on millions of innocent Americans - for profit! - should never get a free pass.
I have more experience with Circuit City than AT&T, so I'm going to have to go with them.
I bought a disc of Halo 3 at liquidation. Totally unreadable. No returns.
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AT&T you are sometimes forced to use-
Circuit City I avoided like the plague- because I knew they sucked.
@JGKojak: This is what tipped it for me. AT&T has monopolies in so many markets (not just geographical, but level-of-service as well) because of the infrastructure it built off the back of a government-sanctioned monopoly, and they treat even their enormous customers like dirt.
Circuit City I guess? But that vote doesn't count, so it has to go to ATT.
The intent of the WCiA Award, or so I thought, was to provide a little public embarrassment that might prod bad companies into improving customer service or changing other bad behaviors. Therefore, even though I realize they are otherwise eligible, it seems pointless to even have Circuit City in the brackets.
Circuit City got me at the very end of it's life. I (stupidly) bought something with a rebate from them on Black Friday and they declared bankruptcy before they cut my rebate check (which, ironically, was approved).
Burn in Hell, Circuit City. Burn in Hell.
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AT&T FTW, they have dismal customer service. Stopped going to CC years ago so they didn't exist to be even before they went bust.
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AT&T wins CC is dead. AT&T helps continue the monopolistic consumer hating nature of ISPs and communication.
Government in the 80s: AT&T, you're too big, you're a monopoly (over phones only), we'll have to break you up into baby bells
AT&T in the 00s: Government, can we please buy up the largest bell, a cable/ DSL provider, and one of the largest cell phone carriers in the US?
Govt: Sure, why not??
How much money changed hands for that deal to go through?
Bell south was so great too, before AT&T took it back. AT&T FTW!!!
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I vote for Circuit City because it'll be the last time we can ever vote for it.
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Death Star versus Fail Star. Went with the latter.
Come on people, AT&T is one of the tele-com companies that helped the Bush administration illegally spy on Americans. Then, after they gained immunity for these illegal actions, they gave millions to both the Democrats and the Republicans and sponsored parties at both of their conventions! There is no way CC can top that!
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@Trai_Dep: True. I mean, yeah, Circuit City cries out for a nostalgia vote, but in reality the worst crime they ever committed was screwing little old ladies with extended warranties and whatnot. AT&T on the other hand, besides being an annoying monopoly back from the monopo-grave, was and is complicit in violating the civil liberties of pretty much everybody - in the world, given how much phone and data passes through their hands at some point. Also, sometimes my cell phone service with them is spotty!
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CC FTL! I'll vote for AT&T next year. By going Bankrupt, CC showed it's ultimate dedication to failing the consumer. You don't see that kind of
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@SacraBos: I disagree. By going bankrupt, CC showed its ultimate dedication to failing itself, not the consumer.
I personally disliked CC, but that was because of their uninviting atmosphere and dingbat employees. That didn't mean I wouldn't get a product there if it were the best price. Regardless, the company was relatively harmless.
AT&T, on the other hand, routinely shafts its millions of subscribers by failing to provide appropriate (let alone above-and-beyond) customer service, wasting resources, not meeting demand as advertised, stripping customers of privileges only to charge for them later, and stomping on consumer rights via their frequently shady TOS updates.
Add to this a US exclusive on a groundbreaking device and you have a lot of comments to the effect of, \"boy, I love my iPhone, but I hate that I have to use AT&T\" and so on.
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I prefer to vote for a company that still exists. Besides the last time I checked AT&T has done some pretty f-ed up stuff in the past.
The worst I've heard from Circuit City is their crappy customer service.
It would be a real coup if AT&T, a company that would under most circumstances be a clear \"winner\" in any bracket, could walk away from this unscathed via a company that no longer has any stake in consumers' lives, yet has garnered enough loud publicity to warrant a vote.
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Normally, I'd be quick to vote for CC here, but as others correctly pointed out, CC is already dead. CC winning the worst company in america title wouldn't get the company to change its practices!
Not that AT&T winning would, but at least an active company winning the title *MIGHT* shed some light on a horrible, horrible company, and hopefully get some changes made.
I have nothing against Circuit City. I always felt that their employees knew what they were talking about (moreso than Best Buy's, at least) and I thought they had competitive prices and some great sales. I think what did them in is that their stores were generally not as large or as welcoming as Best Buy's. I felt like I could just mill around and play with things at Best Buy, but when I went to Circuit City, it was usually for a reason.
That said, put them up against a carrier with spotty coverage and a crappy track record of bad billing, and you can guess who got my vote.
My vote goes to Circuit City. Circuit City has hurt the American public more than we know. With it's inability to stay competitive as well as it's failure to update it's infrastructure from the mid 80's, it was no wonder why the company went under. As a staple, Circuit City had a responsibility to stay relevant to be there and regulate prices within the big box retail category, but failed in every which way, and now have left the American consumer open to a monopoly by Best Buy (not saying that Best Buy totally sucks). Batman doesn't work without a Joker folks, simple as that. Circuit City has also hurt our economy by failing to react in time. As profits fell and market share started going towards Best Buy, it seems like Circuit City only started reacting when their stock was downgraded first being kicked out of the S&P 500, then out of the NYSE within the same year. By the end of it's life, Circuit City who was once the kid to cheat off of in class, turned into the one cheating, and at that, cheated off the dumb kid in class. On the way out Circuit City swung the door open and as a last show left slow enough to get hit in its own backside with the doorknob.
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AT&T all the way. 504 seconds while they fumble around and then they drop your call. That netbook deal at RatShack is workin out real good for them...as long as you have 5 grand for data charges.
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CC was a bad company, but unlike anybody else in this day and age, they had the stones to file for bankruptcy, not cry TARP TARP TARP.
@Overheal: Yeah it took stones to file for bankruptcy instead of asking for aide from a governmental program they don't qualify for.
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Wow, 50/50? At&t IS the entity who cooperated with the NSA and Bush to illegally wire tap innocent Americans. Maybe there should be a new poll for most evil company, GE or At&t?
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Don't waste a vote on a company that doesn't exist anymore. There's no CC to deliver the trophy to. Besides that, AT&T is many times more evil than CC.
AT&T for me. I've been in a year long dispute over my phone bill, plus they have been overcharging me almost continuously on my Dish network bill which they handled.
I got nowhere with that for a while. It's almost impossible to get someone in customer service, and if I try calling Dish Network directly, I still get AT&T. Don't know how they are pulling that one off.
I finally made headway when I was able to use the chat feature on Dish to talk to someone. He agreed I was being overcharged, at least $10 a month, possibly more. So I'm going to have unbundle my AT&T package and find other alternatives now that my contract is fulfilled. But they'll probably argue about that too.
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It's so pointless putting companies that no longer exist in these polls. I'm waiting for Braniff Airlines vs. Eastern Airlines. I vote for Eastern because the stewardesses never had a light for my cigarette while I was flying.
@HiPwr: Half, or I daresay, most of the people on this site won't understand the references or your implication that it actually used to be OK to smoke aboard aircraft.
/get off my lawn!
This is easy. AT&T struck a deal with the Bush Administration to build a secret room in AT&T HQ to spy on American communications and then lobbied Congress to pass a law giving them blanket immunity for violating a variety of US privacy and communication laws to cover up their participation in this illegal and unconstitutional program. What did Circuit City do again?
They're both at 50% right now, which I find hilarious.
I used to work for AT&T and they're horrible. They used to have this \"SLM\" progam for mobile phones - service limit monitoring for people with bad credit. People would make calls and then have to call in and make a payment when they got to their service limit-when their bill got to a certain limit. The thing was, the plan discounts - like free weekend minutes or evenings, etc wouldn't kick in and adjust the bill until the end of the month-so they'd ask people to pay thousands through the month and then make those people beg to get it back-sometimes they'd hold thousands of dollars on an account as credit for six months or more. Telling people they needed to send canceled checks or debit card statements showing they'd made the payments. It was a scam of poor people, mostly blacks I know because I used to talk to them. This was before the day of prepaid phones and this was the only thing you could do to get a mobile phone if you had bad credit. It also encouraged a lot of fraud-stolen credit card numbers used, false account numbers, stolen check account numbers-anything to get the phones back on. Also I wish I could give you all the emails they sent us pumping AT&T wireless stock to employees. Telling us to buy. Sending us articles from people writing (presumably paid by AT&T) for the Washington Post (supposedly financial writers) saying AWE stands for awesome! Telling us how great it was that we were going to get to buy the IPO withou paying fees as IPO's were usually only offered to special investors spending more than $100k. So many employees fell for the line and mortgaged their homes thinking they were getting in on some Silicon Valley type deal that was going to make them millionaires. I remember the talk around the company-in the elevator, etc. It made me sad that people were so naive. AT&T issued more market shares than any company in history, in other words it was very diluted, and it was the first IPO where all shares weren't sold by opening day as there were just so many. That stock gained slightly for a few weeks- a few dollars a share- and then continued to fall and never recovered. Another time I paid my employee cell phone $5. They deposited the check but said it was for $500 and it was cashed for that. They refused to refund the money. I bounced three checks that month because of their error. I hadn't ever bounced a check before or after this incident. They suggested I let it sit on my account. It would have taken more than ten years for the credit to be used. I ended up having to threaten to take my own company to court after waiting for the refund for six months. The woman in Orlando in charge of returning the money complained to my supervisor and I got in trouble. I can tell you so many stories like this. About how they help perpetuate identity theft, steal from customers, lie to employees. AT&T is just flat out unethical-thieves. Take it from an insider and do not do business with them. CC was bad, but AT&T has been bad forever-they've been in business near a century-screwing people the whole time.
Did Circuit City betray the Bill of Rights?
And even if CC were even remotely on-par with the un-American evils of AT&T - they're dead and in the ground - who cares? I can't believe this is a close as it is!
This could be the closest of the tournament.
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Circuit City is dead. Why beat a dead horse?
I voted AT&T. They suck and a lot of their customers don't have a choice but to use their service. CC sucked, but at least people had the option of shopping elsewhere.
Should have put the liquidator on here, and not circuit city. The liquidator is the company people hate the most.
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Circuit City doesn't exist anymore. AT&T enables warrantless wiretapping. Seems lkke an easy call, I'm surprised how close this is running.
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AT&T because they still exist and they convinced Apple to only let them offer the iPhone.
This is very easy for me. I go with AT&T, because of their all around store rep arrogance (they used to say every time you called them \"welcome to AT&T the only network good enough for the iphone\" no shit), and all around terrible coverage. Satan and T for the win! Or the lose if you will.
Seriously...Circuit City is in the lead at 51%??!?!?
Painfully inept customer service coupled with blissfully ignorant management that is six feet under shouldn't be leading over a company that wiped it's ass with the constitution!
If CC wins this round I'm nominating consumerist for worst Blog readership in America.
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I actually did alright at times with Circut City. It was their total lack of product knowledge that helped me.
I took back an HD-DVD player as it was being declared dead. I exchanged it for the PS3. The employee said \"good move, HD-DVD doesn't have as many titles.\" They then handed me the three movies I got in the HD-DVD box and said, \"oops, you almost forgot those\".
I think it is pretty sad and an indicator of the society we live in where people have to even contemplate between these two 'evils'.
A store that sells non essential luxury items v.s.
a company that could care less about anything other the then bottom line, even when it comes to civil and human rights.
Seriously, here is to a better shopping experience. Long live American Consumerism.
@ehlaren: Well said! This is pathetic that this is even a competition. Must be all those Gizmodo regulars coming here to vent their frustration w/ a gadget store.
If Circuit City wins.....so do the terrorists!
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Wow, as of right now it is tied at 50%.
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Oh boy.. this is a tough one..
Gonna have to go with At&t, since CC never really hurt anybody, they were just really REALLY bad at running a business.
@Radi0logy: This IS a hard decision to make. The thing is, I wonder if either one could go to the final round. I doubt it, especially as our most recent CC bitching comes courtesy of the jackasses who ran the liquidation (I still wonder if that family got a refund on their broken TV) and AT&T likely still has customers it hasn't pissed off yet.
@Radi0logy: Complete opposite sentiment here. I've had ATT/Cingular before that for the past eight years and I've never had issue.
Circuit City, on the other hand, certainly burned me a few times, most notably with their 24-minute guarantee. The time I couldn't find any employees around the store only to find them in the DVD section playing \"hoops\" with the DVDs into a bargain bin, that was pretty memorable as well.
@Radi0logy: @Gilbert:
Indeed. AT&T on this one. This 50/50 tie is really funny though.
@Radi0logy: My sentiments exactly, whereas AT&T routinely shoves it to people, including myself.
@Radi0logy: Not to mention Circuit City can't hurt anyone anymore. Better to go after the live threat that the defeated one.