Posted on 10/13/2011 1:50:26 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
You're not the only person who hates Bank of America, American Airlines and Time Warner.
We've updated our list of the worst companies on the American Customer Satisfaction Index, which gives remarkably accurate ratings based on thousands of surveys. The most-hated list hasn't changed much since June, because the companies rated since then are in the well-liked durable goods industries.
"Generally speaking, manufacturing companies have a much easier time to quality control their products," ACSI's David VanAmburg told us. "In terms of purchase and consumption, you're going to get much higher ratings than an airline company where there's a greater chance that something can go wrong."
The worst companies include big banks, legacy airlines and utilities.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Was it Meg Whitman?
There is not a circle of he’ll hot enough for the beast of non-service that is Sallie Mae.
Bank of America and AT&T are definitely on my chit list. In six months or so, when I finally pay off that last line of credit with BoA, they will never, ever, ever get their sticky little paws on me again. Ever. And I just canceled my AT&T too. I avoid flying and I don’t have cable, so I avoid most of the others. When I do fly, I carry only a backpack. If it doesn’t fit in the backpack, it doesn’t go.
Oh, yeah, Capital One. How’d I forget those SOBs...
SEARS
I had to really LOL at my bud who called Ebay CSR after it took him 2 hours just to create...connect...get approval..from Paypal, which is owned by Ebay.
Then the Ebay agent told him about the rules: 10 items ONLY. The reason was a “read script’ that new sellers NEED TO FOCUS ON THOSE 10 ITEMS.
So my friend just fed up said “so YOU THINK WE ARE SO STUPID THAT WE CANNOT SELL MORE THAN 10 ITEMS, EVEN THOUGH MY COMPANY IS WORTH 2 MILLION?”
This sounds to me like the typical complaints at eBay - “newbies are suspicious”. Buyers or sellers. So, perhaps to make sure new sellers are on the up-&-up, they came up with this stupid rule.
Wonder if they have a corresponding rule for newbie buyers? “Can’t buy more than 10 items in XXXX months” etc?
Get this; now the TEN...let’s say you have 100 of each of those ten.
You are OVER THE LIMIT. Ebay warns you that you can “specifically” sell 10...you CANNOT INCREASE THE QUANTITY from ONE.
It was insanity. So my bud signed on to AMAZON, and his only problem were the UPC codes. That was it. And the agents spoke “English”.
Everyone is small potatoes and a distraction from the REAL ENEMY!
I think you’re right.
She was a candidate of some sort; Republican, but I think maybe she started going overboard with rules there at eBay. It wasn’t that way really until 2008-9 when the big hammer came down on “how to pay”. I am lucky I’ve been able to buy some things I really, really wanted that are unique to auctioning by nice sellers who would take it under the table - and weren’t too happy about that rule.
Sure there is, if it’s all tied to a part of the business you want dead and is dieing naturally anyway. As people move away from landlines the revenue drops but the cost to them mostly stays the same, they still have the same number of miles of phoneline to maintain even though over half the houses they run past aren’t connected anymore. The only part of the cost they can control at all is the in home service guys. Just on the cost revenue picture alone they’re probably having to get rid of them faster than would allow them to maintain old service levels just because that’s really the only flexible cost they have.
Sounds like the description of a good old "dungeon crawl" in a Dungeons and Dragons game ...
Just try dealing with its customer service on things like large appliance repair, etc.
I'll expand later on the so-called "customer service" but the dentist beckons. Out of here for the time being.
Leni
Yes, but this was for U-Verse service, which they advertise heavily for.
Why spend money advertising for something you can’t deliver?
Get enough people to sign up it’ll be profitable. Not enough people sign up...
Either a company exists to serve the needs of their customers OR their help. It's never both...
Walmart has switched.
Apple will do the same now that Jobs is gone... walking into an Apple store is comfortable. When the company's in decline, going to an Apple store will be stressful - as employee earn points from each other on how stupid they can make the user feel... Ever get phone help for a PC?
Thanks for mentioning it - Sears is the worst. Have you ever dealt with their repair people? I won’t even buy an appliance there for that reason ... Home Depot’s much better.
You wrongly imply that for a bank a debit card transaction, ANY debit card transaction, transacted through their bank’s system, is at zero cost to the bank, and therefor ought to be at zero cost to you.
Now, in most cases, if it is YOUR bank on both sides of that transaction - the bank that issued the debit card (including BOA) and the bank where you are using the debit card, they wave an extra debit card fee. Why? Because even just the “float rate” on your money behind the debit card helps to pay for the business of the debit card transactions for the bank that issued the card. But, what does a bank earn from the account behind a debit card issued by someone else? Zip; nada; zilch; except by direct debit card fees - which has ALWAYS been the case.
Most banks, including BOA, do not charge their own debit card customers, a separate fee when they make a purchase with the debit card and ask for cash back. Why? There has always been a built-in revenue stream back to the credit and debit card issuers from the retailers accepting transactions with their cards - pennies per transaction but it all added up.
So maybe you mean how did they earn their money before - vis-a-vis debit cards, before the Dodd-Frankenstein law? I just told you how.
Then, Dodd-Frankenstein dictated, by law, a different arrangement between the banks and the retailers - voiding their contractural agreements - cutting the fees the retailers were paying, reducing the revenue the banks received. Now, the debit-card holders will make-up for that revenue loss by incurring higher debit-card fees on ATM transactions at ATM machines of banks that are not theirs.
Or, maybe you meant (how did the banks earn revenue) before, when the Federal Reserve was setting the prime interest rates at 3,4,and 5%, and your (or the banks) “money market” account earnings were exceeding the rate of inflation? I think the facts in the question provide your answer to the question. The banks used to earn revenue the same way your old money market account used to earn revenue - they were paid a higher interest rate on money they had on deposit themselves. We all did. The Fed’s easy money, cheap dollar money manipulations ended that - and bit into a lot of banks and retirees fixed income streams in the process.
The only thing the banks have done is respond to what the Dodd-Frankenstein legislation did to other areas of the banks earnings.
Congress warned the Federal Reserve to warn the banks they needed to preserve more earnings and build more capital reserves, then Dodd-Frankenstein said: “let’s go take away some of their earnings”.
Having helped to create the situation, the crafters of Dodd-Frankenstein, like Dick Durbin, now want to gin up populist angst against the banks for a situation that Dodd-Frankenstein helped create.
I love and use the Home Depot, Costco, Best Buy etc., when I know exactly what I want and I am ONLY looking at price. I don’t expect any good advice there and I don’t expect any follow-on service either. Same with CVS versus my local long-time druggist.
When service, support and advice is what I need, I support my local retailers, even though I pay a little more.
Not by any stretch of the imagination do I imply such a thing.
When I was a kid, I could get 4% on a passbook savings account, debit cards hadn't been invented, and somehow the banks managed to keep the lights on and the doors open.
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