Free Republic

humblegunnerSince Jan 23, 2001

The poll, conducted by E-Score, found 92% of the 1,1000 surveyed a disdain for the racist owner of the NBA team, ahead of such notables as O.J. Simpson and Bernie Madoff. Also among the most hated men were former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, former Patriots’ tight end Aaron Hernandez and pop star Justin Bieber. Move over O.J. and Bernie Madoff: America’s new No. 1 most-hated man is racist Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling. A stunning 92% of the people asked in a recent poll ranked Sterling as more reviled than any killers, con men, politicians — or even Justin Bieber....

A company can become broadly hated if it alienates a large enough group of people. It may frustrate customers with poor service, anger employees with unpleasant working conditions or low pay, and fail shareholders with poor returns. Often, these shortcomings are intertwined and it’s usually enough for a company to antagonize one of these groups for its reputation — and even its operations and finances — to suffer. Many of the most-hated companies have millions of customers and hundreds of thousands of workers. With this kind of reach, it’s important to keep employees happy in order to maintain decent customer...

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...