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Who has the worst customer service in America?

by Christopher Elliott on June 10, 2011

Will the company with the worst customer service in America please stand up and take a bow?

Ah, if it only were that easy.

Turns out there are multiple lists of “worst” companies and they’re hardly unanimous in naming a winner – or in this case, a loser.

For example, here’s the latest MSN/Zogby poll:

1. Bank of America
2. AOL
3. Capital One
4. Sprint
5. Time Warner
6. Comcast
7. Citigroup
8. Progressive
9. JPMorgan Chase
10. Farmers Insurance

Here are the bottom 10 for service in a recent Nunwood survey of top 100 companies.

1. Travelocity
2. Office Depot
3. US Bank
4. Borders
5. US Airways
6. Continental
7. Gap
8. Roadrunner
9. Allstate
10. AOL

And here’s a crowdsourced ranking of customer service bottom-feeders:

1. AT&T
2. Time Warner
3. Bank of America
4. Wal-Mart
5. American Airlines
6. Citibank
7. Dell
8. Gold’s Gym
9. BP
10. Hooters

No clear winner, right? But if you’re a savvy customer, you can see patterns.

Repeat offenders.
Several companies made two of the three lists. They include AOL, Bank of America and Time Warner. By most accounts, these are deeply troubled companies with long histories of ignoring customer complaints. I don’t think I’m going out on a limb by advising you to exercise care before doing business with them.

Some industries are well represented.
Cable, telecommunication and several other industries make all three lists. Which of them is the worst offender? I asked readers of my CBS
Interactive column to vote on the standout industry, and they voted for cable (35 percent) followed closely by banks (31 percent), telecommunications companies (25 percent) and insurance (9 percent). An honorable mention goes to the airline industry.

Bad publicity = bad service.
It would be a mistake to look at all three lists and not recognize that certain companies are being punished for being in the news. For example, does BP really offer bad service at the pump, or is it being dinged for the Deepwater Horizon explosion? Are banks and insurance companies offering inferior service, or are they being marked down because of the bailout? I think bad publicity can weigh on a company’s reputation.

Even without a clear loser, you can eyeball these lists and get a pretty good idea of what to expect when you’re buying from one of these companies.

To be sure, being on one of these lists is a bad sign.

Making it twice? Consider that a warning.

And yes, sometimes there’s no escape from bad service.

Tagged as: Ranking, Service, Worst

  • Shirley Schultz

    It’s a hassle, but I’m taking everything I can out of Bank of America.  They don’t need me, and they show it.

  • http://twitter.com/SpiritsTraveler Marcia Frost

    I have to put Delta Airlines at the top of bad service.  I consistently get conflicting customer service on the phone and at the gate. Nine out of 10 experiences are horrendous, from their handling of the disabled to their not knowing what elites from partner airlines are entitled to. I have made the unfortunate mistake of giving them another try a couple of times a year and dread the fact that I have another flight booked with them next month.  I will admit, though, that in the air their flight attendants are great.

  • Harold Hauser

    I have noticed Comcast on lists showing poor customer service.  I’m a current long term Comcast customer, and I have nothing but good to say about them.  It may have something to do with being competent in technology myself, able to go switch out equipment that is not working properly, like a number of different DVR’s — my number one failure in the last few years.

  • Mhi354

    one company not on the lists but deserves to be:  American Express (Platinum) credit cards.  when calling the company’s executive office, you can be sure of one answer to your problems:  “i apologize….” it is repeated many times.  “i apologize….”    “i apologize….”   ”i apologize…”

    no resolutions, just  “i apologize….”     all for $ 450 per year.

    Mort   NYC

  • http://www.facebook.com/Moonshadow2 Cynthia Kruger

    Yesterday I was speaking with customer service at CitiBank’s Identity Monitor.  It was extremely difficult for me with my hearing impairment to understand the reps. I kept asking for repeats because I literally could not understand what was being said.  The end result was getting hung up on by not one but THREE reps!  I emailed them to say I wanted to cancel my service and you can be sure I will follow up.

    Having said that . . . there are several components to this problem:  a lack of diction (not speaking and enunciating clearly), the rep. speaking too rapidly, and poorly adjusted or poor quality headsets in use by the cust. service reps.  AND . . . a decided lack of patience on the part of the cust. service reps.

    What it boils down to is they’re all in a hurry and can’t be bothered to do the job properly!

  • Orlandonaut

    I see that Hooters was on a top 10 list. I have never noticed bad customer service there, but perhaps I was distracted.

  • Dave

    Of course, I can’t say what company has the worst customer service in America, since I haven’t done business with all of them.  I’ll leave that to the people who have the time and resources to do the research.

    It does seem a bit misleading, though, to advertise this article as “I have the answer right here” and then the answer isn’t there.  We see three different “bottom 10″ lists, but no declaration of who’s actually the worst.  The article itself is perfectly honest; it’s the teaser I object to.

  • http://twitter.com/alitaliasucks alitaliasucks

    EXCELLENT lists. Agree with most. Missing though, in my opinion: Verizon and Alitalia. (yes, Alitalia is an Italian company, but it services the USA, and has offices in New York City).

  • http://twitter.com/alitaliasucks alitaliasucks

    Great lists. Agree with most, however, in my opinion, missing from the lists:  Verizon and Alitalia. (yes, Alitalia is an Italian company, but it services the USA, and has offices in New York City).

  • http://twitter.com/alitaliasucks alitaliasucks

    Great lists. Agree with most, however, in my opinion, missing from the lists:  Verizon and Alitalia. (yes, Alitalia is an Italian company, but it services the USA, and has offices in New York City).

  • Oro8080

    I don’t agree that Continental is one of the worst. It is by far  one of the top two airlines in all catagories. They are a first class operation.

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  • Sanchiro

    No disrespect for those who do business with these fine offenders…er…..companies, but when someone gives me an email address, aintgotaclue@aol.com, i always wonder what other areas of life this person lacks common sense. Same goes for B of A. They are notorious for being a huge machine that just grinds up the little people. When big outfits like these listed forget that the little people, the man or woman on the street, the everyday Joe is writing their ticket, they have lost, and it’s only a matter of time before they close operations. 

  • G Ortega

    I think the best online store is ajrichard.com.  They are artists of the scam.  Just look at this list of dissatisfied costumers:

    http://www.complaintsboard.com/?search=ajrichard.com&everything=everything&sort=popularity

    I am so angry with this company.  I am ANOTHER victim of this company! This guys are horrible, I don´t understand how is it possible that this company exist. I am totally sad because the reason I bought from them is because I was trying to get the best deal ($50 less) and what I got was a lost of about $300 on my canon XA100! How? Well, they convinced my wife to get the battery, the charger, memory card Etc. They told her that it was the best quality and she though it was a good deal. After I found out one hour letter and ask her to call back, they told her that it was “already ship” even if their website said that it was “ready to be ship” (which is different). We did not even knew what kind of products we were getting until they arrived. The products are chip quality, I researched online and buying the same products (or better) could have been almost $300 less! And now of course we have to deal with it because their restocking fee is 15% without exception. Is there any costumer´protection for consumers in this country? My wife and I, we extremely sad and angry.

  • Linda

    Bailouts are the reason customer service has gotten worse everywhere. Also the phony Wall Street bull market too. Most very large companies act like they no longer need their customers. I’m surprised that Target, Best Buy, State Farm and Verizon were not on any lists. They have terrible customer service now.

  • Tarabwtgicorp

    My God! How is it possible that HP has not made the numer one spot on every worst list, with Microsoft right behind them?!!!!!!!!!!

  • Tarabwtgicorp

    I value the fact that I am an American. Let me make it clear, there is not a better country in the world to have been born and live in; However, customer service in American operated centers are usually met

    Arrogance,  condescension,
    attitude beyond comprehension.  India, my
    God, I think they put the A in arrogance, created lack of comprehension, and as
    far as communication skills, it is truly non existent!  “Don’t worry I will help you”, three hours
    later, I am still trying to communicate to them what I need from them. The best
    experience I have ever had was with agents in the Philippines. I truly think it
    has a lot to do with the value of your job. Americans take to much for
    granted.  I said to an agent for a
    company, that I will not name at this time. 
    “It appears that your morning is not going well”, her response, “excuse
    me!” I repeated, her response, “Look , you do not know me, you were not in my
    house this morning or any other morning, so how would you know how this morning
    or any morning I have is going”! I realized if I was to get any help, I needed
    to just stick to the issue, she hung up on me. I can’t tell you how many times
    I have experience this kind of attitude with agents in American who really does
    not want to be in a customer service industry, trust me , it shows. India,
    well, I will not even go there.    

  • Melissa Fleetwood

    If businesses would realize that without the customer there would be no business, therefore no paycheck, maybe, just maybe they would straighten out. I don’t believe the customer is ALWAYS right, but, there’s a way to go about it without just being downright nasty!!!

  • Meredith

    You collected all those lists and didn’t include Consumerist’s WCIA competition?!
    http://consumerist.com/taking-it-seriously/worst-companies-in-america/

  • Shankar

    Why call customer service for Hooters? Boobs not big enough?

  • Shankar

    Get an American Express blue for free and send the $ 450 to a charity. At least you will hear I appreciate….I appreciate….I appreciate….I appreciate….

  • Shankar

    If you notice this is a NewJersey/new York located company. They do not provide a street address. These and a few more are crooks. Always search for a review before you patronize these bastards.

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  • http://profiles.google.com/itsumademootaku CJ Mitchell

    The $7-on-a-$40-withdrawl ATM charges were where I gave up on BoA.  The only thing I regret was being too timid with the girl at the bank over why I was leaving!

  • http://profiles.google.com/itsumademootaku CJ Mitchell

    You could try selling these items online (e.g. Amazon marketplace, eBay).  Since they are relatively small you can ship them for cheap, and the commission the site takes may end up being less than the restocking fee.  It’s a bigger risk than just returning them, but it’s an option.

  • http://profiles.google.com/itsumademootaku CJ Mitchell

    HP is no fun to deal with (I have no problem with Microsoft – I love their forums) but I pretty much agree that they get squeezed out by all those other companies on the list.

  • Shyla4us

    I put eBay on the top of my list, I am suprised it didn’t make number 1 in all three since they are far worse then all these listed! Fact is eBay is far worse then any of these, they do NOTHING AT ALL to help their customer’s they hate them, transfer back and forth, ignore e-mails, and nothing ever gets done at all. If you have an issue, kiss your money good bye, especially if you are a seller!

    Whay makes these companies so bad though? Why is no one mentioning it? Truth is when you call the people you speek too don’t speek english, can’t understand english, and frankly don’t live in America so they don’t like American’s. I noticed in the first poll EVERY one of those companies outsourced in the last few years due to the Bush tax cuts they received to take American jobs from American people, and this is what they earned from it!

  • Shyla4us

    Have you had to deal with the issues of internet problems? We spent hours with forien speeking advisors with crappy internet for more then a year! Some were dumber then rocks, and a few tryed cursing in their forien tongue. To fix the matter we had to call and ask that our service be removed and ha to wait outside in the snow until the service man came to retrieve our equitement, we explained to him the problem he inspected the line and found a faulty transformer.

  • Shyla4us

    HP and Dell, truth is when it comes down to it MOST people don’t bother to get involved with the customer service people since none of them speak english you can’t do what ever they ask, I think the reason they fell short of the lists is because most of their customer’s go else where for fixes and issues, its faster and less head ache.

  • Shyla4us

    I am one of the 2,396,790 American’s who lost their job as a result of customer service jobs leaving to another country, as well as a member of the 940,650 American computer technitions who lost their jobs when the computer industry was given to forien countries. I am curently unemployed as a result. I tell you from experience, if that agent was in a call center she would have been fired in America. Fact is MOST of us who worked these jobs experience intense anxiety due to the fact that our jobs were on the line every day we went to work. We knew the companies we worked for were replacing us, we knew we were going to not be able to feed our families next month, some of tryed hard to hide this, but sometimes it was too intense. Yes, it is hard sometimess to accept that you are considered wortless by your employer and worthless by the customer, all people faulter. And yes, it is allways better to stick with the issue, personal comunication is weird, and usualy not very well to do.

  • Alex

    You all should give Bank of America another chance. They’ve made sweeping changes since mid 2010 in their fees and senior leadership has taken a string stance on the customer experience being the most important piece of the business – across the nation and in virtually very customer segment. It is a different company now, no lie.

  • Grandma Caroline

    My complaint is with Charter….channels disappear, no warning or explanation….price goes up!  When I complained about renting my modem I was told I could buy one reconditioned for $25 or new for $40.  When I said I had NEVER heard that, he said well…the information is out there.  In the years I have been paying rent I could have bought many, many modems!

  • Guest

    Of course they have changed…and whats your title with them?

  • tripleplayedout

    I totally agree that verizon tops the list and cannot believe they are not on any of the above. I ahve been trying to correct our incorrect bundled package since October! It is near impossible to get to anyone that can solve your problem. There is no accountability no way for the customer service people to follow up to see that they account changes they request are actually implemented. Everyone has a different story a supposed solution and ultimately another screw up.  I give up. Let them take the phone, tv and internet away. I have spent more time then I can afford already on this.
     

  • http://moshi08.myopenid.com/ KJ Ram

    AT&T making the lists as usual. Will never be their customer again, and would advise others to record calls when placing orders, as they will sign you up services that you did not intend to purchase.

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