Feb
17
Have you ever had an experience with a company that’s so horrible at what they do that you are frustrated beyond belief and just can’t believe that a company that operates like that can stay in business? Here’s my own top companies that are so bad I had to put them on my “never again” list. First, let’s get the caveats out of the way. This is my personal list based on my own experiences with these companies. What makes a crappy company for me? Generally, it’s either one that puts out an inferior product and doesn’t stand by it, or a company that has a horrible customer service operation.
In 2003, this company sold me a Mercedes certified lemon. The 1997 c230, which Mercedes proudly touted as having gone through its “blah blah blah” point inspection program, was a dud straight out of the gate. The “check engine light” came on the very night I took the car home. The transmission dropped a few days later. The car was in the shop more often that it was out in the beginning. I tried to get the dealership to swap the car out for a reliable one which they refused. When I called Mercedes’ customer complaint hotline they rarely answered and when they did, the person complained how many complaints they were getting. Ever since the marriage to Chrysler, this formerly esteemed company has gone downhill. I had always envisioned myself a lifelong Mercedes owner but this was my second and last Mercedes.
This no-service airline company has the lockdown on the cattle call of airlines. It’s the only airline that I’ve flown on that consistently overbooks their flights and refuses to give you a boarding pass until the absolute last moment before your flight takes off. It’s always great to be up in the air, not knowing if you’ll actually get to fly to your designation, while rude, frazzled gate agents try to squeeze 30 people also waiting into five available seats. Then the cherry on top, of course, is that they split you from your travel partner and place you both into middle seats, telling you, try and switch once you’re on board to sit together. Oh yeah, when was the last time you gave up your cramped aisle or window seat for the “I love having no personal space” middle seat? I definitely don’t recommend this airline for any tall people (umm… that would be defined as anyone over 4’6”) since you spend the flight with your knees crammed up against the back seat in front of you, praying that that person doesn’t lean their seat back.
For six years, I enjoyed reliable DSL from this company until I had the audacity to move. I called up EarthLink to transfer my DSL to the new house. After three weeks of waiting for the blinking yellow light on my DSL modem to turn to green, I called them up. “Oops! We don’t have a transfer order on file for you, it will be ANOTHER three weeks for your service to transfer.” When I tried to call their customer service, it was impossible to get through to a live person in under 30 minutes. When I did get through, my phone call was routed to India where I was put into the customer service circle of hell of being transferred to one clueless representative after the other. After two months of EarthLink hell, I finally cancelled the service and ordered DSL from AT&T which took three days to arrive.
I refuse to call this a newspaper. It’s a rag mostly made up of opinion pieces. I used to get both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times and the quality of reporting and news journalism by the NY Times is far superior. All newspapers have a slant but the strong bias and subversive agendas in the reporting by the LA Times is horrific. You would think they would get a clue based on their rapidly falling subscriber base that people are turned off by reading opinion piece after opinion piece instead of actual news.
This is the King of Hidden Fees. Both my husband and I couldn’t tolerate staying with this bank anymore. Even if you read the guidelines, you still get nailed for some hidden fee. We even got nailed for an “excessive” deposit when we moved money over for our house renovation project. You’d think they would encourage high balances since banks make money off of your accounts.
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I normally choose Southwest Airlines for travel because I generally know what I’m buying. For an unknown reason SW has quit booking flights from Tulsa to Boise although the flights are still available. So I chose to book with United instead. What a nightmare! I have never dealt with so many apathetic individuals in one company in my life. They oversold my flight, bumped me, stranded me in Denver, let 7 planes to my destination take off without me, a gate agent actually walked away when I asked if I was getting on the 6th flight and when she returned 10 minutes later told me she had already answered my question when she said “I just got here” then walked away again. They’re ignoring my emails requesting compensation for UAL deliberately selling my reserved seat to someone else. At one point I was 45th on the standby list for three days worth of overbooked flights and there were people lower on the list. I did everything I was supposed to: reserved my seat, paid, got to airport and gate on time, yet UAL ignores all that and flies me when they want to and strands me for 27 hours in a place where a sticky bun costs $4.00 and a Coke $2.50. Never fly United.
I scheduled a payment (due on Saturday) for the following Monday with BANK OF AMERICA. BAM! They added the famous $39.00 late payment fee. Sent them an email thanking them for their kindness, consideration and good business practices. I’m waiting for my reply. I’m sure they won’t delete the fee, but I am going to carry this one out as far as I can. Point: stay away from BANK OF AMERICA.