Crappy Companies:
- Fedex - My most recent experience has convinced me to avoid them as much as possible in the future. There will be a post about it as soon as everything is wrapped up.
- Comcast - Multiple awful customer service experiences regarding glitchy hardware after Time Warner was bought out by Comcast caused us to move to AT&T U-Verse.
- General Motors - As I posted earlier this week, I will never give Chevy my money again after the multiple problems due to poor materials on my Aveo in the last 6 months even though it has less than 42,000 miles.
- Chase - When we were moved over from WAMU, Chase double-charged our $900 mortgage payment and took a little more than 3 weeks to credit it back to our account. We actually received the credit exactly 5 days before our next mortgage payment was due.
- Gentle Dental - Wiggled while they gave me the shot for pain (that hurt ALOT) and then kept accidentally spraying me in the face since the doctor and assistant were too busy talking to each other to notice.
- ING Direct - Unknown to me, ING accidentally paid a bill 3 days before my scheduled billing date last year, called me to explain their mistake as soon as they notices their error, offered to waive any overdraft fees that might occur (not a problem since we have $1000 padding built-in to our checking accounts), and credited my account with the lost interest. I was most impressed by the actual call explaining the mistake mere hours after they found out.
- Discover Card - Two businesses have accidentally double-charged my card and Discover was easy to use online and over the phone.
- AT&T U-Verse - I called to extend my discount rate since my salary had been frozen for another year, but they had already extended it an extra 2 months. The rep also secured me an additional $10 one-time discount just because I called and "AT&T is trying to help out customers that are suffering in this economic climate". The icing on the cake is that the next bills were actually for the stated amounts and continue to be correct! That never happened when Comcast offered us a credit.
Posts
I will never buy a Dell computer again because of their horrible customer service. I cringe just thinking about my experience with them last year. Funny thing is, when I told them I will never buy another Dell and will scream at the top of my lungs to ensure nobody I know ever buys another Dell computer, they didn't care. They were only capable of canned responses.
ReplyDeleteOne company I loved dealing with was Kitchen Aid. When my mixer broke, they instantly sent out a new one as a replacement. It is probably refurbished for all I know, but it has worked great for years.
I'm with you on avoiding Chase. We had a WAMU credit card that was paid off in full and Chase closed it before telling us in writing. We went to use it for an electronics purchase and it was declined. I thought it was the cashier not running the card through properly. When I got home, I looked online and it said we had an available credit (the entire portion of it). So, I brushed it off as a cashier problem. A couple of weeks later, we received a letter saying they had closed our account! I was shocked. The online account still showed an available balance. I now avoid Chase like the plaque. (The cheesy billboards in Los Angeles also contribute to my dislike of their company, they're very full of themselves!)
ReplyDeleteThis is good information to have. Thanks for the heads up.
ReplyDeleteChase closed out a friend's credit card in the same way without notice. He had an $18,000 balance and was going to do a balance transfer from another account for a remodel that was just finished. He was so angry, he told them that he will be moving his Chase mortgage to a different bank.
ReplyDeleteI have not had trouble w/Chase and I get a $25.00 statement rewards credit on my cc almost every month for purchases.
I'm w/you, BFS, about Comcast; no other company could get away w/their poor customer service and arbitrary price increases month after month after month!
Favorite Companies: Life is Good (spoke with a lovely lady in customer service), AT&T U-verse (person who hooked us up and gave us their personal cell phone number, after showing me how to use the remote, made this top on my list), and Starbucks (recently read Starbucks Saved my Life, and love how well they treat their employees).
ReplyDeleteCompany I don't like: Comcast (so many horrible customer service issues)
Thanks for the mention. I agree about Dell--never again.
ReplyDeleteComcast is a nightmare. We moved to Verizon FIOS for our cable/internet needs, at a more competitive rate that is guaranteed for two YEARS. I've also had bad experiences with FedEx.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that ING has been good to you -- I think I'm *finally* going to jump on the online bank bandwagon and get a bit of a higher interest rate on our savings.
Comcast is horrendous. Unfortunately, they have an internet monopoly in our area. One company we LOVE is Progressive Insurance. They were fantastic when we had a car accident. And, when we had problems almost a year later, they looked into it, determined it was from the accident and payed for everything, including a rental (again!).
ReplyDeleteEveryday Tips, sorry about Dell. I’ll be sure to stay away from them! I also need to see if any of our kitchen appliances are Kitchen Aid.
ReplyDeleteLittle House, Chase is arrogant…makes them extra annoying.
ReplyDeleteAnon, yeah, I found out that the Aveo was in reality a Daewoo about 3 years into my ownership. Ick. I’ll keep Ford in mind…
ReplyDeleteHolly, yeah, Comcast has amazingly bad customer service and even their installers hate them.
ReplyDeleteAmanda, I had never heard about Life is Good. For those of you in the same boat, apparently they sell “optimistic apparel and accessories”. I’m blocked from their site at work, but I’ll try to check them out when I get home.
ReplyDeleteRainy Day Saver, yay, welcome to the online banking community in advance! I don’t want to scare you off with a bombardment of suggestions, but once you’re established with ING, email me to talk about Smart Pig, lol. :-)
ReplyDeleteAnon, thanks for the Progressive review! I'm going to review our insurance again in October, so I'll start with them. :-)
ReplyDeleteI've been happy with ING and Discover card as well. Discover might be the best credit card I've had over the years. For me Comcast has been no worse than the alternatives. It seems the pay TV industry has generally poor service/support. I don't like Chase much either but we ended up with them after Wamu went under. Just been too lazy to switch.
ReplyDeleteJim R, yeah, despite the fact that Chase is on my crappy company list, we're still with them out of laziness too. Switching all our direct deposit stuff sounds annoying.
ReplyDeleteTo be clear though, Comcast will never get my money again. :-)
You can add Comcast to my list too. (Got my bill today and was charged 30 dollars for a service call that was supposed to be free.) I would switch if I felt there was a better alternative. Plus, so much of my life is tied to my comcast.net email address that it would be such a hassle. They know that it is so much harder than it used to be to just dump your cable provider since we do so much electronically now. Argh!!
ReplyDeleteWe also switched from Time Warner to AT&T U-Verse. We had to wait for them to come to our neighborhood but jumped right on it when available.
ReplyDeleteLeast favorite company: Monsanto. It's hard not to give them my money, though, because corn is in everything (even gasoline) and most of it is genetically modified.
ReplyDeleteCompany that never gets my money: Microsoft. Too monopolistic and slimy. I don't even care that their products don't crash that much anymore. I have a Mac at home, with no Microsoft in it. But Apple is not so cool as it once was either, so I may go with a Linux box of some kind next time. (Perhaps not from Dell, though--so sad, Dell used to be good.)
I also hate Chase, though I do have two of their rewards credit cards. They also bought my mortgage, so I'm paying it off as quickly as I can.
I also buy only shade-grown chocolate which means no Hershey, no Godiva, no Ghiradeli. (Yet, anyway.) Thank goodness my coop has access to good cocoa and chocolate chips.
I'm not sure there are any companies I love--I just don't interact with companies enough to know well enough whether I love them.
Companies I like:
* Google - might be getting too big for their britches, though.
* HEB grocery (I've heard that in other towns they aren't so great, but in my town they are cheap and have a good selection of organics).
* Wheatsville, my local food coop.
* Shirt.woot
* LLBean - well-made clothes at good prices, but I've heard they don't pay enough attention to the working conditions of their manufacturers
* Midwest Airlines - bigger than average seats and warm chocolate chip cookies.
* Target - pretty and affordable things
* Amazon - great reviews, and I don't care much that shipping takes a long time
* wikipedia (is that a company?)
* Thrift Town and Texas Thrift - good selection and cheaper than Goodwill
* Penguin - publishers of good books
* Trader Joe's (I admit I've been there only once, but yum!)
* Timex - love their Indiglo watches - affordable, long-lasting, and I can tell what time it is in the dark.
* Reebok - affordable sneakers that fit me and don't fall apart
I'm sure there are many more, but this already a bit long, eh?
Everyday Tips, sorry...I have Yahoo Mail and Gmail accounts, so switching was comparably easy. That really sucks they can take you hostage like that.
ReplyDeleteBucksome Boomer, yeah, that's what we had to wait for too. By the end of it, I was checking AT&T U-Verse availability in our area every two weeks. :-)
ReplyDeleteDebbie M, I'm going to keep Midwest Airlines in mind...we're going to start travelling for Curling Bonspiels (tournaments) and I am looking into airlines for it. Our HEB is okay, but the one in the area I grew up was awesome.
ReplyDelete