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Many major companies survive while routinely aggravating millions of customers. Some pay for advertising to hide their flaws. Others benefit from parity within their industry. Many of the worst succeed thanks to near-monopolies.
The American Customer Satisfaction Index rates hundreds of companies based on satisfaction surveys. Our selection of the 18 worst includes four airlines and four cable companies.
"These are not terribly competitive industries, as the switching barriers for most of them are quite high," said David VanAmburg of ACSI. "In other industries, like the food or clothing sector, the competition is huge. They bend over backwards to make customers happy, because they have to."
Big companies tend to fare worse than smaller ones, VanAmburg says. "When a company grows, there is a tendency to lose customer focus."
And what companies are bigger than ever? Banks, which claim three spots on this consumer blacklist.
AT&T Mobility
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jason-morrison
Satisfaction rating: 69/100
Common complaints:
dropped calls -- especially in New York City, San Francisco, and other major metropolitan areas
Analysis: AT&T has had problems ever since taking on the popular, data-heavy iPhone as an exclusive product. Recent efforts to improve service have paid off, however, increasing their satisfaction rating by 2 points this year.
Analysis: DIRECTV saw its satisfaction rating fall by 3 points, partly because the company raised its rates in February 2010, while its competitors did not change prices. This might be an example of a company that faces the challenge that David VanAmburg was talking about when he said that there is a possibility of losing customer focus when a company grows.*
*ACSI called us to clarify that David VanAmburg was not talking about DIRECTV in particular in this context, but about challenges that big companies generally face.
Analysis: Although Citigroup was tarnished by the government bailout in 2008, its satisfaction rating dropped by only one point, less than JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America. But all of these bigger-than-ever banks are aggravating customers. People are particularly upset that bailed out banks aren't lending. According to a correction of a New York Times article, Citibank has never charged for an overdraft fee on a one-time debit purchases.
Analysis: JPMorgan Chase suffered from its rebranding, as the reorganization was slow and some branches took a long time to present the new brand. Customer satisfaction fell 5 points after JPMorgan Chase became larger, as the bank was perceived as more impersonal, according to ACSI.
Analysis: Bank of America lost consumer satisfaction in the midst of the acquisition of Merrill Lynch. The satisfaction rating tumbled 6 points as the now enormous financial services company was burdened with cost-cutting and layoffs in 2009. Recently, new regulations forbid banks to let the customer automatically overdraft their accounts and let them pay high overdraft fees to the bank.
And congratulations to the only big bank not making our list: Wells Fargo.
Analysis: McDonald's was one of few fast food companies to lose points last year, falling 3 points to claim the industry's worst score. This doesn't match up with McDonald's rising sales, however, which have benefited from the bad economy. The burger company is still up 5 points from '06 following the introduction of healthier food.
usage caps were phased in last February, limiting most customers to 2 gigabytes per day
Analysis: Cox improved its satisfaction rating by 1 point last year, maintaining its lead on Time Warner, Comcast, and Charter. Cox has actually been touted as a success story compared to other cable companies. That said, consumers dislike all of these companies and tend to prefer satellite.
Rescissions of coverage that spurred to Health Care Reform, according to American Medical News
Analysis: Wellpoint shows a satisfaction rating lower than the industry average, declining one point since last year. The insurance company was blasted by Obama for planning a 25% rate increase, which was later revised to 14%.
Uncertainty that the healthcare market faces as the reform lies ahead doesn't help to reassure customers. "It's tricky, because there is so much passion about healthcare reform on both sides," said David VanAmburg.
rate increases -- adding around $10 per customer in the next three years
Analysis: Consolidated Edison scores the worst in the industry. Although there are better companies out there, utilities are generally protected by regional monopolies.
Analysis: With recurrent and never-ending controversies over privacy issues and the numerous changes to its interface, Facebook's consumers rank the social media company below other websites. It's even ranked below some airlines, which tend to have the worst results.
This is the first year ACSI has measured social media sites. Wikipedia earned the top score at 77.
Analysis: My Space, compared to Facebook, does not attract new subscribers to its service and its traffic is slowly decreasing, putting in danger its advertisement partnership with Google.
Analysis: American Airlines's satisfaction rating is up 3 points this year, but remains far behind companies like Continental that have increased the number of non-stop flights or improved their in-flight services.
flight delays -- 70.2% of Delta's flights were on-time in August 2010, that was below the average of 76.4% for all airlines, according to the Department of Transportation
baggage fees
Analysis: After the acquisition of Northwest, Delta saw its customer satisfaction drop by two points. The rating for Northwest, however, climbed from 57 to 61. If the merger leads to more flights from more airports, customers should be satisfied.
"Business Class" service at BI's office is a joke -- with frequent blackouts and poor tech support
Analysis: For a long time, cable companies in general didn't have an incentive to improve their customer satisfaction, as they enjoyed a safe monopoly. Now, with competition from the satellite companies, they are forced to provide better quality services, but are still well behind them when it comes to customer satisfaction. Time Warner has gained two points since last year.
Analysis: Comcast climbed 7 points since 2008, thanks to increased investment in customer service. One of the largest cable companies in terms of revenue, it remains one of the worst in terms of customer satisfaction.
*ASCI lists Comcast as a cable company (61/100) and a telephone company (68/100). In both cases it scores among the worst.
more long tarmac delays than any airline in June, according to Department of Transportation
baggage fees
Analysis: The big merge between United Airlines and Continental might have influenced the bad score of the company in consumer satisfaction. According to ACSI, a big merger in service companies usually have a negative impact on customer services in the short-term, because of organization issues.
As with Delta-Northwest one would expect satisfaction to improve if the merger means more flights from more airports.
Better Business Bureau issued a warning in 2007 following numerous complaints
Analysis: Charter communications, although it is at the bottom, has increased its satisfaction rating by 9 points this year. Plagued by a recent bankruptcy, the company had to cut cost and downsize heavily. It only became profitable in the first quarter of this year.
