A company’s reputation is based on the satisfaction level of its customer, its financial performance, and its ability to tackle problems. Here is a list of the worst companies in U.S.
Charter Communications
Charter Communications has been ranked as the worst Internet Service Providers and its services as the worst among all the major national carriers. Charter redirected the error pages and the Windows Live Search results to the Charter’s page, without informing the customers. If any customer wanted to opt out of the option to be redirected, they had to click a link on Charter’s search page. The main problem was that while opting out, the link would install a cookie on the customer’s computers, and in order to delete the cookie, they would be required to opt out again.
In 2008, Charter reportedly deleted the email accounts of 14,000 customers during a routine sweep of the inactive accounts, which made the removed data irretrievable. Though it refused to pay any compensation to the customers, it finally decided to give a $50 account credit to each of the affected user. Its customers generally filed complaints regarding the improper billing practices and the poor customer service.
Four former Charter executives were framed for accounting frauds in 2005. In 2008, Charter announced its plans to monitor the websites visited by its high-speed Internet users via a partnership with NebuAd, but had to change its plan after many customers voiced their concerns. The company has been under financial pressure and filed for bankruptcy in March 2009, but emerged out of it in November 2009.
United Airlines
United Airlines has faced a lot of customer complaints regarding to extremely long delays of the flights, and the exorbitant baggage fees. In 2002, United Airways filed for bankruptcy, as it failed to keep its costs under control, which along with the rising oil prices made United loss $2.14 billion. It tried to cut down costs with its employees, suppliers and contractors. In 2005, it cancelled its pension plans, which was the largest such default in the U.S. corporate history. After implementing a restructuring in 2006, United finally returned to normal operations.
The merger with Continental Airlines had negative impacts on customer services. The Air Line Pilots Associations sued the company saying that the revised operating procedures were inadequate to maintain the levels of safety. The merger led to the check-in kiosks being inoperative, flight delays, and loss of baggage.
Comcast
The company has been in the loop of a lot of criticism for its stance on net neutrality, and poor levels of customer satis
faction. The common complaints included poor communication with the customers when it came to updates and changes in the billing systems, making the channels unavailable for customers who didn’t update to digital cable, long waiting time for technicians, and a very steep increase in prices. Comcast is also stated to having spent millions of dollars on lobbying relations with the government. Though Comcast is a largest cable company on the basis of its revenues, it is equally big when it came to providing the worst customer services.
Time Warner Cable
The company has been into a lot of controversies with regards to bandwidth metering, agreement to local stations, and cable and on-demand channels. The common complaints were centered around fraudulent business acts and bad services, capping the usage by customers, limited support for public access television, and a steep increase in the prices. In 2008, the company started capping the customer’s broadband usage. In 2010, Time Warner Cable’s transmission on the kids channels was interrupted by a programming by Playboy TV for around two hours.
Time Warner enjoyed a long period of monopoly, which enabled it to rule its customers with its own policies, but the increasing competition from the satellite companies, forced Time Warner to provide better services.
Delta Airlines
Delta has been ranked the worst U.S. airline for a long period and the usual complaints revolved around flight delays, exorbitant baggage fees, and service cutbacks. The other controversies the company has been involved related to its free upgrades and lining the pockets of policymakers, a lousy service, and their refusal to let people use their frequent flier miles. In 2005, Delta filed for bankruptcy, owing to increasing fuel prices, lot of competition and a declining inflow of cash. The sacrifices made by all, from the employees to the management, pulled Delta out of bankruptcy in 2007.
Delta acquired Northwest Airlines in 2008, to form the world’s largest airline in terms of schedules passengers carried, after which the level of customer satisfaction dropped further.
