February 11, 2000
(this is the date I started this file, however, the companies I have listed are companys that I have had problems with during my life, the past to the present)

Here's my list of companies that I think are the worst for customer service. When I wrote each of this companies with a complaint I got no help at all, the problem was not corrected, some of them didn't even respond back. If you deal with these companies and you have a problem with their products or services, based on my experiences, you're shit out of luck.

Globus/Cosmos Tour Company
Many tour companies have poor customer service for whatever reason, but I believe Globus/Cosmos are worst than the average tour company. I had several problems with this company and the last time I wrote to them I was not satisfied with the customer service rep's reply so I wrote the CEO. All he did was forward my letter back to the exact same person, he would not even allow me another person's opinion.

Fidelity and American Century
The mutual fund business as a whole is a rip off. The only reason why the vast majority of mutual funds make money is because the market's going up. It's not because of the financial accumen of the fund managers like they claim. The mutual fund companies have no control over the markets, but they do have control of their customers service. The two companies I have dealt with are Fidelity and American Century and as far as customer service goes, both these companies flunk. They want more customers, but they don't want to add staff and hardware to handle them and the staff they do add are so inexperienced that they can't help me with most of my problems and questions. They have also increased minimum account sizes, redemption fees, and other service charges. It's one thing to pay more for better service, but quite another to pay more for worse service.

Schwab and E-Trade
The one thing I want from a broker is fast executions especially during high volume days, market openings and closings. A broker's advice and research are on the bottom of the list. I can get all the advice and research I need from the internet for free. However, brokers including on-line brokers don't get it. They keep adding more and more crap and offering more and more crap, on top of adding more and more customers which all slows down execution time. When you tell them about it, they do nothing.

Airline Companies of the United States
I believe that the Airline Companies in the US are the second biggest rip-off to American consumers (right behind Wall Street). The difference between the service I receive from a US Airline such as United and US Air as compared to the service I receive from an overseas airline such as Singapore Airlines are as different as night and day. I am specifically talking about those things that are in the airlines control, for example, checking in and in flight service, and when there is a problem no matter whose fault it is, the ability to deal with the problem in the the best way to serve the customer.

United Airlines
United kept pushing me and others, including women with small children, back to let others check in first since their planes were leaving earlier. The lines were so long that you would miss your domestic flight if you showed up only one hour early. United knew that one hour was the standard and instead of reducing the lines by adding staff they just made those passengers who showed up earlier wait longer. When I wrote United they wrote back not even addressing the issue and simply told me that I needed to be more patient.

US Air
I used to fly US Air from San Francisco to LA all the time. About a third of the shuttles would be cancelled. I would not find out about the cancellations until I got to the airport. When I wrote US Air, they did nothing.

Northwest Airlines
When I asked my travel agent for a preassigned emergency exit seat they said they could not preassign emergency exits seats due to FAA regulations. My travel agent told me I should try to get one when I checked in. Every time I tried at check in, the emergency exit seats were always already gone, even when I would check in several hours ahead of time, there would still be no emergency exit seats available. I decided to write one airline and find out what their policy was regarding the assignment of emergency exit seating.

From Northwest Supervisor Debby Reisinger (customer relations): "It is the policy at Northwest Airlines to preassign exit row seats upon request by our select passengers after a verbal briefing." In the very next paragraph she says, "We want to be responsive to the needs of all of our passengers."

Miss Reisinger was not responsive to my needs at all. As far as Miss Reisinger and Northwest were concerned, it made no difference that I may be taller than many of the passengers assigned emergency exit seating, if I was not one of Northwest's "select" passengers, there was nothing I could do to get an emergency exit seat. I believe in all honesty, Miss Reisinger should have stated that Northwest is responsive to some of their passenger's needs.

Fleet Financial
Phones lines always tied up when I call, leave messages, but they never called back. I wrote the company headquarters, but they just forwarded it to their customer service department and they did nothing about the problem. Avoid this company no matter what. They have what they call an executive response center that deals with all your problems with the company and based on what I have seen from employees like Cathy Degner and Paul Goers (called executive liaisons, they should be called executive bull shiters), this is one company that you do not want to be locked into a morgage with.

Microsoft
I wrote Microsoft about a problem, never heard back at all. It is also my opinion that Microsoft bundles other people's ideas and products into their operating system which is a monopoly. Even though that may be good for consumers does not make it right and just.

Shell Oil Company
Many franchises advertise certain services and products, however, since the individual stores are independently owned, the main company simply replies that they have no control over how the individual stores are operated or maintained. The law allows the main company to imply that you as a consumer will received such and such a service at any of their stores even though the main store, in my experiences, will always claim that they can't do anything about my problem because they have no control over the individual stores. Fortunately, as in the case of Shell, I can easily take my business elsewhere.

Home Depot
There is no doubt Home Depot has good prices, but they also claim to have good service. This just isn't the case. When I use Home Depot for cheaper prices I lose out on service. If I know exactly what I want I use Home Depot, if I know I'm going to need any customer assistance, I avoid them.

Sears
I took a VCR into Sears for repair. I was giving it back in pieces. When I wrote Sears, they did not do anything.

BMW
I bought a new BMW and had numerous problems with the interior. It took over two years to get the problems fixed. Never think that just because something is expensive you will get you money's worth. I traded the BMW in for a Chevy and I have had nothing but superior service from the dealership. The superior service does not have anything to do with General Motors or Chevrolet, it has everything to do with the local dealership, and as far as me picking them it was luck.

State Farm Insurance
I bought a new car, six years later State Farm still was charging me the same for my insurance (I still had no accidents or tickets). State Farm's liability as far as what they would pay me if the car was stolen or totaled went from $35,000 to less than $15,000, but State Farm tried to say that nothing had changed.

TRW
My TRW credit report had numerous lines of information that had absolutely nothing to do with me. They are allowed to sell false information and they are allowed to make you responsible for clearing up their mistakes.

Pacific Bell and AT and T
If alls well there's no problem with these two companies, but if there's a problem, they're as lost as a duck in the desert. On top of their poor customer service, every year or so, they claim I changed my long distance carrier and I have to go through a bunch of phone calls to get reconnected with my original long distance carrier. Pacific Bell will also call you on Sundays to try and get you to buy one of their products. Many companies like Pacific Bell are using your phone as an advertising medium even if you don't want them to. It's the same with the Government Postal Service, almost 80% of the mail I get is nothing but junk mail, if I go on vacation for a week, I have to stop my mail or the mailman will complain that my box is too full, the only thing my mailbox is too full of is junk they deliever. (April 3, 2001, I heard today that the US Postal Service is going to lose $billions this year and may stop Saturday delivery service, one less day for the Postal Service to deliver junk mail as far as I'm concerned.)