Which company do you hate - and why?

I hate Chevron gas stations. I got water in my gas from one of their stations once, even though that’s supposed to be impossible. It very nearly ruined my car. I go out of my way to buy gas from other companies.

Delta airlines can kiss my ass.

I also use to work for a promotional company in Southern California called Pac Promos that provided discounts for people at hair salons and spas. This company ripped everybody off including their employees. I quit as soon as I found out what they were up to and there are new horror stories online about them all the time.

The cable company. They give you a “window” of time they might be there to hook up your cable or to fix something, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Really?? I have to stay home all flippin’ day for you guys to maybe show up at 7 p.m. I’m sure they could give a much smaller window of time, say 3 hours or 4 hours. They are the only cable company around, so they have you by the balls.

I’m a hypocrite when it comes to Bank of America. Normally I would not do business with them, but this month they sent an offer to pay me $100 to open an account with them, and I just couldn’t resist. The offer is good for several other members of my extended family, and all together, we stand to get $500 free from them, just for opening an account with direct deposit of a paycheck or social security check.

I really liked Hewlett Packard laptops, the dv series with the big screens.They are superb machines and when mine developed a fault after only 18 months I replaced it with a newer version of the model. This developed precisely the same fault when the motherboard burned out. I complained to HP service department at this point and was told ‘tough’ it is out of warranty. It didn’t leave me with a good impression of the company and I will not buy from them again.

I hate foster grants. According to my grandma they dumped chemicals in the woods out back of my house. You can hear some pretty strange animals sounds outback there and I’m always finding weird footprints in the winter. Last winter I saw perfectly circular prints.

Wal-Mart for the human rights violations.

My telephone service got slammed by Talk-Talk about 2 years ago. We ended up having to take legal action against them to sort it out. Shortly before the situation was resolved I was approached by some salespeople from the same company in the shopping mall, asking me if I was interested in their latest product. I said no, and turned away. After about ten more seconds, I turned round, went back, and told them precisely why I wasn’t interested – in great detail – and not too quietly either. By the time I was done, quite an audience had gathered to listen.

That felt SOOOO good.

I’m with @cockswain about Wal-Mart – I almost never shop there. The few times I do break down and go there looking for something, I usually don’t even find what I’m looking for anyway.

I’m also not a fan of Borders or Barnes and Noble for being the Wal-Marts of book stores. I’m lucky I live in a place where we don’t allow monstrosities like these businesses to exist, so local, independent bookstores can thrive. Even away from home, I always do my very best to find an independent bookseller to buy from when I need books.

COMCAST.

I have had friends who have worked well with them but every time I sign up with them or my family does, there is nothing but headache and angry hours on the tech support line. I’ve moved a lot, and all in areas where they are almost the monopoly, so I’ve had to stop and start service a number of times. Every time, there’s something.

Dell also gets some hatred. Thought I loved my laptop, I HATE their customer service system. A simple question requires hours and hours of talk time until they find someone who can answer it or hang up on me.

Lots of good answers here, where I also said Wal*Mart.

Thanks @laureth that was a very interesting discussion.

Just to spread the word, there are two excellent documentaries about the vile nature of Walmart: Walmart:The High Cost of Low Prices and a Frontline documentary

I’ve met people that refuse to acknowledge the facts in these movies because they don’t want to feel guilty supporting it by continuing to shop there.

Walmart sucks!

Yes, Wal-Mart and American Savings

Starbucks. Most of their baristas are smug when you try to order a beverage as small/medium/large, as opposed to “short, tall, grande or venti” or whatever pretentious crap it is that they use to size their beverages. WTF? If I say small, medium, large, extra-large, you don’t have a clue as to what I want? You have to arch one eye brow, give me a supercilious smile, and say “Do you mean… grande?” I can hear the italics in your voice. NO! Grande is a way to order nachos. You have four sizes of beverages. I want the next one down from Super-Size Me.

Newscorp for actively working very hard to make the world worse. And succeeding.

Wal*Mart for all the reasons mentioned.

Starbucks for driving out the good coffee shops.

Bank of America for being incompetent assholes.

To name a few.

Comcast.

I agree with The Consumerist. Terrible customer service and they charged us for an extra month after they shut our service off for non-payment. I’m so happy they don’t service the area we moved to recently.

All banks and loan companies with their “keep you in debt to earn a better credit score” baloney along with most telemarketing companies.

@BarnacleBill I always ask them “what is that in English?”

Best Buy. They have crap selection, only stocking what “everyone” wants instead of having a little bit of choice. They’re employees are complete morons about the product and can barely point you to where something would be in the store. And they have a 15% restocking fee, which nobody else has, and they abuse it on a stinking pair of headphones. The day Circuit City and CompUSA went out of business, I switched to Office Depot & online only. I would rather go without an electronic than give my patronage to that corporate lie that is Best Buy.

But I loooove the Buy More ;)

I HATE WALMART! I worked for them for about 4 months of hell, and have hated them since. I have the websites bookmarked on other comp for all the crap they have done to countries, companies, and people. They suck. I have to shop there at least once a month for something that I can’t find without driving 60 miles to the metropolis of Springfield, MO. Everytime I pick up a product I find it is MADE IN CHINA and I put it down. I refuse to buy China products. They have tried to kill our children with lead in toys, and they even poisoned their own babies formula in China. So, I know that China is not a company. But, I feel that because of the crap products that come from there that they should be. ok, stepping down from soapbox. SHOP INDEPENDENT! EVEN WHEN IT COSTS MORE MONETARILY. It will cost more the other way in the long run.

Fox News.
Reasons: “Fair and Balanced.” Glenn Beck. Sarah Palin. Megyn Kelly.
Fear mongering.

Walmart: always feels so dirty in there, the customers are always rude by letting their children run like animals through out the store and the employees are clueless.
Randalls: local grocery store that also has horrible customer service, only 1 or 2 check out lanes open at a time.

Monsanto. http://www.monsantowatch.org/

Walmart and Comcast get my vote. While staying in rural western PA where they are the only game in town I patronized them. And talked to the women in their 60s and 70s employed as greeters for under $10.00 an hour. They were not allowed to sit down at all during their shifts, when a high stool with a little padding for a break from standing now and then would have bothered no one and helped them immensely. Geez Sam [& co] be human—you were there once!

And Comcast who tailor their pitches to a target audience of one. They will not give you a price for non-bundled cable tv [they want your phone/inet biz] until you tell them your name and specific address. A neighborhood, a street, or even an apartment building won’t do. Why won’t FIOS come to Capitol Hill? Screw Comcast.

Oh let me add in Rooms To Go. Their customer service is pretty good but their products suck. Paid way too much for cheaply made furniture that we have had replaced or fixed 3 times in the past 7 months. Nevermind the first delivery of furniture took a month for us to get!

I FUCKING HATE TICKETMASTER. They have a complete monopoly on ticket sales, its bullshit. Convenience charge? What a fucking bullshit name, its more like a rape charge. Its not even like its a flat rate its a percentage so you can pay an additional 30 bucks in “convenience” charges. Then after that thorough raping, there is the handling charge, some how thats not included in the convenience of the whole affair. So now suddenly, your cheap 20 dollar show is costing you 38 dollars.

Compcast are also a bunch of whores.

In my opinion, it’s pretty pointless in “hating” a corporate entity. Besides, “hate” is a rather strong word. I tend to intensely dislike those who abuse their power over others, physical as well as financial and geopolitical. But “hate?” I tend to reserve that for people like pedophiles.

second ticketbastard

Third ticketmaster, but I’m going to add TicketHorse in there too.

@papayalily havent heard of them. Whats their specialty in screwing the customer?

@CaptainHarley Im sorry but some companies can do a lot more damage then a pedophile. I know my example above doesnt really apply but what about the companies that employ child labor in third world countries while completely polluting and destroying the earth around them? Im not saying pedophilia should be taken lightly because its something I absolutely despise above most else, but you can surely see whats creating more damage cant you? So why cant we hate?

@uberbatman They’re pretty much a less successful version of Ticketmaster. All the bad crap with ¼ the bands.

wonderful~

@uberbatman Yeah. And bands that go through Tickethorse don’t also go through Ticketmaster, which sucks because at least Ticketmaster lets you choose seats. Tickethorse forces you to have what their algorithum thinks are the best in the house, even if they actually suck.

@uberbatman Oh, and they don’t tell you if an event is sold out, you just can’t buy tickets. Lost 5 hours learning that…

@babiturtle36 Yeah I hear that and agree completly.

@papayalily I’ve always been fond of Best Buy for some reason. I was always treated good in there, actually get service and have brought quality products for decent prices in there unlike Wal-Mart where every electronic device I’ve ever brought from there poofs out on me in a short time or doesn’t even work at all.

@Paradox Well, the HP keyboard model na98x (made it up) that you buy at WalMart is the same as the HP keyboard model na98x you buy at Best Buy. It’s not WalMart that makes crappy electronics, they simply sell other crappy brands.

Delta airlines is gouging everyone who lives near the Memphis hub, probably thier other hubs also, and I find it distasteful, greedy, and abusive.

I agree Ticketmaster sucks. The fees are crazy. You pay higher fees for a more expensive ticket? It doesn’t take more effort for the computer to process the ticket.

Comcast. I HATE them for advertising low prices to new customers and treating me like shit because I have paid them every month for years on time.

I hate my health insurance. You have probably seen me ask many questions on fluther about health insurance, one big pet peeve is that they tell me what I will owe for a procedure, both I and the doctor’s office will call to find out, and I pay up front, and then I almost always get an unexpected additional bill afterwards in the mail. I am sick of it. I find it dishonest and thievery.

And, basically any company that has the people at the top making 500–1,000 times what the people at the bottom are making and showing millions in profit, is criminal to me. That is a lot of companies in America.

Count me in for Wal*Mart
I also hate Toshiba and Dunkin Donuts

I want to add Fox to my list. Not only for their horrendously biased news and current affairs coverage, but for canceling Firefly.

TD bank. I lost my debit card in Belize so i contacted them to get a new one sent to me. Its now been 3 weeks and they still haven’t sent it. I love being in a different country with no money _