In Case you are serious:
I trust Otis the most.
Very reliable and easy to fix.
Jim
When I’m not on the SDMB, I spend a lot of time posting on a railway forum. I used to feel nerdy doing so. No longer. Thanks SDMB. 
I have ridden just about every elevator in downtown Greensboro (bad hobby, I know) and I have yet to find a favorite. Sure, Southern elevators were nice, just nothing special. Otis was fuctional, but that was about it. The best elevator, so far, was an exception, with no elevators like it made by the same company. I, therefore, feel companies themselves are not the reason behind quality elevators, but the individual elevators themselves.
Call me a snob, but I just won’t ride in an Otis.
Personally, I always ask the building superintendent for the elevator certificate before getting in a lift, for two reasons: One, to make sure that the elevator has had a recent inspection, and two, to make sure it is not an Otis.
Riding in an Otis is like shopping at Walmart. It is just too degrading for a man of discriminating taste, such as myself. If you’re willing to lower yourself to elevating in an Otis, that’s your choice; but I expect a higher standard of elevator. (sniff)
Anecdotal evidence: The Dovers in the building where I work are frequently broken down, and when they work, work erratically. Pure crap.
Well, there’s Schindler; Schindler’s Lifts. Seriously.
Ack! I scanned and even did a ‘find on this page’ but still missed it; I’ve only ever seen one example of this brand though, in a hotel in Tenerife I think, about ten years back.
Speaking of elevators, I heard somewhere that the San Francisco Shopping Centre (the big mall in Union Square with Nordstrom and the curved escalators) has a giant elevator that can move a semi-trailer up so it can be unloaded on a higher floor. Anyone know if that’s true?
I like big freight elevators. I remember the Computer Museum in Boston had one that could fit a car.
hello,
I just remebered that about 3 weeks ago i was in a building operating the elevators and i decided to get out on the 9th floor to get a drink of water, then while i was waiting for the elevator to come back up to the floor i overheard someone saying that the other day on of the elevators stalled out between the 5th & 6th floor and they had to climb out of the stalled elevator, also 2 of the 6 elevators in the building were out of service :eek: . the elevators were otis elevators, has anyone elese had a bad experience with an otis elevator?
thanks!
I’m a fan of Otis just because I see it all over the place and it’s the only elevator I can name by memory. At the Memorial Student Center at Texas A&M, my friends and I have named three of the four elevators in the building. The two next to the Flag Room on the first floor are “Stinky Otis” and “Speedy the Wonderslug”. The Freight Elevator is called “The Frellevator” (this can either be a shorter version of “Freight Elevator” or a Farscape joke, take your pick 
).
Stinky Otis is the elevator that breaks down more often among the two near the Flag Room, and we often have conversations with the repair guys while they stand in the elevator shaft playing with the wiring. 
The Frellevator is the one we all know and love, because it always breaks down during Teardown after AggieCon. See, we host this sci-fi convention at our school, and after the convention is over, we have about 3 hours to pack everything up and be out of the rooms or we get fined by the University. Anyhow, during this three hour window, the Frellevator will break every 15 minutes. The exception to this rule was last year, when we couldn’t find a loading cart to move the stuff out with because all of the loading carts were being used to move up the stuff for the people who had the room AFTER us, and thus weren’t even supposed to BE there until our time was up. :smack: