You can define irksome for yourself. Maybe the company sells a crappy product you are nonetheless obliged to use, or has stupid commercials, or a deceptive billing department. The only things that matter is that the company pisses you off regularly, and yet, for whatever reason, you still use their products.
I’ll start with the obvious one: Microsoft. Zeus help me if I ever meet the head of the Office design team, because I’ll be in jail for felonious assault an hour later.
For two years it was TDS, who apparently believe trained monkeys are too expensive for their customer support and tech service centers.
So I switched carriers to AT&T for my DSL.
Now AT&T holds the title.
WTF is wrong with telcos?
Any airline.
I can’t imagine an industry that has a more adversarial relationship with it’s customers. If everything is going right you can have a smooth experience, but if any minor thing goes wrong you are at their mercy completely: 9 hours stuck on tarmac, $150 change fees, cramped seating, ridiculous schedules and routes, etc. Every once in a while someone tries to get a passenger bill of rights going but the industry lobbyists squash it. You really don’t have any rights as a passenger because the industry made sure they got laws passed saying you don’t. Thanks for flying!
My mortgage company.
My mortgage is due on the 5th of each month. On the 3rd they start calling me, asking me when I was planning on paying. :smack:
You mean, besides this one? 
Microsucks
Pizza Hut - So sue me, I like their pizza. But they make it next to impossible to order on-line.
UPS
I tell them to leave a package, they dont (even when I assume all responsibility). They are supposed to try three times before returning, and they only try twice. If I call them to request a pick up, I have to wait until the next day because ‘its on the truck right now’ - which, BTW, burns a delivery attempt. And god forbid if that is the final delivery attempt - the package will be sent back to the sender before the message comes down that I’ll pick it up in person. Nevermind the fact that there is no number to call in order to get in touch with a person. It’s all automated, and when you do get in touch with someone, its 1500 miles away. No way to get a message to the local distro center.
Fedex is so much easier to deal with. Sam day pickup, and they actually listen to you when you say ‘leave it at my doorstep - I take responsibility’.
The company which makes our fundraising database (I’ll not name it here but anyone in the nonprofit world will recognize it immediately from the description).
The database is built off a 20-year-old platform, there hasn’t been a major upgrade to it in over eight years. It was built in modules and apparently the teams which worked on the modules didn’t talk to each other, so key modules–oh, such as the query and reporting modules–don’t interface properly. There are canned reporting modules which come with the system but are darn near worthless because their underlying gift accounting system is wrong, and any report you run off of them won’t sum properly. So, you run reports off the build-your-own modules, and they come out as an unformatted mess that you have to spend hours cleaning up for publication. The user interface is horrible; you have to scroll through tab after tab of constituent records to find the items you need. Most incredibly, the database doesn’t distinguish between phone number and e-mail addresses. If you want to enter a constituent e-mail address, you have to enter it as a phone number, “phone type e-mail.” Then when you export the records, you have to export two phone numbers and set one type to “phone number” and another type to “e-mail.”
So yeah, there’s problems with this company’s products, but that’s not what’s most irksome. No, their customer service is what’s really frustrating. The company knows that all of the above problems exist in their software. They (and by “they” I mean everyone from support to sales reps to the CEO) just call all the problems “a known issue that we are working on.” Really slowly, I guess. And they’re just all so bubbly. “Sure, we know our database program is a bucket of slop! Can I help you with anything else?” Gah!
Why don’t we switch to another database? Well, this company managed to buy out all its competitors! A little Microsoft in training, it is…
Hewlett Freakin’ Packard. Their call center is in Costa Rica and sometimes I think it’s staffed by those howler monkeys you see all over the place there. Except the monkeys probably speak better English. It never fails that I have to repeat myself five or six times to any number of people any time I have to order supplies. God help me if I have to order service; it’d be easier to chuck the machine out the window and buy a new one.
The US Post Office, they are AWFUL. The Logan Square (Chicago) branch doesn’t have one person who isn’t rude, defensive and acts like it’s an imposition for them to be working.
I’ve never seen more nasty people in my life. The service is awful, packages get lost, they don’t care, and they won’t do little stuff. For example the stamp machine was broken, I go to the teller and buy a stamp, put it on my letter and try to give it to her. The clerk says “No, I can’t take that, put it in the mailbox outside.”
Talk about customer service 
Time Warner. Yes, I know: too obvious. I pay them good money for their service and it is routinely messing up. The cable pixelates. The DVR quits taping a show after 7 minutes. The internet connection goes out.
Every single time I call, they tell me the same thing. Unplug the internet, wait 5 minutes and plug it back in. After the first time, I made sure to do this before I called them. Doesn’t matter. They make me do it again. 20 minutes later, we’re still waiting for the cable box to go through its motions.
And then, invariably, they have to send a tech out. And, of course, I can’t make an appointment, I can only make an appointment window. Oh, I just love taking off work so that I can sit and wait for the cable guy to show up.
Last night my cable started pixelating again. I could feel my blood pressure going up. Then my daughter came in and said, “Internet’s out.”
:smack:
No jury in the world would convict you!
Maybe Texas
I didn’t say prison. 
But I’d probably be convicted on grounds of using insufficient force. Somebody on the jury would surely say, during deliberation, “Wait–why didn’t he kill the bastard? He could have sent a message! Fry the Rhymer!”
ARS Plumbing. Fuck those people.
They flat out lied when I initially gave them my phone number about a possible repair job (“oh don’t worry sir, we will only use this number to contact you about this job!”) They have since repeatedly called me after I’ve asked to be placed on the do-not-call list.
If they call me again I’m seriously going to look into suing them. I’m sure the $500 or whatever I might get won’t be worth my time, but it might be worth it just to spite them.
Dell. My last computer was a Dell. I spent almost 6 hours on and off the phone with their tech support (which I was assured was in the USA despite everyone having an Indian accent, being extremely confused about what time it is, and using metric). I kept being put back on hold (for up to an hour). Then I would get disconnected and have to start over again. I ran the battery out on my cordless. I ended leaving all kings of angry and offensive and messages in a bunch of people’s voicemails. I might have made a death threat against their CEO. I still can’t decide which was worse; the automated voice menu or the live people I spoke to. It was pretty clear whenever they said something not from the script (the accents seemed to get stronger and the weird banter). I ended up taking it to a local computer shop for data recovery and throwing it in the trash.
Same here. I only have cable internet, and while it works most of the time…when it doesn’t work, it’s like I am accusing them of raping babies when I suggest it’s them, not me. Then I have to schedule a tech for 3-4 days out and hope that it comes back on its own because, gee, there really was a problem and 3 other people called so they decided to fix it.
My parents also have TW, with digital cable, and they have pixelation problems. I am not even the one paying for it and it drives me nuts when I go over there and see what shitty service they’re getting. I always make them call to complain.
And the answer is…what? Switch? Can’t switch cable companies, only can switch technology. And when you do the math and/or think about it, there’s no guarantee they won’t suck either or be cheaper. So there’s nothing you can do but deal with it. 
I also hate Bank of America. I used to actually LIKE my previous CC company, MBNA. Then they got bought out by BOA. I also actually LIKED my mortgage company - bought out by BOA. I specifically chose my company’s credit card merchant providers, National City, because I LIKE them. They got bought out by BOA.
BOA has shit customer service and shit Web sites. MBNA, Countrywide and National City were always pleasant to work with. BOA, not so much. Yet, they are ALWAYS FOLLOWING ME.
There really are very few institutions I deal with anymore that have not been bought by BOA and are not in their sights.
Comcast. I have an irrational hate for them. Every year they raise my rates and take a few channels away. Mind you, they are channels I probably won’t *miss *- but it pisses me off to pay *more *for less.
My doctor’s office. They are astounded whenever I call to make an appointment, apparently no one ever does that. And I have the cheek to want one on the day I call!
My dentist. Takes a month to get a non-emergency appointment, and they always try to upsell stupid, non-needed B.S.
At this particular point in time, I absolutely hate the law firm I hired 2.5 years ago to deal with my automobile accident. Whenever I have to talk to the paralegal assigned to handle my case, she is very nearly openly hostile----I can almost hear her thinking, “What the hell does he want now? I hate this guy; he calls me every three months or so.”
Thirded Time Warner. They don’t do *anything *right.