Best, beyond all doubt: USAA (insurance & banking)
They are fast, efficient, care about your concerns and have knowledgeable and intelligent representatives. I have never actually needed to make an insurance claim with them, but everyone I know who has reports nothing but stellar results. Best all-around company I have dealt with yet. (it is a private company, but that military style really shines through)
Worst: SBC (phone & internet service)
Whenever I have had a problem with them (and I have had several problems with their service), I call up, spend inordinate amounts of time on hold and getting jerked around from one rep to another before I finally get an answer that usually doesn’t help me, often fails to provide me with essential information that later ends up costing me time and money, and sometimes they just flat out say “there’s nothing we can do” without providing any alternative options.
Geico has been pretty good with my car insurance needs, especially when I’ve needed emergency roadside assistance. Target employees are friendly and helpful, more often than not.
On the other hand, Toys R Us, Kay-Bee Toys, and Best Buy employees are usually pretty worthless, and Dell Computers had the WORST tech support people, outsourced to India of course.
I have it on good authority (people who use and sell Dells personally, take it or leave it) that while their PHONE support blows chunks, their ON LINE CHAT support is quite good. Of course, fat lot of good that does one when one’s Dell can’t get online or whatever.
However, the company I would PERSONALLY mention as both best AND worst is Apple. Either I talk to the muddleheaded nincompoop that wants me to reset my iPod for printer issues (WTF???) or I talk to the cool frood that knows how to USE my iPod to fix my printing issues (well, not really, but the one that knows the problem, how to solve it, and does so efficiently).
I hear they might be firing him, and it was really the janitor on his breaks, so… YMMV.
**Best Buy
Comp USA
National City Bank
J.B. Robinson Jewelers **
Worst: Microsoft Tech Support
TCF National Bank
Circuit City*
*Ok, nothing awful, but I spent 30 minutes in their store the other day and not a single person approached or asked if I needed anything. It annoyed me.
I came in to mention USAA, but I see the OP already got there. We use them for all our banking and loans as well, they rock. Southwestern bell has been good to us in the past, too.
Worse CS ever is the North Little Rock Electric company. Absolutely miserable.
Best: Usen Fiber Optic providers. When my connection went out, they went through every possible software setting over the phone, then the next day sent a team of service people to my building to test the router and all the network hardware, plus a sales rep to personally apologize for the inconvenience. Free.
Worst: Century 21. Kinda hard to get worse customer service than a company that actively wants you to not purchase anything, go away and never come back. At least it didn’t cost me anything more than a Saturday morning.
Worst:Bank of America Had an ATM Checking/Savings account there. Their ATM was busted so I go in and use the teller. Later in the week I had to go ask the teller a question, I figured I’d make a deposit while I was at it.
Two weeks later I get my statement with $7 in fees. I call up and ask WTF the fees are for. “Oh, it’s your teller fee.” My TELLER FEE?!?!? In one instance your ATMs were ALL DOWN, on the other I was bothering the teller ANYWAY?
So I go in and talk to them fully expecting to this would be no problem to resolve and I get a, “Well, since we didn’t SPECIFICALLY tell you we’d drop the Teller charge, there’s actually nothing we can do about it.”
“OK, close my account.”
Addendum: When MBNA was bought out by BOA (creating an empire of suck) they transfered my credit card over. Not only did they raise my APR to 18% from 13%, but they also refused to tell me what it even WAS without a 20 minute phone call.
Best (or at least surprisingly good): BuyandHold.com. Online brokerage. Their hours didn’t really fit my schedule but I did have a few questions so when I was able to give them a call, I speak RIGHT to a person. No answer service, no “press one” no “stay on the line” with muzak. I call, rings twice, “Welcome to BuyandHold.com how can I help you.” And hot damn if she didn’t know EVERYTHING. She was answering and explaining questions faster than I could ask them.
Capital One. They’ve been pitted enough on here. They epitomize the clueless Indian reading the script. They care only about making their pitch for credit insurance.
XM Sateliite Radio/Sirius Satellite Radio. They’re both outsourced customer service. Anything out of the most routine call will be a nightmare.
I actually just had a combination of the two with a single phone call. Having paid off a credit card which I had opened up purely to take advantage of a zero-interest balance transfer, I decided to close the account. So I called the customer service number, bracing myself for the usual 20 minutes of “What can we do to get you to keep the account open?” pleading. It took me what seemed like hours to work my way through their voice mail system, which would not give me the option of speaking to a real person until I entered my account number and listened to a recital of my balance, minimum payment due, the due date, etc, etc. Finally it responded when I pressed 0 to speak to a customer service rep, and I wasn’t even on hold long before I got one.
He asked me a few questions to verify my identity, my account number apparently already on his computer from when I had entered it before, then asked how he could help me. I stated that I wished to close my account, and was asked why. I stated that I had recently moved and was closing out accounts that I no longer needed. “Certainly, sir. You’ll get a written confirmation in 5-7 business days.” And that was it. No offers to reduce my interest rate, increase my credit limit, or send a nubile wench to service me.
Of course, until I actually get the confirmation notice, I suppose I should reserve judgment.
Best: StarChoice, a satellite TV provider. When you call them and there is going to be a wait to speak to a rep, you can enter your phone number and they’ll call you back.
Worst: Bell. I noticed my high speed internet had slowed down considerably, so I did a speed test and found I was getting what amounted to dial-up service. I called them and the rep confirmed that my account had been downgraded, but couldn’t tell me why. Then she said that putting it back to high speed would take 7 to 10 business days. I asked if it had taken 7 to 10 business days to downgrade my account and was told that no, that happened pretty darn quick, actually. I went through three layers of service reps before I was told it would be fixed the following day. It wasn’t. It actually took three days. If it weren’t for the fact that they are the only provider in my area without an up/down limit, I’d switch in a heartbeat.
I just wanted to come here to second USAA having awesome customer service. I finally dumped Allstate for my car insurance needs when they upped my rates again for no reason and not only were the USAA people I talked to very friendly and helpful, I also saved a buttload of money on my car insurance!
Get this. I have automatic billing to my credit card. Last August I changed cards. That’s a transaction that should take about 30 seconds, right?
Try 4 MONTHS.
You see, some other company in Michigan handles that sort of thing. Not Time Warner’s problem - call them.
I call them. Nope, the problem is on Time Warner’s end. Can’t do a thing about it here.
Called Time Warner back about 15 times. Without exception, NOBODY I spoke with could do anything to solve the highly technical and demanding problem of changing 14 or so digits in my account. Sometimes they said it was becase of security - I don’t want the employees of Time Warner having access to my credit card information, do I?
Finally, my service was shut off. More phone calls to very courteous people who have no way of changing my credit card information.
It finally took a complaint to the Better Business Bureau to resolve this. I think they took notice when I suggested my next move would be to contact the state Attorney General because I suspected fraud. Perhaps Time Warner purposely runs people around in this manner in order to generate late fees and reconnection costs?
“Well that’s just not the case, sir”, said the kindly man in charge of solving problems after they go to the BBB. “Why would we do things like that to our customers?”
Me: “That’s what I thought too, but around the third month of simply trying to change my credit card information it occured to me that no company could be that incompetent, so it must be purposeful.”
It got fixed. I got a free month of service. Still not certain if this has been permanently addressed. I’ll know if I’m still online in a month.
Best: USED to be MBNA…but now they’re BOA and there is already a huge difference in service. MBNA always always always made me happy when I spoke with them on the phone. I’ve already been frustrated several times with BOA in the short time since the takeover.
My company credit card, being a business account, was still with MBNA until last week. I had called up MBNA Business services a couple weeks ago and was once again delighted with their service. Now, no more.
I also think GoDaddy has great customer service.
WORST: Home Depot and Lowes. I’ve never gone in to either of those stores and run into the salespeople from their commercials. Took me like 20 minutes to get someone to come over and sell me a damn stove at Lowes, at 8 at night when the store was empty. I asked a guy at Home Depot, in the garden department, if they had any garden rakes left and he asked me what a garden rake was!
Little suburban tailor’s shops run by elderly Italian or Greek gentlemen.
I’m a t-shirt and jeans guy, and the only times I’ve had cause to use a tailor is getting measured for a hired suit or something for a wedding.
These shops are great and wonderfully atmospheric. I get the impression I’m the only customer all day. The service is personal and impeccable.
“Good afternoon, sir.”
“Hello. Look I just need to get measured. I don’t want to buy anything. How much?”
“Just let me get my tape measure.”
“How much though?”
“It is on the house, OF COURSE!!! Here are your measurements, sir. Thank you.”
Woah. I don’t even have a sniff of “potential return custom” about me. Just woah. Great old guys.
I used to bank with Chase, and got stung repeatedly by the fact that my paychecks, once deposited, often took ten days or more to clear. Nearly two weeks after I’d deposited my tax return into my account, I gave my landlord a check for my rental deposit. He cashed it at his bank, and a couple of days later received word that it had bounced. Since he’d been paying his bills in the meantime using the money that should have been there, he was then handed a bunch of overdraft fees, fees which he demanded that I pay. I called some helpdesk drone at Chase and got absolutely nowhere. “You’ll just need to be more careful,” he said. “I’ll do that, starting now,” I replied. “I’m closing my account.”
Switched over to Bank of America, and I’ve been perfectly happy ever since. There was one incident where my credit card company charged a payment to my bank account a week early, causing my balance to drop below zero and making several smaller payments bounce. I was out of town at the time, and when I discovered the problem I walked into the closest Bank of America branch and spoke to someone there. At his suggestion I called up the credit card company on my cell phone, got connected to a service rep, and the three of us discussed the issue. As a result, the credit card company reversed the charges (rescheduling the payment date) and the bank dropped all of the overdraft fees. I finished my vacation and closed out the month with a healthy positive balance.
It’s always flattering when salespeople remember you, but I was completely astonished when I walked into a tux rental place to select the penguin suit for my wedding. The guy took one look at me and asked me if I was still happy with the choir performance tux I’d bought from the same shop almost ten years before.
Best:
Bed Bath and Beyond (Goes out of their way to make things right, very liberal returns)
Costco (They just seem to enjoy working there, and their return policy* is legendary) Sonic.net (If you’re in California, I heartily recommend this ISP)
My Realtor from Century 21 (Just went far beyond what I’d expected in terms of availability - we always felt like we were his only clients)
The little hardware store around the corner (Rick’s a nice guy, and he treats his staff well. People may have their specialties, but everyone still knows where the faucet washers are.)
Worst:
Bank of America (Just because)
Wells Fargo Mortgage (No consistency of answers among agents, and they’ll stall until a small problem becomes a crisis.)
Sears (Took them three tries to deliver a dryer to me that didn’t have obvious physical damage. Hey genius - that big hole in the box means it got speared with a forklift.)
Crapshoot:
Apple (Will I get the script reader in Bangalore, or the glow in the dark genius in Cupertino?)
Home Depot (One of the guys from the commercials does work at my local HD, but he specializes in flooring, which I don’t have much need for. But Sarge is a very nice guy.)
Costco changed their electronics return policy yesterday from “forever” to a still absurdly liberal 90 day limit - they finally realized how many people were buying PCs and TVs, then brining them back in a year saying “it broke” and getting free upgrades.
Local: If you live in Seattle and need a mechanic for your Toyota or Honda, High Road Automotive has about the best customer service I’ve experienced anywhere. Attentive and responsive, their goal is to develop a customer relationship lasting decades.
Regional: I’ve gotten good customer service (online and by phone) from my ISP, Infinity Internet. I’ve been with them since 1996 and always satisfied.
Big-regional: best *and *worst customer service from Qwest. Responsive and concerned, but often confused by the simplest problems. My impression is of a group of hard workers ill-served by incompetently designed systems.
National: My emailed queries to T-Mobile tech support have always been answered quickly and accurately.
Quilt shops are generally very nice for knowing that you may just be browsing and enjoying looking at everything. At least around here, the proprietors are reserved but available to help and dish about projects.
One, however, was run by this woman who insisted on talking to you while you’re browsing, ignoring the body language and waves of “leave me alone to enjoy the fabric.” Then her husband says to the husband of another customer (there’s generally this gender divide)–These silly women, cutting up fabric and putting it back together. I thought, what the hell am I doing giving you money when you have no problem belittling what I’m doing?!
I have to give a shout out to Lake Champlain Chocolates. They’re e-mail contact person went out of her way to research a silly question I had and was prompt and friendly about it.
