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5/18/2010 9:00 AM ET | By Karen Aho

The Customer Service Hall of Shame

MSN Money's fourth annual survey reveals which companies have scored points during the recession -- and which have made their customers' lives more difficult.
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Related topics: American Express, McDonald's, Costco, Bank of America, Wal-Mart Face it: Getting consumers to open their wallets in a hardy economy is not all that difficult. But when times get tough, companies need to step up their games. So who's done that? There's a good way to tell: Ask the customers which companies have earned their business. "Those are the ones," said Kevin Burkhard, an expert in strategic initiatives at Arizona State University's W.P. Carey School of Business, "that coming out of this (recession) are going to be miles ahead of their competitors."

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MSN Money's fourth annual customer-service survey, conducted by Zogby International, reveals which companies have been making their customers happy and likely will reap the benefits for years, and which may be sending customers a message -- "We don't care about you" -- they won't

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soon forget. (Psst: Can you say "big banks"?)

good customer service

To gauge these sentiments, MSN Money identified 150 of the largest companies in 15 customerfacing industries, as varied as fast-food chains, airlines, grocers and financial-services companies. Zogby then asked people across the country if they'd had experience with each company's customer service and, if so, would they call the service "excellent," "good," "fair" or "poor"? For the 2010 Hall of Shame, we ranked companies based on the percentage of those who had experience with a company's service who said "poor." The worst 10 make up the Hall of Shame. For MSN Money's Hall of Fame, we ranked companies based on the percentage of those respondents who said "excellent." To get a sense of how attitudes have changed in the recession, we also compared the percentage of responses that were positive (answers of "excellent" or "good") and negative ("fair" or "poor") in past surveys to those in 2010. A few of the surprises: Names not prominent in customer-service textbooks -- Wal-Mart Stores (WMT +0.01%, news) and McDonald's (MCD -1.11%, news), for instance -- are making strides toward capturing customers' hearts. In a difficult economy, customers may be putting more emphasis on the bottom line. Meanwhile, some names renowned for gold-star service, including American Express (AXP +1.54%, news) and Whole Foods Market (WFM +1.44%, news), have slipped, though not enough to make the Hall of Shame. In 2008, 45.5% of respondents in the MSN Money-Zogby International survey gave Wal-Mart positive marks. In 2009, it was 55.3%. In 2010, that number climbed to 56.9%, giving the retail giant one of the largest two-year gains in the survey. "They're appealing to new customers who have moved How to become a down a bit but who want reasonably upscale stuff, but at successful complainer 5/17/10 1:36 lower prices," said Praveen Kopalle, a professor of marketing at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business. "They got them in because of the recession, but they want to keep them." Top 5: Best customer service companies
5/17/10 1:39

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Through what it calls Project Impact, Wal-Mart has created more-appealing visual displays, widened aisles, lowered shelves, put down nicer floors, boosted register staffing, added higher-end products and fair trade, goods, and even tried to make those now-shorter lines more bearable with well-placed TVs. The company switched its pitch from "always low prices" to one that emphasizes value and

lifestyle: "Save money, live better." Patricia Edwards, the chief investment officer for wealth management firm Storehouse Partners, said her husband had walked into a revamped store and quickly sent her a text: "I had to look around and make sure I was still in Wal-Mart." "They finally figured out that making the experience miserable is not worth it for a few pennies," Edwards said. "The middle-market customer is not willing to experience pain to save money." Rival Target (TGT +0.32%, news) scores were higher in the MSN Money-Zogby survey -- 68% gave the discounter positive marks -- but have remained stable over the past three years. In a reversal, experts say, Target is now trying to learn some things from Wal-Mart. Other discounters making notable gains in the survey included TJX (TJX -0.29%, news), appealing to "fashionistas" by offering department-store labels at bargain-basement prices (its positive scores rose from 40.5% in 2008 to 53.5% in 2010); Home Depot (HD -0.05%, news) (60% to 68.8% positive); and Costco (COST -0.17%, news) (72.5% to 79.4% positive), now on par with [[chart=JWN, Nordstrom]] (also 79.4% this year). Though Home Depot has never made MSN Money's Hall of Shame, complaints about service at its stores prompted our first survey in 2007. The CEO of the building-supply store apologized to customers, and in recent years the company has added floor staffing and created incentive bonuses for good service. It has helped others and itself in the downturn by hiring unemployed builders to assist customers. And even though we don't often associate fast food with the concept of customer service, fast-food companies' scores have risen, too, proving that now is the time to up the game for both new and existing customers. McDonald's, which has expanded its healthier fare and dollar menu, saw its positive scores rise from 45.7% two years ago to 57.8%. By offering a $5 foot-long sandwich and plenty of cucumbers, lettuce and onions, Subway is making a whopping 70.1% of its customers say they are pleased with the company's service. In fact, one of the few companies that experienced a drop in its customer-service scores, and the only supermarket to do so, was Whole Foods. Surely the upscale grocer didn't benefit from its mock nickname, Whole Paycheck, a reflection of, at the least, a perception about its prices. "Probably why they dropped is they thought their customers weren't price-sensitive," Kopalle said. "But previously price-insensitive customers become price-sensitive in a recessionary environment." "Compare that to Publix," he said, referring to the Southeastern grocer that gets high marks for service and ranked high enough to place in the Hall of Fame. "It's saying, 'Hey, you have a prescription for antibiotics? Come here -- you can get it for free.'"
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'Free' wins hearts and minds

Pricing is always a balancing act. In the current recession, companies that have earned high marks for customer service in the past haven't rested on their laurels. They've found a new pricing sweet spot with a name that couldn't be more attractive to today's customer: free Take a look at a few from this year's Hall of Fame: Amazon.com (AMZN -0.06%, news) (87.8% positive) offers free shipping on orders over $25 and on all orders for prime customers. The online retailer spent $849 million on shipping in 2009, according to its annual report. Southwest Airlines (LUV -1.91%, news) (79.5% positive) is the only large U.S. airline that's not charging a baggage fee. It flew 86 million passengers last year, meaning it would have collected about $1 billion in fees if only half of those fliers had paid $25 for a bag. Publix (81.8% positive marks) offers free 14-day supplies of seven generic antibiotics in its pharmacy, as well as unlimited supplies of a diabetes medicine. Apple (AAPL +1.79%, news) (75.9% positive) offers free tech support for 90 days and free computer and software courses for buyers, and it sets up stores to encourage free use of the devices by shoppers. To the customer, such promotions feel like a big hug -- empathy in action. Companies are saying, "We know times are tough; we won't charge you," said Richard Honack, a professor of marketing at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. "And people like that."

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27 Comments
NEWEST OLDEST BEST WORST CONTROVERSIAL

casebolt

Jun 1, 2011 1:38PM

Any company that has their customer service through India and the communication is horrible and you get more stressed and frustrated to the point you want to take their product and shove it where the sun doesn't shine. 16 0 Replies (0)

TONY SCAG AT & T is by far the worst I have dealt with. 12 2 Replies (0)

Jun 1, 2011 6:31PM

Kate Strantz (onekate) I believe Verizon Wireless should be in the top ten!!! 10 1 Replies (0)

Jun 1, 2011 3:02PM

raven13

Jun 1, 2011 1:09PM

Comcast is the worst company I ever worked for they make you lie to the customers all the time they hire third part vendors who lie , contractor who don't know what there doing and there pricing is crazy stupid and non- non completive. they asked us to rate the other guys for a the worst company .. I almost talked to my lawyer cause a company cannot tell there employer to not give them a negative report.. they know there awful.. 12 4 Replies (0)

Someone

Dec 7, 2011 8:23PM

Sprint just seems to do every wrong for its customers. FIrst the monthly bill has erroneous charges on them that, if you call them on it, will get removed because even they don't know what its for. THis occurs monthly, I have set aside time each month to argue charges on my bill. Secondly when I go into any of their stores I see a row of customers sitting, sad-faced, angry along the wall waiting to be seen. This can go on for about half hour for the wait while the servicemen are happily chatting or playing on their smartphones. No one makes an effort to speak to me or make eye contact. I have approached a sales person only to be waved away to wait. On the lighter side, they have really good monthly rates for text, talk and data. But not worth it for all the hassel.

Replies (1)

taino

Jun 1, 2011 2:22PM

Based on my experience with the internet and cable companies, the reason they made it to the Hall of Shame is lack of competition. And I blame the gov. for this, for blocking competition. In NY, where I live you have two internet providers. One is a cable company and the other is a telephone company. Now, if you do not like their services what choices do you really have? I cancelled my internet service from (VEZ) because their service was supper slow, even though I asked for the fastest one which they had at a special price at the time. Guess what? I got the same bs. that I had before and some extra charges for something they did not do in my apt. and that was, installing some equipment for a dedicated line. Not true, All the guy did was to remove a chip that restrict the flow of the signal from the main wall jack. No new jacks were installed and of course a new numbers was assigned to me in the same old line. Also, the monthly charges were not as More 5 0 Replies (0)

long time mns email customer

Jul 14, 2011 2:22AM

if you want really bad customer service call the msn helpline at 1-800-494-2962 any time 24/7 first you get a computer voice that asks questions but can never understand the answer...then a "human" comes on the phone and asks the same questions the computer voice asked...then they ask you to hold so they can go find some one that might be able to "help" you. it is a great way to wreak your day! if you don't believe me call 1-800-494-2962 and ask for help. gmail is looking better and better or ymail or aol.com or just about anything..... call 1-800-494-2962 for a really good example of really bad customer service

Replies (0)

adam freeman

Dec 24, 2011 11:31AM

Its funny how Microsoft is rating other companies when in actual fact the worst company to deal with is Microsoft. Microsoft is the worst company I have had the misfortune to deal with. Microsoft is guilty of all the no nos this article states. Its ironic how this was written by a Microsoft employee.

Replies (0)

Popo561

Aug 16, 2011 6:18PM

Lets see so I have been dealing with Citibank and Comcast mostly these days. Comcast has by far been the worst most confusing service ever. I am not sure why as Americans we tolerate such bad service. I feel like the more we let bad customer service happen the worse it gets. I know that people want things cheap in America, but I would rather pay a little more and have good service and quality products. I guess that is why we are in this poor economic state. The corporations finally get to do what ever they like when ever they like with little or no resistance. Not too much fun being on hold on your day off to try to fix a problem you did not create. 3 0 Replies (0)

NIKO 57

Jun 1, 2011 2:05PM

the list is very accurate, but from my experience I think Nissan acceptance corporation and Nissan's customer service are the worst ever, their customer service is in India and those people have no clues about Nissan's products, and if you try to explain something to them that's not on their computer screen they would hang up on you.

Replies (0)

spoow

Aug 19, 2012 6:58PM

COMCAST IS SO CHEAP, THEY HIRE HISPANICS AND PAY THESE PEOPLE DISGRACEFULLY LOW WAGES, AND THEY SEND ALL THE MONEY TO THE TOP. THEN THEY BUY NBC, AND THEY FIRE 20 PEOPLE FROM THE TONIGHT SHOW THE HAVE A CONTRACT WITH MY MAYOR, SO I CAN'T GET FIOS, EVEN THOUGH EVERYONE ELSE HAS IT AROUND ME THEY ARE SO ****ING GREEDY More 1 0 Replies (0)

Shocked in Calexico California

Apr 23, 2012 10:21AM

I was at a Wal-Mart in Calexico, California trying to return some items that I had just bought the day before. The lady at the customer service was friendly and asked for my receipt, she didn't ask any questions of why of my return. Everuthing was fine unti she started a conversation with a fellow coworker and suddenly, she started saying a bunch of bad-words and very bad-comments from another business. She stareted telling the other cashier of her bad experience at a restaurant , she named the restaurant several times and proceeded to call thewaitress all the names in the book. All of these is happening in front of me, "THE CUSTOMER" I was shocked, especially since my job is teaching adults customer service. The saddest part was that a supervisor joined the concversation and she was just laughing and encouraging the cashier to continue speaking about her bad experience at a Japanese restaurant. 1 0 Replies (0)

Indybuzz

Sep 13, 2011 4:37PM

I'm seeing a theme with Citibank/AT&T. Their Universal MasterCard customer service is horrible. I emailed them (as instructed by the phone agent who really should have taken care of me) because I couldn't see a PDF of my most recent statement (they don't create on if there are no charges, even if there are payments???) telling them they should add it because the PDF option didn't exist for my last month (I paid the card off but didn't charge anything new). I got a canned email response of which page to go to to download the PDF. It was the exact same page I was reporting didn't have it. I replied back that they needed to read my email before replying, since they didn't acknowledge my

suggestion, and the response I got was the same canned response of what page to go to to download the PDF. Not much point in paying customer service agents if they're not going to provide customer service. 1 0 Replies (0)

LivingLegend

Aug 24, 2011 12:25AM

I agree with taino with the comment on internet and cable companies. It's the same here in Arizona. We have Cox the cable internet company and we have Qwest which is now Century Link as the phone company DSL provider. With one you have problems with the people. They tell lies all the time. With the other you have the most inferior service - super slow, intermittent, and down most of the time. We also have Hughes Net, the satellite internet provider but they are mega expensive. 1 0 Replies (0)

B171

Sep 28, 2011 6:38PM

Having worked in customer service most of my "career" (not anymore) I can tell you first hand that I rarely see anyone being intentionally rude. The problem, with the workers in general, lies in them being overworked, underpaid and having to spend countless hours dealing with customers who are more than hostile. Customers call and generally think they have received bad customer service because they have spend 15 or more minutes cursing and raving at employees and then in the end they still expect service with a smile and then get less than that. Here's a secret to working with call center reps.. They spend 8 hours a day literally tethered to a phone and deal with one rude person after another. More 4 4 Replies (0)

Joliereine1 Dell must one of the worst ever! they're the reason I will never own a PC again. 1 1 Replies (0)

Nov 13, 2011 3:22AM

jondroof

Wed 10:11 AM

How about rental cars.com they should be on the list worst customer service I've ever come across they take your money then don't want to know about any problems you have had don't even reply to

emails,take my advice every one don't use them you'll be sorry if you do 0 0 Replies (0)

Jeanette888

Jun 19, 2013 10:26PM

I've never experienced such terrible customer service, such negligent staff, or such harassing behavior as I have with Bank of America. A simple refinance has taken over 2 months, and I've been tasked to submit documents 4 & 5 times. Negligence! Lack of Courtesy. And I'm still waiting for answers while staff member after staff member are out of office taking 5 days for return calls & emails. How does Bank of America stay in business when so many other companies would love my business & and my money?! 0 0 Replies (0)

Greg Swink

Mar 28, 2013 12:43AM

Sprint lost my dad's last VM to me before his stroke. Today is Wed, March 27th 2013 and he is expected to pass away tonight as I write this. He was my best friend and it was the best VM and they will not try to get it back. I went into a Sprint store today to have one of their reps look at my phone. He suggested that they do a "hard reset". I asked him twice if it would delete or lose any of my VMs, photos, videos, etc. He assured me that it would not. Even when I went back to the store, he said that he did not lose my VM?? Does anyone know what I can do to get this VM back?? Please, I don't know what else to do... I am CRUSHED! 0 0 Replies (0)

MarkFedUp832 POOOOORRR CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!!!!!

Oct 5, 2012 2:30PM

I will NEVER buy Toshiba products again! Their customer service is poor and and even their "escalated" managers or supervisors are unresponsive and without compassion! I have had my laptop "repaired" 3 times in one year and the only responses I got was send it again! This was in the first 9 mos of ownership! They kept saying it was going to some "premiere technician" and I would have the same problem over and over again! over the years I have purchased 6 Toshiba laptops and had a certain brand loyalty to them look where that gets me! they don't care about their customers and like most company's in this critical "recession" DO NOT understand the value of More 0 0 Replies (0)

DATA PROVIDERS Copyright 2014 Microsoft. All rights reserved. Fundamental company data and historical chart data provided by Morningstar Inc. Real-time index quotes and delayed quotes supplied by Morningstar Inc. Quotes delayed by up to 15 minutes, except where indicated otherwise. Fund summary, fund performance and dividend data provided by Morningstar Inc. Analyst recommendations provided by Zacks Investment Research. StockScouter data provided by Verus Analytics. IPO data provided by Hoover's Inc. Index membership data provided by Morningstar Inc.

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