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It's worth noting that message boards are anonymous, and there's no way for us to verify the stories. But the number of messages, and the consistent tone of many of them, would appear to show at the very least that these companies have more than a few unhappy customers.
One popular gripe, particularly in Sprint's board, was that we hadn't done our job:
- "3rd?? How did anyone manage to beat Sprint in the worst?" -- "Sean C in Kentucky"
- "I'm surprised that Sprint came in third instead of first!!!" -- "Arigato"
But many of the posts went into excruciating detail about the companies' customer service. Here's message No. 1,356 from the Sprint thread, from "ninabina77":
"Long story short, Grandfather paid an online bill for a total of $176.34. Sprint withdrew 17,634 out of his account. On day one for a total of 6 hrs spoke to 4 people to 'look into the matter and will get back with us the next day.' Day two no response called company back, spoke with 3 people 2 hrs. After day 5 countless transfers and around 13 (if not more) customer service reps. They finally admitted they had a payment of 17,634 from his account and would turn the case over to another department and would get back with us the next day. Of course this did not happen after a day and a half, spoke with new people and had to threaten legal action to get things moving along. A month and a few weeks we finally received a check for the total amount withdrew. I never want to have an account with this company again."
Not all of the posts in Sprint's message thread complained of subpar service. Here's what "rdoc" wrote in message No. 1,189: "I am probably Sprint's only satisfied customer. Have two phones. No overcharges. Never really had a problem. Good coverage. Probably just jinxed myself."
A Sprint spokeswoman told MSN Money that the company has "challenges that we've been working through around customer service" but noted that the company now encourages agents to fix problems the first time, no matter how long it takes.
Sprint wasn't the only member of our Hall of Shame with a message thread dripping with venom. AOL, which ranked as the worst for customer service in the MSN Money-Zogby poll, was slammed in our message boards, mostly for not letting customers cancel AOL's service.
"Gravely Disappointed" described the difficulty he had in convincing the company that his dead friend was not using AOL's online service. That wasn't the only dead-but-still-charged-for-AOL story in the thread. "AOL sent a letter to my deceased father asking why he was dissatisfied with the service and what could they do to get him to reinstate it?!! You'd think there would be a sensitivity list they could maintain that would bar solicitations to people they KNOW are dead," wrote "Sad But True."
More from MSN Money
Complaints about Comcast included cancellation difficulties, slow "high-speed" Internet connections and surly service reps. One common gripe was that even if customers didn't like Comcast, they had to use its service for cable TV because it had a local monopoly. One message-board post told of how a user who moved out of a two-provider area into a Comcast-only area saw her bill rise by $30 a month.
Here's a post by "Denise" of Richmond, Va., on the same theme: "They have taken over our entire area to the point that we cannot get internet without having to go through them!! There is no other competition and with that means they do not have to hold up any standard."
Possibly the most entertaining discussion in our customer-service board was in the Abercrombie & Fitch thread, where posters fell into three main categories:
- Those complaining about the arrogant teenagers behind Abercrombie & Fitch sales counters.
- Those defending the arrogant teenagers behind the counters.
- A few admitting (or at least claiming) to be former arrogant teenagers behind the counter. ("I worked at A&F for 3 years," wrote someone posting as "CBOT." "We treated the customers like dirt.")
Abercrombie & Fitch declined to return calls from MSN Money regarding its customer service.
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