This is round 6 in our Worst Company in America 2008 contest, Starbucks vs United Airlines.
Starbucks: Blankets the landscape in coffee shops and gets accused of putting small coffee shops out of business (However, if you open a java joint next door, you’ll profit from their spillover traffic). They also sue the beejeezus out of you if you have a vaguely similar logo. As in, you also have a green circle in your logo. They’ve been accused of union-busting, and filthy stores. Oh, and crappy coffee. At least they’re no longer using milk spiked with Bovine Growth Hormone.
United Airlines: Is one of the top most-complained about airlines, according to Department of Transportation statistics. Like most legacy carriers, they’ve been finding ways to make your frequent flier miles expire and hard-to-use. Sometimes their flights are strewn with garbage, other times, mice wantonly frolic, or they lose your cat in the cargo hold for 3 weeks (unfortunately the last two can never seem to coincide).
This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2008 series. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america/
STILL OPEN FOR VOTING: Exxon vs Crocs, Google Vs Sony, Ticketmaster vs Wachovia, Facebook vs The American Arbitration Association, Comcast vs Menu Foods
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Worst Company In America Quarterfinals: Ticketmaster Vs. Carnival
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Worst Company In America Round 2: Walmart Vs. Sears
@Trai_Dep: Doesn’t UPS offer health benefits to part time employees?
United Airlines fo real!
Crappy coffee is nothing compared to crappy $400 service!
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@suburbancowboy:
One of the mildy interesting things to do when I was visiting england (when looking for a quick place to eat) was to stop in at fast food chain & compare/try all the different items the english versions had compared to the american versions. Examples…. english pizzahut cheeseballs & English McD’s curry-flavoured chicken mcnugget sauces. lol
Sad thing was…. when i stopped into different pubs & restaurants in england to try the local food….. it often turned out that I did NOT like most of the food they served (it IS true what they say about english food). SO it was often easier to just stop in at the “evil i DO know” (fast food places) than the “evil I didnt know” (pubs/restaurants with bad food).
@LikeYourFace: Design something like a tiered competition where you put companies in different tiers and then pit them against each other. It’s just dumb to put Starbucks vs. UA. Use your example and pit Starbucks vs. Wendy’s and UA vs. HSBC. That seems a better fit…
The thing that kills me on this web site is in one post, everyone will bash Walmart for its poor treatment of employees yet with Starbucks the comment of $4 for a cup comes up yet Starbucks offers employees health care and stock options. So make up your minds, cheap and screw the worker or pay a bit more so that someone can have a job with some benefits. As for their coffee, I like it but most people in the States (and Canada) have really really weak coffee tastes.
As for this vote, UA FTW.
@alexander: Like someone said earlier, it’s called seeding.
Starbucks is evil.
Why?
A piece of commercial real estate goes on the market in NYC there is a high likelyhood of one of three things going in that spot:
1. Bank
2. Starbucks
3. Duane Reade
Starbucks is just another blight on the greatest city in the world. And it isn’t like we even go there to get their overpriced crap.
Another no contest vote here. UA has gone (in my experience with them) from being a decent airline with a really cool terminal at O’Hare to being a really shitty carrier that won’t even adequately air-condition their terminal and makes their passengers beg for the flight that they’ve already paid for.
Starbucks? Well, one time the barista spilled a little coffee on my tie, for which I got three or four free drink coupons. Bitch about their coffee all you want, but most of the little neighborhood places that they drove out of business made worse, and they usually had worse service, too.
Considering this blog is being read by thousands of laptop users sitting at some Starbucks table at this moment, I don’t expect it to get too many votes.
United and their subsidiary US Airways too!
Last time I flew United, they canceled a puddle jumper between Madison and Chicago because of “weather” — when it was sunny and calm across the midwest. Did they call to tell me about the cancellation? No. Did they offer to rebook me on another flight that day? No. They offered to get me out two days later.
Lying to customers and providing terrible customer service — what a great way to get out of bankruptcy!
Starbucks may serve burnt coffee, but at least they provide health insurance in an industry that’s not known for taking care of employees.
Maybe I’m biased, but I spent good money on a United Airlines ticket last November and got stuck in the airport for 9 hours while they jerked all the passengers about whether or not they were going to cancel the flight.
Starbucks..eh..it’s an obnoxious viral proliferation that sells overpriced $5 coffee to whiney customers, but I can’t say that I’ve ever left a Starbucks feeling like I was mistreated (I mean, I knew it was overpriced when I went in there).
Oh, and United..with your fuel surcharges and extra-bag surcharges…you suck. It’ll be interesting to see which company goes under first as the country slips into recession.
At least Starbucks will make your drink over if they mess it up in any way. If United messes your flight up in any way, good luck.
The local Starbucks stores offer some of the best customer service in town.
@domesticdork: Good call; I’d add UPS to the Nice List for this reason as well.
Hrm. Active health hazards, losing loved pets, horrible delays and theft of hard-earned miles vs. overpriced mediocre coffee at ubiquitous locations. I think UA’s the winner here.
I voted Starbucks because I think that a company’s “evilness” should be inversely weigthed by its usefulness. Millions of people use UA for getting from point A to point B, but I can hardly see a point in the existence of a huge multinational coffeehouse chain. Why people come to Starbucks in the mornings to get coffee from coffee machines when every workplace already has the same coffee machines?
I don’t understand this… Starbucks is the 2nd most admired company in America, as well as the 17th best to work for… and what about United Airlines??