Round 36: DeBeers vs Verizon
This is Round 36 in our Worst Company in America contest, DeBeers vs Verizon!Inside, readers comments from previous rounds on why they hate each company…
“their ever increasing “month’s salary” figure. I pay the government with my first 4-5 months of salary, and now, if I don’t want to be castrated in my sleep, Debeers says I better spend 3 months salary on her diamond. I remember when it used to be 1 month.”
“showing the person you love isnt buying them a chunk of carbon, how you treat that person every day of your life together is love, shiny overpriced rocks are epic fail.”
“DeBeers is a racket. But they probably have the world’s most successful marketing campaign in convincing women that diamonds are valuable and equal Love.”
“If she loves you, she won’t care about what diamond she gets.”
“DeBeers for sure. I can’t stand what the diamond industry has done to American culture. He doesn’t love you unless he spends $10,000 on a ring? Uh, right.”
“No, really honey, here’s how this works. I give some crappy monopoly $10,000 and you get this little shiny glittery thing and that proves how much I love you. See, I prove my love for you by giving away all my hard earned cash. Why, you ask? Because the TV said I had to!!”
“Speding a quarter of a year’s salary on something an exploited african pulled out of the ground is the only way to show someone you really care.”
“Speaking of DeBeers, when do I get that check from the class action lawsuit?”
“hey have a near monopoly on diamond mining and use it to create an artificial scarcity about diamonds driving the price up. Second, their evil (yet successful) marketing campaigns created the idea of diamond engagement rings as a necessity and are the reason diamonds are almost never resold. Third, the activities of the original founders of DeBeers makes Ford look like Mother Theresa (if she weren’t an anti-semite, as well).”
“If you want a non-blood diamond, you can get yourself a Canadian diamond. Not only do the miners survive, but Canada has been standing up to DeBeers for years. Plus, they have micro-engraved maple leaves on them. Which is neat.”
“Really? No mention of slave labor? That’s my #1 reason I’d vote for DeBeers over all other competition, including Comcast. But hey, children dying in diamond mines halfway around the world? Who cares, I missed the latest episode of Lost because my cable went all screwy! *Le sob*”
“Verizon recently tried to charge me a $175 ETF for getting out of my contract 1 day early.”
“In addition to their terrible customer service and stealin ways, add to it all the data they illegally gave to the gov’t with no warrant”
“the basic structure of pricing in verizon gets me. their v-cast network is simply retarded.”
“Verizon has (incorrectly) turned me over to collections twice, now. Yes, I’ve gotten it straightened out twice, but it’s time spent that could have been spent more productively.”
“With Verizon, you’re screwed. In our area, there’s only one other ISP – Comcast. So it’s get screwed by Verizon or get screwed by Comcast. Not even the opportunity to pick the lesser of two evils…”
“these damn locked cell phones are a hindrance and sooo many hidden fees”
“Their Fios system is absolutely terrible. 50% of my calls are dropped. They lie. They say things will be sent that they won’t send. They not only forgot to show up to install, but had no recollection of the order. They have several different systems, some of which can’t recognize you – good luck calling in. They suck!”
“Verizon does keep setting people’s houses on fire installing FIOS …”
“They half-ass build networks and then tease those without accessibility to their service with advertisements to sign up for their service. It pisses me off that they claim they are available in Baltimore County and for the past 3 months, I’ve been seeing advertisements for it while for the past 3 months, I have yet to see the service as available in my area.”
“For making me call THREE different geo-locations (India, Pennsylvania, Missouri) just to get my DSL bumped UP to 3.0Mbps…
AND then to have them call me five days later to inform me that since I am more than 13,000 feet from the central office I cannot realize the full potential of 3.0 thus I am saddled with my pre-order speed of 1.5Mbps with “the ADDED BONUS of a FULL YEAR CONTRACT!
This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2008 series. The companies nominated for this honor were chosen by you, the readers. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america
STILL OPEN FOR VOTING: Exxon vs United Airlines, Sony vs Ticketmaster, Comcast vs The American Arbitration Association
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