Worst Company In America: AT&T VS Circuit City
The death star vs a bankrupt, liquidated retailer in its final year of eligibility? Who makes you angry?
It's #15 AT&T VS #18 Circuit City:
This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2009 series. The companies nominated for this honor were chosen by you, the readers, and seeded according to number of nominations. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america. Download the bracket here.
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Comments:
Isn't this a bit like saying "who should win the baseball MVP this year, A-Rod or Babe Ruth?"
50:50!
So who gets the award if CC wins? Do you send it to the liquidator? Can I get a share since they stiuffed me out of a $50 rebate when they sell it?
@Radi0logy: Not to mention Circuit City can't hurt anyone anymore. Better to go after the live threat that the defeated one.
This is like choosing between Stalin and Hitler-they both are jacked up.
But since Circuit City wont be eligeable next year,I vote them in.
And with my vote, ATT pulls ahead!
AT&T, because spying illegally on millions of innocent Americans - for profit! - should never get a free pass.
I have more experience with Circuit City than AT&T, so I'm going to have to go with them.
I bought a disc of Halo 3 at liquidation. Totally unreadable. No returns.
AT&T you are sometimes forced to use-
Circuit City I avoided like the plague- because I knew they sucked.
Circuit City I guess? But that vote doesn't count, so it has to go to ATT.
The intent of the WCiA Award, or so I thought, was to provide a little public embarrassment that might prod bad companies into improving customer service or changing other bad behaviors. Therefore, even though I realize they are otherwise eligible, it seems pointless to even have Circuit City in the brackets.
Circuit City got me at the very end of it's life. I (stupidly) bought something with a rebate from them on Black Friday and they declared bankruptcy before they cut my rebate check (which, ironically, was approved).
Burn in Hell, Circuit City. Burn in Hell.
@MormonChristmas_GitEmSteveDave: You too? I'm also out a $50 rebate. They are bastards. I hope all of their management gets nasty skin diseases or something else equally horrible.
AT&T FTW, they have dismal customer service. Stopped going to CC years ago so they didn't exist to be even before they went bust.
AT&T wins CC is dead. AT&T helps continue the monopolistic consumer hating nature of ISPs and communication.
I vote for Circuit City because it'll be the last time we can ever vote for it.
Death Star versus Fail Star. Went with the latter.
Come on people, AT&T is one of the tele-com companies that helped the Bush administration illegally spy on Americans. Then, after they gained immunity for these illegal actions, they gave millions to both the Democrats and the Republicans and sponsored parties at both of their conventions! There is no way CC can top that!
@Trai_Dep: True. I mean, yeah, Circuit City cries out for a nostalgia vote, but in reality the worst crime they ever committed was screwing little old ladies with extended warranties and whatnot. AT&T on the other hand, besides being an annoying monopoly back from the monopo-grave, was and is complicit in violating the civil liberties of pretty much everybody - in the world, given how much phone and data passes through their hands at some point. Also, sometimes my cell phone service with them is spotty!
CC FTL! I'll vote for AT&T next year. By going Bankrupt, CC showed it's ultimate dedication to failing the consumer. You don't see that kind of
I prefer to vote for a company that still exists. Besides the last time I checked AT&T has done some pretty f-ed up stuff in the past.
The worst I've heard from Circuit City is their crappy customer service.
It would be a real coup if AT&T, a company that would under most circumstances be a clear "winner" in any bracket, could walk away from this unscathed via a company that no longer has any stake in consumers' lives, yet has garnered enough loud publicity to warrant a vote.
@SacraBos: I disagree. By going bankrupt, CC showed its ultimate dedication to failing itself, not the consumer.
I personally disliked CC, but that was because of their uninviting atmosphere and dingbat employees. That didn't mean I wouldn't get a product there if it were the best price. Regardless, the company was relatively harmless.
AT&T, on the other hand, routinely shafts its millions of subscribers by failing to provide appropriate (let alone above-and-beyond) customer service, wasting resources, not meeting demand as advertised, stripping customers of privileges only to charge for them later, and stomping on consumer rights via their frequently shady TOS updates.
Add to this a US exclusive on a groundbreaking device and you have a lot of comments to the effect of, "boy, I love my iPhone, but I hate that I have to use AT&T" and so on.
Normally, I'd be quick to vote for CC here, but as others correctly pointed out, CC is already dead. CC winning the worst company in america title wouldn't get the company to change its practices!
Not that AT&T winning would, but at least an active company winning the title *MIGHT* shed some light on a horrible, horrible company, and hopefully get some changes made.
I have nothing against Circuit City. I always felt that their employees knew what they were talking about (moreso than Best Buy's, at least) and I thought they had competitive prices and some great sales. I think what did them in is that their stores were generally not as large or as welcoming as Best Buy's. I felt like I could just mill around and play with things at Best Buy, but when I went to Circuit City, it was usually for a reason.
That said, put them up against a carrier with spotty coverage and a crappy track record of bad billing, and you can guess who got my vote.
My vote goes to Circuit City. Circuit City has hurt the American public more than we know. With it's inability to stay competitive as well as it's failure to update it's infrastructure from the mid 80's, it was no wonder why the company went under. As a staple, Circuit City had a responsibility to stay relevant to be there and regulate prices within the big box retail category, but failed in every which way, and now have left the American consumer open to a monopoly by Best Buy (not saying that Best Buy totally sucks). Batman doesn't work without a Joker folks, simple as that. Circuit City has also hurt our economy by failing to react in time. As profits fell and market share started going towards Best Buy, it seems like Circuit City only started reacting when their stock was downgraded first being kicked out of the S&P 500, then out of the NYSE within the same year. By the end of it's life, Circuit City who was once the kid to cheat off of in class, turned into the one cheating, and at that, cheated off the dumb kid in class. On the way out Circuit City swung the door open and as a last show left slow enough to get hit in its own backside with the doorknob.
@MormonChristmas_GitEmSteveDave:
I want to know too, more especially, how much % off the award is gonna be!
AT&T all the way. 504 seconds while they fumble around and then they drop your call. That netbook deal at RatShack is workin out real good for them...as long as you have 5 grand for data charges.
@JGKojak: This is what tipped it for me. AT&T has monopolies in so many markets (not just geographical, but level-of-service as well) because of the infrastructure it built off the back of a government-sanctioned monopoly, and they treat even their enormous customers like dirt.
CC was a bad company, but unlike anybody else in this day and age, they had the stones to file for bankruptcy, not cry TARP TARP TARP.
Wow, 50/50? At&t IS the entity who cooperated with the NSA and Bush to illegally wire tap innocent Americans. Maybe there should be a new poll for most evil company, GE or At&t?
@sprocket79: Well, according to the company that handled the rebate, they cut a check and sent it out, but I don't know how to get in touch with them. I sent an email in to Consumerist, as they seem to have helped some people, but no response yet. I might actually start pounding the grass morrow to find out some info.
Don't waste a vote on a company that doesn't exist anymore. There's no CC to deliver the trophy to. Besides that, AT&T is many times more evil than CC.
@Overheal: Yeah it took stones to file for bankruptcy instead of asking for aide from a governmental program they don't qualify for.
Government in the 80s: AT&T, you're too big, you're a monopoly (over phones only), we'll have to break you up into baby bells
AT&T in the 00s: Government, can we please buy up the largest bell, a cable/ DSL provider, and one of the largest cell phone carriers in the US?
Govt: Sure, why not??
How much money changed hands for that deal to go through?
Bell south was so great too, before AT&T took it back. AT&T FTW!!!
@Radi0logy: Complete opposite sentiment here. I've had ATT/Cingular before that for the past eight years and I've never had issue.
Circuit City, on the other hand, certainly burned me a few times, most notably with their 24-minute guarantee. The time I couldn't find any employees around the store only to find them in the DVD section playing "hoops" with the DVDs into a bargain bin, that was pretty memorable as well.
AT&T for me. I've been in a year long dispute over my phone bill, plus they have been overcharging me almost continuously on my Dish network bill which they handled.
I got nowhere with that for a while. It's almost impossible to get someone in customer service, and if I try calling Dish Network directly, I still get AT&T. Don't know how they are pulling that one off.
I finally made headway when I was able to use the chat feature on Dish to talk to someone. He agreed I was being overcharged, at least $10 a month, possibly more. So I'm going to have unbundle my AT&T package and find other alternatives now that my contract is fulfilled. But they'll probably argue about that too.
It's so pointless putting companies that no longer exist in these polls. I'm waiting for Braniff Airlines vs. Eastern Airlines. I vote for Eastern because the stewardesses never had a light for my cigarette while I was flying.
This is easy. AT&T struck a deal with the Bush Administration to build a secret room in AT&T HQ to spy on American communications and then lobbied Congress to pass a law giving them blanket immunity for violating a variety of US privacy and communication laws to cover up their participation in this illegal and unconstitutional program. What did Circuit City do again?
@MormonChristmas_GitEmSteveDave: They lied to you. I also got an email that says that my rebate was approved and a check mailed.
They company that handled the rebate is called Parago. I called the rebate hotline a zillion times. I asked for supervisors and was hung up on. I finally annoyed the guy so much that he told me that a lot of checks were cut, but none of them mailed. He said to be patient and eventually they would be mailed. Lies. All lies. I even wrote an email to the CEO and it was ignored. Is there a way to PM on this thing? Maybe we should trade info about what we know about the rebates.
They're both at 50% right now, which I find hilarious.
Oh boy.. this is a tough one..
Gonna have to go with At&t, since CC never really hurt anybody, they were just really REALLY bad at running a business.