Worst Company In America: Chase VS Sears
A megabank that now includes Washington Mutual? Or a hedge-fundy retail mash-up of Sears & Kmart? Which ruins your day?
It's #6 Chase (WaMu) VS #27 Sears (Kmart):
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:
Chase. I wish for their destruction ever since a couple years ago they replaced the Second Avenue Deli with their three millionth bank in the borough of Manhattan.
One pees in the pool, the other takes a steaming dump in it.
Oh, and Chase is more than just incompetent, they're malevolent when it comes to customer service.
Chase pisses me off. When they took over our Wamu credit card, they jacked the interest rate up to 27% for no reason whatsoever.
Grrrr.
I have a Chase card, and have had nothing but good service from them, including reversing some fraudulent charges on my account.
My wife and I bought a new oven and fridge from Sears when we bought our house. No problems there either.
I might be in the minority on both accounts, but for my lack of complaints against either of these companies, I'll have to abstain.
I find Chase customer service to be bad on 2 of my 3 cards with them. On the third card however (an Amazon card) their service is fantastic. Is there a separate staff dedicated to Amazon VISA cards?
Chase credit card = mandatory arbitration
Sears = incompetent idiots + piss poor customer service
Probably the most even matchup I've seen thus far. I'm going with Chase since our Sears closed up last year.
Chase may have failed in a big way, but Sears fails in millions upon millions of small and middling ways. I gotta call it for Sears.
they jacked my my interest rate up to 27% too! I was never late on a payment... i use auto pay feature from my bank.... No one at chase can give me an answer to why!!! GRRR! switching balances and canceling!
I agree with Murph1908, I can't bring myself to vote for (against) either of these companies. So it's a toss-up.
Now that Chase owns WaMu, they're holding my mortgage. It wasn't my choice but then again, nobody asked my opinion.
On the other hand, Sears is such a sad example of the downfall of American formerly-excellent retailers. It breaks my heart to walk into a Sears store anymore. They used to be a great store. Now they remind me of K Mart -- oh wait.
JP Morgan Chase Stole Washington Mutual with the assistance of "friends" in the FDIC. In October the FDIC began pushing the Office of Thrift Supervision to downgrade the company's supervisory rating. This prevented its legitimate sale, while at the same time negotiating a takeover (theft) by JP Morgan Chase. In the process wiping out all common stock. While it’s been under reported due to the ongoing recession, this was one of the largest white collar crimes in American history. Co Conspirators Sheila Bair (FDIC Chair) and Jamie Dimon (JPM CEO) should be in prison form this criminal act. The fact that they have not been prosecuted speaks volumes about on-going corruption in our system.
Chase wanted to raise my interest rate by 5% from its already ungodly 19.99%, for absolutely no reason. Been a customer for years, paid on time, carried a healthy, profitable balance. No more Chase card for me!
I use chase... I honestly like them.
Of course, I don't have a credit card through them.
This whole bracket is going to be ruled by banks and auto companies.
I HATE Chase. I had a fraudulent charge of 1000 bucks on my CC and it took a year to get it refunded to me (including the overdraft fees and interest). And this was after signing all of their paperwork stating that I didn't make the charges. I finally filed a complaint with the BBB and got a call from them the NEXT day after all of that time had been spent on the phone with them trying to get my money back. AGH! So frustrating.
Chase.
They changed my rate from 5.24 to 10.24 citing the economy.
oddly enough, ive never actually had a bad experience with chase. I got a student loan with them, and then some months later started using them as my main bank. They retroactively applied the student loan rate discount to the loan I had already taken out.
I went to a Sears store today. I saw a few people wearing Sears name tags - but I didn't see anyone who worked for Sears. So after a while I gave up on trying to buy something and went somewhere else.
I work for Sears....so I'm obviously going to have to vote for them. The management there is ridiculously incompetent. There may be some good prices every now and then, but I'm surprised whenever I see customers actually shopping in the store. I'm not sure why they don't just go somewhere else that doesn't employ gutless managers. If any store like that exists.
I've got a chase card and I never really use it. They're a terrible service who didn't bother to inform me that they'd canceled my credit card because someone stole the number.
On the other hand I tried to order something from Sears only to be told it wouldn't be in stock for 6-8 weeks even though they were in stock when I ordered it and then they wouldn't let me cancel the order. I finally manged to, only to get an email from them several weeks later letting me know my item was ready for pickup and they billed me again for the product.
It's hard to say but given that I still have the chase card and I've never shopped at Sears since, I'll have to go with Sears.
Chase. Hands down.
chase sucks ass compared to the former wamu. I payed it off this morning and am cancelling it as soon as payment goes thru. "Liberate Tutemea Ex Infernis"
Chase still charges my dad an annual fee for their credit card (he got it in 1978) and of course he can't switch it unless he wants to end up closing that account and drop his credit score (account history and credit utilization would change big time).
@HeartBurnKid, creepy morbid freak: Sears "lost" my rebate - about $675. Despite me FedExing copies of the rebate paperwork to their CEO's office, they claim they can do nothing but offer me a $100 store gift card instead.
I've never bought anything except appliances from Sears, and I'm disinclined to purchase from them again.
Sears got my vote for this one.
Chase is one of the few huge banks with almost no toxic debt. They're probably the most solvent major bank currently.
While I think that some of their policies are crappy, at least give 'em props for being smart. They really weren't part of the subprime debacle. Do some research.
And no, I don't work for them. I'm a well-read student.
god, all banks are just evil. chase, all of them, they prey on people. theres this bank, lets call it first merit out of ohio, and oh god, they prey on college kids, from, lets say, oberlin, and those $65 overdraft fees are the worst. why do banks fuck people over, and why do they get away with it?
@Murph1908: I'm with Murph1908. I've got business and personal accounts at Chase, plus credit cards, and their customer service has been terrific. Maybe it's a Chicago thing.
Sears...I don't know, I go into the big Sears store downtown and it seems to have decent stuff. I can usually find jeans, socks and underwear there that I like and don't fall apart (like those from Wal-Mart).
I abstain, also.
Why isn't Wal-Mart in this contest?
Chase once made an error in my deducting a credit card payment from my checking account, leaving me with about $5 in my account. Even though they were at fault, they wouldn't instantly transfer the money back into my checking account. I had to wait 2 working days. That same week, I closed my checking account with them. I was given a sort of exit interview by the manager who sat me down and asked why I was closing it. I gave him an earful!
We used to have our mortgage with them and every single time we phoned them, there was a problem that took at least an hour on the phone, transferring to different employees, all of who gave us different information.
This one's tough for me. One company helped cause the collapse, the other is utterly incompetent when it comes to customer service.