No contest here. Citi is one of the financial institutions responsible for the economic meltdown, their CEO is greedy and arrogant, and their credit card division has doubled interest rates overnight just because they can.

An evil company.

Not even close

A telecom company that's not even the worst of the bunch versus a cesspool of world-destroying suckitude. Not even close.

Citibank. Their new fees, paying for the new Citi field and advertisement with tax payer money. A Starbucks coffee cost more than their stock, and they imploded almost as bad as AIG as the consumerist point out not too long ago.

Citi gave me my first credit card about a year ago and I have been completely satisfied with them ALWAYS. Excellent and understanding customer service. Sprint on the other hand has always been a b. ! t. ch. about things. Thats why I just finished my contract and switched to ATT. Sure Sprint had excellent coverage just about everywhere I went but customer service is horrible. I once called the Spanish line because I wanted to explain my problem in Spanish and I immediately noticed that the Spanish customer service seems to try to take advantage of you in many ways (dont ask). *no comment* but I voted Sprint.

Citi is worse. However, Sprint has my eternal hate for the time that they magically made my cell phone pick up a roaming signal while I was in my kitchen. After deciding to end service and being lied to by three separate people about when my contract ended, I finally got it nixed.

Sprint is a Telecom company with wretchedly incompetant Customer support.

Citibank is an integral part of the collapse of our economy causing millions to be unemployed.

No contest.

@h3llc4t: They billed my ex international roaming claiming I was on some island near Australia when we were talking. After lots of back and forth he finally gets it straightened out only for them to tell him that HE needs to call THEM on a certain date in order to REMIND them to issue credit. ATT has a habit of employing idiots, but this? Just, no.

Citi should and likely will win this one, but I can't pass up an opportunity to vote for Sprint.

Eh, Sprint is trying. Can't help but kind of feel sorry for them. I definitely hope they turn it around and don't go under... Citi can burn in hell :P

Citi just jacked my credit card interest rate up five points. "This has nothing to do with you," they told me on the phone. So I'm paying for something that has nothing to do with me. Fun!

Sprint sends me annoying advertising texts.

Therefore, Citi FTW. Or rather, FTL.

@clairedeloony: doesn't that make you feel so good, though? every year, my insurance company sends me one of those letters: "thanks for being a safe driver, not costing us any money & sending your payments on time. in appreciation, we're raising your rates by 7%, but it's not your fault."

why do companies get the idea that line makes us feel any better about getting bilked out of more money? if anything, it pisses me off more.

@Trai_Dep: Sprint is indeed the worst of the bunch of all of the carriers available in my area, but I like them anyway -- they've bee mostly hassle-free for me. I'll agree with you that Citi is a slam-dumk.

I've been a Citibank customer for years - in fact, I now live in a state with no Citibanks but it's still my primary bank (I do my banking online). My main credit card is also with them.
I have never once had a problem with their services - no banking fees of any sort, and my credit card's never been messed with...
Maybe I've just been lucky?

@juddcarlos2003: Ooh! Consumerist definitely needs someone bilingual to toy with companies! Compare calling the same company and see how they are treated differently. I smell blood in the water.

Sprint wins this hands down.Citibank to date hasn't screwed their own employees, then told the employee to pound sand as a resolution.

@Trai_Dep: Sucktitude. I like that.

No experience with Sprint, but I've had Citi credit cards in the past. I was happy with it until they decided to reduce the rewards I earned by more than half. That was the end of that.

I've dealt with Citi enough on a personal and professional level that I can confidently state that they have earned my very strong dislike. A large part of my job requires calling people, especially financial institutions, and I'm pretty good at getting along with people and getting what I called for. There have been several occasions when I have been trying to get money to Citi and their customer service people were too apathetic, stupid, rude, poorly-trained and preoccupied with their own bias against everyone who calls them to even bother trying to assist people who call.

Yeah, I just love doing business with them. It always requires a stack of chocolate, a mug of contraband coffee and five minutes whining to my secretary afterward. I still get what I want... eventually, but it's a major freaking pain.

@juddcarlos2003: I don't want to jinx you but just wait until you have an issue with AT&T customer service.

@jp7570: A person of my heart, you are, jp.

Hold on now....
Bailed out bank? They received money from the government, but I wouldn't call it a bailout if they weren't struggling.

The money was an attempt at lubrication - the banks saw it as a great opportunity for some good financing.

@clairedeloony: "It's not you, it's me."
Seriously?

Citigroup (#421) edges Sprint (#404) on Vanno.

I'm both a Sprint and Citibank customer. Truthfully, I've never had a problem with Sprint. Their prices are about 10% higher than the competition, but they are the only carrier from which I can get a signal at home. The only problem I've had with Citibank was when the economy got sour, they decided to raise my interest rate from 10.99% to 18.99% (cash reward card). This, despite being a customer with them for about 15 years, never missing a payment, almost always carrying a balance, and having a credit score close to 800. The first time I called, I got some young girl that apparently didn't care if they lost me as a customer. The next *woman* I got was much more helpful and got my rate lowered to 9%.

i've been with sprint since 1998 and have some problems with front line reps, but an escalation to the next level usually solves the problem. e-mail has been effective in resolving problems as well.

i honestly like sprint and everyone i talk to gripes about their carrier - verizon users bitch about verizon, at&t users bitch about at&t, etc. as for the prices, i think they are comperable considering i have a corporate discount - a lot of people in my office use sprint because of this.

@juddcarlos2003: You've had a Citi card for a year - you're already jinxed, you'll see.

I've been a Sprint customer for over 10 years, and while I've had ups and downs with them, they've been rock solid.

Frankly, I'm disappointed that they beat out VZW in the bracket, who I've had to deal with from a corporate standpoint with their terrible crippled devices, spotty coverage, and incompetent support.

hmm let's see. been a citibank customer for around three years... been a sprint customer on and off for the past 4 or 5 years.

in those years while sprint's customer service has been trash.. (they have however improved over those years) my citicard intrest has basically gone up to almost double during that time.. so i vote for citi as being a worse company.

@Saboth:
That's not true. Sprint's all-inclusive plan is less expensive than AT & T's all-inclusive plan. So you may be comparing apples to oranges here.

This is a no brainer for me. I've had Sprint for years without incident. Citibank issued to me my first CC ever. After having been with them for almost 20 years, tehy increased my APR and lowered my limit. No more Citi.

@jp7570: No Contest.

Total no-brainer. Sprint is not perfect, but they are an OK phone company. Citibank has been part of the economic disaster. My vote is for Citibank with their stupid little fees.

Wow, toughie in that Sprint is awful, but not as awful as Citi.

Back when I was a college student with one of those "here, have a free T-shirt if you sign up" kind of student cards, some idiot in their CSR department started non-stop calling my housemates, refusing to believe I wasn't home and threatening them that they'd BETTER have me call back.

When I did, the problem was: they needed to confirm my mailing address.

Bye, losers.

Sprint has made a serious effort to convert their corporate culture to be much more responsive and customer service oriented. I never thought they were bad to begin with. But they have always treated me well.

Citi on the other hand, not so much.

Citi is so much worse than Sprint, if you can even say Sprint is bad. Who comes up with this comparison anyways? They is not even close.

@T Axel Jones: I just called this morning and they gave me an extra 450 rollover minutes for my iPhone because.... maybe I shouldn't say; they might want it back because I'm telling everyone here.

@merq: What do you mean, bro?