Worst Company In America: Starbucks VS Bank of America
Expensive coffee that "tastes burnt"? Or the owners of Merrill Lynch and Countrywide?
It's #2 Bank of America (and defending champion, having acquired last year's winner, Countrywide) VS #31 Starbucks!
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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Starbucks' coffee I can take or leave, but its cinnamon coffee cake and shortbread cookies are treats for which I oft long. Bank of America takes this one easily.
@chrisexv6: Even though Starbucks is run by Dr Evils henchmen? Nah, still BofA.
Now if Starbucks charged a $1.99 caffeine access fee...
Let's see.
Coffee vs Satan.
Easy!
It's like UConn vs. NJIT :)
As disgusting as their regular ol' joe may be, Starbucks' frou-frou coffee drinks (lattes, iced lattes, frappuccinos, etc) are to die for.
Screw Howard Shultz for selling out the Supes. Haven't bought anything at SBUX since.
I was so happy not to be included in raised rates and lowered limits when just yesterday I got a notice from BOA they want to raise my APR from 10% to 21%! Argh!
I was smart enough to close my BofA account LONNNG ago, so I'm voting for Starbucks. Their coffee is undrinkable and their baked goods are too inexplicably horrible for you. 500+ calories and 20+ grams of fat in THAT? SERIOUSLY? HOW?!
I got my letter on Saturday. 8.99% fixed to 15% variable.
Been a fixed rate for over 5 years. The letter basically said "We're changing it just because we can."
I promptly rejected it.
Yeah, this is hardly fair. I mean, Starbucks is kinda the cornerstone of hoity-toity, but at least they don't require huge wads of cash from the government while simultaneously corn-holing their customers with fees.
On a related note, I'm searching for a new bank.
@Easton21:
Starbucks if something I can ignore the existence of. I have never set foot in one my entire life. Bank of America on the other hand, can affect me even indirectly.
I just recently closed my BofA account. Aside from the whole financial crisis thing, of which they had a hand in, they also screwed up my account royally and couldn't figure out how to fix it. Apparently in their system's computer my full name was correct, however, everytime I would request a new debit card (with my real name on it) they could only manage to send me a card with my first and middle name (as my last name) on it.
It was a huge pain in the ass and more than once my card was declined via credit because the name didn't match my license.
@YamiNoSenshi: I joined a credit union years ago and haven't looked back. Way better interest rates, even on checking accounts. No bailouts required.
I'll never understand the "burnt" taste everyone always complains about...
I kind of feel like a handful of people genuinely got a burnt batch and everyone else just started applying it across board when they exhausted a decent argument.
I mean, they triple filter their water for goodness sake. You'd think they'd pick up on a "burnt" taste?
Caffeine-pushers vs. looters of our money. Hmm...
Good day for this part of the poll. I got my "let us double your APR or close your card" letter from BOFA today.
I know BOA is the fun one to poke fun at, But In my two years with them, I've had nothing but wonderful service. I told this to my branch manager (Who knows me by first name, and Knows about me) and he said, that because of the patch network of BOA (the many many mergers) that many branches differ from each other and local branches have more powerful then branches of other banks.
Starbucks is the epitome of what's wrong with this economy.
Bank of America.
I don't know why Starbucks is in the contest. Starbucks actually provides benefits to its employees, such as health insurance. For that alone, they should be on a Best-of-America list.
And, there's nothing wrong with making coffee that huge masses of people must consume daily at $4 a shot. That's nice work if you can get it.
@Jonathan Quinn: Well consider yourself lucky. I can tell you oodles of horror stories I've encountered with my Mom choosing to bank with them for over a decade.
Overpriced coffee is one thing, fing with someone's money is quite another.
Bank of America, hands down. They didn't send me a tax form (1099-INT) for some savings bonds I cashed, so when I called them up to ask what happened their oh so helpful CSR gave me a phone number to call. It turned out the phone number was to the treasury department and it was the hotline to find out current bond interest rates and connect to someone so you could purchase them.
I ended up enlisting their Twitter person to help me out, when all was finally said and done, it turned out that they had messed up and not entered my savings bonds as bonds, so there was no report made to the IRS. I had cashed those bonds 6 months before the end of the year, so I was shocked that it was never noticed until I started bitching that I should have gotten a form.
@TinkishDelight: You'd know the "burnt" taste if you've ever had real, good coffee. Not to sound like a coffee snob, but my sister brought some real Colombian coffee back from Colombia, and the difference is astounding. How anyone manages to drink their regular java is beyond me. Filtering the water three times is nice, but doesn't really do anything to help if the coffee beans themselves have been roasted to hell and back.
Then again, you'd never pick up on the burnt taste if all you drink is their espresso based drinks - lattes and cappuccinos. But you would if you drank straight up drip coffee. Nasty!
Starbucks all the way.
@Jonathan Quinn: Starbucks is what's wrong with the economy? I think you've got your priorities backwards.
I want to vote for Starbucks SO BAD it hurts, but I cannot in good conscience do so against BoA. Here's hoping for a better matchup in 2010 Starbucks!
How anyone could choose StarBucks over Bank of America, I in this lifetime will never understand. This is not even an easy question, this is a dead give away!
Coffee or the World Economy? Your right, I'll be fair....Really Expensive coffee, long lines, incredible cakes and muffins also very expensive: Or the collapse of the world economy, not giving up private jets, raising APR's from 9% to 22%, and paying yourselves more than most people will see in a life time?
Yes think hard...think hard. One of the dumbest questions I have seen in awhile
@outoftheblew: No they participate in "ethical trade." What's the difference? Fair Trade is actually certified by an independent body. Ethically Traded is standard SBUX made up to sound like they're more socially aware. So ethically traded may mean whatever they can get their coffee for, whether its below market or not.
@thefezman: And a $2.99 cream fee, and a $.99 insulator sleeve fee, and a $1.99 convenience fee, and a $.99/sugar packet fee, and a $1.99 stirrer fee...
Wait, then they'd be Ticketmaster.
@TinkishDelight: The burnt taste is from over-roasting or a poorer quality bean. That's how they actually got their start. They bought the beans the other coffee shops rejected and were able to undercut the mom and pop shops by doing so. There's a small group of the population you like that and so that became their place.
Expensive products aren't anti-consumer. Plus, if you told the Starbucks that you didn't like the way the coffee taste I almost guarantee they'd give you a refund or let you exchange it. They have some of the best customer service for any large food service chain. Maybe it's because their workers make more than minimum wage so they can afford to take baths at home not in the kichen sink (Burger King I'm looking at you).
@AceKicker: Same here. SBUX is sort of like the middle upper class Wal-Mart, where they've essentially shaped our attitudes and expectations on the cost of things. They treat their employees well, but are evil to competitors. For example, they once bought an entire building in Chicago (Belmont and Clark-FYI), cancelled the lease of the coffee shop that was there, and then leased/resold the rest of the building and put their shop in.
I hate Starbucks. I hate the coffee. I hate that all their sizes "mean" large. I hate the decor. I hate the logo. I hate paying $3 for a bad cup of coffee. I hate Peter King because he won't stop talking about Starbucks. I hate everything about Starbucks, but it's all just a matter of preference. Bank of America wins this hands down. I cannot coherently express my disdain for BoA. Isn't a BoA a giant snake that will crush you in it's powerful grip until you suffocate and then eat you?
@chrisexv6: Seriously. I've had it with this mother(BEEP)ing ratejacking on this mother(BEEP)ing credit card.
Bank of BOHICA all the way.
@me and the sysop: @lawnmowerdeth:
And the best part is that their variable rape is $highest_prime_rate_in_the_last_3_months + $percentage.
@ameyer: Err, variable rate.
And they're allegedly ratejacking everybody.
I'm seriously considering defaulting so they don't see another cent from me.
BofA is HORRID! I have my mortgage with them and was trying to refinance. My branch could not help me so I went to their web site and put in a request for someone to contact me, I even explained why, etc.
For TWO WEEKS, I would get automated phone calls from them every two days saying "We're sorry, our call volume is higher than expected and we can't talk to you right now."!!!!!!!!!!
Then, I returned to their web site and saw a comment about their "WORLD CLASS CUSTOMER SERVICE" Where???
Remember when Starbucks gave away a free cup of copy to anyone who voted on election day? I live in California where is is illegal for any non-government entity to offer an incentive to vote. So Starbucks gave away a free cup to EVERYONE.
And then there was that free cup for pledging to volunteer 5 hours to a worthy cause.
Not to mention that they treat their employees, and more importantly, consumers, very very well.
Why is Starbucks even in the running? I'd vote it for Best Company in America!
bank of america is scum. plain and simple.
It isn't even close. Bank of Armenia wins hands down. I had some very minor problems with them and I say minor as after I put up my own blog I started looking at consumer sites and saw that I had the smallest complaint of those I found posted. They are really awful!
[bankofamericageorgiasucks.blogspot.com]
Baked sweets are wonderful. As a sometime food. Not as an every-day-for-a-year food. Let my 15% increase in body mass (all of it fat) serve as a lesson here.
With 500 fewer calories coming in per day, I now stand a chance at some weight loss.
I'll still have the occasional green tea frappacino though. Hold the melon syrup and whipped cream please.
Also, Bank of America can kiss my lily white...gym socks.
Commander Subprime, AKA Bank of Mexico vs. some Coffee merchants? This should be a landslide or Tarheelian proportions.
Yes. Starbucks serves less than ideal coffee, cleverly hidden under layer after creamy, fatty layer of sugar, syrup, and cinnamon-choco-brownie-blast-whip-foam-topping.. but the problems with them go beyond just playing "beverage dress-up." People happily pay for it and enjoy it: that's just business. Plus, I'll give them, like, .005 points for consistently having soymilk, even if they charge way too much for it.
However..
[www.starbucksunion.org]
Intimidation and firing of union organizers? boo.
Dragging their feet on fair trade? boo.
That said, the BOA Constrictor still gets my vote, because we can still avoid Starbucks fairly easily.
Coal financing, foreclosures/evictions, and general financial behemoth-cy still seem worse than the undeniable yet ultimately relatively "minor" doings of the SbUX enterprise.
[www.risingtideboston.org]
BOA and its tentacles are much harder to avoid, particularly here in the Northeast - kind of like what Wells Fargo is to the midwest.
that's a tough one, I'm against both but BoA takes the cake here, I can get my coffee from another store, however the banking system is setup so that many people can't leave it while you can easily choose not to spend money at starbucks.
I don't do Starbucks so I may not be the best person to vote in this although I have purchased their products in the past. BofA, however is a corporation that I would like to think I'll never deal with again. In my view they are a terrorist organization of the likes of AT&T. My wife has strict orders to call 911 if I ever voluntarily interact with either again.
No contest.