Below is the top 10 list, but check out the full list of 75 companies for some interesting surprises, like Hewlett Packard coming in at #18 (right behind Apple!) despite the horror stories we've seen from Consumerist readers.

"The 75 Most Reputable Companies in the U.S." [Forbes] (Thanks to Rick!)

RELATED
"RI Hall of Fame" [Research Institute]
(Photo: Getty)

"We've seen a fall in customer service as we've gone into a recession," says a customer service consultant in the article. "As the cost cutting occurs . . . they start to cut the wrong things." But that implies that AOL had good customer service before the recession, doesn't it? Wait, what?

All but one of the top 10 companies are either in communications or finance, with the one weird exception of Abercrombie & Fitch (4th place, 38%).

"Most of these companies actually aren't thriving," said Michael Shames, the executive director of the Utility Consumers' Action Network, a California nonprofit that monitors business practices. People don't look at companies with poor customer-service scores and say, "Here's where I should invest," he said.

"The Customer Service Hall of Shame" [MSN Money]

Mr. [redacted]:

The situation with the Web site RateMyCop was absolutely NOT about censorship in ANY way.

The site's operator has publicly disclosed the concerns were over bandwidth. More accurately, Go Daddy's concerns were about how the RateMyCop site was far exceeding the amount of server usage for which it had contracted.

This customer paid for a shared server plan. The connections to his site were six times more than an entire 'shared server' accommodates. While he was paying for a service that cost $14.99 a month, his site actually required a much more extensive set-up.

Basically, he was paying for compact car, when he really needed a semi-truck.

The customer was not willing to work with our staff to resolve the issue.

While the "censorship" allegations certainly make for an edgy "story," they simply had nothing to do with this situation.

- Go Daddy
Office of the President

(Thanks to Mike!)

"Go Daddy Shuts Down RateMyCop Watchdog Site"
"GoDaddy Silences Police-Watchdog Site RateMyCop.com" [Wired]

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RateMyCop.com

One Consumerist reader sent Go Daddy the following letter this morning to voice his concerns that the company might be selectively censoring content (which certainly is within Go Daddy's right, but might turn off some customers):

I am writing to express my concern over Go Daddy's recent action in taking down the "RateMyCop.com" site hosted for one of your customers. Recent media attention has raised some controversy and your action was to suspend the site and post an "oops" page asking for the site's owner to contact you.

While I'm not necessarily a fan of "RateMyCop" or its message, the content of this site did not violate any laws, nor did it violate any normal standards of decency. That Go Daddy would censor this site, without warning or consultation to the site's owner, is deeply troubling to me.

I have been a Go Daddy customer for many years, and recently went through significant steps to transfer the last of my domains from previous registrars/hosts to consolidate under Go Daddy. I am now seriously considering taking my business elsewhere.

My domains are "hobby" websites, which I'm sure makes them very profitable for Go Daddy because I pay for Premium level services but place very little load on your systems, in that traffic is steady but not massive. I pay for this type of hosting so that I have absolute control over the content and presentation of my domains, free from advertising, bias, or other restrictions.

If Go Daddy is going to insist that constitutional protections extending to publications on other media do not apply when published on Go Daddy's servers, then I'm afraid I will feel the need to publish my speech elsewhere. And I promise to do so in as noisy and spectacular a manner as possible.

I look forward to hearing your response, and furthermore hope that you will reconsider your policies regarding censoring the content of the sites you are paid to publish.

"GoDaddy Silences Police-Watchdog Site RateMyCop.com" [Wired]

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RateMyCop.com

ATK chose the following criteria to test their mugs: heat retention, spill-proofness, clean taste, handles (no handles = easier to grab while driving), sippability, visibility (whether or not it blocks your view of the road when you're near the bottom of the drink), cleaning, the ability to fit into a wide range of mug holders, and stability.

Top Two Picks

The Thermos Stainless Steel Travel Mug was the best of the bunch, particularly because of its radial symmetry that allows you to pick it up and sip from any direction without worrying about orientation (*snicker*). Because it took a while for excess liquid to drain back in, there was some risk of splashing on bumpy drives.


Their other pick was the OXO Click LiquiSeal Travel Stainless Mug, which "is comfortable to hold and has excellent insulation" but had some small issues with liquid getting trapped in an inner layer and around the button. They don't suggest the plastic version, however.


Oddball Favorite
They also liked the compact Nissan Dual Purpose Can Insulator/Travel Cup, although not as a travel mug: "It's an unsatisfactory beverage cup—the lid doesn't have any closure, and it leaked like a sieve—but it's a good can insulator and holder. A soda can fit in snugly and stayed well chilled." They demonstrated it on the show, and it looks like a stainless steel can cozy with a screw-on lid to completely cover your drink.

Bottom Rung Losers
At the very bottom of their "Do Not Want" list were two ceramic/stoneware mugs—they were poor insulators and didn't have traps to contain any liquid overflow.

"Equipment Corner: Commuter Coffee Mugs" [America's Test Kitchen] (Free registration required)

(Photo: The Infamous Gdub)

 
In the commentary on last quarters scores, ACSI says they've started including Nordstrom again because of its increasing market share, and back before it dropped off the survey in 2001, it held the top spot frequently, so no surprise there.

They also suggest that Dollar General, "which typically serves neighborhoods that may be too small to attract Wal-Mart," may be scoring high because of its wide variety of items in such small retail spaces.

Sears and Kmart are pretty much exactly where we'd expect them after their plunging customer service last year.

One thing we're not sure about is how the various recall disasters last year affected scores—clearly Dollar General emerged unscathed, despite its healthy dose of lead-tainted toys, Halloween pails, and holiday decorations.

"Q4 2007 and Historical ACSI Scores" [ACSI]
"Customer Satisfaction Falls Again; Retail, Financial Services Down; Wal-mart, Home Depot at All-Time Lows" [ACSI]

RELATED
"How are ACSI data collected?" [ACSI]

(Thanks to Shaula!)

Tivo says that for the fifth year in a row (since the company started tracking viewership data, in fact) the commercials were more watched than the game, with the most popular ads enjoying a 5 to 30% larger audience because they're re-watched repeatedly.

Nielsen disagrees and lists an entirely different set of winners—"Budweiser's horse/Dalmatian spot, Coke's parade balloons, Diet Pepsi's Max, FedEx's pigeons and Pepsi's Timberlake." Their data, however, comes from "200 people who were polled online," so it sounds like typical Nielsen nonsense.

"TiVo: E-Trade Won Super Bowl" [BrandWeek]

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"How About Those Super Bowl Ads!"

Not that the Accord is a bad buy—other than fuel economy, the new Accord "easily outperformed all the other vehicles in this test group—and achieved an "Excellent" overall road test score." (We don't know if they're including last year's Altima test as part of the group.)

The Altima also came out on top in the budget-priced category:

The four-cylinder Altima also claimed the top spot in CR's ranking of 15 Affordable Family sedans, with a much wider, six-point margin over the Accord [four-cylinder LX-P]. The Kia Optima EX and Toyota Camry LE are ranked third and fourth in that category.

Their winner in the list-off is Maxim:

The superfluous T&A is more of a lure for some readers than others. But Maxim surprises with its witty and varied gift ideas, which are frequently accompanied by well-written snippets of prose. And as long as you're not a vegetarian, you can't help but love a guide that mentions python filets at $40 a pound.

"Smoking Mittens or Felt Fedora?" [Slate]
(Photo: Getty)

Of all the models tested, the $40 Coleman 4-in-1 QuickBed scored the worst: "The only upside to the Coleman Quickbed is that it's lightweight and easy to store. That means it won't take up much room in my trash can."

"Sleeping Around" [Slate]
(Photo: Getty)

Rounding out the top five are the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, Harvard Business School, and the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

"The Best Full-Time MBAs" [BusinessWeek]

All but one of the middle-ranked printers are priced around $100 (the odd one out is $150). The clear winner is the Epson PictureMate Dash PM 260, an inkjet printer that averages a competitive 25 cents per print (similar to online services) and is fast and easy to use.

The worst of the bunch is the Panasonic KX-PX2M, and Slate's reviewer flat-out states, "Don't buy this printer." Lines ran through every print, it doesn't accept CF cards, the controls are hard to use, and customer support is incomplete.

Oddly, though, if you look at the actual image samples in the article, the bottom-ranking Panasonic seems to have some of the most accurate color reproduction of the bunch, while top-pick Epson's prints are all clearly too red. Did the scans not correctly capture the visual quality? Is the writer color blind? Am I? This is why we hate printing photographs.

"Photo Finish: What's the top photo printer?" [Slate]
(Photo: Getty)

While all of the diets emphasize fruits, veggies, and fiber, the Atkins lost points "because of its more liberal attitude toward red meat, saturated fat and trans fats."

The study used the Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI), which has a maximum score of 70, and is determined by averaging each diet's individual score for the evening gown, swimsuit, and personal interview sections of the study. Below are the diets along with their scores:

"Dietary quality of popular diets varies: study" [Reuters]
abstract of published study [ADA Journal - registration required]

The one that fared the worst was the terribly named Pureline Scoreclipse. We still can't figure out what they were going for with that second "word"—it looks like "score," "sore," "clips" and "eclipse" all mashed together. Why would you want any of those words associated with a snoring cure? The clips use magnets and apparently go into your nose, and were uncomfortable. The spouse also hated them.

[Correction: Turns out it's called the Pureline Snoreclipse, which makes a lot more sense. In our defense, as of this afternoon Slate is still spelling the product incorrectly—but we could have followed the link to confirm spelling the first time around. Thanks, MadMolecule!]

"Silent Night" [Slate]
(Photo: Getty)

The top five:

1. Cacao Reserve by Hershey's Extra Dark
2. Lindt Excellence Extra Fine Dark
3. Chocolove Organic Dark
4. Valrhona Le Noir Amer Dark Bittersweet
5. Scharffen Berger Semisweet Pure Dark

True chocolate lovers may want to skip ahead to a real chocolate review website, seventypercent.com, which has reviews of some of the bars mentioned by Consumer Reports, as well as dozens of other fancy-schmancy versions.

Resources: www.seventypercent.com

Dark chocolate, Ratings [Consumer Reports]

(Photo: SpooSpa)