We live in a time where very few companies engender a lot of trust in the buying public. But some businesses still do a better job than others at developing a positive relationship with consumers.

Accoding to the 2011 Temkin Trust Ratings, which looks at the level of trust that consumers have in 143 large U.S. companies in a total of 12 industries, only eight companies earned “very strong” ratings while 26 earned “very weak” ratings.

Here are the top 10 overall most trustworthy companies, along with their respective industry in parentheses:
(1) USAA (insurance)
(2) Amazon.com (retail)
(3) Costco (retail)
(4) Edward Jones (investment firm)
(4) Hyatt (hotel chain)
(4) Sam’s Club (retail)
(4) TriCare (health plan)
(8) Kohl’s (retail)
(9) Walgreens (retail)
(10) Vanguard (investments)

Meanwhile, companies at the bottom of the trust list are familiar to those of you who follow Consumerist’s annual Worst Company in America tournament: Comcast, Charter Communications, HSBC, CIGNA, Time Warner Cable, U.S. Bank, and Anthem.

In fact, Comcast and Charter were so bad that they each made the bottom 10 list twice for their untrustworthy TV cable service and internet service.

“Most companies have not earned a great deal of trust with consumers and it’s a pervasive problem in several industries,” states Bruce Temkin, author of the report and Managing Partner of Temkin Group.

The full list of ratings can be found here.

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