The website Customer Service Scorecard ranks the CSR experience for all sorts of companies, from hotels to appliances to telecoms. They’ve rated 128 so far, and here’s their top five. Do you agree?
rankings
By 7.23.09
../../../..//2009/07/23/slate-compares-and-ranks-5/
Slate compares and ranks 5 sippy cups for toddlers. The best, they say, is the Nalgene Grip-n-Gulp Bottle—at about $8 it’s also the second cheapest of the lot. [Slate]
McDonald's Remains America's Favorite Fast Food Restaurant
By 4.20.09
Consumer research company Experian Simmons (yes, owned by Experian), has released a new study of fast food industry covering the past 5 years, and it looks like we still love going to McDonald’s more than any other fast food restaurant.
Former Employee Says AmazonFail Caused By The French (Well, By One Of Them At Least)
By 4.14.09
Mike Daisey, the monologist and former employee at Amazon.com, told the Seattle PI that the weekend’s gay and feminist book fiasco was actually caused by an employee at Amazon.fr who confused the term “adult”—which refers to porn stuff in Amazon’s system—with “erotic” and “sexuality.” That sharp-toothed troll who claimed all the credit is going to be pretty miffed to find out about this.
Gazaro Rates Gadget Sales Based On Historical Price Data
By 3.16.09
If you’re shopping around for a TV, computer, camera, or other consumer electronics gadget, you may want to add Gazaro to your online toolbox. The service, which is free but requires registration, tracks items that are listed on sale, then rates the sale price by comparing it to the item’s pricing history. It’s an easy way to quickly scan a list of current sales and see which ones are actually good deals. We like it, but there are still some areas that could be improved.
By 2.6.09
../../../..//2009/02/06/t-mobile-came-in-first-in/
T-Mobile came in first in a J.D. Power and Associates study of cellphone customer care performance, with 755 out of a possible 1,000 points. Actually, though, all the carriers came in above the 700 point range except for Sprint, which was in the 600s. [RCR Wireless]
Nearly 25% Of Nursing Homes 'Much Below Average'
By 12.22.08
Of all the unusual gifts you can give Mom or Dad this holiday season, none would be more surprising than a simple card saying, “We’re putting you in a home.” Just make sure you don’t pick a bad one, because nearly a quarter of nursing homes were rated “much below average” in a new monthly federal evaluation.
The 10 Most Reputable Companies In The U.S.
By 6.18.08
The Research Institute has compiled a list of the most reputable companies in the U.S., “calculated by averaging perceptions of trust, esteem, admiration, and good feeling obtained from a representative sample of 100 local respondents who were familiar with the company.” (Then they do some statistical stuff to it.) Coming in at #1 is Google, which we think is remarkable considering how much data the company has managed to collect over the past several years, and continues to collect with new record-keeping initiatives like Google Health.
By 6.2.08
../../../..//2008/06/02/childrens-hospital-of-philadelphia-and/
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Children’s Hospital Boston held on to the top spots for general pediatrics in the 2008 America’s Best Children’s Hospitals ranking. [U.S. News & World Report]
AOL Tops MSN Money's Customer Service Hall Of Shame
By 5.30.08
Earlier this week, MSN Money published the results of a national Zogby poll they commissioned on who delivers the worst customer service. The winner was AOL, ranked “poor” by 47% of respondents, while Comcast came in second with 42% suckage. Sprint ranked third at 39%.
Go Daddy Refutes Censorship Claim
By 3.12.08
The reader who sent Go Daddy an email asking why they shut down RateMyCop.com received a response in which they emphatically denied any censorship—this was all about a customer exceeding his contracted server usage limits and nothing else, they say. Read their full response after the jump.
Go Daddy Shuts Down RateMyCop Watchdog Site
By 3.12.08
Yesterday, Go Daddy pulled the plug on RateMyCop.com, which has been criticized by law enforcement officials for allegedly putting police officers in danger by listing their names and in some cases badge numbers. Visitors can then add comments and post critiques or praise about specific cops in their area. The website collected its officer data via public information requests, and no personal information is used, nor are undercover agents revealed. Still, law enforcement officials are upset at the exposure. When the site’s owner, Gino Sesto, called Go Daddy, he was first told it was removed due to “suspicious activity,” but then the reason was changed by a supervisor to an exceeded bandwidth cap, which Sesto disputes. Update: Go Daddy responded to our reader’s email and said taking the site offline had nothing to do with censorship.
America's Test Kitchen Picks The Best Commuter Mugs
By 2.25.08
While watching TV yesterday and moaning about how lazy we are, we saw a review of commuter mugs (free registration required) on “America’s Test Kitchen”: “We ordered 11 mugs of different materials, shapes, and sipping structures and organized a battery of tests designed to define the ideal mug, which left us feeling a little like test drivers as we careened around corners trying to spill the coffee or dislodge the mugs.” (Yes, they like the royal “we” too!) See their testing criteria, as well as their top two picks, bottom rung losers, and oddball favorite after the jump.
Latest ACSI Survey Is Out: You Really Like Dollar General
By 2.21.08
The American Customer Satisfaction Index has released its latest scores of retail businesses, so we thought we’d take a look at the department store rankings by constructing a handy graph. When it comes to customer satisfaction, apparently Dollar General is doing something right—and Wal-Mart, as usual, is doing lots of things wrong.
Tivo Says E-Trade Commercial Was Most Watched Super Bowl Spot
By 2.6.08
Tivo has announced that E-Trade’s talking, trading, barfing baby was the most watched ad by Tivo subscribers during the Super Bowl, followed by the Pepsi spot where Justin Timberlake got hit in the crotch, followed by the Doritos ad where a giant mouse wailed on a man eating chips. Tivo “sampled 10,000 households using anonymous, second-by-second audience measurement data” to come up with the rankings.
Nissan Altima Takes Two Top Spots In Consumer Reports' Sedan Showdown
By 1.9.08
Because of a drop of nearly 10% in fuel economy in this year’s Honda Accord over the previous one, it lost its title as a “Top Pick” for midpriced family sedans in the Consumer Reports Auto Issue this year. The new winner is the Nissan Altima 3.5 SE (V6), which was reviewed by the magazine nearly a year ago. Both the Altima and the previous Accord got 23 mpg, while the new, 2nd-place 2008 V6 Accord gets only 21 mpg.
10 Magazine Gift Guides Reviewed & Ranked
By 12.13.07
You’re busy: you don’t have time to shop, or to read magazines, or to look at magazines for ideas to guide you when you go shopping, which you’re not going to do because you’re too busy. Luckily Slate has pre-digested the gift guides from ten magazines including Vogue, Maxim, Consumer Reports, and Gourmet, then barfed them up like an HTML mama bird for your shopping convenience.
6 Inflatable Mattresses Reviewed
By 11.16.07
Slate’s back with another Average Jane review of a common product: the inflatable mattress, which always seems to become a worthy topic this time of year when people are visiting. The top two mattresses—both with built-in electric pumps—are a $50 model from Wal-Mart that’s a surprising 24-inches tall when inflated, and an amazing $260 AeroBed that looks like a box spring and mattress.
