Customer Service Hall of Shame.

MSN Money asked Zogby International to conduct an online national survey in which 7,724 randomly chosen respondents rated customer service at 140 companies from 14 industries. They chose the companies using several criteria, including those with the largest sales in such customer-facing industries as retail, hotels and restaurants. Below are the results:

When thinking about a company's customer service, which one of the following features is most important to you?

Knowledgeable staff (35%)
Readily available staff (34%)
Flexible policies for return/exchange of merchandise (13%)
Friendly staff (12%)
None -- product is all that matters (2%)
Not sure (1%)
Other (3%)

The companies were ranked based on the percentage of respondents with opinions who rated a company's customer service as "poor."

1. AOL
2. Comcast
3. Sprint Nextel
4. Abercrombie & Fitch
5. Qwest
6. Capital One
7. Bank of America
8. Time Warner Cable
9. HSBC Finance
10. Cox Communications

Source: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SmartSpending/ConsumerActionGuide/TheCustomerServiceHallOfShame.aspx?page=2