Five Worst Companies for Customer Service

In honor of evil week, we're switching up the Hive Five a little bit. Instead of picking the five best in a category, this week we want to talk about the five worst in a category, specifically customer service. Some companies excel at it, but others?specifically major companies?fail more often than they succeed. This week we're going to look at five of the worst, and show you how to beat them and get the answers you need.

Earlier in the week, we polled you for the companies you thought are the worst at customer service. You definitely delivered with hundreds of nominations! Sadly, we only have room for the top five, and here they are:

Comcast

We don't have enough words to describe how much you guys dislike Comcast. Whether it's missed appointments, industry-trailing technical support and customer service, bandwidth caps, constant service outages, or generally inept reps who seem less interested in resolving problems than they are at getting you off the phone, you guys had your share of horror stories. The next time you need to get a hold of someone at Comcast?if you find yourself running the customer service maze or at a tech support dead end, try your hand at @comcastcares, which often replies faster and better to users on Twitter than their CS reps do on the phone. Need to break out the big guns? Use the executive contact information here to try and get a direct hold of someone at Comcast?odds are an email to the addresses there will result in someone getting in touch pretty quickly.

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AT&T

Between slow data connections, throttling unlimited data plan users to try and get them off of their plans, horrible early termination fees, call and data drops even in supposedly "well covered" areas, and customer service that seems incapable of resolving even minor billing and access problems (not to mention an absolutely horrible site), AT&T was another one of your least-favorite companies. AT&T is one of those companies that's well fortified, but it's not impossible to get real help. Try the Consumerist's customer service contacts for real help?word is that their executive support contact is extremely receptive and happy to help, so make sure you only reach out if you really need it. You can also follow @ATTCustomerCare on Twitter, and the service reps mentioned there?they're also often willing to lend a hand, and they even announce when they're available to help and when they're not. Executive contact information is over here, albeit a little outdated.

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Time Warner Cable

Time Warner Cable is the company that makes me terrified to move into their service area if I ever want to. After all, this is the company that both William Shatner and Patrick Stewart couldn't get to help them. Their ineptitude doesn't stop with famous people either?a number of you complained about missed appointments, misleading pricing packages and billing errors, and worst, customer service reps that wouldn't know a cable box from a cable modem. Need to get some real help with Time Warner? Try their @TWCableHelp twitter account, which seems responsive, if not a little short from time to time. Some of you reported success emailing them at twcable.help@twcable.com. Executive level support is a closely guarded secret, but the executive support number here has been successful for some people. Give it a try when your other options have dried up?and judging by your horror stories, they probably will.

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Verizon

Whether it's Verizon FIOS, Verizon Wireless, or the old Verizon that manages land lines, you had plenty to say. Most of your complaints were directed to Verizon Wireless, but many of you reserved some comments about Verizon FIOS and DSL's Comcast-like customer service and misleading pricing and service packages. Wireless-wise though, many of you complained about Verizon's termination fees, attempts to force users out of their unlimited data plans, and most recently, their plan to sell your browsing habits and app usage to third parties. Still, if you need to get help at Verizon, you can try the Consumerist's executive contacts here, which should be up to date, or hop on Twitter and ask @VerizonSupport your cable/TV/phone questions, or @VZWSupport for mobile phone issues. On your last nerve? Try Verizon Wireless' executive support hotline at 1-800-483-7988.

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PayPal

PayPal has a reputation for being the company that froze funds planned for toys for poor children at Christmas, forced someone to destroy a violin rather than return it for refund, and blocked fundraising for Alzheimer's research, among numerous other reasons. You all shared your own horror stories, whether it was unauthorized charges to your accounts, mishandled refunds and credits, absolutely inept customer service bordering on malicious, and other horror stories involving PayPal cleverly withholding your money only to eventually let you have it back...minus fees, of course. The general dislike for PayPal extends so far that entire sites have been set up to complain and to help you get to a human being that can actually help at PayPal. They really don't want you calling directly and prefer email or their "help center," but here, it's 1-888-221-1161. PaypalSucks.com is a huge community of people united by their collective hate for PayPal with some useful resources. You can also try @AskPayPal on Twitter for help, or @PayPalUK for UK customers. Good luck...you'll need it.

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There you go - hopefully the next time you need to contact any of these companies, it'll be a little easier. Still, it's time to vote for which of these five are the absolute worst:

We'll skip the honorable mentions this week?we're sure you have plenty of horror stories to share in the discussions below, and how you managed to get the upper hand on the companies that wronged you.

Have something to say about one of the contenders? Have a company that's really done you wrong and want to chat about it, even if it wasn't included in the list? Remember, the five here are based on your most popular nominations from the call for contenders thread from earlier in the week. Make your case in the discussions below.

The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it's not because we hate it?it's because it didn't get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it's a bit of a popularity contest, but if you have a favorite, we want to hear about it. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at tips+hivefive@lifehacker.com!

Photo by Andy Dean Photography (Shutterstock).

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/KhVV9E2VsfE/five-worst-companies-for-customer-service

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