youthography | NEWSLETTER

Does Your Brand Suck?

A direct but powerful question!

The winner of this contest was Clearnet submitted by Leslie because of their poor customer service and account mismanagement. Here is her story...
"Ok, first the reception and the phones are great, now the bad part. I subscribed to their service during a promotion. I started paying $30/month but did not recieve the complimentary walkman. I suspended the service in Oct for a few months but got a bill a few months later for over $200 in charges on a $60 plan I never requested. I called them, got insulted but paid with a credit card. I rehooked my service a few months later on a low cost service and after much nagging recieved my complimentary walkman (after 2 years). A month later I found out they had been taking payments off my credit card without authorization so I started making payments online only to find they shut down my service for non-payment. I called them up, and found that my payments had gone to the wrong account. We have a serious talk and they offer me 2 months free for all the havoc they caused. I get a bill a month later for $35, and still no apology letter. Now, tell me who was screwed. This can all be verified".

Let's hope the recent acquisition by Telus Corp improves things. Clearnet like many cell and internet service providing companies reek according to our pulse respondents.

Disconnects between promises and actual delivery are hard core problems for a company no matter who they're dealing with but youth are extremely quick at sensing this and calling themselves to action. Even worse for the offending company - transference of negative feedback between youth is massively fast via their innate group communication proclivities.

Here are the results from last week's pulse check:

Company	Why they Suck
The Bay	"Insulting customer service staff, poor inventory and a disorganized website"
Disney	"Sucks for many reasons...most importantly, many of their movies are very racist."
Monsanto	"Sucks because they are trying to take over our food supply...they experiment with our health altering the genetics of our food."
Randy River	"They have gone to cheap and mainstream clothes and now are just another Stitches."
Milk Industry	"Falsely advertise the benefits of milk."
Yahoo Canada	"New on-line shopping site has no product information."
Coffee Time	"...stale donuts, cheap cappuccino and clouds of smoke...yummy!"
Bata	"Part of the Suharto family fortune...the Indonesian dictator who took the reigns of power through a military coup...and [started] up sweat shops."
Computer Companies In General	"Seem to make more work than they save."
Texas Instruments	"Outrageously price the calculators that all kids need"
Gas Companies In General	"They have great control over society and we have no power to control this."
Mendocino	"Every time a student walks into Mendocino, she is treated awfully."
Northern Reflections	"Insulting customer service staff, poor inventory and a disorganized website"
Columbia House	"The most unorganized business ever. They send movies I don't want and don't send what I order. They don't change address info and keep sending bills for absolutely nothing."
Game Fan	"..unethical behavior with affiliated companies"
President's Choice	"..copies every popular product and sell it for less so my mother buys it and I have to take RC cola to school rather than Coke"
Future Shop	"scoundrels who won't honor warranties"
Ford/Firestone	"both companies lack major credibility" "they need a huge company makeover if they want to survive""they prove the inferiority of North American engineering and products"
Bell Canada	"Ads are aimed at students but the plans discriminate against them. Customers weren't informed of a change from unlimited calls for $20/month to a 800 minute cap. This may be plenty for families but results in less than half an hour/day which is nothing for students away from home sharing accommodations on a tight budget".
Bell Sympatico	"rude customer service staff" "price gouging"
Gap	"Slogan implies everyone should be unique but dress the same.. Huh??"
Microsoft	"Only sponsor in return for benefits, never for the pure purpose of giving back to society..." "Bill Gates is the ultimate symbol of greed." "They have a monopoly on desktop software."
Nike	"People buy Nike because of the old stuff not the new...""Don"t have the moral fibre to treat their employees...like human beings."
Corel Corp	"A company that flops with great software it acquired and has misleading marketing of the crappy software it develops."