Poll: Which Service Industry Do You Hate the Most?

There have been endless articles and polls about which companies provide the worst customer experience. But just so nobody feels left out, let's dip a wider paintbrush and talk about which entire industries are, on balance, the worst of the worst. Not just in pure service (e.g. the rotten time you have on the phone every time you call), but in the entire spectrum of what it takes to run a company that makes people happy.

Of course within any industry there will always be exceptions to the rule -- a shining light among horrible competitors, or a train wreck of a company in an otherwise well-regarded business segment. But in the words of a T-shirt I once saw, "stereotypes are a real time-saver." So with that, I want to hear your sweeping generalizations and talk about entire categories of companies that just can't seem to get it right.

Your unscientific votes and comments can be based on any number of criteria, including, but not limited to:

• Outward attitude and general treatment of customers
• Follow-through on promises, ads and claims
• Quality of actual service or product provided
• Value of service or product
• Willingness to resolve problems
• Physical environment
• Honesty/integrity

I frankly struggled with this one myself, as I am a zero-tolerance Customer Avenger, and there is so much I don't like about so many industries. But the one that is the very worst in one area may not be so bad in another. For example, cable television -- an enterprise that almost always lands on "worst of" lists -- most people would agree that waiting for a cable repair during the dreaded "four hour window" is outrageous. But the product it provides, in my opinion, is excellent and does what you expect it to (when it's working). In other cases, an industry might just be so mediocre in everything it does that the sum total of its complete blah-ness makes it suck. Almost any of the industries above would make my list for one reason or another, but I was able to initially narrow my own field to two, based largely on the amount of time I interact with them: airlines and hardware/software support.

I spend a lot of time and money flying places, so the airlines' typically horrid service becomes a genuine quality-of-life issue for me. Pound-for-pound, you can't take much more of a pounding than that industry dishes out. Yet as I write this, I am sitting in Germany after a wonderful flight on Continental, my ride of choice among US-flag carriers. In my opinion and many others, it is the best of the domestic-based airlines (though we'll see what happens after the United merger goes through... I don't have high hopes). Plus, my experience with overseas carriers is completely different, in a good way.

So for me, top honors among bottom-dwellers has to go to tech support, and I'm sure I don't need to list all the reasons. From call centers that make you want to pull your eyes out, to a general complete lack of accountability, to sheer time-wasted-per-experience, tech support has few, if any, rivals. I am sure I have had one or two good experiences with that industry, but they are so few and far between that I certainly can't call one to mind.

That's my winner among losers, but I am sure many of you have different opinions. Perhaps you don't travel enough to hate the airlines, or maybe you are one of the lucky few who's never had to spend hours on the phone with someone in Bangalore trying to troubleshoot a font. In fact, most "worst company" lists that I've read don't have airlines or tech businesses at the top. So clearly many of you won't agree with me, and I am anxious to hear which industries you love to hate, and why.

(Flickr image by purplemattfish)