I Hold Commercial Grudges

So, on my drive back to Bismarck for Christmas, Chad Hagen rode with me as far as Fargo and it was nice to have some company. We got to talking about stuff, and after talking about the crappy reception our iPhones were getting, we got on the topic of companies we're biased against. It wasn't until I put them all together in one conversation that I realized that I have a few!

• AT&T - www.att.com

  This is where the conversation started. I've hesitated to switch completely over to my iPhone because of AT&T's shit-coverage in ND. I don't even know if it is as true anymore but that impression is still stuck in my head, and I can say that at multiple points in the drive between Minneapolis and Fargo, the iPhones had NO coverage, while my Blackberry on Sprint had like 4 bars and full digital service.
  

• TCF - www.tcfbank.com
  

  When I'd first moved to the cities in the mid-90's, I was in some mall (Southdale maybe) and had to take some cash out of an ATM to spend in the food court. It was a TCF machine, and was the very first time I'd ever encountered having to pay a fee to take out money. They charged me like $2! I know it is common practice now, but still to this day I have stayed true to my vow never to bank with the greedy bastards who led the way.
  

• First Bank (now USBank) - www.usbank.com
  

  My childhood accounts were with First Bank because of my parents' relationship with them. I think I had a savings account that I'd had since I was little, as well as checking account and I was always perfectly satisfied with them and their service. That is, until I went off to college in Moorhead, MN where they apparently only employed snide bitches with chips on their shoulders.
  
  I don't even recall the series of incidents that contributed, but now that I think about it, I think one of them involved an overdraft charge that was a result of a bank error, not mine. Well, that and the young woman that had a total attitude with me about it. I had NO money then, but I closed all of my accounts and moved over to Norwest (now Wells Fargo), and vowed that no matter how much money I'd have some day, First Bank would never see any of it.
  
  I haven't been able to keep that one though, because USBank bought our mortgage at one point. Fuckers. But I'll never actively open an account with them, no matter how many stars of service they guarantee.
  

• US West (now Qwest) - www.qwest.com
  

  I had the absolute worst experience with US West multiple times, and at multiple points in my life. I can't even quantify the countless hours I've spent on the phone with their customer service organization, or waiting patiently for a real person to pick up. When I finally did get through to a live person, I'd invest heap long-time trying to get them to understand the issue at hand, only to be transferred along to someone else, wait another half hour for THEM to pick up, and then have to invest the same heap-long time telling the same damn story all over again. And it wouldn't end there. I'd be told it would be fixed, and days later the problem would still exist. So I'd get on the phone and go through the whole damn dance again. And again. And again.
  
  Never again.
  

• Ford - www.ford.com
  

  I had a used, maroon Ford Taurus back in college that was either an absolute lemon, or I was taking it to a service shop that would fix one thing and intentionally break another in order to create a recurring revenue stream. Either way, we sunk so much money into that car that we could have bought a new one off the lot.
  
  Although I said I'd never buy another Ford, we bought a Mercury Villager when we had kids, which is manufactured by Ford. But I'll still never buy a Ford.
  

So there you have it. I'm sure there are more that I'm not even thinking of right now, but I certainly hold commercial grudges, and I'm okay with that.