15 Most Hated American Companies

[George Tyndall]

Among those that surprised me are Dell and Gibson Guitar.

http://247wallst.com/2010/01/05/the-15-most-hated-companies-in-america/

Chuck, do you agree with the inclusion of Dell?

[ed]

As someone who owns some shares of Dell I'm disappointed. They need to up their marketing budget and target the younger audience better. As for Gibson, the quality they were known for is a thing of the past imo. I'm not surprised by either.

[Bobby]

Once there was a company called Gateway. It built good computes and had good customer service. Its founder, Ted Waitt was bought out and the suits took over the company. It began selling big chassis filled with slow, old parts and the customer service went to hell. Exit Gateway, even though Ted bought back in and tried to save it.

Ted Waitt and Michael Dell were peers, but Dell kept control of his company. However, he still succumbed to the pressure of the suits and started, guess what, selling computers with old, sub-performing parts and the customer service went to hell after being moved overseas.

Those Who Forget the Lessons of History Are Doomed To Repeat It ...

[Chuck Engels]

Yes, I agree with Bobby and Ed. Too bad it had to go that way, especially Gibson.
We can always build our own computers but who is going to build great guitars?

[Bobby]

Back when I went to school in Hoboken, NJ (Stevens Institute of Technology) Guild guitars had its facility there. I had a friend who was pretty good and he had an in with them, and got to bring out stuff to test and play with. Nice job if you can get it!

[Chuck Engels]

Guild has made many great guitars over the years. My ultimate would be a Taylor acoustic along with a '59 Gibson Les Paul Sunburst.

[George Tyndall]

Once there was a company called Gateway. It built good computes and had good customer service. Its founder, Ted Waitt was bought out and the suits took over the company. ...the customer service went to hell. Exit Gateway, even though Ted bought back in and tried to save it.

Ted Waitt and Michael Dell were peers, but Dell kept control of his company. However, he still succumbed to the pressure of the suits....

According to many former employees "the suits" are also responsible for the demise of Circuit City.

Agree?

P.S. With regard to Gateway, what happened to their computers also seems to have happened to their monitors--and that is why I'm holding on to my relatively old versions. The same is true of my Kensington Export Mouse Pro--the newer model is not even in the same ballpark as my relic (which doubtless explains why new-in-the-box models are currently selling on ebay for twice or more their original price).

P.P.S. It appears we had better accustom ourselves to the idea of "the suits" running America.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100124/ap_on_bi_ge/us_obama_campaign_finance