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I'd like to start a meme. This is based on my desire to have a pseudoconstructive outlet for frustration and I think it would be cool to see other people take it up. Here we go:
This is the Name Three Companies game. If you suddenly, unexpectedly had the power to snap your fingers and obliterate any company on the planet, and you could do it three times, who would you pick, and why? Include at least one reason for each.
1. UPS. If UPS ran "the tightest ship in the shipping business" as their old motto claimed, then the shipping business is in a world of hurt. Most of my frustrations with them revolve around how utterly undependable their drivers are in upstate NY and how reprehensible the workflow is for their local morning shift. My driver never, ever comes by at the time twice. One day it's before 2. Next day it's after 6. Then for some reason he's at my door at 10:30. They won't even give me a time range when they leave a door tag. They just circle tomorrow's date. Guys, I can't take the whole day off work to sit and wait for you. Plus, when I request for the package to be left at the pickup counter, fully half of the time it gets put on the damn truck anyway the next morning. Guys, you need to read the exception report BEFORE you load the truck. DHL is leaving the US market, why??
2. BP Capital Management, and any other company run by T. Boone Pickens. In the mid-80s, Pickens was part of a company called Desert Partners, who were corporate raiders. Their hostile takeover attempt of United States Gypsum (USG) nearly drove the company into bankruptcy, and gave my father no end of worries as to whether he would still have a job when it was all over. All due to naked greed without even the bad excuse of finding some kind of corporate synergy. I would pay $100 to kick Mr. Pickens square in the nuts, even to this day.
3. Verizon Wireless. Companies should not be allowed to stitch together smaller parts without actual integration plans. Because when Bell Atlantic Mobile, NYNEX Mobile, AirTouch, PrimeCo, and GTE Mobilnet came together in 1999, they remained (and from what I can tell still are) five separate backoffice systems that simply all use one common name. When I moved, I could not seamlessly transfer from GTE Mobilnet country to Bell Atlantic Mobile country. They couldn't even transfer a credit balance, I had to wait SIX WEEKS for a check to be cut when I moved and I signed up for a new two year deal when I did that! Not to mention that customer service has an entirely different featureset from region to region as far as what they will and won't do for you. Then when they offer you upgrades, the rules and caveats are so byzintine that I don't think the reps even understand how to navigate them all. People tell me customer service with Sprint sucks, but let me tell you, since I switched I haven't needed customer service.
Okay, that's my three. Wanna play?
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