Bank marketing departments work overtime to earn spots on top ten lists to impress clients, but this probably isn't what they had in mind. The Consumerist, a consumer advocacy website, announced readers named not one, but all of the Big Four banks in the annual "Worst Company in America" (WCIA) playoffs. Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo and Chase-- also referred to as the Big Four-- all ended up with the dubious honor of making the cut.
WCIA Tournament: Customers Not Happy With Banks
Each year, the Consumerist's readers choose companies via written nomination; the 32 corporations with the most votes earn the right to compete in the tournament. Never remiss when it comes to proper etiquette, the Consumerist's editors also send handwritten notes to notify CEO's when their company ends up on the list. The final tally of reader nominations resulted in banking and credit companies taking up 6 of the 32 available slots. That's over 25% of the list dominated by one sector, including all the Big Four banks. Ouch.
How the Contest Works:
- The WCIA battle begins with 32 contenders who fight it out round by round for the top slot.
- The contest is designed as a parody of NCAA March Madness-style office pools, complete with printable playoff bracket.
- Each round pits two companies against another. Readers vote in response to a single question - "Which Company is Worse?". The worst company of each round goes on to play the next, down to the "Final Four" and so on and so forth.
- Eventually, the worst of the worst (as per Consumerist's voters, at least) is left standing and crowned the Worst Company in America.
- In the banking sector, Bank of America and Chase in particular seem to inspire readers, as each beat out CitiBank and Wells Fargo (respectively) to move on to the next round.
The overall tone of the tournament leans more towards snarky humor than seriousness. But there's no denying the high level of consumer dissatisfaction companies must have acquired in order to be nominated in the first place.
With ongoing customer service issues plaguing the banking industry, hopefully Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Chase all use this as a chance to improve client relations. This is one list they should all want to stay off of.