11 Companies With The Worst Reputations In America: Harris Interactive

A company's reputation is formed not only by the products it sells, but by the decisions it makes in times of crises. For some, that's a good thing. For others, some present on this list, not so much.

Using survey results, market research firm Harris Interactive has compiled a list of the U.S. companies with the best and worst reputations. For the 12th Annual Harris Interactive U.S. Reputation Quotient Survey roughly 30,000 Americans were asked to rate the 60 most visible companies in the United States based on six factors: financial performance, products and services, workplace environment, vision and leadership, social responsibility, and emotional appeal. Combining these factors, Harris tallied a total RQ Score. Scoring above 80, for reference, indicates a company's reputation is "excellent."

Overall, companies in this year's survey ranked higher than the previous year, with 16 companies rated as "excellent" compared to only six last year. Tech companies, in general, seem to have the best reputations, while financial and oil companies have the worst. Notorious scandals like the BP Gulf Oil Spill and Goldman Sachs's role in the subprime crisis seem to have lingered in American minds, and companies with the worst reputations scored especially poorly when rated on whether they have "high ethical standards" and could be "trusted to do the right thing."

Car companies largely fell somewhere in the middle, but that could change in the coming years. General Motors and Chrysler, while stuck in the bottom 11 this year, did make the third and fourth highest gains on the list, respectively, of any company.

Below are the 11 companies with the worst corporate reputations:

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• 11. Comcast

  <strong>RQ Score:</strong> 62.05

• 10. Delta Airlines

  <strong>RQ Score:</strong> 61.17

• 9. JPMorgan Chase

  <strong>RQ Score:</strong> 61.15

• 8. ExxonMobil

  <strong>RQ Score:</strong> 61.09

• 7. General Motors

  <strong>RQ Score:</strong> 60.12

• 6. Bank Of America

  <strong>RQ Score:</strong> 58.93

• 5. Chrysler

  <strong>RQ Score:</strong> 58.37

• 4. Citigroup

  <strong>RQ Score:</strong> 57.45

• 3. Goldman Sachs

  <strong>RQ Score:</strong> 53.90

• 2. BP

  <strong>RQ Score:</strong> 49.82

• 1. AIG

  <strong>RQ Score:</strong> 47.77

Comments

[dukeofurl01]

08:02 PM on 06/05/2011

Pretty much every corporation is the worst in America.

[DarcieRN]

10:24 AM on 05/26/2011

We all know why oil corporations are on that list.
Please check out my petition http://signon.org/sign/nationalize-oil-gas-coal?source=c.fb

[artistdavid]

04:23 PM on 05/18/2011

BOYCOTT THESE COMPANIES.

[teachone]

09:06 PM on 05/11/2011

I have to agree AT&T should have been put on this list as well! But, I need to also add one more GNC (General Nutrition Center). I quit my job with them due to their crooked, lying manager and she then lied to the State Dept and said she fired me for misconduct to get out of paying my unemployment, then GNC lied to the Federal government and said the same to get me fired there last week!! I think you should have made a "TOP 100 LIST OF BUSINESSES WITH THE WORST REPUTATIONS IN AMERICA", in order to contain most of them! The government, those in our legal system and elected officials need to get busy and clean them up or shut them down instead of enabling/defending them by turning their head when they do such, which makes them just as guilty! America USED to be known for its high quality products, ethics, morals and honest competition in business and governement, not any more! It is an embarrassment to us all in America.when those in business, government or the legal system act corruptly and they should be ran out of their positions! Winning at ANY cost is NOT a WINNER, it is a CHEATER and no one respects a CHEATER! We need to bring ETHICS back to this country and get rid of those here in this country that think LYING is an acceptable means to get what they want!!!

[teachone]

08:40 PM on 05/11/2011

You forgot WELLS FARGO/WACHOVIA SECURITIES!!!

[maxandlill]

02:15 PM on 05/11/2011

By far the worst consumer company in America is AT&T. I can't believe they didn't make your top 10. They go out of their way to delibrately cheat the consumer. As much as I hate change I found I could no longer deal with them.
They have the worst consumer salesforce I have ever dealt with in my 45 years as a consumer.
The absolute worst and it's not just my opinion but most people that use AT&T down here where I live

[Joan Shields]

08:00 PM on 05/08/2011

Since when is scoring an 80% considered excellent? Our standards are awful. I agree w/banking institutions being on the list. Sticking their quarterly profits in our face is enough to want to put THEM in an institution.Why don't they keep it real and use a BIG FAT MIDDLE FINGER as logos?Same goes for Big OIL. Big Pharm should be on the list but they are not in the public eye as much. Oh, Happy Mother's Day

[rosugill]

09:48 AM on 05/06/2011

From what I see, Government bailouts are the biggest reason most of these comapnies are on the list. You may have tried to limit the criteria that were used to come to whatever conclusions people came to, but the fact remains that at least seven of these eleven companies recieved Government bailouts, and it is therefore obvious that bailouts were a big influence in the way people voted.

[PatrickforO]

02:30 AM on 05/06/2011

OK I've got problems I guess. My first is with Chase, my second is with Citigroup and I own a GM car. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh! I'm going doooooooooooooown the draaaaaaaaaaaain!

[JustAmerican58]

05:36 AM on 05/05/2011

Just watched "Inside Job," by filmmaker Charles Ferguson everyone U.S. taxpayer should watch it a must see. Of these 11 companies with worst reputation all of them are listed. What I came away with is that it does appear to matter if a democrate or republican in the white house. The pervasive deep rooted corruption in U S Government & global financial markets is so unaccountable. Its so unaccountable that the same "inside financial politico & academics," "proderegulators" which caused the 2008 melt have either bailed with 100's of millions or still in governmnet office! What happen to hard prison time for these crooks like in the 1980s savings and loan or like in parts of Asia there taken out in publicly executed!

[zeutern]

03:04 AM on 05/05/2011

G.S. Another greedy, Jewish company with Eric Cantor and his wife being big time supporters.(and money makers)

[BobHiggins]

10:40 PM on 05/04/2011

You could extend this list from eleven of the worst companies out to 1011 and have seriously criminal actors at the bottom of the list. The problem of corporate crime, greed, corruption is far deeper then a brief list of the most recently notorious.

This list is a good starting point but start adding to it with Monsanto or Dow, ADM, KBR, Halliburton and so on and you'd better have some time on your hands and a stack of paper.

Where it gets especially sick and ugly is that these are the people who now control our governments and communities in their interest, not in ours.

[CAPTAINSKIPPY]

11:53 PM on 05/04/2011

Good calls with Monsanto, Halliburton/KBR. But let's also remember the departed, like Enron, and WorldCom, who deserved to disappear, and not forget those that prefer anything but the limelight, such as Carlyle Group. And Rupert M's firm? Long list, you bet!!

[Almondo]

10:11 PM on 05/04/2011

BP really deserves to be #1
http://www.businessinsider.com/bp-has-been-fined-by-osha-760-times-has-an-awful-track-record-for-safety-2010-6

This doesn't even include the Macondo greed crime.

[Monday Morning]

09:49 PM on 05/04/2011

World is Drowning in Corporate fraud!

The world is drowning in corporate fraud, and the problems are probably greatest in rich countries — those with supposedly “good governance.” Poor-country governments probably accept more bribes and commit more offenses, but it is rich countries that host the global companies that carry out the largest offenses. Money talks, and it is corrupting politics and markets all over the world.

Hardly a day passes without a new story of malfeasance. Every Wall Street firm has paid significant fines during the past decade for phony accounting, insider trading, securities fraud, Ponzi schemes, or outright embezzlement by CEOs.

There is, however, scant accountability. Two years after the biggest financial crisis in history, fueled by unscrupulous behavior by the biggest banks on Wall Street, not a single financial leader has faced jail. When companies are fined for malfeasance, their shareholders, not their CEOs and managers, pay the price. The fines are always a tiny fraction of the ill-gotten gains, implying to Wall Street that corrupt practices have a solid rate of return.

Read More:

So the next time you hear about a corruption scandal in Africa or other poor region, ask where it started and who is doing the corrupting. Neither the U.S. nor any other “advanced” country should be pointing the finger at poor countries, for it is often the most powerful global companies that have created the problem.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/03-8

[james rimes]

07:19 PM on 05/04/2011

Blackwater? The Federal Reserve?