ThisBusinessSucks

This
Business
Sucks

We point out the many ways brands have taken a wrong turn and the one way they can repair their reputations—and own their sh*t.
The Q3 ’24 Bad Business Award winners cover a wide range of industries, from tech to finance to travel to DIY. And while doing it yourself is often a common theme among companies who fall short of their commitment to customers, sometimes it does take a village.

Our Q3 ’24 first place winner makes the case that
the network effect is not always positive.

Q3 ’24
Current winner

It was a trio tech security firm, CrowdStrike, software leader Microsoft and Delta Airlines that compounded a mis-guided software update into a business disrupting cascade, leading affected businesses to act badly in the face of serious network disruption.

Q3 ’24
Runners up

Our first runner-up shows you can create your own problems. It is a DIY company that did it by itself. Analysts put the U.S. do it yourself market is nearly $1 trillion. And one of the biggest players in that market is The Home Depot. So why would such a well-placed company run

Our second runner-up no longer does what it did to earn placement on our list of winner this quarter. That’s because Navient has been barred from managing federal student loans because they did it for its own benefit, not the students.

Past winners

We hate to say it, but there’s more where that came from... In fact, there’s no shortage of companies behaving badly—and our past winners prove it. Find out how other brands have screwed up, letting down their employees, customers and communities.
August 2024
bad business Winners

When the venerable restaurant chain sought protection of the courts it was thought that an ill-fated marketing promotion – “endless shrimp!’ – was the cause. How can you take what was an effective, occasional loss leader that filled the tables and make it permanent? 

“It is time to cancel Adobe, delete all the apps and programs. Adobe can not be trusted.” This was the online rallying cry in response to changes made by the technology company to its otherwise routinely boring terms of service for use of its software.

The most recent data breach at Omni Hotels & Resorts didn’t just injure guests, it insulted them, too, because it wasn’t the first time Omni was a target. It happened eight years ago and now it was allowed to happen again. That’s bad business.

May 2024
bad business Winners
Walmart, Kroger, Costco, Ahold (brands include Food Lion, Stop & Shop, Hannover and Giant) and Publix for their self-interested role in the story of the first quarter of 2024 Inflation.
Google once told us they “Don’t do Evil”, and even when they stepped away from that motto to a more positive “Do the Right Thing”, its Gemini AI chatbot didn’t get the memo.
Trader Joe’s has its eye on costs. No, not the cost of groceries, but the cost of wage, not on the check-out line, but the bottom line. And not in a good way.
MARCH 2023
bad business Winners

When Ticketmaster and Live Nation Entertainment merged in 2013, it created a ticket distribution monopoly — something a “free market” is designed to prevent. And with botched presales, price gouging and a fake ticket scandal, consumers quickly learned how the concert cartel would behave with precious little competition or oversight.

Despite their increasingly glaring differences, conservatives and liberals agree on at least one thing: the FBI sucks. The intelligence and law enforcement entity is meant to protect American citizens. But with opaque practices and shadowy motives, the real concern becomes: “Who will protect us from the FBI?”

High fashion constantly pushes the limits of how we present ourselves to the world. In its ideal form, it’s an often ostentatious art that inspires pop culture. Spanish luxury outfitter Balenciaga has traditionally been a provocateur—but a campaign that seemed to promote pedophilia exposed their taste as despicable, not boundary-defining.

Eligibility

We love calling brands out on their sh*t as much as the next person…but only if we have a good reason for doing so. To determine our Bad Business Awards winners and runners up, we scour the web to figure out which brands are most getting on peoples’ nerves. Once that’s done, shortlisted companies are ranked based on:

We do this using their Trustpilot and Better Business Bureau ratings, Indeed Work Happiness scores, CSRHUB and MSCI ESG ratings, and other metrics. The brands with the lowest average scores across all three of the above categories wind up here.

The best way to avoid landing on this list? Take the criticism your brand receives to heart, respond authentically and keep asking for more feedback. At Vox Populi Registry, we believe .SUCKS domains can help with this. Every company will face the wrath of disgruntled employees, customers and competitors at some point or another—but the successful ones have a strategy that helps them use it to their advantage.

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