The Occupy Wall Street movement brought a lot of negative attention to large banks, but it apparently didn't do much lasting damage to their reputations.
In a recent survey conducted by the American Customer Satisfaction Index, only one bank — Bank of America (BAC) — was ranked among the top 15 most-hated companies and, for the second straight year, no banks ranked among the top 10.
B of A ranked 15th on the list, up four notches from last year, with a customer satisfaction score of 68 out of 100. Customers were outraged by B of A's ill-advised — and since-reversed — decision last fall to charge customers a $5 monthly fee for using their debit cards, though most complaints came through the bank's mortgage division, according to consumeraffairs.com. (B of A is one of the nation's largest mortgage servicers.)
Dropping out of top 15 this year was JPMorgan Chase (JPM), which scored a 70 on the ACSI scale, up from 67 last year. B of A's other large rivals, Wells Fargo (WFC) and Citigroup (NYSE: C), each scored 73.
As with last year's survey, the list was dominated by airlines, utilities and cable and telecommunications firms.
Topping the rankings were two utilities, Long Island Power and Northeast Utilities in Connecticut, both of which were cited for hiking rates and failing to properly respond to complaints and power outages.
Four cable companies — Charter Communications, Comcast, Time Warner and Cox Communications — and four airlines — United Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Airlines and USAirways — rounded out the top 10. High fees and indifferent service were the top complaints among cable customers while airline customers complained most about flight delays, baggage fees and lost luggage.
Also ranking among the 15 least-liked companies were the telecommunications company Century Link (No. 11); Facebook (No. 12); Aetna Insurance (No. 13); and DirecTV (No. 14).
