Recent patterns in the gripes I get from readers have mandated a little shuffling in my Hall of Shame rankings. Starting with the worst first, it now reads Dell, Microsoft, VeriSign, Intuit, Symantec, Network Associates, HP and Cisco. (For Hall of Shame purposes, I'm still treating VeriSign and Network Solutions as one entity until it becomes clear that NetSol really has been spun off.)

One company, Cisco, has been added to the list for the first time while Oracle has fallen off it. In ranking the Hall of Shame, I give very little weight to gripes from non-customers, so Oracle's attempt to acquire PeopleSoft wasn't enough to keep them on the list. And that's why SCO isn't on the list at all, even though that company has earned more ill will in the last few months than anyone I've ever seen. For more details on how the GripeLog Hall of Shame works and notes on what some of the current gripes are, please check the Hall of Shame page.

When I last updated the Hall of Shame, we tried a little experiment by running a poll on which of 20 major tech companies treats its customers best. The results were interesting, with IBM narrowly edging Apple as the winner. Adobe and Veritas did better than I expected, and even some Hall of Shame denizens like Dell, HP and Symantec got a lot of votes.

Which leads me to our next experiment. What happens when we take those same 20 companies and ask which one treats its customers the worst? No, it's not terribly scientific - and I'm not going to base the next Hall of Shame rankings on it. But I think it will provide some perspective, and a bit of fun. Which company will have the best ratio of "Hall of Fame" versus "Biggest Turkey" votes, and which will have the worst? Let's see.

And you'll have to forgive me, but there are no write-ins in our poll. My technical resources are limited, so we've got to work with what the free software solutions provide. But you can always include your comments about these or other turkeys by posting your comments at my website or writing me directly at Foster@gripe2ed.com.

So who is the biggest turkey of them all? Please find the polling box on the right-hand side of this page and cast your vote. And a happy Turkey Day to you all.

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