Here are the top 15 most disliked companies:

1. Long Island Power Authority. Score: 58/100. Gripes: Spurred by losses from last August's Hurricane Irene, complaints include rate hikes and overbilling mistakes.
2. Northeast Utilities. Score: 59/100. Gripes: After two major storms caused massive power outages last year, hundreds of thousands of customers were left in the dark without heat for up to 2 weeks.
3. Charter Communications. Score: 59/100. Gripes: Poor customer service and unfair billing practices.
4. Comcast. Score: 61/100. Gripes: Early withdrawals, faulty equipment and unprofessional service technicians.
5. United Airlines. Score: 62/100. Gripes: A technical glitch following last year's merger with Continental caused widespread flight delays; complaints include poor customer service, flight cancellations and lost baggage.
6. Time Warner. Score: 63/100. Gripes: Slow Internet speeds, cable outages, “disastrous” customer service and high rates.
7. Cox Communications. Score: 63/100. Gripes: Higher rates and fees.
8. American Airlines. Score: 64/100. Gripes: Ranked last in a recent study of major airlines at keeping customers informed, leaving them on hold for an average of an hour and a half, and failing to respond to questions on Twitter; “does a worse job of pleasing passengers than small, low-cost airlines such as Spirit or Frontier.”
9. US Airways. Score: 65/100. Gripes: Inaccurate billing, failing to notify passengers of flight delays, and “terrible” service.
10. Delta. Score: 65/100. Gripes: Most complaints involve customer service reps not responding in a professional manner.
11. CenturyLink. Score: 66/100. Gripes: Billing issues and customer reps not being knowledgeable or helpful.
12. Facebook. Score: 66/100. Gripes: Lack of privacy and child safety.
13. Aetna. Score: 67/100. Gripes: Excessively high prescription co-pays, withdrawing funds without authorization from clients, disorganization.
14. DirectTV. Score: 68/100. Gripes: “On the Consumer Affairs forum, thousands of customers complaints about how the company changes contract details without notifying customers and therefore, hiking prices without authorization.”
15. Bank of America. Score: 68/100. Gripes: The nation's largest mortgage servicer, most complaints arise from the mortgage division—although the bank's plan to charge a $5 debit fee was discontinued after 2 months following public outrage.

See a pattern in what they're doing wrong? Here's what I spot:

• Communication breakdown. If you've ever been on the other end of a call to AT&T (why didn't they make the list?), you know first-hand how frustrating it is to try and communicate with a monolithic business. Voice-mail hell, unresponsive CSRs and setting up public website forums only to ignore the comments they generate are perfect ways to piss off, and ultimately lose, your customers.
• Size doesn't matter. In fact, if this study is any indication, the bigger the company, the worse the service. This gives the Spirit and Frontiers of the world a nice advantage, so if you're small and able to provide personal attention and service, don't hesitate to use that edge.
• The blind leading the blind. Customer service reps and other public-facing employees just don't know their jobs at these companies. It's a real lesson to make sure your people are fully trained and prepped to handle any customer situation.
• They make a bad situation worse. Whether people are suffering in the wake of a major catastrophe or just upset about a much smaller loss, stonewalling them will lose you a customer–and you'll feel their ire through bad word of mouth.
• No news is bad news. Like those airline travelers stuck on the tarmac for hours wondering what the hell is going on, non-communication in any service industry is a bad idea. Note that a lot of these complaints simply involve not telling the customer the reasons behind the delay, billing increase or contract changes.