The ConEd Awards for bad service

Dell
Order computer online. Wait. Wait some more. Get computer. It doesn’t work. Call help line. Get put on hold. Send it back. Wait. Wait some more. Repeat…

Mondo Kim’s
Jack Black in High Fidelity was a model of civility compared with these music geeks.

Best Buy
Cheap CDs or no, the hard-to-follow return policies and often out-of-stock “specials” stink.

Kinko’s
Need a color print after midnight? Good luck finding a “copy consultant” to help you or any of the 50 other angry people in line.

U.S. Post Office
Going postal can apply to customers, too, especially when it takes the only mail-room clerk on duty 45 minutes to tell you they “can’t find your package.” Special props to the 14th Street branch.

GNC
Asking a simple question about vitamins doesn’t mean we’re looking for an up-sell to a line of creatine enhancers.

Time Warner
Three weeks to book an appointment, two hours late, and you brought the wrong box? See you in another three weeks (and two hours).

Duane Reade
What do Swiffers and tampons have in common? At DR, they’re stocked side by side. Just don’t ask the zombie staff to help you find anything (whatever it is, they’re out of it, by the way).

R&A Cycles
Bike shopping? Apparently the staff at this Brooklyn store was trained at the Rikers Island Finishing School: At least one TONY staffer found a special animosity for women who dare to ask specific questions.