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The new quarterly results from The University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) have been released. Among the brokerages, Fidelity is tops, followed by Schwab, TD Ameritrade and E*TRADE. When it comes to online retail, Amazon is tops, followed closely by NewEgg.com. In banking, Wachovia remains on top, while CitiGroup and Wells-Fargo come in at the bottom of the heap. The department/discounter store field was dominated by Nordstrom. Wal-Mart came in last! In the specialty retail category, Barnes & Noble was No. 1, Costco was No. 2 and in last place came Circuit City. The supermarket category was dominated by Publix, while Wal-Mart came in dead last. One clear trend emerges: Wal-Mart faces a real challenge when it comes to customer satisfaction.

Just as the ACSI results came out, Business Week ran a cover story about consumer vigilantes. People are setting up gripe sites like ComcastMustDie.com in the hopes that big corporations will change their ways. Comcast now has a team of staffers that spend all their time monitoring and responding to posts on this site! One customer who posted had 8 trucks show up at his house to restore his cable connection. Similar gripe sites include GetSatisfaction.com, Complaints.com and PlanetFeedback.com. The Business Week piece also told the story of a man stuck on the tarmac on a U.S. Airways flight. He figured out the e-mail addresses of the company's executives and e-mailed them from his seat on the plane. Nobody responded -- no wonder U.S. Airways has the worst ranking of any airline by far.

On a positive note, Business Week's tally of Customer Service Champs has been topped by USAA. So there actually are companies with CEOs who get up and think about ways to improve customer service. Take Sprint, for example. This is a company that has been bashed by Clark in the past. But now Sprint has a new CEO who has really shaken things up and apparently actually cares about customers.

Clark has a personal experience of customer-no-service to relate that dovetails very nicely with all the talk of the ACSI results and the Business Week cover story. The penny-pinching guru was recently in Orlando with his associate producer Joel, marking his 10th anniversary of syndication at WDBO. The affiliate wanted Clark to book his own hotel because Clark usually thinks they overpay for his accommodations. Clark enlisted Christa's help, and she found rooms for $57/night on Orbitz. Being 24 years old and a lover of CouchSurfing.com, Joel does not have high standards when it comes to hotels. But even he thought the place was a dump! So Joel and Clark immediately checked out. Clark went on Hotwire and found a last-minute place that was great. Then he called Orbitz to get a refund of what he paid for the first hotel. He initially spoke to a lovely customer service rep in Mauritius, but was then bumped around 7 times to different people with no resolution. Each time he had to explain his situation anew. It was like Groundhog Day. Clark also tried e-mailing Orbitz but didn't get any response. He doesn't like to use his platform to air personal vendettas, but this just goes to show that even consumer advocates can get the short end of the customer-no-service stick.

CLARKONOMICS: New stats show that the inflation level at wholesale was 7.5% last year. It's been a long time since we had similarly bad numbers. Some of Clark's staff -- namely Joel -- weren't even born the last time we were in such a squeeze. At the same time, housing prices have declined 9% year-over-year in some big markets. That's the biggest decrease ever in the Case-Shiller home price index. So the things we own have gone down in value, while the things we buy are going up in price. That's why people feel ill at ease, even if they're relatively comfortable in their own lives.

There's also a push/pull going on between lenders and homeowners. On the one hand, you have Bank of America leading an initiative on Capitol Hill to dump the cost of low-performing mortgages on taxpayers. Meanwhile, there's also a move to establish cram-downs for homeowners. That's where you get a judge to reduce your loan to the current value of the house. Clark is opposed to both extremes. BoA's move is outrageous, and cram-downs -- while frequently done in commercial real estate -- would undermine the confidence of investors with disastrous long-term results. The reality is that we'll have to work through the housing and inflation issues by readjusting how we spend.

Think about groceries: With costs rising, you've got to fight back by using coupons; buying in bulk when dry goods are on sale; and trading down in brand when you shop. You should also heed the common sense wisdom: Never shop on an empty stomach; don't go down the candy, ice cream or cereal aisles with your kids; and get your children involved by having them clip coupons and giving them a percent of the savings.

CLARKONOMICS: It's rare that we get the Clarkonomics sounder twice in the same hour, but there's just so much economic news out there you need to know about. The federal government is gearing up for a wave of bank failures. The FDIC is now hiring people out of retirement who were around during the last wave of failures 20 years ago. They're the only ones who have any experience with how to handle the coming failures! Note that Clark said coming, not expected. There are many zombie banks out there that don't meet capital requirements; the government is just not ready to shut them down yet. So heed Clark's longstanding advice and do not put in excess of $100K in an account. Certain retirement accounts will allow you to go up to $250K. But be wary if a bank wants to take a deposit of more than $100K and says they'll just title your money differently. Go to FDIC.gov to verify any titling issues. Don't just take their word for it. Your best bet is to spread your money out. Try CDARS.com if you have more than $100K to stash away. Play it safe and smart!