Comcast Takes 2014 Prize For Worst Company In America

halfEvilTech writes with news that Comcast has emerged victorious from Consumerist's annual Worst Company In America contest. Comcast narrowly edged out Monsanto in the finals with 51.5% of the vote. The reigning champion for the past two years, Electronic Arts, lost in the first round to Time Warner Cable. TWC made the quarterfinals, which is notable because Comcast has proposed a merger with TWC. In fact, Comcast submitted an FCC filing today explaining why they think the deal should be allowed. They say, 'the companies don’t overlap or compete against each other.' Other strong contenders for the Worst Company in America included Chase, SeaWorld, Wal-Mart, Bank of America, and Verizon.

Comments

What a joke

[Anonymous Coward]

A video game company that makes shitty games.
Giant banking and investment firms that literally rend the economy that results in massive layoffs.

These two shouldn't even be in the same running.

Re:What a joke

[roc97007]

It could more accurately be called "the companies that geeks hate the most".

Re:What a joke

[Lumpy]

No, noneeks hate them as well.
Overcharging for Internet and Cable TV, Bad service, bad Customer service, refusal to listen to customers, refusal to fix customer problems if it costs money (Cables are under water and causing major problems...)

Even the employees that work there hate the company.

Re:What a joke

[acariquara]

Not insightful, a troll at best.

Yeah, EA is a gaming company, that survives by taking money from people in exchange for shitty, overhyped products AND they have a tendency to buy smaller company that used to ship good and great products, only to apply to them the EA quality factor of zero, and basically put them to sleep, repeatedly.

Sure, they don't make tuberculosis medicine or guidance systems for airplanes. But they have hundreds of thousands people working for them at any given rate and those are pretty crappy jobs also. Not counting millions of indirect jobs.

Re:What a joke

[Anonymous Coward]

You define 'worst' in the wrong way for this 'contest'.

It's not what company does the most damage to the world. No. That list is far too tough for the consumerist to tackle.

It's what company runs their business the worst AND pisses off the most of their customers seemingly on purpose.
Who really fucks people over but doesn't really NEED to.
Who is the most clueless bunch of fucktards running a big business you are forced to deal with sometimes in your normal life.

Can you say that's not EA? Can you say that's not Comcast? Nope. Exactly.

In terms of absolute 'worst' for the planet or america or just humans in general.. Most of these companys would not be listed.
We won't even dare try to make that contest... It's too fucking scary.

Re:What a joke

[amicusNYCL]

Not necessarily the worst PR so much as the worst customer relations. If a bank implemented some of the same business practices that EA was using for its customers then you would see a lot more financial problems and angry people.

It's also highly related to recent well-publicized incidents. You can see that with SeaWorld, for example. In 2012 I think EA won because of Mass Effect 3, and in 2013 it was because of SimCity. They haven't done anything lately to piss off a lot of people even though they're probably still using a lot of the same practices. Most of the banks seem to be keeping their heads down as well. Comcast, however, has been in the news.

Re:What a joke

[Yunzil]

Yeah, EA is a gaming company, that survives by taking money from people in exchange for shitty, overhyped products

As opposed to financial companies that survive by taking money from people in exchange for ruining the global economy.

Re:What a joke

[MightyYar]

Yeah, my hatred for them runs deep, and far beyond my geek wish for internet with no cable.

They raised the rent on my old-ass cable modem. First from $3/month to $7/month, and then this year to $8/month. This for something that has probably been depreciated for years. Can you imagine if you brought home your new car and a year into the lease they doubled the "rent"? What a fucking ballsy move.

Dealing with their contractors is like something out of a movie. They apparently get paid by the service and not by the service call, because they never fail to find something "wrong" - and then proceed to "fix" it in the most ghetto way possible. Sorry I'm two hours late. This brand-new carefully-routed cable line? It's "old" and needs to be replaced. Here, let me drill a hole in your hardwood floor and leave the replacement hanging along the ceiling of your basement. Oh, that line up on the pole where you can see the shielding from the street because squirrels have been chewing on it? I can't fix that - you should really call customer service.

Thanks to Comcast, Verizon is not my most hated company. And that's impressive, because Verizon is basically dedicated to ruining your day. But they are of the bumbling, hilarious variety of evil. Like an evil Shemp from The Three Stooges.

Re:What a joke

[garcia]

Then why aren't you buying your own modem for less than $50 and saving yourself the money every month? I mean, I get it, I think Comcast is for the birds too but honestly bitching about something you can buy yourself and they'll absolutely allow you to take on all the risk for is not something to choose to complain about.

Re:What a joke

[AlphaWolf_HK]

I don't see why Monsanto is in this. GMO is a good thing; it currently plays a major role in the green revolution that is quite literally ending world hunger. There is no credible evidence of it being harmful. Monsanto isn't the only company behind it. The patent infringement lawsuit wasn't over what the majority seem to think it was over (the ONE farmer that was sued actually deliberately knew he was infringing, and they quite conclusively proved it; this wasn't a case of random cross-pollination.)

The biggest groups against Monsanto are mainly the organic farmers, and they actually have a set of much more nefarious motives:

- Organic farming makes much higher profit margins than GMO, so there IS money in it for them. Lots and lots of money. GMO is their biggest competitor, so it only makes sense for them to demonize it. Sadly, the hipsters have bought into it, and usually they are the least likely to buy into propaganda.
- Reverting to Organic farming will destroy the green revolution, and countries like India will once again see famine if that came to pass.
- Organic farming requires much more landmass than modern methods. If you're an environmentalist of any sort, you should very much be against organic farming as it necessitates e.g. deforestation.
- There aren't enough natural resources in the world to sustain the current human population with organic farming (hence point number 2.)

Being anti-GMO is every bit as destructive, stupid, and naive as being anti-vaccination, and it's about time that people realize this.

Re:What a joke

[L4t3r4lu5]

Passthrough, in this instance, is where your company-supplied router has all of the functionality apart from the modem disabled; It is set up to pass all data straight out to the LAN side of the device. You then have a second router, purchased by yourself and set up how you wish, handling all LAN services; DHCP, NAT, SPI etc. This has two major benefits;

- The device provided by your ISP is almost guaranteed to be the cheapest crap they can get away with calling an Integrated Service Router; It will fall over faster than you can reboot it. Taking all services away from this device, apart from passing packets from the ISP to the LAN, is good for your network uptime.
- Your ISP provided device is probably hooked up with any number of backdoors for service reps to help Grandma Lilly connect her wireless printer, or meter your LAN traffic and bill you for it (I forget who did that, but I laughed when I read it). Having another router inside the LAN, after the ISP's device, ensures that the CSR's on the support desk can't access your LAN. Ever. They can't see traffic, they can't tell how many devices you have, nothing.

My home network is set up exactly like this, only I go one step further and have my own router pass all traffic through a VPN. There is just no way for the ISP to know anything about my internet usage, only how many bits it passes for me.

As for serving one MAC address, that's exactly why a lot of ISRs in the early - mid 2000s had MAC cloning as a feature; Set up your modem on your PC, then tell your router to clone your PC NIC's MAC address. BOOM instant internet sharing, and the ISP is none the wiser.

Re:What a joke

[Jason Levine]

Perhaps people oppose Monsanto because of this tactic:

1) Claim a patent on seeds Monsanto makes.
2) Get some farmers to buy the seeds.
2 a) Lock the farmers in by stipulating that they can't take any seeds the plant produces and plant them again next year... like people have done for thousands of years!
3) Find a nearby farmer who isn't buying Monsanto and claim they they've planted Monsanto.
4) Find one instance of their plants growing on that farmer's land. (Ignore that seeds travel by air/animals and spread... like seeds have done for millions of years!)
5) Tie up the farmer in court until they either agree to buy Monsanto or they go bankrupt.
6) Repeat 2a - 5.

Times have changed

[Anonymous Coward]

Quality of internet access is viewed as more important than food quality.

Re:Times have changed

[amiga3D]

If food quality was important McDonald's would not exist.

Re:Times have changed

[acariquara]

Depends on what you call "quality". I assume you are speaking from a first world point of view, regarding nutrition values, calories, fat, salt and whatnot. Sure, ol'McD [sorry] isn't as healthy as a whole-food salad and salmon plate. But compared to street food found in most 3rd world countries, a Big Mac is usually safer.

It's junk food, and will probably kill you, just not from dysenteria.

first world problems...

[Anonymous Coward]

don't get me wrong though. slightly bad hi-speed internet and cable TV service is right up there with starvation and ethnic cleansing.

Americans sure like to bitch about stuff.

Re:first world problems...

[thewolfkin]

I think that's unfair. We all laugh and joke about First World problems, but just because they're first world problems doesn't mean they aren't problems. It may not be up there with starvation and ethnic cleansing but Monopolies are still a problem. It's just as wrong to ignore them because someone else is doing something worse.

Re:first world problems...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's just as wrong to ignore them because someone else is doing something worse.

Exactly - that's precisely how our "first world" problems become nightmares. Papers and sexual molestation while boarding planes? No big deal - it's not like we're Iran. Widespread surveillance on everyone, in violation of the Constitution? Psshaw, at least we're not in Somalia.

Invading another country due to dubious circumstances? LOOK OVER THERE! NORTH KOREA! LOL!

The, "But, but, those other people are doing worse things!" crowd is perhaps the largest danger ever visited upon free and responsible government.

Re:first world problems...

[DarwinSurvivor]

Ironically Iran has some of the best (and safest) airports in the world because they have actual trained people looking for subtle body language. Instead of singling out someone by their heritage, they check out people who are wearing large coats in the summer (hiding something?), breaking out in sweats in the winter, acting especially nervous, watching one of their bags continuously while completely ignoring the others, traveling in a very spread out group, etc.

Re:first world problems...

[Arker]

Huh?

It appears you are confused. The Israelis also have agents that supposedly have special abilities in reading body-language as well, so that part of the description could apply to both places, however the mention of not "singling out someone by their heritage" makes it clear we are referring to Iran not Israel. The Israelis single people out according to heritage as explicit policy, as many US Citizen of Palestinian heritage have been made painfully aware.

Can I vote for the Federal Government?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think that one would win hands down, were it an option.

Re:Can I vote for the Federal Government?

[amiga3D]

They are not a corporation. They are owned by corporations.

Well Deserved

[Anonymous Coward]

My dealings with Comcast have been few but boy have they been terrible. From being accused of stealing their equipment, to getting billed seven times in a single month, I've had a lifetime of customer dissatisfaction in just a few short months of dealing with them. Well deserved honor Comcast.

Re:Well Deserved

[mmell]

Don't forget the part where they encrypted their cable offerings to force use of their (modestly priced) rental equipment. In one stroke, they rendered every digital tuner device in my possession worthless.

Until I bought an antenna. Boy, they must hate that, eh?

Re:Well Deserved

[Trimaxion]

Until I bought an antenna. Boy, they must hate that, eh?

^^ This a million times. If you don't like Comcast, TWC, etc., give them the middle finger and cancel your TV service. Put up a decent antenna, perhaps buy a TiVo if you want a turnkey DVR appliance with a good UI (and pay their outrageous one-time service fee), and enjoy your uncompressed HD content from all the major broadcast networks.

I'm *still* stuck paying into the local cable monopoly to get internet access, but I'm paying them a lot less than I was before. It didn't take me long to break even on my antenna/wiring/tivo/etc costs.

Seems dubious to me.

[Anonymous Coward]

I have to question the methodology here, I doubt that one in three people have even heard of Monsanto and have any idea what they do.

Not defending Monsanto but this smells like a targeted "survey" from a group with an agenda.

Just my $0.02

Re:Seems dubious to me.

[Trashcan Romeo]

That was Michael Imperioli's character on the "The Sopranos", yeah?

Re:Seems dubious to me.

[Matheus]

Ya... AC who thinks no one knows who Monsanto is sounds like a targeted "shill" trying to discredit the survey!

Honestly Monsanto is the food industry's Comcast. They are HUGE and virtually unavoidable in that space. They produce a bunch of probably fine products (I'm FAR from Anti-GMO in my personal sentiments and IF Comcast were my ISP I'd be getting better bandwidth than I am at the moment) BUT they perform their business in the most despicable ways (Which makes it really hard to defend GMO when they are the poster-child.)

Both organizations are severely guilty of criminally Anti-competitive activities yet the U.S. Gov't seems unwilling or able to prosecute. (Add to that list Ticketmaster/Live Nation... how the $%c& did they approve *that merger?!) so it's probably a forgone conclusion that Comcast+TWC will happen eventually if not now.

Re:Seems dubious to me.

[Matheus]

Not sure which 'real world' you live in but nearly 100% of the people in my sphere know who Monsanto is (whether they are casually aware, blindly reactionary or truly informed about what they do aside). I don't know everyone so my own anecdotal statistics are only worth what they are BUT I'm personally aware of entire classes of people who are intimately aware of Monsanto that amount to WAY more than 1% of the U.S. at least. Numerous foreign governments have banned their products so there is a decent amount of international awareness (or at least fear of the concept/unknown).

Roughly 1% of our country work in the Ag business and I guarantee *all of them are intimately aware of Monsanto and their dealings. (numbers not accounted for above... I don't spend much time in the Agricultural community)

Sorry your circles are not in the know but frankly your sample seems to be a bit off from the whole.

Re:Seems dubious to me.

[Jarik C-Bol]

Monsanto should have won this. Comcast merely hates its own customers. Monsanto actively hunts down and destroys peoples livelihoods.

Re:Seems dubious to me.

[Enigma2175]

Here it is:

Monsanto using MPAA and RIAA tactics (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Tue Apr 08, '14 06:24 PM (#46700087)

Monsanto and Cargil do some really shitty things with their IP when it comes to their seeds - like suing farmers for having Monsanto's crops growing in their fields when they weren't purchased and suing seed washers for alleged violations of IP.

That wasn't a case of cross-pollination at all, that was a case of a farmer (who normally used Monsanto seed and had a contract with them) buying soybeans intended for consumption, planting them and spraying them with roundup to kill any non-roundup ready stock, then using that seed stock year after year for planting. The supreme court ruled (9-0) that he was intentionally violating the patent that Monsanto holds on that variety of Soy. Bowman's defense was "patent exhaustion", basically the right to sell something that you had previously bought. The courts found that this was not the case and ruled that Bowman was creating new copies of a patented invention and so patent exhaustion did not apply. From the Supreme Court decision:

the purchaser of that article could make and sell endless copies, the patent would effectively protect the invention for just a single sale. Bowman himself disputes none of this analysis as a general matter: He forthrightly acknowledges the “well settled” principle “that the exhaustion doctrine does not extend to the right to ‘make’ a new product.” Brief for Petitioner 37 (citing Aro, 365 U. S., at 346).
Unfortunately for Bowman, that principle decides this case against him. Under the patent exhaustion doctrine, Bowman could resell the patented soybeans he purchased from the grain elevator; so too he could consume the beans himself or feed them to his animals. Monsanto, although the patent holder, would have no business interfering in those uses of Roundup Ready beans. But the exhaustion doctrine does not enable Bowman to make additional patented soybeans without Monsanto’s permission (either express or implied). And that is precisely what Bowman did. He took the soybeans he purchased home; planted them in his fields at the time he thought best; applied glyphosate to kill weeds (as well as any soy plants lacking the Roundup Ready trait); and finally harvested more (many more) beans than he started with. That is how “to ‘make’ a new product,” to use Bowman’s words, when the original product is a seed.

So not only did you not provide what was asked (an example of accidental cross-pollination where Monsanto sued a farmer who did not take specific steps to exploit the accident) but the example you did provide the farmer is clearly in the wrong. If the SC rules unanimously against your case, there is not a ton of ambiguity on the merits.

Back up your vote with your wallet

[EMG at MU]

I know its near impossible with a few of these companies since they are oligarchies but I feel that in order to vote for one of these companies you also should make a personal pledge to avoid doing business with the companies you vote for.

One big problem here is that on one hand people say EA is the worst company in America and then turn around and go out and buy the latest EA game. Companies will listen, but only if you affect them where it matters: the bottom line. No one at these companies gives a shit about this survey.

Re:Back up your vote with your wallet

[ohnocitizen]

Exactly, it's near impossible. And these companies are lobbying hard to remove options that allow consumers to vote with their wallets. We need more than just individual economic pressure to have any realistic impact on companies this big.

Re:True

[ArcadeNut]

Do you really think that's fair?

To the E.T. Video game that is...

Monsanto is an Intellectual Property extremist

[bzipitidoo]

Heck yeah, we know who Monsanto is. They're the scum who want to patent plant reproduction, and sue farmers for farming. If anything can give a company lots of bad press everywhere, not just in geek circles, it's victimizing innocent farmers with complicated legalese over a grossly obvious right. Aside from the huge problem of that ultimately leading to needing their permission to eat, they don't care if that also leads to the RIAA and MPAA winning the right to force DRM on everyone, and Big Pharma patenting our own genes and us having to pay them license fees just to exist. And some thought paying a levy for breathing the air was draconian.

Were number one!

[nurb432]

I bet there was an office party after hearing this, as you know Comcast goes out of its way to be a PITA. It cant be by accident.

A pattern emerges.

[thevirtualcat]

I was curious about historical results of this poll, so I did some digging.

2009 - AIG - Bailed out in 2008, makes big news for giving executives $165M in executive bonuses, $1.2B in total bonuses.
2010 - Comcast - Makes big news by buying NBCUniversal in 2009.
2011 - BP - Deepwater Horizon happened in 2010
2012 - EA - Mass Effect 3 (Not sure how much news this generated, but someone mentioned it above.)
2013 - EA - SimCity's problems made news. Not on the same level as, say BP in 2010, but it certainly came up outside of tech and gaming sites occasionally.
2014 - Comcast - Makes news by trying to buy TWC.

I'm noticing a bit of a pattern here. (Though there does seem to be a bit of a tech bias, unless someone did something particularly egregious.)