Worst Company In America 2008: Preliminaries (2nd Try)
The poll machine is fixed and it's time to vote on which companies will get to compete in Consumerist's Third Annual Worst Company In America contest. This year, you nominated 121 different companies, a new record. The poll is inside (it may take a few seconds to load). You get one vote. The companies receiving the most votes will get seeded in a tournament-style bracket. Then the clash of the customer service midgets begins! Remember that as this contest goes on you can visit consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america to keep track of all the proceedings.
(Special thanks to JoeConsumer for making this poll happen!)
(Special thanks to Post a comment
Comments:
Where is CIRCUIT CITY???
Best Buy for the win! I'm only voting for them because I'm in Canada and if Future Shop was on the list (a Best Buy owned company in Canada) I would vote for them instead.
Gotta go with Countrywide. Thanks for tanking our economy!
Allstate - promising not to cancel Wind & Hail if I placed my auto policies with them and then doing it anyway
Video Professor. They don't even try to hide the fact that they just steal your money without sending you anything.
This list is missing Gameznflix.com. Damn, I missed the recommendation post!
This is comcast's year. I can feel it.
Best Buy, obv.
Are we supposed to vote for the company with the worst customer service or the most evil company?
Blue Cross blue Shield they are the worst
@CuriousO: I wish we could vote for all of the big health insurance providers collectively. They all suck bigtime.
Hands down for 2007 it should be Countrywide. loosing over 80% of your company's value, awarding a lieing CEO a 115 million dollar bonus for driving the company to be acquired while telling the shareholders that they will turn a profit in Q4 (posted a massive loss instead) all while selling his newly acquired shares and getting out at inflated prices.
Trust me no one can even come close to the billions blown by CW.
Exxon. Price Gougers R' Us.
best buy and Geek squad should be under the same vote and where is CC they are worser then best buy
gotta go with the forklift-butcher operation that grinds up sick cows to feed to school kids. Either them, or Mattel for the leadful-dreadful toys.
At least consenting adults are/were marginally complicit in the mortgage meltdown and most customer-service flops; messing with innocent kids' health is just plain evil.
Nothing brings out my Charles Bronson Death Wish vigilante spirit more than people hurting children for profit.
Sprint only has 3%...wtf? They should be at least tied with comcast.
crocs for ugliness, crocs for dangerous toe tragedies, crocs for making me notice mario batalli's feet... crocs for the win!
I can't believe sears is only in with 2%. I thought everyone hated them. I guess they're the lesser of the wevils today.
Capital One all the way baby! Never have I said "Transfer me to someone else" more times in one phone call!
@CuriousO: I went with them too...nothing but trouble since my company forced me to switch health insurance this year. And thanks to the federal government (at least according to HR), I can't take my business away from them until 2009! Yay competition!
I also do business with several other offenders on the list, including United Airlines, WaMu and Comcast, but none of them have done anything to piss me off this year.
Exxon was a tough call, based on outrageous profits, gouging at the pumps, and arguing the Exxon Valdez case all the way to the Supreme Court and trying to weasel out of their responsibilities there. But, because I was motivated to ditch driving in favor of transit, biking and walking thanks to their greed, I'm now less stressed, getting more exercise, happier and healthier.
So kudos to Exxon et al. for convincing me to ditch them!
Why are you refusing to put up certain companies that were nominated?
What did Nintendo do to get on the list?
They've always had absolutely flawless customer service.
why is fox news on there? I thought they had to sell something to a consumer to be on the list. Where is nbc, abc, cbs?
I voted BOA just for being pieces of crap and raising APRs for the hell of it.
I am surprised that Comcast and Best Buy are so highly rated and that no one is paying attention to the health care providers. When Comcast screws up (often), you spend hours on hold. When your health care provider denies you coverage for some BS reason, you could (at best) be slapped with thousands of dollars in medical bills or (at worst) die.
lest we forget how many dogs were killed by Menu Foods????
How can you not choose DeBeers? A company that sells a product that would be worthless if not for their manipulation all the while fomenting civil unrest and genocide. They should be the clear winner.
Probably because 1.8 Million Wiis/month just isn't enough.
Seriously, if there was a "Best Company in America 2008" award, Nintendo should win, hands down. Which opens the question - Consumerist, why not do a "Best Company" award?
How did ConAgra get on the list? I totally didn't expect that. (My dad used to work for a subsidiary.)
What the hell? No Circuit City? Fail.
IKEA is wholly incapable of solving problems, which sucks since they regularyl package their furniture with wrong or missing parts. Getting the correct parts is typically a month long plus process.
@Milstar: Agreed with your point, was originally going to place Toshiba for the HD-DVD debacle but CW's impact was far worse.
What about Berkeley Neutraceuticals, Inc. Judge finds them guilty of massive fraud and I STILL see those stupid smiling man male enhancement commercials, so I can only assumer they're still ripping people off!
From all the crap that I've had to put up with from Microsoft in the last year, they are definetly number one for me.
Comcast and Best Buy are in the lead... I'm sure representatives from those two companies are soooo proud.
I can't believe Monsanto is not on the list.
By far more evil than anyone on this list.
I don't see any companies on the list that are responsible for spreading death and disease with numerous products, and a heavy influence in shaping the rules and regulations in the United States the way Monsanto does.
There is a difference between being a shitty company with bad customer service, and being pure evil.
ConAgra is the only company on here that can even come close to Monsanto, and they are a distant second.
The genetic modification of food has the potential for creating an environmental disaster on par with global warming.
OMG, what if Fox News and News Corp both end up in the brackets, and then have to fight to the death?! will Rupert Murdoch's head explode, or will Bill O'Reilly step in and declare this contest is over and we're all going to Gitmo?
seriously, why are both a parent company and a subsidiary on the list?
verizon - their wireless division....inept sales people, horrible customer service....that did it for mee..
BOHICA
@m4nea: If you weren't so ignorant, you'd have understood his post. Sadly, you are that ignorant, so grasping a concept as basic as reading more than the first line eludes you.
There's got to be a better way than a quiz box that makes my scroll bar nigh invisible...
Tied between Comcast, Fox News, and Blue Cross/ Blue Shield...
@Bladefist:
Good point. While those news stations may not be on the list, that doesn't necessarily mean they're above criticism... Though, I guess technically you could consider ABC under Disney, prehaps?
Is this a poll of companies with the worst customer service, or just companies with an overall capacity for evil or incompetence?
Fox news is evil.