This is Round 1 in our Worst Company in America contest, Comcast vs Menu Foods. One company kills pets. Another kills file sharing. Which is the greater crime? The wisdom of the internet will decide.
See the master bracket of all the companies here.
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@jrstren: Like I said yesterday, there’s only 63 matchups. Three a week gets us done around September.
Did I do the math wrong somehow?
Menu Foods is not a state sanctioned monopoly with cushy deals with corrupt local politicians. Plus they can simply eliminate future problems by not sourcing from the evil Chicoms. Comcast on the other hand. . .
If it makes anyone feel better about their vote for Comcast, it is very probable that Comcast trucks and vans, in the course of their regular duty, killed many more animals last year than Menu Foods bad pet food.
So now I’ve provided ample rationalization, vote away.
Headlines from the future:
COMCAST TECHNICIAN ACCIDENTALLY KILLS BELOVED FAMILY DOG; INTERNET COLLAPSES IN MAGNITUDE 11.5 NETQUAKE, EPICENTER NEAR THE CORNER OF GAWKER & WONKETTE
@Toof_75_75: It means that you are awesome and the editors like your comments.
Menu Foods is alright in my book. I hate pets.
Menu Foods issued a recall. Thus admitting that their prrcedures were lacking. Comcast is both obstenant and unrepentant in their forging of packets. That’s my main issue with Comcast is that they *claim to be me* to the other party (or vice verse), and that they then *LIED* about it. The vote here is not for impact of their wrongdoings, but their activity in general. Everybody is allowed to f*ckup once in a while, what makes the difference is how it is handled.
I think in general Comcast is the better choice in this poll as they are overall a more evil company.
However, my cats forced me to to vote for Menu Foods since, lets be honest, they did actually kill.
This was a close one for me. Comcast has intentionally been shady in a number of ways, I was stuck using their service for years in my old townhouse.
Menu Foods made an unintentional mistake, but did wait a few weeks after they discovered the problem before issuing a recall.
The delay pushed me to voting for Menu Foods, especially since the “gluten” they were importing was finding it’s way into animals meant for consumption.
@milty45654: Duh.
I’ll explain my vote for Comcast as the worst company.
The affect of Menu Foods’ product was very much unintentional. They had no desire to cause kidney failure in your pets. They had their product recalled as soon as they found out. Making a mistake does not make one a bad person; they are willing to pay the price of that mistake. Comcast on the other hand, do make their customers suffer on purpose. They have absolutely no right.
@ExecutorElassus: We should do it like they do in the NCAA. Do sections of the brackets each day. We should be voting on 4 or 8 match-ups per day for the first couple of rounds.
MenuFoods made a mistake, but the company didn’t intend for it and are sorry.
@AceKicker: OK, they didn’t go out of their way to kill animals but were they trying to make sure the food was safe?
There is a difference between someone who does everything they should but still accidentally causes something bad to happen and someone who causes something bad to happen because they weren’t doing everything they were supposed to. Neither of them intended for anything bad to happen but in the second person didn’t try to prevent something bad from happening either.
@AceKicker: “It isn’t the ‘Worst Company Mistake in America,’ it’s ‘Worst Company’.”
Luv my kitties an awful lot, and much sympathy for the critters that were murdered by the Chinese. But Menu admitted their mistake and corrected it (gulp – for now?)
But Ace’s comment sent me over. Good way of looking at it.
Comcast = eviler than puppy-killers.
I can’t believe comcast isn’t going up against a #16 seed. They should have a much easier first round than menu foods.
I’m shocked by the results here. I guess the life of Earth’s creatures is less important than your entertainment needs. Pretty freaking sad.
@Ben Popken: “It means that you are awesome and the editors like your comments.”
So your editors think you’re awesome and like your comments?
I smell a big fat raise in the near future for Meghann, Chris & Carey!
comcast offers consistanty shitty service at an overpriced cost. They are too big for their own good to be able to provide decent service. The traffic throttling & lying about it afterwards along with them filling seats with bums off the street at FCC hearings so that REAL people who are concerned with the preceedings coundnt get a seat….. is just the cherry on top of an evil company’s doings. SO comcast gets my vote.
This is just the first round and people are already fighting and casting aspersions on the morals of those who voted differently from them. Yeah!!
I think how you vote depends on how you interpret “worst company”. Is Menu worse because their mistake killed animals, even if it was a mistake and they moved to rectify the situation? Or is Comcast worse because, even though they haven’t actually killed an animal (that we know of), they are obstinately anti-customer and will do whatever they possibly can to not fix their problems or help their clients? I voted for Comcast not because I hate kittens and kick puppies to the curb, but because I view “worst company” as a company that repeatedly mucks up and does nothing about it.
Is it just me, or can anyone else vote over and over?
@milty45654: It’s not so much about killing pets vs. illegal file sharing. Comcast just rapes you with fees and charges way too much for service.
Comcast FTW…or is it FTL…
@GuJiaXian: I just tried, and got: Thank you, we have already counted your vote.
@AceKicker: Well said. If Menu had acted the way that Comcast continues to act then there would likely be a lot more dead pets and grieving pet owners, and Menu would be blaming the problem on them and not itself or its suppliers.
Do you think Micheal Vick would get more votes than Menu Foods?
Comcast. There’s just no contest.
On the one hand Menu Foods kills animals, while Comcast nickels and dimes you to death. One action is due to negligence and the other to malice. Tough call. I’m voting for Menu Foods.
Well, my bracket is starting to look pretty damn accurate so far. 1 down, one to go.
[i54.photobucket.com]
Sorry, one down, couple of dozen to go.
I chose Comcast because, while dead cats and dogs are sad, at least we know they all went to heaven (where they enjoy endless bones and catnip mice). People who deal with Comcast feel like they’re in hell.
@Rectilinear Propagation: OK, I get it. Dead pets bad. But can you put down your PETA membership card for 2 seconds and look a the bottom line. They recalled 60 million cans of pet food for 10 deaths. TEN DEATHS. Certainly 10 pets I wish as much as you were still alive, but but that is an awfully small target for any sample size to hit. You try catching that out of 60 million packages and see how many pets YOU kill.
It was bad, it was tragic, and for that Menu Foods was sorry and took steps to prevent it from happening further. In my book, that is not a bad company, but one that just made a mistake.
Comcast on the other hand, just doesn’t give a damn. They consciously degrade their customer service and actual service, while at the same time tacking on more hidden fees. So even though they haven’t been linked to pet deaths (yet), the intent is what makes them a bad comany.
You’re honestly going to hold a company that had no ill intention but made one big mistake over one that is constantly doing it on purpose? If that’s the case, what’s the one mistake you’ll always be remembered for and judged on, hmm?
I understand people’s love for animals, I really do, but I can’t how anyone can go the other way and say they had an objective opinion.
@DrGirlfriend: I’m not getting that message at all. Maybe it’s a good thing I’m a scrupulous person and won’t inflate my vote of choice.
@3drage: Actually (and I know this makes me a huge ass in many people’s minds, but I’m okay with that), I do care less about (non-human) animals than about the care and civility thousands of humans are given. Don’t get me wrong, I like critters and my puppy is incredibly important to me, but the fact of the matter is they are *animals* and do not have the same rights or protections (or expectations thereof) as humans do. In the contest here between human and animal, human wins. Now, if the puppy killing had been intentional, that would be another thing…
Not that I think this will sway anyone but Menu foods knew that they had test subjects die from eating their foods and they did NOT do anything about it. Iams (who I would never use but I applaud them for what they did) contacted Menu and told them they had a bunch of dogs die and wanted to know why. They did a new round of tests and then went to Menu with the data and threatened them with exposure if they didn’t go to the media immediately.
Menu knew something was wrong for months before they did anything. The only reason they went public was because Iams did their own testing and noted animal deaths. Menu would have continued for how much longer poisioning our pets if their own customer didn’t threaten them.
It’s also of note that it’s likely that they knew for about 8 months and did nothing, so I wouldn’t say that they were innocent victims of the Chinese poison train. They killed pets by their inaction and would have continued if not for the theat from Iams.
I dunno, directly destroying life seems more important than bandwidth, but I guess as a pet owner not in a Comcast monopoly area, it more directly affects me.
@DrGirlfriend: Luv your username! Go Team Venture!
@ogman: Um, The Monarch would have to disagree with that last sentence
I have a hard time getting all worked up over the complaints against Comcast, even though they did arbitrarily cancel my installation appointment when I first signed up.
To be fair, I’m really more of a DIY kind of guy, especially when it comes to fixing problems with my internet connection or my computer or router, so I haven’t really needed to contact their customer service.
For me at least, their services seem to work, and I haven’t noticed any billing errors.
On the other hand, anybody who messed with my dog would be in for a world of hurt.
A lot of people are pointing out that Menu Foods killed hundreds of pets accidentally and took steps to fix the problem. From my perspective, going to the cheapest available producer in a country with minimal regulatory oversight and absolutely no corporate oversight is asking for trouble. This kind of disaster was entirely foreseeable, but Menu Foods chose to turn a blind eye and save an extra penny or two on each can of pet food.
So I voted for Menu Foods.
What would happen if it were United Healthcare or Blue Cross and Shield vs. Comcast…
OK, I get it.
@AceKicker: No you don’t. If you’d gotten the point of my comment you wouldn’t have gone on about PETA and dead pets.
I had to vote Menu because a lot more pets died than 100 or whatever someone quoted above. They sat on the info that their food was contaminated and then refused to acknowledge that any of the deaths prior to the announcement of the recall could have been related. Most of the animals had been cremated or otherwise disposed of by then, so they claimed there was no way to verify the cause of the death and wouldn’t include them in the official numbers. Furthermore, wheat gluten isn’t something that animals should even be eating. It’s a cheap filler companies throw in their foods when they don’t care about an animal’s nutrition and just want to make as much money as possible. I honestly can’t believe that Comcast is winning, but I do agree that they’re a horrible company. I’m not sure why these two were pitted against each other.
@Corydon: You said: “A lot of people are pointing out that Menu Foods killed hundreds of pets accidentally and took steps to fix the problem. From my perspective, going to the cheapest available producer in a country with minimal regulatory oversight and absolutely no corporate oversight is asking for trouble. This kind of disaster was entirely foreseeable, but Menu Foods chose to turn a blind eye and save an extra penny or two on each can of pet food.”
I agree wholeheartedly. I tried to post a comment earlier, but it appears to have been lost. My point in that comment was that Menu foods knew about the problems far in advance of announcing the recall and then refused to acknowledge any animals deaths that had occurred prior to the recall as being their fault because necropsies could no longer be done on the animals. What is a company who doesn’t care about animals at all doing producing animal food? Also, wheat gluten is garbage and is just used as a cheap filler in pet foods made by companies who don’t care about proper nutrition for animals. But they’ll still crow all day about how balanced and healthy their food is so consumers get confused and think they’re buying superior products.
I can always pick a different pet food, but my business runs on Comcast and they have fucked with it a plenty.
also, didn;t they trace the food contamination down to a few people in China? Where as even the CSR’s and Techs at comcast SUCK
I vote for comcast.
@milty45654: File sharing is not illegal by itself. And I’m going to call a company I’ve personally dealt with at any point worse than one I haven’t.
First you manage to lump everyone into the “criminal” pile even if you have no proof that they’ve ever shared an actually-infringing file, then you manage to insult their opinions at the same time. Nice …
@Catperson:
I honestly don’t know where that person that said only 100 died got their information from. Not to mention that it didn’t kill the pets instantly and as a result cost people thousands in Vet bills trying to save their pets. They have routinely denied claims for the Vet bills as well. They are still lying to pet owners who are seeking reimbursement.
As for being able to get other pet food, when this was all going down, Menu wasn’t even open about who they manufactured for so people were switching to foods that had yet to be recalled.
No it wasn’t as simple as recalling foods, they were recalling foods for months!
I voted for menu foods- last time I checked comcast may drive people insane but it didn’t kill anything.
You can live without cable, try living without a pet. You tend to grieve a bit more for the pet. The cable Internet and TV you won’t give a sh!t for, when your “Little tail-wagging buddy” doesn’t come and want to take a walk with you, or sit next to you on a couch, and no large corporation is wanting to tell you why.. that’s wrong.
Humans tend to notice these things a lot quicker than an Internet connection.
@milty45654:
Comcast vs Menu Foods depends on
1) Do you have pets?
2) Do you download illegal files?
Depending on one’s answer to those questions, that will make the decision.
Some folks have said comcast is inescapable, where as menu foods, people should have known what they were getting into when buying lower-tier brand pet food. So for the folks that live in north facing apartments that are in comcast country, my vote’s for you!
you guys… menu foods killed animals. comcast just made you wait a few hours to get your cable installed. jesus christ. this is really a clueless group of voters.
@bigdirty: “people should have known what they were getting into when buying lower-tier brand pet food.”
It wasn’t just lower brand foods, it was some of the premium brands too. It ran the gambit. If you were looking to switch, it wasn’t easy. No one would admit to who their manufacturer was so you didn’t know if you were switching to a food that was going to be recalled weeks later.
Animals are still suffering with health problems and if they survived they will likely live shorter lives because of kidney and liver damage.