exxon ftw

My head will explode if it gets to a eBay/American Airlines final.

OMG! The pressure is too much! Is Microsoft really the "best" of the finalists?

Can you imagine the people at Time Warner right about now? "We're not the worst! We're not the worst!"

I so see an Exxon/Microsoft Battle Royale

I personally think it will be Comcast and B of A in the Final. My vote if for B of A to take it down

the Exxon vs. DeBeers matchup is going to be amazing.

I was figuring on a Best Buy vs BOA final round. Or Comcast vs BOA. Either way, I'm pretty certain BOA is going to make the finals, especially considering all the stories regarding them on Consumerist lately. Seems like they are "going the extra mile" to finish strong.

If Countrywide doesn't win, it's a travesty. I mean, sure, all these companies are horrible, but how many of them can lay claim to killing the American economy?

Heard on the news that BofA may merge with Countrywide... you talk about a shit sandwich...

In spite of all the complaining that went on about how the companies were matched up in the first two tiers, I have to look at the final 16 we've arrived at and say that it's hard to imagine a worse collection of companies.

I really think there should be a concerted effort for Blue Cross/Blue Shield to win. This company is a monster with a shiny brand but terrible treatment of customers. Let's tarnish the brand!

United Healthcare is gonna "win" this all.

Just recently I've had the pleasure to get their insurance through my new company.

They are horrible. Plain and simple. Just bad.

@wrongneighborhood: how the hell do you vote in such a situation? boy oh boy

Wow, Countrywide vs UHC, make this a little harder would ya?

@FattyMatty I totally agree. I'm in a deep state of depression because verizon Fios isn't offered where I'm moving. Therefore I've turned to into the soul crushing arms of the demon that is Comcast.

@Juggernaut: After being a convicted monopolist on two continents, the lackluster performance of Vista, and packing ISO with ringers to push through OOXML - I'd say they ought to make the finals.

I am completely shocked and awed that Monster Cable was eliminated in the second round.

Walmart for the win.

BofA and Countrywide in the final. That'd be AWESOME! :)

...too bad they're on the same side of the bracket :(

they should have used a seeding system... there were a lot of heavyweight fights in the first round...

IE, Time Warner vs American
Comcast vs American Arb

Or at least put companies in the same match-up together first to get them out of the way.

I.E Dell vs Hewlett
Bank of America vs Citi

Go Ticketmaster! $3 to print tickets at home on MY printer with MY ink on top of their "convenience" fee? Thieving bastards - even the airlines don't do that (yet)

Exxon vs Country FTW!!

And it will be a draw.

I truly think Sallie Mae wins, they go after dead people to collect on student loans.

Thats my opinion

BofA vs Best Buy in the finals.

Comcast Vs Countrywide. Comcast has Countrywide on the ropes until it tags in BofA. The Countrywide/BofA double team then pins Comcast for the win.

My prediction: Countrywide vs. Comcast in the final showdown. And COUNTRYWIDE for the win!

BoA vs. Countrywide ... hmmm ... Countrywide FTW!

Crap same side ... ok lets go, Exxon vs. Countrywide ... still gotta go with Countrywide for the win.

This chart makes me wonder about Capital One's decision to rebrand all their banking outlets with their credit card name.

I don't think people associate Capital One with a "positive" feeling. Whenever I see Capital One branches I think - why the $%^&*(!@ would I want to bank there?!

It's true that Chase, Citi and other companies exist as both credit cards and banks, but they started as banks. I'm not sure how well it will work the other way, but I believe it will be a long time until people get used to banking at Capital One.

Yuck.

Who would have predicted that all the major cell phone companies would be eliminated by the second round?

@sleze69: What I'm most surprised at is that American Airlines made it to this round and U.S. Air didn't. But yeah, good point, the cell phone industry is definitely among the worst on customer service.

I'm thinking a good way to do this would have been to set up the brackets by industry, so that the first thing that gets determined is, say, which airline is the worst, or which cable company is the worst, or which bank.

Healthcare head to head? Dear god!

from my perspective,

comcast, timewarner and any other telco/ forced monopoly should be a step ahead of alot of the retail stores or anything that has a bit more choice. (best buy for example all of their evil is more avoidable as many posters here point out, newegg, amazon, other big box electronic stores)

maybe im just a bit pissed at the looming threat of bandwidth caps.

I'm willing to put money on Comcast vs Microsoft as the final 2, i dont mind microsoft nearly as much as Comcast but they are both Bastards in their own way, i mean COME ON, WHO MAKES AN MP3 PLAYER SOFTWARE THAT DOESNT WORK WITH THE OPERATING SYSTEM THAT THEY KNEW WAS GOING TO COME OUT !!!!!!???? Microsoft thats who... Vista was a giant bust, i'm glad i have good ole xp back but this thing is so old i'm seeing ridiculous problems often so i might actually go to mac.

I don't think they'll win in the poll, but my vote is for Diebold. Their president promised the Republicans Ohio in 2004 and he delivered. In my mind, bad vote tallies in elections due to software bugs, and possible falsification of results due to software "features" is a greater evil than any financial shenanigans or failure of customer service.

I agree with everything except Countrywide beating Clear Channel. I know Countrywide has helped destroy America by selling evil-like home loans, but I would argue that we, as a people, would have been less likely to have bought into the getting an $800,000 home loan with a $30,000 annual salary if it weren't for Clear Channel controlling our radio stations for the last 15 years.

Think about it.

@Jones91:
If you're frustrated, go for the Mac. When I found out Vista's RAM footprint was so huge, I just couldn't bring myself to buy it. What kind of sloppy programming causes something so insanely inefficient?! What the hell are they doing with all that RAM, anyway?

I finally decided to take the plunge and got a MacBook Pro. I'm running OSX and XP in VM at the same time... and the RAM usage is still better than Vista.

Dropped a lot of cash, but haven't regretted it for a second. Apple is doing a lot of things I DON'T like in other markets, but what they've done with their PCs and laptops is just fantastic.

@delphi_ote: I agree, Macs are one of the few things I remotely like about Apple.

Your right, the RAM usage is ridiculous for no real reason at all, all I've really noticed with Vista is that they updated the GUI to be slightly more flashy and alerts you with a security system so feeble it cannot recognize system functions that always run/come with the computer every 5 minutes.

Yea, my friend really wants me to get a MacBook Pro, they are pretty nice, the price tag isn't so friendly but its most likely worth it, especially with the software coming up/already out that lets you use a lot of Microsoft programs i forgot what its called, Microsoft Exchange or something maybe. Honestly I would only run XP on a Mac for the sake of my Zune.

@SuffolkHouse: Um, not so much. You do realize that BCBS is not a "Company" don't you? It's an "association" of companies that license the name. BCBS of Texas is not-for-profit, and probably the best insurance I've had in the last 15 years (out of BCBS-TX twice, Aetna, Humana, and United Healthcare). YMMV depending on where you are. So it's kind of silly to lump 'em all together.

I'm predicting Comcast V. Bank of America. And if Bank of America can take Countrywide in a battle of awfulness, it can definitely beat Comcast. BOfA FTW!

@MayorBee:

In all fairness though, they didn't start their idiotic internet metering bullshit until AFTER the contest had started.

My dream scenario is an eBay Vs. BoA battle royale.

I'm going with a Final 4 of Exxon, Walmart, Best Buy, Bank of America.