My #1 (Exxon) was knocked off by a very shitty Comcast.

It's going to be tough to chose between Diebold and Countrywide.. both have f'd things up amazingly.

My vote has to be for Countrywide.

Comcast for the win/lose/death/whatever.

I think Countrywide has a decent edge up on Comcast and Walmart. Despite horrible service and all the drama that Comcast/Walmart brings, they've never done anything so tremendously greedy, ignorant and wide-reaching as what Countrywide has.

Countrywide.

I'm still upset all the health insurance companies got bumped off.

All cable companies suck, but cable TV is not important enough to make them the worst company in america. Diebold controls the presidency of the United Freakin' States. Countrywide lends hundreds of thousands of dollars to people for their HOMES. Wal-Mart provides food and clothing.

I'm not sure how Comcast made it this far. They are a crappy company for sure, but in the big picture, their crappiness is fairly small.

Although who am I kidding, I would have voted for Ticketmaster all the way.

Diebold gets my votes.

@silencedotcom: yeah, I had Exxon Vs. Countrywide in the final.

still country wide has to be the favorite here.

I predict Comcast is going to take home the crown.

@timmus: we should start a pool

d@heavylee-again: People are using different criteria to vote. Some are thinking more "macro" and thinking about what impact the company has on the economy, world, politics, etc. Some are thinking about their own experience with that company. For example Diebold and Countrywide are in my Top 2 even though I've never had a Countrywide mortgage and I've had crappy service from Comcast. I just think their larger impact is how I should evaluate these companies.

I say we go ahead and award "Semifinalist" awards to the Final Four now.

Walmart and Comcast provide goods/services for which many people don't have any readily available alternatives.

However, Exxon and Countrywide are in very competitive businesses (everywhere) yet STILL manage to screw up royally. Those are my two finalists.

3 Evil vs 1 Inept

I wonder if the recent news of Exxon being let off the hook for the oil spill would have changed things? Yes, they still pay actual costs of clean-up, but then it simply becomes the cost of doing business.

"THANK GOD WE'RE A MONOPOLY!"

Diebold threatens the legitimacy of our elections.

Countrywide, through deceptive practices born of needless greed, has badly damaged the US economy.

Walmart has driven US manufacturing off-shore and impoverishes their employees.

THREE WAY TIE!

Wouldn't it be great if the winner/loser of this competition actually cared what we thought of them?

boa is upset and denied from the finals!!! unpossible!

Comcast...definately comcast.

Curious: does consumerist send the winning company a letter/trophy that says, "Congratulations! After 1,000,000 votes, you have been crowned the worst company in America!"

If they don't, they really should.

@Ash78: There is always an alternative to Comcast, it's called turn off the TV it's not a requirement.

This is crap. There is seriously way too many nerds on this site that voted for Comcast, they're not that bad, do i love them? No.

Have I personally had problems with them. NO.

Countrywide is a large corporation filled with salesman that lend money to people without doing proper checks thus helping fuel the current economic situation we have.

Diebold helps influence our balads.

Wal-mart has cheap foreign made crap, but really that's not why i don't like them i don't' like them because they have unfair labor issues that are illegal at best.

but damn do i really have to choose between walmart and country wide? that's really hard man..

I got wal-mart for the win

@linus: i will donate to send this trophy!!!!!! please lets do it.

I predict the final will be Diebold vs. Countrywide, and that is a hard choice. One is responsible for crappy voting machines that takes the choice of president away from voters, and the other is partially responsible for the present economic downturn and housing slump. Both affect everyone in the US. Comcast and WalMart don't affect everyone, just people who use their services, and not even all people who use their services.

I'm going to have to vote for Diebold, since a good president could have stopped Countrywide from killing the economy.

@Skankingmike: Diebold helps influence our balads.
Diebold sings crappy love songs? I thought the were part of the balloting process of elections.

If this doesn't come down to Diebold vs. Countrywide, you people need to get your priorities straight.

I have personally never had an issue with Comcast, but even if I had, I think that annoyance would pale in comparison to fixing elections or destroying the economy. I don't shop at Wal*Mart, so I have no idea how terrible they might be.

Countrywide #1, Best Buy #2, Wal-Mart #3. The End.

We should definitely have a big trophy delivered to the "winner".

Diebold is not the only company that makes voting machines, and *your state governments* are the ones that chose to put those crappy machines into play, despite all the reasons not to. Don't see how you can blame Diebold for ALL the crappy things related to elections.

It is a sad world where BoA doesn't make it to the final round of Worst Company.

Comcast #1, Comcast #2, Comcast #3. The End.

I'll take Countrywide for 1600 Alex.....

The answer is douchebag.

Who is Angelo Mozilo ?

Correct!

Darn, I was hoping for eBay and Starbucks.

I'm all for hating Comcast due to their shady throttling issues, but do they really belong in the elite lists of the worst companies in America?

Comcast blows, yes...but remember that not everyone in the country lives in Comcast areas. Wal-Mart, Diebold and Countrywide all affect many more Americans lives than a cable company run by monkeys.

I can't believe B of A didn't make it to the final four...I had picked them to go all the way...but I guess that might just be my own personal bias...

You're going to make me pick between Comcast and Diebold?

I hate Comcast on a very personal level but I don't know if my personal hatred can overcome the democracy killing mechanizations of Diebold.

Whoever wins, we lose.

At least all of the finalists are worthy of becoming the title.

@linus: See last year's contest:
[consumerist.com]
and
[consumerist.com]

(Hope this doesn't double post. Sorry if it does.)
A lot of Wal-Marts problems seem to be more connected to unrelated individuals at various stores. They provide a ton of stuff at pretty low prices. Their bad service is a a 'get what you pay for' situation. If people didn't prefer low prices to better service, they'd shop elsewhere.

Countrywide was a major catalyst in our current recession. They gave oversized loans where no loan should have been given at all. That practice is not only a fundamental reason for our economic trouble as a nation, but also fueling the credit problems of millions of consumers.

Comcast is essentially a utility, and few alternatives exist for most of their customers. Good luck if you live in an apartment. We've heard horror stories on this site as far back as I can remember. Thank god they're not in my area.

And Diebold... well, they're too close to the Bush administration for my taste. I don't approve of the current political situation, but I don't believe Diebold is the root cause. Frankly, I think the lies, deception, and ignorance of many voters is more to blame than a corporation.

Diebold vs. Countrywide in the final, Countrywide wins it.

@TimmyGUNZ: Some people don't have their priorities straight.

"Oh no! The company that provides me with a luxury sometimes screws me over!"

All four of these are terrible companies.

The final should be Wal-Mart vs. Diebold.
Both have screwed over the American people worse than anyone else.

Wal-Mart has destroyed the industrial base of this country, forced the shipping of a couple of million jobs to China which has caused a boom there & increased oil & cement prices worldwide, hires employees at ludicrously low pay & tells them to get Medicaid for health insurance.
Diebold produced the hopelessly flawed voting machines that cause the re-election of Bush. Without a paper trail, a feature of every Diebold ATM, it's impossible to know how many votes were lost or stolen from Kerry.

I'm still no sure how comcast knocked off ticketmaster. Comcast is incompetent and lazy. Ticketmaster is downright evil in their core business model.

@Front_Towards_Enemy: Yeah, I'm going with Countrywide over Comcast.

But I really think all of the crappy Health Insurance companies should have filled out the final four.

Diebold will win this, even though the grievances against the company (voting, not ATM problems) have nothing whatsoever to do with consumerism. Why? Because there are enough paranoids who will attribute voter fraud, which has been around forever is mainly committed by non-technological means, to Diebold, simply because they have read some bad press and think that voting irregularities favor Republicans or put GWB in office. Voting is of extreme importance, and I'm sure that there are legitimate concerns about the competency of Diebold to record votes accurately, but I'm also sure that the disdain leveled against the company on this site is disproportionate to the actual problems. Conspiracy loons + Lefty blogs + election year = Diebold wins.

@Geekybiker: As I stated above, I think some are thinking on a "micro" level and their own personal experience with these companies. Lot's of people have had crappy service from Comcast, so their own personal experience makes them vote for Comcast. The other companies influence our society, economics, politics on a "macro" level. But since some people have never dealt with countrywide or don't care about Wal-Mart's greater influence, then they pick the name they have the most direct experience with.

...Or Comcast is astroturfing and throwing the vote.

@Greasy Thumb Guzik: The American economy has evolved away from industry and first level production, but it's not just wal-mart.

At grocery stores like Kroger we buy dog food from china, bananas from Nicaragua, flowers from Chile and Argentine beef. We buy cars from Japan, Korea, and Germany. Clothes you buy at the mall are made in south america or asia. Computers and electronics and assembled in Korea, the Philippines, or Indonesia.

It's not Wal-Mart, it's the 21st century global economy. They're just a neighborhood store where you see it first hand. I'm not 'going to bat' for Wal-Mart, I'm just saying that it's not limited to one store that happens to be particularly successful in the current economic climate.

As for the low pay, that just sucks. Wal-Mart should do a better job caring for its employees, but to be fair, the employees are just that. They are not slaves nor servants and are free to leave at their choosing.

@Juice Box Hero:
There doesn't look like there is any explanation on what the trophy is for. And it looks way too fancy for this type of contest. Unless the poo was made out of low-quality brass.

@Skankingmike: I would actually do this too, but like I said above, I don't think the total cost of the trophy should be worth more than $100. I like the idea of a plaque. It looks like something that you would hang in your HQ front doors...until you read the print.

I can't believe both Capitalone and Bank of America were both knocked out! Sure Diebold makes crappy voting machines that are susceptible to fraud.... but it's not like Diebold arbitrarily decided to put the Hamburgler in office. People did actually vote for Bush.

On the other hand, Capital One is ruining people's credit and lives every single day. And bad marks on your credit last a lot longer than a presidential term.

So lets see both matchups are companies that piss us off on an everyday basis versus companies that ruin America entirely. Should we send a statement that walmart or comcast are the worst case offenders and possibly see some sort of change occur, possibly a response. Should we elect diebold or countrywide two companies that won't even blink if they win this contest. The choice is with us all. I say we take Walmart and Comcast to the championship. What say you?

@AtomicPlayboy: That's exactly what I've been thinking about all this Diebold nonsense. Thanks for putting it so well.