Duhn duhn da duhn! Envelope please… yes, America has voted and… the Worst Company in America award goes to…. Countrywide Home Loans (now owned by Bank of America)! The final vote was…
…6098 to 4826, a solid trouncing of Comcast, which had been favored to win by many commenters. After 67 rounds and five months of fierce battling, Countrywide climbed to the top of the poop pile and affirmed its well-deserved status as the absolute nadir of capitalism. It looks like in the end, we all decided that the destruction of a giant chunk of the American economy by greed and fraud was more reprehensible than an unsatisfactory internet experience.
The Lucky Golden Shit award will get shipped to Angelo “Golden Boy” Mozilo, former Countrywide CEO, who steered the ship of financial doom from its inception to the height of its unfettered raping of the American Dream, just as soon as we find a good mailing address for him. The receipt for the Lucky Golden Ship will get mailed to Bank of America CEO Kenneth D. Lewis, along with a certificate of completion.
Congratulations to our top 10 runners up
Comcast
Walmart
Bank of America
American Airlines
Capital One
Diebold
Exxon
United Health Care
Blue Cross Blue Shield
Microsoft
You’re champions, all of you. Better luck next year.
More From Consumerist
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Bank Of America To Pay Woman $300K It Owed For Trying To Foreclose On Her 4 Years Ago
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Investors Accuse Bank Of America Of Continuing Countrywide’s Bad Practices
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Mortgages Slightly Easier To Get For Prime Borrowers, Still Tough For Subprime Applicants
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Whistleblower Involved In Outing Big Banks Says Keeping It Secret For 3 Years Wasn’t Easy
-
Feds Sue Bank Of America Over $1 Billion In Bad Loans Sold To Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac
I think we’ve got a mandate from the Consumerists! Countrywide wins! They’re contributing to the decline of American civilization!
“Has been in the news a bit lately”? Dude, have you READ that news? Countrywide isn’t merely aggravating and incompetent, as Comcast is. “Ruining the economy and participating in shady loans” is a little more onerous than “does a crappy job of giving you internet and cable”.
You could send the award to my building. We still have a Countrywide office that seems very much up and running in Raleigh, with all the douches still employed. It may be owned by BoA, but the sign still says Countrywide. In fact, on my way in today I heard some woman on her cell phone complaining about a coworker – saying that last week the coworker closed a bunch of loans that weren’t underwritten.
Sounds about right.
Oh boy, we elected a dead company the worst company in America. Irony? Stupidity?
Brilliant!
@Scuba Steve: I agree!
I hope everyone sees that this final vote was rigged because Diebold lost out to Comcast in the semi-finals.
Shouldn’t we do a re-vote now that Comcast has announced its Nintendo Wii/Triple Play rip-off.. err deal??
RTV!
Should send some fabulous prizes from other Gawker blogs along w/ the trophy. I think a good one from Jalopnik would be something like Meguiars (sp.?) complete leather care.
Leatherface has gotta look his best to get his award!
Giving a prize to shame a company that no longer exists. What a pointless gesture. Countrywide should have been disqualified the day they were acquired by BoA.
Such awards are only useful when the pressure invoked can stimulate change. This will do nothing for Countrywide but could have helped countless consumers with future Comcast issues.
Diebold and Comcast are both more deserving. But still, it’s been fun.
@godospoons and @ogman: Countrywide most certainly does exist. It still has the same brand, the same corporate structure, and the same horrible problems that led to its prized place in Consumerist history. Just because it is a wholly owned subsidiary shouldn’t get it out of the running for such a well deserved honor.
I don’t know if it’s been addressed here (sorry — I’m new) but those Countrywide boys are the same brothers who originally started IndyMac.
Oops.. I see it has. Please disregard. I live in Pasadena, where IndyMac HQ is and all the lines were the other day, and a lot of people in line were saying that if they’d known it was at all related to them, they never would have had their money there to begin with.
The American Dream is overrated. I mean, what’s wrong with coming up with your own dreams, instead of simply adopting a preexisting template?
Here’s an idea, if you want a huge $500,000 house, SAVE up $500,000 and write a check. If you can’t save up that much, then you’re setting your sights too high in the first place.
Getting a mortgage is like selling your soul: you end up with one paddle in a two-paddle boat to heaven, and if you default, they take the boat, too. Wait…
Besides, I maintain that Blackwater USA is the worst company in the country, if not the world. I mean, they kill for profit, for chrissake! Countrywide only wounds!
we won! yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!!!!! on behalf of the company i work for i’d like to say its great to be acknowledge as the worst of the worst! eat your heart out comcast
Yes, they (countrywide) do deserve this! As a housing counselor, this company constantly turned down or delayed any requests by our agency to help those facing foreclosure. Wells Fargo was right behind them, I might add!
Comcast-sucks here and everywhere, been doing DSL for internet for many years due to Comcast and their poor customer service and poor quality/high outage rate.
I would personally have to go with Microsoft-besides inane phone routing (to nowhere, usually), they have bizarre rules and regulations. I dealt with them on a simple warranty issue for a defective xbox that took me all across the world speaking to foreign reps, finally to Redmond, wa where the dweeb in charge simply told me “no, we don’t do that”, no apology, no empathy, no support, no hope of anything. Their products are horrible and so are the managers/supervisors, another case of mutated corporations that are glutted with money and unwilling to help anyone or care if their customers return or buy anything else.