Golden Poo Award For Worst Company In America Unveiled
The box we teased you about contained a glistening golden poo statue. That's right, the award for Worst Company In America is here. That can mean only one thing... On Monday we host our final deathmatch between Comcast and Countrywide Home Loans. It's going to be a brutal bloodbath full of chills and spills. Only one will walk away champion, and then we will mail them their justly deserved prize. Stay tuned to Consumerist.com for all the hot crappy-company-on-crappy-company action.
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I have my Mortgage with Countrywide and Cable with Comcast (only carrier in town). No matter who wins, I lose.
I'm still astounded that Countrywide trumped Diebold.
Can someone tell me where one might obtain a golden poo?
Why do we have to mail it to them? Why can't we just put it in a bag on their door step, light it, then run?
@snoop-blog: Actually, I was envisioning a press conference around the presentation of the award at the company's doorstep. But I think the lighting the bag and running would even add to the fun of a press conference.
I'm glad diebold didn't make it. Now I can take this seriously. I think by now we all know Countrywide, and what they have done to our economy, it makes me barely even remember comcast.
You guys need to photoshop the countrywide execs holding up their golden poo (I'm fairly confident they will win)
"THANK GOD WE'RE A MONOPOLY!"
Are the photos dark because we must wait for the true Unveiling of the Poo; are they dark because that makes it more tantalizing; or are they dark because the kitteh stole the flash off the camera?
That is the most fitting.... statuette... for this contest!
Comcast sucks, has always sucked, and will suck forever. But they have never managed to be a stain on the entire US economy. Countrywide should win the golden poo, and also be awarded some sort of lifetime achievement trophy as well. Maybe some platinum diarrhea?
I'm glad diebold didn't make it. Now I can take this seriously. I think by now we all know Countrywide, and what they have done to our economy, it makes me barely even remember comcast.
Diebold most certainly was qualified to be in the Final Four - the potential for massive voting fraud and reliability problems with their voting machines is a big deal. Diebold should be facing off against Countrywide in the "championship". People voting for Comcast over Diebold says volumes about our country - "I got screwed on my cable bill once" is less important than the potential loss of integrity of our VOTING SYSTEM.
I would vote for Countrywide over Diebold, though. Severely damaging the US economy is more of a current issu than the potentiality of the Diebold issue.
If Countrywide doesn't beat Comcast by a 80/20 ratio, I'm going to give up on people :)
@Nick1693: I've seen golden poo cell phone charms at jbox.com. And I just found out that ThinkGeek also sells them:
And I just stumbled on this--it's a pretty interesting article: [www.asian-central.com]
@B:
In attempt to not turn this thread political (though it may already be too late), I won't stake a claim on whether or not we have already experienced voter fraud due to Diebold & Co or not. But I'd say that even the potential for massive voting fraud is far worse than the reality of getting screwed on a cable bill.
Also, I award myself a miniature golden poo charm for the grammatical butchery of the first sentence in my last post.
That creepily-tan ex-exec from Countrywide already is a "golden poo" (it's a tanning joke, HA!).
@InfiniTrent: I've heard this argument every single time Diebold was up for vote.
The fact that people voted for comcast does say something about this country: not everybody wears tinfoil hats and reads thedailykos.com.
In a previous debate with other commenters, I conceded that it was possible for diebold to manipulate votes. However, are you to say it's not possible to manipulate paper votes? In every election there is voter fraud. Every. There has been no proven voter fraud using the Diebold system.
Let's be honest, if John Kerry won, Diebold would have never been in the list of companies up for this "award." This is purely based on politics, and it's cheap shots. He won. Okay?
@Franklin Comes Alive!: Platinum? Uhoh...
(Thanks to all who told me where I could get a golden poo...)
Ironically, Countrywide isn't winning this award for lack of customer service, or poor customer service or even a bad product per se (I'm sure when those customers got initially got the keys to their mcmansions they were quite happy). Nope. they're winning it because they fucked everyone over in the end. Next year, can we please vote in Walmart or KFC or some company that's been reaming people slowly for years?
@Franklin Comes Alive!: Thank you for the introduction. I don't see how that comment was within the new comment rules.
But I'd say that even the potential for massive voting fraud is far worse than the reality of getting screwed on a cable bill.
True. But the contest is not, "Which company can hurt us the most." Voter fraud is bad, but potentially, Meat corporations could pack antrax in our meat to kill us all. So do we vote for them instead? The contest is for the Worst Company in America. Based on Customer Service, rip off reports, going against the consitution, etc. For things we know and read about daily on the site.
For the record, I was attempting to make the comment in a humorous fashion, sorry if it didn't come off that way.
Also, regardless of any argument for/against Diebold, Countrywide deserves this award by a country mile.
@Franklin Comes Alive!: Fair enough. Sorry, I didn't recognize the humor. I'm attacked so often for having an opposing view, it's hard to recognize who is just joshin me.
@Bladefist,
I will concede that fraud has never been proven, but the stink is heavlily in the air. Here are a couple of points to ponder.
Diebold can make a secure ATM network that allows for a papertrail for every transaction but they can't figure out how to do the same for voting machines?
They have programmers who can write secure code for said ATMs but when it comes to their voting machines they opted for an unsecured MS Access database as the background "software"?
Again, I realize this isn't a smoking gun, but having the CEO of the company making the voting machines come out publicaly and state that he will do "everything in his power" to ensure Bush won Ohio should at the very least make people take a look at what that statement means.
I could go on and on but I will spare everyone the post.
Thanks!
I rarely agree with you, but you've got every right to post what you think. And I appreciate that your arguments are usually well-thought out and civil, though the responses to them often aren't.
@Bladefist: Thank you, finally someone says it. I'm so damn tired of hearing "oh, but this company can kill us all, that's more important than cable." With that logic it should be nothing but health insurance companies and the country of China filling out the entire bracket.
Go Countrywide!
As in "go away".
Can we get back to talking about shit, I mean poo?
btw, That looks more like a golden ice cream than a golden shit. Consumerist, if I would have known you were in the market for a shit, I could have hooked you up. Where I work at, I sell shit all day long!!!
In my heart I want Comcast to win but the reality is that Countrywide is the scum of the earth.
Cue Bladefist's right-wing response in 3... 2...
Don't worry, I'm a right-winger too. ;)
I'm curious how much the golden poo cost. Shipping and handling?
You know, I think it's an insult to golden poo everywhere to be associated with the likes of Comcast and Countrywide. Just sayin'.
@Bladefist:
In a previous debate with other commenters, I conceded that it was possible for diebold to manipulate votes. However, are you to say it's not possible to manipulate paper votes? In every election there is voter fraud. Every. There has been no proven voter fraud using the Diebold system.
I watched Pres. Roslin steal the election in Battlestar Galactica, via faked paper ballots, so I know it can be done!
In a hundred years, we'll watching videos from Florida in 2000, laughing at ourselves. What a joke! In this day and age, grown men and women gawking at "chads", making judgment calls on the intent of a voter based on their "chad's" pregnancy, or hanging. Regardless of who won, that was a joke. There's no excuse for punch cards in a world where we can do this electronically.
Like paper, though electronic voting has its own challenges, and the foremost is security. One problem is that electronic voting is easy to manipulate while leaving no trace. We have reason to believe Diebold's system could be easily manipulated - that's why I made my comments. It has nothing to do with any particular election or political slant. They built a weak lock for the most important system in America.
Let's be honest, if John Kerry won, Diebold would have never been in the list of companies up for this "award." This is purely based on politics, and it's cheap shots. He won. Okay?
It's possible, but this is SO not what my comment was about. I voted for Bush, and would again, given Kerry as an alternative (whoops...why did I just say that here?).
I guess I didn't realize that much of the Diebold blow-up was politically motivated. I thought it was more of a bipartisan issue that both sides agreed needed work.
I still think the realistic possibility of massive vote fraud outweighs Comcast's deceptive marketing practices, horrendous customer service, and mis-billing. But that's why we vote, right?
Erm...Consumerist - Diebold doesn't serve your voting engine, does it?
True. But the contest is not, "Which company can hurt us the most."
This is a good point. But we're not talking about tin foil hat conspiracy theories, but realistic possibility.
Voter fraud is bad, but potentially, Meat corporations could pack anthrax in our meat to kill us all. So do we vote for them instead? The contest is for the Worst Company in America. Based on Customer Service, rip off reports, going against the constitution, etc. For things we know and read about daily on the site.
I'm not personally aware of any meat companies that have failed to protect their food quality so badly that Anthrax could make its way into my beef. I am aware of a voting machine company that made an insecure method of recording and reporting votes.
Heck, if we're voting for "most potentially dangerous", I'd pick the Sun - that thing could kick our butts in a serious way.
Nothing has been substantiated in terms of Diebold and voting fraud, and truly I don't think anything has happened. But as I said earlier, they designed one heck of a crappy lock for a very precious cargo, and left the door open. That's serious neglect, and considering the magnitude of impact that mistake can have, that makes it more important than a cable company to me. But again, that's just me!
You guys all just go ahead and keep wasting your breath debating the politics of Diebold vs. Comcast. I'm voting for Countrywide. Screw my 401(k), get a golden poo.
Semi-Random comment:
And all this time I've been told you couldn't polish a turd.
:)
...I got screwed on my cable bill once...
@InfiniTrent: Once? I don't think any of the Comcast stories here are about them messing up once on a bill. Whatever you think about Diebold losing to Comcast let's not pretend that Comcast is only slightly bad at what they do.
Was I hallucinating or was the poll for the final two already up at one point?
Let's be honest, if John Kerry won, Diebold would have never been in the list of companies up for this "award." This is purely based on politics, and it's cheap shots. He won. Okay?
One thing that had people's panties in a bunch in 2000 was how different the vote tallies were from the exit polling. If I recall correctly, there had not been a previous election where the results were so different. If the tables were turned and Bush had been ahead in the exit polls, but the numbers came back the other way, I still think that lots of people would have raised a stink due to the disparity. Maybe not this forum, but you can't tell me the Freepers wouldn't have jumped all over that...
@dadelus:
Secure ATMs? I am sorry to point this out but that does not exist.
or according to this guy he sells Diebold ATM skimmers
I find it troublesome that Diebold uses Windows as the OS in their ATMs. Really though they have trouble with the ATM's they make which kinda makes your points moot.
@snoop-blog: I imagine whoever they asked to make this for them didn't have a poo cast. That had to of been an interesting conversation.
@InfiniTrent: Well, paper fraud may be more easily investigated. But you should concede the fraud does happen. We've all heard every year, some city has a huge turn out of dead voters.
When the voter fraud happens in one direction, it's not covered. When it doesn't happen in the other direction, it's conspiratized (is that a word?) as 'probably' happening.
Thats what happens when your news media isn't fair and balanced like Fox News. ahahahhahahha
While I think that Countrywide should win based on the destructive nature of their actions, there is a problem. Countrywide no longer exists, so who will receive the award, the CEO of Bank of America? Also, if the purpose of the award is to shame the company into changing their operations, then why give it to a now defunct company? For these reasons, I will be voting for Comcast.
Impressed you got your cat to not only pose, but "roar" on cue.