Woo, ebay with 100%. Methinks I'm the only voter atm.

I don't see much wrong with GE, but paypall is a nightmare for anyone who has ever dealt with them.

GE was close with CNBC. But over all the corporate giant does some really great things.

BTW, I know this has been asked before, and is not really applicable to this post, but ban we bar the super major evil companies from future brackets. The brackets are getting a little redundant. Surely, we can give Wal-Mart, comcast, RIAA and the like Life time achievement awards, and bar them from future participation unless they do something creatively evil that year -like Comcast capping downloads last year. There are some really great evil companies that never get to make the cut because there is so much hate for the big guys.

GE. The made WNBC's news crap and they are forcing Len Berman out and rumour has it that Chuck Scarborough is next. Plus NBC has all sorts of crap fakeality programming.

@dallasmay: I somewhat like this idea on the one hand...

On the other, though, perhaps getting repeatedly cited as the worst company in america by a sister publication to consumer reports would be a good motivator.

@WiglyWorm:

EBAY hands down. They suck huge.

EBAY without a doubt. Paypal is a financial version of the Gestapo but with the modern addition of a testicle shock baton (putting your funds in 6-month double-secret probation without provocation).

War profiteering, environmental destruction, media-conglomeracy vs. PayPal and StubHub

Hmmmm... decisions decisions.

I find it strange that I have made hundreds of purchases on ebay and paid using pay pal and have never had one issue. I think it's more a case of bad PR then actual bad practices.

@Rider: You have to be very, very, very specific on how you do things. If you mess up on one thing, they can deny your claim. Also, they won't cover any losses that they cannot recover. Example:

You buy something and paypal the money
The seller never sends the item and withdraws the cash
You put in a dispute and it is ruled in your favor
You get whatever is in the account. If you did not pay with a credit card, you're screwed.

Paypal is basically a bank that is not regulated like a bank. It's pretty shitty.

@WiglyWorm: People are just going to hate on GE because they own CNBC. May as well bandwagon, right? I'm sure most people who hate CNBC have never watched a minute of it outside of Daily Show clips. The general population, the angry mob, really are the lowest common denominator of intelligence and thoughtfulness.

Aside, GE makes hospital equipment that saves lives, lightbulbs so that we may see, and gives us NBC evening comedies.

ebay seems fine, though people will whine that it isn't what it used to be. Paypal is the real shitty element of ebay, both in ebay policies and paypal itself.

@WiglyWorm: As much as I hate GE, you're right. Paypal is the devil. Down with ebay!

This is a no-brainer. eBay, as far as I know, has never engaged in business deals with a nation responsible for killing American troops. Not to mention that GE's CEO, Jeffrey Immelt is such an incompetant boob that he is driving that once great company into the ground. So much so that the S&P downgraded their stock.

And Obama has named this prick to his "President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board." Hopefully, this is a reward for Immelt turning MSNBC into Obama Campaign Central and he won't be actually taking any of his advice.

@HiPwr....Amen...someone had to say it.

@Blinky987: And if you're the seller, the buyer can claim the item was 'damaged' and either ship you back a box of rocks/their damaged item they already owned and wanted to replace for free/your previously perfectly good item they cannibalized for parts and Paypal gives them back their money with almost no questions asked.

@Alys Brangwin is a Tar Heel bred: Agreed, Paypal is one of the most anti customer service companies out there, they even give Comcast a run for their money.

@HiPwr:

Indeed. I can't fathom how eBay is winning (read: losing) this one.

ebay fer sure. They just keep raising their fees, putting restrictions on everything, telling you what you can charge for shipping. It's a flat out wonder they still exist and their users haven't told them where to stick it. And watch out if paypal decides to keep your money..

Honestly, I really liked Ebay before the restructured recently. GE does a lot of good stuff for the enviro . . hmm . .Ebay

@HiPwr: Yeah but eBay doesn't have 30 Rock or Friday Night Lights. Start producing some quality programming and then we'll talk, eBay.

eBay is awful. They should advance just because of all the ridiculous fees they and PayPal charge. Plus, I'm a big fan of many GE products, mainly their television divisions. They've got great scripted shows (30 Rock! The Office! Chuck!) as well as news programming (Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow!).

@HiPwr: Well, I would hope most of the people voting on this poll aren't ridiculous Fox Noise tools. Go back and watch your precious Bill'O since News Corp. is doing so well. Oh wait, their stock has went down just like GE's! Should we give O'Reilly the credit for that?

@KHook321: It's certainly easy to bury your head in the sand and resort to name-calling, but I noticed that you didn't dispute any of my facts. I'm surprised that you didn't insult my mother.

FEEbay for sure. I sell on bonanzle now, and I paid $5 selling fee instead of $35. The tiered final value fees, the one-sided feedback, and the four-stars-are-actually-horrible-for-you-but-the-buyer-doesn't-know-that are seriously bad now.

@undefined: Yes, what kind of person resorts to name calling such as

...incompetant boob...

...prick ...

It's easy for the pot to call the kettle black, no?

@supercereal: My name-calling was within the points of my argument. Not name-calling because I didn't have any facts or a lucid argument.

GE does some evil, that's for sure. But here's the deal for me, at least some of their work is for good. They spend a lot of effort on energy alternatives. So what we have is a very very large company that offers some good things and some bad.

Compare that to eBay/PayPal/etc which is nothing but greed and corruption. It makes it an easy choice.

Ebay rips you off AND now forces you to use Paypal and get ripped off again. How is that not antitrust-ic? You can't even accept money orders anymore. It's Paypal or nothing.
Even though they're the only girl at the dance, they sure are ugly.

@Blinky987: oh yes, my hate for GE has everything to do with CNBC & nothing to do with the fact that they've contaminated the northeast for almost all of their 130+ year history. take, for example, their realease of PCBs into the hudson & housatonic rivers. they lied about it, refused to believe it was a problem, financed biased studies to prove it wasn't a problem, lied about cleaning it up once it was determined to be a problem, lied about lying about refusing to clean it up...

but, oh yes. it is most definitely about their ownership of a tiny cable news channel & the sensationalism that's a primary characteristic of EVERY cable news channel on the air.

get real.
[www.epa.gov]
[savethehousatonic.org]

@mac-phisto: gaaah. thank you. I'm astounded that eBay is "winning" this by such a large margin. I guess 15 years of internet-based jerk-ery is somehow worse than more than a century's worth of some of the most evil things a corporation can do.

when eBay gets a defense contract, then they might get my vote.

@brandymb: As a buyer I love the new rules. Buyers actually now care about feedback and actually face consequences. They should be telling you what you can charge for shipping. No more 25$ shipping a 5$ auction.

Yay for 30 Rock references...

that being said, I voted for eBay all the way. Doesn't hurt that a seller recently screwed me over.

I went with GE. They have their tentacles in so many industries--from media outlets to finance to energy, it's downright creepy. Ebay has pretty much driven me away finally, but all I have to do to avoid eBay is not visit their website.

Ebay, Paypal and Stubhub are three entities that exist for the sole purpose of ripping people off. GE at least has SOME legitimate uses.

@mac-phisto: I will concede that the links you provide show GE to be a worse company than eBay.

Well... I guess I am the only one that acutally LIKES eBay (maybe because I have not had to sell anything on there yet). I just started using it a week or so ago, and have been using it to buy some used vintage games and everything has gone really smoothly on it. Most of the time I can get a much better deal on there than at a local video game shop.

HELLO PEOPLE, GE makes WEAPONS of MASS DESTRUCTION!

@AgentTuttle: Yeah but didn't you hear Ebay changed the rules so sellers can no longer rip off people. How dare they. 99% of the anti Ebay crap is from sellers upset that they now have rules to follow.

GE has not had any direct affect on me (that I could easily explain without a chart anyway) but eBay has definitely caused me problems in the past. I still use eBay when no other alternatives suffice.

So in a way, eBay is basically Walmart to me. Break Glass In Case of Emergency - or if you need batteries at 2AM/ ski gloves made to resemble Elvis's hands.

I loved paying by money order, and now eBay is dead to me. I have to resort to asking friends to help me buy things online.

GE, not really, since their parent company makes great wigs.

@AgentTuttle: for some of us, that's a feature, not a bug.

Wow. I'm shocked at the results of this matchup. To me, GE is another potential Halliburton, or worse.

eBay just facilitates the selling of stuff and makes a lot of money for doing so.

@dallasmay:

Whats the matter with walmart? They save poor and low income folks millions millions if not billions a year over other retailers. They provide more jobs than any other company in the US. Their pay and benefits are comparable to other major retailers. Or are you just listening to what the unions say and ignoring the facts?

I'm torn on this one.

As a shopper, I have always found ebay almost incomprehensible. Terrible website, stupid procedures -- just not intuitive or user-friendly.

Then I remember the truly atrocious products I used to buy from GE, like the A/C that blew fuses because of a short in the compressor motor.

IMO both companies suck.

@tape: I would argue that TicketsNow is worse that StubHub for ripping people off because they are owned by Ticketmaster and I wouldn't be surprised if Ticketmaster was holding a number of tickets back to put on TicketsNow to sell at higher prices.

@Rider: You never used PayPal or eBay? Aren't you?

You're screwed both way, as a seller, and as a buyer. Especially as a buyer.

Ebay lets dishonest sellers openly sell stolen electronics. And that's even when people REPORT these items to eBay.

@Rider: Ebay still does very little to protect buyer. The new feedback system does little to protect buyers from truly dishonest sellers. I never had real issues with feedback, but I've got issues with ''item not as described'', and lying sellers. PayPal does little to reimburse you, or really solve the problem.

@Rider: I am sooo jealous of you. I seem to have an issue, every 20 transactions, approximately. Which makes a good 5% of every ''sale/buy''.

ebay, worse than G.E.????? SERIOUSLY?

G.E. was the number one manufacturer of nuclear weapons for the United States. They polluted one town so bad that many of the children and animals were born with birth defects.

G.E. dumped over 1.3 million pounds of PCBs into the Hudson river.
[www.nrdc.org]
And they still have not done most of the cleanup they were supposed to do, and stuck the taxpayers with most of the bills.

They are involved in thousands of asbestos lawsuits.

I could go on and on and on.

Don't let some G.E. commercials fool you. G.E. has an abysmal environmental track record. This contest shouldn't even be close, but eBay is winning? Do some research people. This is pathetic.

As far as I know, ebay hasn't given anyone cancer, or killed anyone.