Everything I voted for got into the second round!

I was waiting for the GE - Chrysler confrontation in a battle royale of Transformers-like dimensions. Was the Ebay-GM poll close? I think it would be...

Can't we just skip ahead to AIG's win?

@boomersix: Are you kidding? As many complaints as you read here, Comcast, BestBuy, and Sprint can all take on AIG.

anyone want to handicap the Walmart V. Best Buy Armageddon?

Tough break for the Peanut Corp. getting stuck against AIG in the 2nd round. It might have reached the finals if it had been on the other side of the bracket.

I'll be voting for Bank of America in the second round. Genius strategy to double my interest rate this week in the midst of a recession. I've only got a couple hundred on the card currently and I'll cancel. If BoA doesn't want my business then I don't want to give it to them.

Third round predictions:

AIG v. Best Buy (although Walmart could give BB a run for the money)

Ticketmaster v. Citibank

Comcast v. Chase

Chrysler v. BoA (CC's "thanks for the memories" votes won't be enough to overcome the BoA evil)

@pecan 3.14159265: Some of my coworkers and I filled out brackets. I'm leading by 1 after a flawless first round.

@RenRen: Ha. GE-eBay "close." Not at all. Apparently that matchup was not about which was "the worst in America," but whichever one "happened to make some eBay sellers feel sad that one time."

I myself was hoping for a little GE-Capital One action down the line. oh well..

Best Buy vs. Walmart is a toughie.

I can't believe GE, AT&T and TWC were all knocked out in the first round. Bummer. But my worst of the worst are all still in.

Amex got very lucky with the PCA matchup. Make it a worst Financial company in America contest and they'd be a tough one to stop.

GM vs. Chase? Ticketmaster vs. UHC? Nooooooooeeeeeooeeooooo!

Yes! I'm so glad Circuit City made it. It's the only job I ever walked out on, the bastards.

Verizon employees must have stuffed the box for Sprint, there is NO WAY IN HELL that Verizon is not worse

Oooh. Walmart vs. Best Buy! That's a toughie.

Wow... I'd bet if this week had come first, TWC would definitly be in that next bracket with those new Tiered pricing programs on their Internet Access...

I absolutely cannot believe AT&T got out of this unscathed against a company that no longer has any influence over our consumer lives -- barring the future circuitcity.com efforts, of course.

What's worse is I can see the abysmal AT&T trumpeting this as some grandiose win, like some fund manager trying to sell you on how well he's doing with his clients' money since he only lost 10% last year while the rest of the market lost 15%.

Anyway, it's still a vote -- albeit one likely altered by that of recent press -- and AT&T should still find shame in the fact that it barely, barely squeaked past a company that couldn't keep itself alive and, in a last hurrah, slapped its remaining vulture-like constituents in the face by hiring a deplorable liquidator.

So the credit card companies are like the Big East, lots of members, but likely won't be in the championship game...

Any opportunity to slam the Big East!

I am crushed that Verizon is out of the running so quickly. I really thought they could go all the way!

Same problem with this year's bracket as last year--liquidation or bankruptcy in and of itself is punishment enough. Rather than attempting to punish the dead, we should concentrate our ire on those who need to be demonized.

AIG and Circuit City will learn nothing. Walmart or AT&T? Absolutely.

@Gilbert: So I'm not the only one with a death hate of AT&T?

I disagree that US Failways is better than Capital One, but then again, I don't have a Capital One card.

I hope my former employer gets it good!

@Megan Squier: It runs deep, kind Megan -- but not as deep as those of the credit industry, where you will find the sickening worst of the worst in our fellow humans. Greed trumps poor customer service any day of the week.

On the left, the winner between Peanut Corp. and AIG will easily make it to the finals (and most likely win). The competition is a little more balances on the right with a slight edge to GM and BoA for their highly publicized and rather large failures. It isn't hard to argue that all of them certainly deserve some sort of honorable mention. Too bad there's no option like "all of the above..."

Damn. Just like my NCAA tournament picks, my bracket is busted.

There wouldn't happen to be a NIT-style 'worst company' tournament somewhere, would there?

I love this!

I'm just sad that Verizon isn't making it to round two. I've never had anything on the Sprint network so I have no idea how it is. I just know I cannot stand Verizon.

It's absurd that AT&T didn't make it into the 2nd round. We're talking about a company that proactively helped the Bush administration to spy on American citizens and made a profit doing so. Is that not the very definition of an evil corporation?

I cannot believe AT&T lost to Circuit City, sure circuit city had a bad business model, and made some bad decisions, but AT&T literally spied illegally on Americans. Spied. On Americans.

@pecan 3.14159265: Same here. My bracket: [jokermage.googlepages.com]

@YorkAntigone:
At least they didn't spy on the British.

@pecan 3.14159265: I missed Chase and Capital One -- guess I misunderestimated America's hatred for all credit card companies!

Round 2: AIG, Best Buy, Ticketmaster, Citi, Comcast, GM, Chrysler, BoA

All of my votes except for Circuit City got into Round 2. I expected that AT&T would win because of the "live business vs dead business" vote.

It's funny, the left-hand/American League/Wetern Conference is easier to guess with next round being AIG vs. Walmart and Ticketmaster vs. Citibank with little or no chance of surprise while the right-hand column/Major League/Easter Conference is more difficult to predict. I'll guess Comcast vs. GM and eBay vs Circuit City but I could end up being surprised.

@mariospants: dammit, "Western"

Im now wishing I'd voted for GE in round one. Got a letter from GE Capital yesterday regarding a credit card I have with them, I assumed it would be a "thank you for paying it off in full, your balance is now $0" or something of that sort. Nope, it told me they were closing my card because of "lack of activity." It was a store card with no payments/interest for 12 months, so yeah of course there was no activity until I payed it off last month. And now my credit is dinged by their closing my card. Thanks, GE.

I'm surprised Transworld entertainment (owners of FYE and Coconuts music stores) did not make it. They have a .64 out of 10 lifetime reseller rating! Perhaps the damage they do is not widespread enough to merit contention!

AIG all the way.

@Joel Kerbrat: Mine's similar, except for Ticketmaster making it to the final four and Comcast beating Capital One.

I'm really disheartened that Apple got eliminated so early...

I know that they'd never go all the way, but it's disappointing to see nü-microsoft has such a rabid following.

Oh well.

@AmeryHecate: they dropped my money market account interest rate to 0 (not almost 0, flat-out 0)

@slsashrk96: I'd put Best Buy as a healthy but not overbearing favorite. Assuming a standard dime line, I'd go Best Buy -200 / Walmart +190 ($200 to win $100 and $100 to win $190, respectively). Walmart strikes me as more inept than evil, compared to the insidiousness that is Beset By (as in, what happens to you at the hands of PSP-peddling drones when you tell them you want a big ticket item)

@RenRen: Yah, my money's on Bank of America. Countrywide, anyone?!

@pecan 3.14159265: I, as well, am 16 for 16.

Too bad AIG and Peanut are going head to head. That should have been the finals.
I don't see anything on the right side that comes close to either AIG or Peanut.

@AmeryHecate: I'm predicting Peanut Corp for the ultimate win, simply by virtue of the constant "but they KILLED people" argument being used in comments. And it's true...the companies that screwed consumers, took government money, did bad things to the environment, etc. all are very evil, but few of them (other than possibly some of the health insurance companies) actually knowingly put out something that would KILL PEOPLE.

Peanut Corp FTW.

People keep saying Walmart vs. Bestbuy is a tough one, but it really isn't. Walmart is a crappy retailer, partly responsible for the current financial crisis and China's reign supreme over us all! Bestbuy is just a crappy retailer.

@Gilbert:

At least AT&T is still in business...

@kaceetheconsumer: The problem with this argument is that it is also arguable that AIG indirectly killed people as well. How many people committed suicide because of the loss of their life savings? Or were made homeless and froze to death? Or robbed a liquor store and got shot... I'm sure AIG is indirectly responsible for the death of many an American.