Worst Company In America Quarterfinal action kicked off this morning with a doozy of a double-header, one resulting in one of the tournament’s most decisive victories and the other going down to the wire in this year’s latest buzzer-beater bout. [More]
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Comcast Cruises Past Verizon, Walmart Upsets Bank Of America In Worst Company Quarterfinal Action!
April 2, 2014
Time Warner Cable Ekes Out Another Win, To Face Monsanto In Worst Company Quarterfinals!
April 1, 2014
Two weeks ago, 32 bad businesses entered the Worst Company in America velodrome. But since they didn’t all bring their racing bikes with them, they just began beating the holy snot out of each other for our readers’ amusement. Giants fell, upstarts pulled upsets, and battle-hardened vets relived their glory days when they could more easily lay claim to the Golden Poo. Now, after two rounds of out-and-out, completely organized mayhem, eight contenders still stand, but to quote the greatest movie ever made in the history of films with the word “highlander” in the title: There can be only one. [More]
8 Things Companies Have Said That Sounded Like April Fool’s Jokes But Sadly Weren’t
By 4.1.14
For the calendar-challenged, we’ll point out that today is April 1, meaning the Internet is full of phony products, fake stories, doctored photos… so, you know, it’s like most days on the Internet. Rather than serve up a “United Charges Upgrade Fee For Merely Being Jealous Of First-Class Passengers” headline, or a post about Comcast CEO Brian Roberts giving up his job to play Gretl Von Trapp in a regional theater production of The Sound of Music, we’re looking back at some stories that would have been appropriate for April Fool’s. [More]
Comcast, Verizon March On To Worst Company Quarterfinals
March 31, 2014
Today, four of the biggest names in Consumerist news, including one former champ, fought it out in the Worst Company Sandbox of… Sand. Each member of this cruddy quartet may be deserving of the Golden Poo, but only two could move on the next round. [More]
Will Netflix Speeds Improve For Verizon, AT&T Internet Customers Anytime Soon?
By 3.31.14
Starting in the second half of 2013, Netflix speeds on several major Internet service providers began to sink drastically as the ISPs allowed Netflix downstream traffic to bottleneck, resulting in slow, fitful delivery to consumers who had paid Netflix for the service and the ISPs for broadband access. Earlier this year, Comcast speeds turned up out of their nosedive when the company made a profitable deal with Netflix, but what about everyone else? [More]
Let’s Count The Ways In Which The NY Times’ Love Letter To The Comcast Merger Is Full Of Bull
By 3.29.14
Yesterday, the NY Times’ “Common Sense” column demonstrated anything but common sense in a thinly-veiled love letter to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, who is apparently the savior of cable TV and will somehow bestow wonderful, magically-awesome levels of customer service on Time Warner Cable… if only those big-bad regulators in D.C. would just see what is so obviously a perfect deal for consumers. If only that were true. [More]
How Comcast Uses Low-Income Families To Look Good For Regulators
By 3.29.14
Back in 2011, Comcast launched a program to help low-income families. The program, Comcast Internet Essentials, lets certain families enroll in 5 MBps broadband for $10 a month. In timing that was completely coincidental we’re sure, shortly after announcing their plan to buy Time Warner Cable, Comcast announced an indefinite extension to the program. [More]
Sen. Franken Calls Comcast/Time Warner Cable Merger A “Terrible Deal For Consumers”
By 3.27.14
While Comcast has financial ties to numerous important members of the House and Senate, there are a few folks on Capitol Hill who have no problem speaking out against the cable company’s plan to expand its domination of the pay-TV and Internet business by acquiring Time Warner Cable and its millions of customers. Sen. Al Franken has already expressed concern about the merger, but yesterday he made his position on the matter very clear. [More]
Facebook Gets The Thumbs-Up From Haters, Takes Final Spot In Worst Company Not-So-Sweet 16
March 26, 2014
After more than a week of bloodshed, half of the contenders that dared to dip their toes into the Worst Company wading pool (stocked with laser-equipped piranha and some ill-tempered guppies) have been carried out in Consumerist-branded body bags. The 16 fighters that remain are bruised, but not broken, and one of them will soon be crowned with the coveted Golden Poo. [More]
TV Writers Come Out Against Comcast/Time Warner Cable Deal
By 3.26.14
Given that Comcast is already the nation’s largest cable and Internet provider and the owner of a broadcast TV network, multiple cable channels, numerous local TV stations, a major movie studio, some theme parks, and a partridge in a pear tree, you might assume that people who make their living selling scripts to Comcast-owned companies would be reluctant to bite the hand that feeds them. But last week, the Writer’s Guild of America asked the FCC to block Comcast’s pending $45 billion deal to buy Time Warner Cable. [More]
Apple, Comcast Chatting About Streaming TV Service That Would Make End-Run Around Net Neutrality
By 3.24.14
One of the biggest roadblocks for non-cable TV companies looking to get into the business of offering live TV service over the Internet is that these cable companies often control that “last mile” of Internet service to customers’ homes. Since the FCC’s net neutrality rules have been gutted — and ISPs now realizing they can charge tolls to content providers even if those rules were in place — the end-user might just get a TV screen full of blocky, stuttering visuals and intermittent audio. Apple is reportedly chatting with Comcast about a set-top box that would get around this concern by treating Apple’s stream differently than regular Internet traffic. [More]
When A Former Soviet Citizen Complains About Comcast’s Bureaucracy, You Know It’s Bad
By 3.21.14
Comcast is a former Worst Company In America champ and has already moved on to the second round of this year’s tournament, but how does Kabletown’s bureaucracy compare to the red tape of the Soviet Union? One émigré from the USSR says it’s worse. [More]
Not A Joke: Comcast Says No One Is More Dedicated To Net Neutrality Than It Is
By 3.20.14
A month ago, Comcast and Netflix seemed to be buddy-buddy when the streaming video service agreed to pay a price to end Comcast’s passive-aggressive efforts to make sure its customers had cruddy access to Netflix. Then today, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings had a not-so-nice word or two about his new paid-peering partner. [More]
Time Warner Cable CEO Has 80 Million Reasons To Root For Comcast Merger
By 3.20.14
Imagine you’re two months into your dream job, the one you’ve been groomed to get for years. You’ve finally gotten the chance to right a ship that has been veering off course for too long and prove that you’re a real titan of industry. You’d probably hate to then find out that you’ll be out of this job within a year or so… that is until you’re told that you’ll get a $79.9 million payoff to soothe your pain. [More]
Comcast, Abercrombie, Chase Victorious In First Day Of Worst Company Competition!
March 19, 2014
The 2014 Worst Company In America competition got off to a big start today with readers turning out in droves to vote on the tournament’s first three match-ups that saw a former Golden Poo champ flexing its muscle, a tournament mainstay making its case for the WCIA title, and the year’s first upset. [More]
Have Fun Breaking Down This Year’s Worst Company In America Bracket
March 18, 2014
The above bracket will be updated at the end of each day of WCIA competition to reflect that day’s results.
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After going through all of your nominations, then having y’all rank the contenders and eliminate the chaff from the wheat, we’re proud to present the first round match-ups for this year’s Worst Company in America tournament! [More]
Here Are Your Worst Company Contenders For 2014 — Help Us Seed The Brackets!
March 17, 2014
After sorting through a mountain of nomination e-mails, we’ve whittled down the field of competitors for this year’s Worst Company In America tournament to 40 bad businesses. Here’s your chance to have your say on how these players will square off in the bracket, and which bubble teams will get left out in the cold. [More]
