Comcast ‘Wins’ Contest for America’s Worst Company

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Drumroll, please. The award for America’s worst company for 2014 goes to … Comcast.

The cable giant was neck and neck with Monsanto, which produces and sells herbicides like Roundup and enormously controversial genetically enhanced seeds. But in the end, Comcast held the lead in the annual poll, the Consumerist said. It won by a slight 3 percentage points.

This is not the first time Comcast has received the dubious distinction of being named the country’s worst company. Consumerist said Comcast won in 2010 as well. It is one of just two companies to be “victorious” in the annual worst company poll more than once.

This is how Consumerist describes Comcast:

Not so long ago, Comcast was just another inept large cable operator that, like its kin, didn’t care about shoddy service; techs who may or may not show up; questionable billing procedures; and charging fees for everything under the sun. But in the last five years, Comcast showed that it could somehow convince federal regulators that it should also be allowed to buy a major broadcaster/movie studio/cable network by promising it wouldn’t suck as much and paying lip service to the notion of providing Internet access to low-income families.

Consumerist’s Golden Poo award was announced on the same day that Comcast and Time Warner Cable filed their merger proposal paperwork with the Federal Communications Commission. Comcast is trying to persuade Congress that its takeover of Time Warner Cable would benefit the public.

But according to The Huffington Post, Comcast hasn’t made clear what “benefits” (besides an improved DVR) exist for consumers.

And the company’s top lobbyist has admitted, “We’re certainly not promising that customer bills are going to go down or that they’ll increase less rapidly.”

But we might get better DVRs, so there’s that.

If the merger is approved, “Comcast will control nearly 50 percent of the truly high-speed Internet market, and it will be the only broadband provider that can deliver Internet and pay-TV services to nearly 4 out of every 10 U.S. homes,” HuffPo said.

What do you think of Comcast winning its second Golden Poo award from Consumerist? Share your comments below or on our Facebook page.

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