Comcast Takes 2014 Prize For Worst Company In America 195
halfEvilTech writes with news that Comcast has emerged victorious from Consumerist's annual Worst Company In America contest. Comcast narrowly edged out Monsanto in the finals with 51.5% of the vote. The reigning champion for the past two years, Electronic Arts, lost in the first round to Time Warner Cable. TWC made the quarterfinals, which is notable because Comcast has proposed a merger with TWC. In fact, Comcast submitted an FCC filing today explaining why they think the deal should be allowed. They say, 'the companies don’t overlap or compete against each other.' Other strong contenders for the Worst Company in America included Chase, SeaWorld, Wal-Mart, Bank of America, and Verizon.
What a joke (Score:5, Insightful)
A video game company that makes shitty games.
Giant banking and investment firms that literally rend the economy that results in massive layoffs.
These two shouldn't even be in the same running.
Re:What a joke (Score:5, Insightful)
It could more accurately be called "the companies that geeks hate the most".
Re:What a joke (Score:5, Informative)
No, noneeks hate them as well.
Overcharging for Internet and Cable TV, Bad service, bad Customer service, refusal to listen to customers, refusal to fix customer problems if it costs money (Cables are under water and causing major problems...)
Even the employees that work there hate the company.
Re:What a joke (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah, my hatred for them runs deep, and far beyond my geek wish for internet with no cable.
They raised the rent on my old-ass cable modem. First from $3/month to $7/month, and then this year to $8/month. This for something that has probably been depreciated for years. Can you imagine if you brought home your new car and a year into the lease they doubled the "rent"? What a fucking ballsy move.
Dealing with their contractors is like something out of a movie. They apparently get paid by the service and not by the service call, because they never fail to find something "wrong" - and then proceed to "fix" it in the most ghetto way possible. Sorry I'm two hours late. This brand-new carefully-routed cable line? It's "old" and needs to be replaced. Here, let me drill a hole in your hardwood floor and leave the replacement hanging along the ceiling of your basement. Oh, that line up on the pole where you can see the shielding from the street because squirrels have been chewing on it? I can't fix that - you should really call customer service.
Thanks to Comcast, Verizon is not my most hated company. And that's impressive, because Verizon is basically dedicated to ruining your day. But they are of the bumbling, hilarious variety of evil. Like an evil Shemp from The Three Stooges.
Re:What a joke (Score:5, Insightful)
Then why aren't you buying your own modem for less than $50 and saving yourself the money every month? I mean, I get it, I think Comcast is for the birds too but honestly bitching about something you can buy yourself and they'll absolutely allow you to take on all the risk for is not something to choose to complain about.
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^^^ This. I bought an officially branded Comcast MODEM on ebay for $21 after shipping. It paid for itself in just 3 months, and hasn't given me a lick of trouble in YEARS.
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I paid more than $21 for my motorola modem. But 9 months later I've recouped that cost and don't have to worry about what shenanegins Comcast might be playing with the firmware. I know that doesn't do any th
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I did.
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I had 2 options when provisioning UVerse.
Provision a multi-service line (and pay monthly for their modem/router) - or - Provision an Internet-only line and pay a one-time fee for their modem/router.
I did my research. The modems are different, and the line is provisioned differently. With the multi-service modem (even if I downgraded to internet only) I could setup passthrough and handle things with my own router. With the one-time-fee router, that functionality was blocked. Also, provisioning the line for m
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I have u-verse internet only service. I assumed in advance that only their routers would work with their protocols (I assumed it was true for comcast but guess I was wrong). I don't deal with networking a lot, so I 'm not really sure what passthrough is. Sounds like you could get a second router but I'm not sure what that buys you (except maybe to get better wifi which it needs).
But it was so much better than my previous earthlink that I didn't notice anything wrong (ie, it only served one MAC address at
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- The device provided by your ISP is almost guaranteed to be the cheapest crap they can get away with calling an Integrated Service Router; It will fall ov
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Then why aren't you buying your own modem for less than $ ......
Yes and note well that comcast has begun playing games and selling
WiFi connectivity to the likes of AT&T to pump up their bandwidth
failure.
Since Comcast owns the hardware they have started installing modified
software and opening up "guest" accounts that they control.
So far they seem to have taken off some endpoint bandwidth caps
and those that have identified this do not seem to suffer bandwidth losts
HOWEVER you pay for the power and they sell a service.
IMO, If they sell a service that is available 7x24
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They raised the rent on my old-ass cable modem. First from $3/month to $7/month, and then this year to $8/month. This for something that has probably been depreciated for years. Can you imagine if you brought home your new car and a year into the lease they doubled the "rent"? What a fucking ballsy move.
They're thinking like landlords with an apartment building... and, someday, your modem will die and they'll have to give you another one - $40 out of their pocket, gotta bank up for the day that happens.
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Sounds like my DirecTV slightly. I have the tivo version, and while I own it outright they charge a fee for tivo service which has slowly gone up over time (now I think it's $10/mo). The new DirecTV+Tivo that they're advertising however can not be purchased outright, and you pay $10/mo rental but without the tivo fee (ha!).
Overall though DirecTV has been vastly cheaper than comcast so I can't complain too much. Just over time it's been rising to where it's $70/month total which seems high (including stup
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That's what you get for renting their modem, doh.
Well, at $3/month it seemed reasonable. A new modem was in the range of $100, so payback period seemed close to the life of the device. Now that a brand new DOCSIS 3.0 modem costs $60 and they charge $8/month? You are damned right I stopped renting!
And no, I'm not a transient per se - but the neighbors have FIOS and so I'm under the delusion that I'll get it too. My relationship with Comcast ends when FIOS shows up.
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"Even the employees that work there hate the company."
But isn't that true of a very large fraction of companies in the world?
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Company giving you bad cell/internet service is considered more important (and as a result worse) than company that on a global scale potentially causes health problems and effectively attempts to control which food you'll be allowed to eat?
Priorities?
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Yes. I'm surprised American Excuse...er...American Express didn't win. They don't suck, they swallow.
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A video game company that makes shitty games.
Giant banking and investment firms that literally rend the economy that results in massive layoffs.
Welcome to the same discussion about the Worst Company In America that has been going on for the last 3 years.
Re:What a joke (Score:4, Informative)
Not necessarily the worst PR so much as the worst customer relations. If a bank implemented some of the same business practices that EA was using for its customers then you would see a lot more financial problems and angry people.
It's also highly related to recent well-publicized incidents. You can see that with SeaWorld, for example. In 2012 I think EA won because of Mass Effect 3, and in 2013 it was because of SimCity. They haven't done anything lately to piss off a lot of people even though they're probably still using a lot of the same practices. Most of the banks seem to be keeping their heads down as well. Comcast, however, has been in the news.
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Not insightful, a troll at best.
Yeah, EA is a gaming company, that survives by taking money from people in exchange for shitty, overhyped products AND they have a tendency to buy smaller company that used to ship good and great products, only to apply to them the EA quality factor of zero, and basically put them to sleep, repeatedly.
Sure, they don't make tuberculosis medicine or guidance systems for airplanes. But they have hundreds of thousands people working for them at any given rate and those are pretty
Re:What a joke (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, EA is a gaming company, that survives by taking money from people in exchange for shitty, overhyped products
As opposed to financial companies that survive by taking money from people in exchange for ruining the global economy.
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Yeah, EA is a gaming company, that survives by taking money from people in exchange for shitty, overhyped products
As opposed to financial companies that survive by taking money from people in exchange for ruining the global economy.
The award was for the worst company in America, not the most evil. By the sounds of it, this bank you're talking about has been quite successful in its goals.
Re:What a joke (Score:5, Insightful)
You define 'worst' in the wrong way for this 'contest'.
It's not what company does the most damage to the world. No. That list is far too tough for the consumerist to tackle.
It's what company runs their business the worst AND pisses off the most of their customers seemingly on purpose.
Who really fucks people over but doesn't really NEED to.
Who is the most clueless bunch of fucktards running a big business you are forced to deal with sometimes in your normal life.
Can you say that's not EA? Can you say that's not Comcast? Nope. Exactly.
In terms of absolute 'worst' for the planet or america or just humans in general.. Most of these companys would not be listed.
We won't even dare try to make that contest... It's too fucking scary.
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It depends on what your metric is. I'd be willing to bet that these kinds of companies cause more direct, day to day anger and frustration for a large number of people. Rather then the much more indirect activities of banks.
Re:What a joke (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't see why Monsanto is in this. GMO is a good thing; it currently plays a major role in the green revolution that is quite literally ending world hunger. There is no credible evidence of it being harmful. Monsanto isn't the only company behind it. The patent infringement lawsuit wasn't over what the majority seem to think it was over (the ONE farmer that was sued actually deliberately knew he was infringing, and they quite conclusively proved it; this wasn't a case of random cross-pollination.)
The biggest groups against Monsanto are mainly the organic farmers, and they actually have a set of much more nefarious motives:
- Organic farming makes much higher profit margins than GMO, so there IS money in it for them. Lots and lots of money. GMO is their biggest competitor, so it only makes sense for them to demonize it. Sadly, the hipsters have bought into it, and usually they are the least likely to buy into propaganda.
- Reverting to Organic farming will destroy the green revolution, and countries like India will once again see famine if that came to pass.
- Organic farming requires much more landmass than modern methods. If you're an environmentalist of any sort, you should very much be against organic farming as it necessitates e.g. deforestation.
- There aren't enough natural resources in the world to sustain the current human population with organic farming (hence point number 2.)
Being anti-GMO is every bit as destructive, stupid, and naive as being anti-vaccination, and it's about time that people realize this.
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I don't see why Monsanto is in this. GMO is a good thing; it currently plays a major role in the green revolution that is quite literally ending world hunger.
Are you a shill? You sure sound like one. The world already produces enough food for everyone, it simply isn't properly distributed. That "world hunger" jingle is cynical bullshit.
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Perhaps people oppose Monsanto because of this tactic:
1) Claim a patent on seeds Monsanto makes.
2) Get some farmers to buy the seeds.
2 a) Lock the farmers in by stipulating that they can't take any seeds the plant produces and plant them again next year... like people have done for thousands of years!
3) Find a nearby farmer who isn't buying Monsanto and claim they they've planted Monsanto.
4) Find one instance of their plants growing on that farmer's land. (Ignore that seeds travel by air/animals and spre
Times have changed (Score:3, Informative)
Quality of internet access is viewed as more important than food quality.
Re:Times have changed (Score:5, Insightful)
If food quality was important McDonald's would not exist.
Re:Times have changed (Score:5, Insightful)
Depends on what you call "quality". I assume you are speaking from a first world point of view, regarding nutrition values, calories, fat, salt and whatnot. Sure, ol'McD [sorry] isn't as healthy as a whole-food salad and salmon plate. But compared to street food found in most 3rd world countries, a Big Mac is usually safer.
It's junk food, and will probably kill you, just not from dysenteria.
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But its evil GMO!
Has it gone too far lately without proper testing and oversight? Perhaps, but If it wasn't for GMO we might all be starving at this point..
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Americans may eat a lousy bunch of fast,junk food, but at the same time we seem to be living a lot longer than my grandparents generation. .....snip....
With the existing data this does not seem to hold up. In populations where it can be measured
in the US there seems to be at best a two year advantage. That alone might be counted
by improvements in pneumonia treatment.
Now the obese generation in their 40s +/- may prove an entirely different set of
complications and medical issues. Perhaps the push to eliminate tobacco will
balance the scales but obesity is going to hammer quality of life in old age metrics.
first world problems... (Score:3, Funny)
don't get me wrong though. slightly bad hi-speed internet and cable TV service is right up there with starvation and ethnic cleansing.
Americans sure like to bitch about stuff.
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It's just as wrong to ignore them because someone else is doing something worse.
Exactly - that's precisely how our "first world" problems become nightmares. Papers and sexual molestation while boarding planes? No big deal - it's not like we're Iran. Widespread surveillance on everyone, in violation of the Constitution? Psshaw, at least we're not in Somalia.
Invading another country due to dubious circumstances? LOOK OVER THERE! NORTH KOREA! LOL!
The, "But, but, those other people are doing worse things!" crowd is perhaps the largest danger ever visited upon free and responsibl
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The real irony is that you've confused Iran and Israel.
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It appears you are confused. The Israelis also have agents that supposedly have special abilities in reading body-language as well, so that part of the description could apply to both places, however the mention of not "singling out someone by their heritage" makes it clear we are referring to Iran not Israel. The Israelis single people out according to heritage as explicit policy, as many US Citizen of Palestinian heritage have been made painfully aware.
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I would rather just not have government thugs harassing people in airports. Screw any 'safety' that this may provide; I'll do without.
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...starvation and ethnic cleansing.
I did not see that on the telefied looky box, my Comcast cable went out.
Can I vote for the Federal Government? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Can I vote for the Federal Government? (Score:5, Funny)
They are not a corporation. They are owned by corporations.
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I've looked at the so called 3rd party options to the Democrats and Republicans.
You weren't looking very hard.
They are all worse.
What could be worse than the Patriot Act, draconian copyright laws, free speech zones, constitution-free zones, DUI checkpoints, the NSA's mass surveillance, the drug war, the TSA, any war we've fought in the last several decades, unfettered border searches, stop-and-frisk, mass surveillance of public places, and all the other garbage the two main parties have subjected us to? In "the land of the free", freedom should be considered the most important issue, so even a party with
Well Deserved (Score:5, Informative)
My dealings with Comcast have been few but boy have they been terrible. From being accused of stealing their equipment, to getting billed seven times in a single month, I've had a lifetime of customer dissatisfaction in just a few short months of dealing with them. Well deserved honor Comcast.
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I've had a lifetime of customer dissatisfaction in just a few short months of dealing with them.
Well, what do you expect?
Why would a monopoly bother to serve their (captive) customers well?
If we don't create significant viable competition, this will continue. No amount of public shaming will help.
Re:Well Deserved (Score:4, Interesting)
Until I bought an antenna. Boy, they must hate that, eh?
Re:Well Deserved (Score:4, Insightful)
Until I bought an antenna. Boy, they must hate that, eh?
^^ This a million times. If you don't like Comcast, TWC, etc., give them the middle finger and cancel your TV service. Put up a decent antenna, perhaps buy a TiVo if you want a turnkey DVR appliance with a good UI (and pay their outrageous one-time service fee), and enjoy your uncompressed HD content from all the major broadcast networks.
I'm *still* stuck paying into the local cable monopoly to get internet access, but I'm paying them a lot less than I was before. It didn't take me long to break even on my antenna/wiring/tivo/etc costs.
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Not everyone can have an antenna, sorry. (Score:2)
I live in the bottom of a little valley, and I'd need a hundred foot tower to get more than two TV stations.
In my state, it's illegal to have a tower so tall that it could fall outside your property line. My property isn't two hundred feet wide, so no go.
But I ditched Comcast anyway and got Verizon instead. Verizon sucks too, but marginally less, and the FIOS technology is nice, at least, even if the provider isn't.
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Got three antennas and goodbye to Comcast. I have helped two other families do the same, good for the budget.
Seems dubious to me. (Score:3, Insightful)
I have to question the methodology here, I doubt that one in three people have even heard of Monsanto and have any idea what they do.
Not defending Monsanto but this smells like a targeted "survey" from a group with an agenda.
Just my $0.02
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This is only one data point, but it seems like every third forward on my Facebook account is another anti-Monsanto amateur ad. Going by that, I would say that quite a few people have heard the name. Whether they are really acquainted with the issues, of course, is a different matter.
Re:Seems dubious to me. (Score:4, Insightful)
Ya... AC who thinks no one knows who Monsanto is sounds like a targeted "shill" trying to discredit the survey!
Honestly Monsanto is the food industry's Comcast. They are HUGE and virtually unavoidable in that space. They produce a bunch of probably fine products (I'm FAR from Anti-GMO in my personal sentiments and IF Comcast were my ISP I'd be getting better bandwidth than I am at the moment) BUT they perform their business in the most despicable ways (Which makes it really hard to defend GMO when they are the poster-child.)
Both organizations are severely guilty of criminally Anti-competitive activities yet the U.S. Gov't seems unwilling or able to prosecute. (Add to that list Ticketmaster/Live Nation... how the $%c& did they approve *that merger?!) so it's probably a forgone conclusion that Comcast+TWC will happen eventually if not now.
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I'd bet less than one in a hundred people on the street could tell you who Monsanto is. Just because they're notorious here means nothing in the real world.
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Re:Seems dubious to me. (Score:5, Informative)
Not sure which 'real world' you live in but nearly 100% of the people in my sphere know who Monsanto is (whether they are casually aware, blindly reactionary or truly informed about what they do aside). I don't know everyone so my own anecdotal statistics are only worth what they are BUT I'm personally aware of entire classes of people who are intimately aware of Monsanto that amount to WAY more than 1% of the U.S. at least. Numerous foreign governments have banned their products so there is a decent amount of international awareness (or at least fear of the concept/unknown).
Roughly 1% of our country work in the Ag business and I guarantee *all of them are intimately aware of Monsanto and their dealings. (numbers not accounted for above... I don't spend much time in the Agricultural community)
Sorry your circles are not in the know but frankly your sample seems to be a bit off from the whole.
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I think it would be an interesting survey. Too bad Jay Leno is retired as this would be an interesting "Jaywalking" question. Maybe one in a hundred is off a little but I'm sure that most people wouldn't know. The only place I hear much about them is on slashdot and they never come up in a casual conversation. No doubt an agricultural environment would be much more aware of them.
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Sorry your circles are not in the know but frankly your sample seems to be a bit off from the whole.
Whereas yours is perfectly representative?
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take for example a bunch of stupid anti-Monsanto slides that have come out in the past few weeks about how another country banned all of their products. If you go read the real reason you find it was only banned in one portion of th country and only certain products and the reason was that country was afraid of uprising and the products chemicals could be used to make explosives.
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Monsanto is the reason my grandfather was diagnosed with prostate cancer several years ago (and why he received a nice settlement as part of a class action suit).
Monsanto is an Intellectual Property extremist (Score:3)
Heck yeah, we know who Monsanto is. They're the scum who want to patent plant reproduction, and sue farmers for farming. If anything can give a company lots of bad press everywhere, not just in geek circles, it's victimizing innocent farmers with complicated legalese over a grossly obvious right. Aside from the huge problem of that ultimately leading to needing their permission to eat, they don't care if that also leads to the RIAA and MPAA winning the right to force DRM on everyone, and Big Pharma paten
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I've been quite pleased with the quality of Monsanto products. I use RoundUP grass and weed killer to keep my landscaping tidy without fail.
I'm sure those in the agriculture industry also appreciate their service. I don't agree with some of their offerings but from a customer service standpoint I have no complaints.
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To begin with, it's absolute garbage that you even need their permission. Our system is fucked, and they're corrupt pieces of shit for making use of it.
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Here it is:
Monsanto using MPAA and RIAA tactics (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Tue Apr 08, '14 06:24 PM (#46700087)
Monsanto and Cargil do some really shitty things with their IP when it comes to their seeds - like suing farmers for having Monsanto's crops growing in their fields when they weren't purchased and suing seed washers [time.com] for alleged violations of IP.
That wasn't a case of cross-pollination at all, that was a case of a farmer (who normally used Monsanto seed and had a contract with them) buying soybeans intended for consumption, planting them and spraying them with roundup to kill any non-roundup ready stock, then using that seed stock year after year for planting. The supreme court ruled (9-0) that he was intentionally violating the patent that Monsanto holds on that variety of Soy. Bowman's defense was "patent exhaustion", basically the right to sell
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Do you really think that's fair?
To the E.T. Video game that is...
Mass Suckage (Score:2)
All the telecom oligopolies should get the award. Consumer choice, reliability, and customer service are in the crapper. I live in a well-populated suburb near a major city and we have shit choices, just like everybody else. Jeez Louise!
Back up your vote with your wallet (Score:4, Insightful)
One big problem here is that on one hand people say EA is the worst company in America and then turn around and go out and buy the latest EA game. Companies will listen, but only if you affect them where it matters: the bottom line. No one at these companies gives a shit about this survey.
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Exactly, it's near impossible. And these companies are lobbying hard to remove options that allow consumers to vote with their wallets. We need more than just individual economic pressure to have any realistic impact on companies this big.
Another problem is that people really underestimate individual economic pressure. I know too many people my age (mid 20s) who automatically give up and say that there is no way they can make a difference so why even try. They expect someone else to make the sacrifice and work to address the problem. Look at Target's profits in the wake of their little credit card fiasco:
The widespread theft of Target customer data had a significant impact on the company’s profit, which fell more than 40 percent in the fourth quarter, the retailer reported on Wednesday. The company said net earnings were $520 million in the quarter, down 46 percent from the same period a year earlier, when earnings were $961 million.
Source: New York Times [nytimes.com]
These companies don't magically make money regardless of what consumers do, they make money because consumers wil
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Yes, but if you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem. As mentioned, sometimes it's tough to break away from your "bad" company (personal examples below), but just like with anything else, you do everything that you can. If you can't do any more, then it's not worth sweating...but if you CAN do more, and you don't, then the fault lies with you.
Example, I've attempted to break away from AT&T. I've been grandfathered into their unlimited data plan, so I'm not in a big hurry to rush awa
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How many thousands of people voted in this survey? If half of them boycotted the companies they voted for for the period of one year the companies would take notice.
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I know its near impossible with a few of these companies since they are oligarchies but I feel that in order to vote for one of these companies you also should make a personal pledge to avoid doing business with the companies you vote for.
Aren't the companies you hate typically the ones you're stuck with? If there were good alternatives you'd obviously use them and your opinion would never go much past being shitty, but if you know they have you over a barrel and worse, they know as well but you can't find any better option than to suffer through it - that's when you hate. Like the boss you hate but you can't quit because you need the paycheck and the job market is horrible. Or the obnoxious neighbors who aren't bad enough to get evicted or
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I could have fought it but decided it just wasn't worth the effort. Sometimes, life's too short.
They know that, that's why they win.
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They need a radioactive lead (Score:2)
trophy.
One marginally withing NRC limits. ;)
As a Comcast customer... (Score:2)
Not Electronic Arts; Dice (BF4) sigh... (Score:2)
I really expected them to pull it off again this year. Comcast, and Time Warner Cable must really be a crappy company to beat out Electronic Arts,
BF4 was one fouled up game release, Electronic Arts was even sued over the money they made by talking up a broken game (Battlefield 4), and having Dice release it much earlier than it should of been.
I am disappointed.
Not as bad as all that... (Score:2)
Were number one! (Score:4, Funny)
I bet there was an office party after hearing this, as you know Comcast goes out of its way to be a PITA. It cant be by accident.
Come on... really? (Score:2)
Shell.
unfair! (Score:2)
Comcast starts out against Yahoo! and Facebook, two complete weenies compared to the companies Time Warner had to beat get the spot. Take EA, Koch, and Salie Mae, and put them in a blender and you won't get a mixture. All 3 turds have the exact same stink and consistency. It says a lot to see Monsato come out dirtier than a company that fought its way through that pile. Time Warner totally should have won.
Nothing Sucks Like Comcast (Score:2)
They are the WORST. They are the biggest reason why I am a big supporter of municipal cable. When they have it, they abuse consumers with their monopoly power to the max.
Rather interesting (Score:2)
A pattern emerges. (Score:3)
I was curious about historical results of this poll, so I did some digging.
2009 - AIG - Bailed out in 2008, makes big news for giving executives $165M in executive bonuses, $1.2B in total bonuses.
2010 - Comcast - Makes big news by buying NBCUniversal in 2009.
2011 - BP - Deepwater Horizon happened in 2010
2012 - EA - Mass Effect 3 (Not sure how much news this generated, but someone mentioned it above.)
2013 - EA - SimCity's problems made news. Not on the same level as, say BP in 2010, but it certainly came up outside of tech and gaming sites occasionally.
2014 - Comcast - Makes news by trying to buy TWC.
I'm noticing a bit of a pattern here. (Though there does seem to be a bit of a tech bias, unless someone did something particularly egregious.)
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And this is not the case with them as separate entities?
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The food safety alarmists are all about FUD. However there is a serious problem of pesticide producing crops destroying critical parts of the ecosystem needed to sustain pollination (bees and butterflies for instance). There is legitimate reason for concern about the overuse of these sorts of crops.
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