EA was the ‘winner’ of Consumerist’s ‘Worst Company in America’ competition for the past two years running but, this year, they were actually knocked out in the first round by Time Warner Cable. So who did end up succeeding EA as the ‘worst company in America’?
It was Comcast, technically the world’s largest mass media and communications company in terms of revenue, a company that operates cable channels such as E Entertainment, and provides cable and internet connections.
Also: people hate them. Comcast’s customer satisfaction is typically and consistently one of the lowest ranked in the US and this result is testament to that.
Comcast beat out Monsanto in the finals, leaving companies like McDonalds, Walmart and Chase in their wake.
It’s sort of good to see EA removed from the top spot. EA has some customer service issues for sure, and its handling of releases like Sim City was questionable, but when you think of America’s worst companies, I don’t know if I’m comfortable with that company being one that makes video games. That seems a little off to me.
Regardless, the people have spoken. EA is dead, long live Comcast.
Comments
15 responses to “America Has A New Worst Company, And It’s Not EA…”
Not that surprising. The reason TW beat out EA in the first round is due to the upcoming merger with Comcast. The whole thing has managed to piss off two massive companies worth of custimers simultaneously.
and now EA will use this victory to justify last year.
This has always been a dubious competition anyway. Calling a company the “worst in America” based solely on how much customers whine about them is a bit much, and downplays the realy evil companies in the world.
At least when people hate Comcast they stop using them (if they can, which isn’t always an option depending where you live – which is why they get away with being so shit). People who complain about/boycott EA are still lining up to play Battlefield, Titanfall, Mass Effect, Dead Space etc.
Should probably call it ‘worst service in America’. Helps rule out the companies doing seriously bond villain shit in 3rd world countries that don’t actually immediately obviously affect anyone in America.
But I think you’re partly right… I think that the entire reason so many people hate Comcast is not just because they’re shitty, but because they’re shitty and the only option.
Edit: Also, I think that’s a big part of why people hated EA so much. You want to boycott them, condemn their practices, but they are holding some of the world’s greatest gaming IPs to ransom, so you either know you’re giving money to slime you hate, or you are forced to abandon something you truly love for the sake of principal. That’s a pretty fucking shitty set of choices. I’d resent someone responsible for giving me lose:lose choices as well.
Well, no one said sticking to your principles was easy.
I never had a problem with EA but even if I did I wouldn’t have given up playing Mass Effect 2 & 3, so I guess I’m still a hypocrite in theory.
I guess the biggest issue I have with people complaining about EA was that they didn’t want to have to install Origin to play EA games. People actually said this with no hint of irony, even while happily using Steam which has been a required install even for disc-based PC games for years.
There’s no irony involved there. It’s just like being told that you’re going to be forced to use Norton’s Anti-Virus when you’re happily using AVG.
People are happy with AVG?? Surely you jest…
I don’t think that’s a reasonable comparison, it’s not like you’re forced to use both at once in order to access one game. One or the other. It’s more like complaining all your books don’t fit on one shelf so sometimes you have to bend slightly to reach the lower one.
Unless you make heavy use of the Steam social platform – which I do – in which case turning off Steam means going on a social-play blackout. So actually yeah, it’s pretty spot-on for how I use it. I either close down the far superior program to let the inferior one do its thing, or I run both applications at the same time, savouring the redundancy. These are not great options to be celebrated.
Also these companies just affect your use of telecommunications/TV and games which are all luxuries. If we are talking truly evil you would be hard pressed to beat Monsanto or BP which do real environmental harm that affects us all.
Could we be considered hypocrites if we do buy EA games, and yet are aware of how horrible a company they can be? I do feel guilty of such, sometimes…
No more a hypocrite than a family who pays the ransom for a loved one.
EA are dickbags, but they’re holding to ransom a few game franchises we love.
So what you’re saying is that the next time EA release an Origin only game with heavy Australia Tax, we should refuse to pay the ransom and instead hire The A-Team for a daring, wacky and implausible rescue op. Gotcha.
Replace the A-Team with Skidrow or Reloaded and you are correct.
Like @dragar mentioned, that is… certainly an interpretation on what some people do.
I prefer my plan, more fool pitying