Comcast 'wins' Consumerist worst-company tournament

The votes are in, and Comcast has won Consumerist's uncoveted "Worst Company in America" award.

The Philadelphia telecom firm beat runner-up Ticketmaster in the last round of voting by a margin of 59 to 41 percent -- ending a two-year losing streak that saw it crushed by AIG in 2009 and run over by Countrywide Home Loans in 2008.

This year, Comcast faced a smoother road to victory in the NCAA-tournament-style competition of Consumerist, a snarky blog acquired by Consumer Reports at the end of 2008. Not even the personal lobbying of Comcast customer service director Frank Eliason in comments slowed its campaign. (You may know Eliason on Twitter as "comcastcares"; between that and his showing on Consumerist's message boards, I think he's more than earned a raise.)

Comcast's less-"successful" rivals included fellow final four contenders Bank of America, Cash4Gold and Ticketmaster, plus 28 other companies; all were nominated by Consumerist readers in March before voting kicked off a month ago. As usual, the computing, telecom, airline and credit-card industries made strong showings.

For its troubles, Comcast gets a small sculpture that Consumerist describes as "the Golden Poo" and the dubious honor of being mentioned in stories like this. Spokeswoman Jenni Moyer was a good sport when asked for comment; instead of the usual tournament complaints about biased officiating, unfair seedings and Duke University, she e-mailed this statement:

We're working everyday to improve our customers' experiences with us, including offering a Customer Guarantee that's backed by significant operational changes. We've taken steps over the past two years to improve our product reliability and service, and if a problem does occur, we work to quickly to resolve it, find the root cause and make changes so it won't happen again. Our goal is to provide a consistently positive experience at every point in a customer's relationship with us, and the Guarantee clearly outlines what we're doing to hold ourselves accountable to live up to their expectations.

Would you have voted with the majority of Consumerist's users? Second-guess or commend their decision in the comments!