CNET

It's not been an easy week for Comcast's customer service.

A recording in which a Comcast retention specialist harangued a customer to within an inch of asphyxiation was released to much kvetching.

The company apologized profusely for a tactic that some feared reflected exactly how it trained its customer service staff.

Comcast has long been troubled by a reputation for customer disservice. So I would like to bring it some relief.

In a survey organized by Ranker, almost 14,000 participants insisted that Comcast's was not, in fact, the worst customer service in America. Not at all. Comcast came in a relatively satisfying 6th worst.

Those of critical bent might be wondering who might have succeeded to defeating Comcast's best (worst) efforts.

Well, at No. 5 were those nice people at American Airlines. At No. 4 lurked that apogee of hospitality, Walmart. At No. 3 was the bastion of populism, Bank of America and at No. 2 was, oddly, AT&T.

Yet just as Comcast's higher echelons might have been allowing themselves a marginally smug gurn, who appeared at No. 1?

No, you will never imagine. No, it cannot be. No, it surely can't be a company involved in some sort of business vaguely similar to Comcast's own.

Sadly for Comcast, it's worse than that.

It's the company which it is currently trying to urge beneath its king-size duvet. Yes, Time Warner Cable.

I have no evidence that Comcast intends to hire Richard Branson, Bono and the Dalai Lama to upgrade the customer service offering of the merged company.