Comcast was named the "Worst Company in America" in a Consumerist poll yesterday, and the cable giant knows it has room for improvement.

While the nation's largest cable and broadband provider hasn't fared quite so poorly in some other rankings, Comcast Executive VP David Cohen told the Senate Judiciary Committee today that "it bothers us that we have so much trouble delivering a really high quality service level to customers on a consistent basis. It is not something we're ignoring."

"We have spent billions of dollars over the last five years improving our networks to try to make them more reliable," he said. Comcast has also improved training of call center employees and increased reliability in getting to customer homes within one- and two-hour appointment windows.

"We are deeply disappointed as to where we are," Cohen said. The good news is that the poor survey results and conversations with Congress are spurring Comcast to do better, he said.

"It's a good way to focus us," Cohen said. "We are totally open to the fact that sometimes we need a kick in the butt to focus on things that are important."

Comcast was in front of the Senate committee to argue on behalf of its proposed $45.2 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable. Comcast has argued that being larger will help it improve service levels for two customer bases that often express frustration with their Internet and TV service.

Cohen previously said Comcast is "certainly not promising that customer bills are going to go down or even increase less rapidly" as a result of the TWC acquisition. Other factors beyond the acquisition cause prices to rise. "There is nothing in this transaction that will cause cable bills to go up," he said today.