What is the Worst Company in America?

[InformationGeek]

Consumerist recently did a bracket where it took the worst companies America has the offer and pit them against each other to see which was the worst.  EA, a video game publisher, took first place beating out Bank of America and even AT&T.  The full listing can be found here:

http://consumerist.com/2012/04/worst-company-in-america-2012-final-death-match-bank-of-america-vs-ea.html

So, since everyone has their own different experiences with companies, I'm curious.  What do you consider the worst company in America, whether it be their shady dealings all the way to their costumer service?

It's hard for me to pick.  Wal-Mart, Comcast, and Activision are such good choices...

[lester1/2jr]

I'd disagree on Wal mart. I don't shop there myself but lots of people do and they seem happy with it. I'd put Goldman, CITI, JP Morgan amd BofA at the top, far above anyone else.

[moregore]

Dell Computers?

[Jack]

That thing with EA is just kind of comical.  One of the "reasons" they're voted worst is that they buy small independent developers - as if they're forced to sell their companies, and as if adding new talent to your own company is a bad thing.  And selling games that need patches after they're released - good grief, Bethesda gets the crown as far as that's concerned.  Fallout 3 was a buggy mess, Bethesda released DLC that had corrupt files and had to be taken off the market;  Fallout New Vegas was such a mess it was basically unplayable until Bethesda came out with the mega-patch 6 months after release;  the PS3 version of Skyrim was screwed up so Bethesda only made PC and Xbox 360 versions available to reviewers prior to launch - I mean, c'mon, that's outright fraud for chrissakes.

Not to mention that they're giving out a "worst of 2012" award when we're barely a quarter of the way into the year.

I actually sort of respect EA.  They made a basketball game, and when it was nearly finished and within a few weeks of being released, they decided it wasn't good enough and canned it.  I'm sure they lost millions - if not tens of millions - on that, and I can't think of any other publisher that would do something like that.  Once again, Bethesda released a game called "Rogue Warrior", with a two-hour campaign and a big 28/100 Metacritic rating.  No thought of canning the thing at all - they managed to get $60 from a lot of poor suckers on that.  

And they talk about how EA nickels and dimes their customers to death - as if that's worse than Netflix doubling their prices  

[Doggett]

Platinum Dunes...

[The Burgomaster]

A few years ago I would have said Verizon.  It took 9 months, dozens of telephone calls to customer service, and ultimately a letter to the President of Verizon before they corrected a telephone bill screw up.  At one point, they even turned off my phone.  Bastards.  But I haven't had any major problems with them since then.

[Jim H]

And selling games that need patches after they're released

The bigger issue is there's significant evidence of EA yanking content out of games pre-release to later sell as DLC.  That annoys the hell out of everyone.

I'd say you have a very good point about Bethesda though.  They've had PS3 versions of games sold that were so flawed a return to store would be warranted.  Selling a defective product is definitely worse than an incomplete one.

[Jack]

And selling games that need patches after they're released

The bigger issue is there's significant evidence of EA yanking content out of games pre-release to later sell as DLC.  That annoys the hell out of everyone.

Capcom does that all the time, from Resident Evil 5 to Raccoon City and most recently Street Fighter X Tekken.  They even go so far as to say that they see no difference between on-disk DLC and actual DLC.   

[Leah]

That thing with EA is just kind of comical.  One of the "reasons" they're voted worst is that they buy small independent developers - as if they're forced to sell their companies, and as if adding new talent to your own company is a bad thing.  And selling games that need patches after they're released - good grief, Bethesda gets the crown as far as that's concerned.  Fallout 3 was a buggy mess, Bethesda released DLC that had corrupt files and had to be taken off the market;  Fallout New Vegas was such a mess it was basically unplayable until Bethesda came out with the mega-patch 6 months after release;  the PS3 version of Skyrim was screwed up so Bethesda only made PC and Xbox 360 versions available to reviewers prior to launch - I mean, c'mon, that's outright fraud for chrissakes.

Not to mention that they're giving out a "worst of 2012" award when we're barely a quarter of the way into the year.

I actually sort of respect EA.  They made a basketball game, and when it was nearly finished and within a few weeks of being released, they decided it wasn't good enough and canned it.  I'm sure they lost millions - if not tens of millions - on that, and I can't think of any other publisher that would do something like that.  Once again, Bethesda released a game called "Rogue Warrior", with a two-hour campaign and a big 28/100 Metacritic rating.  No thought of canning the thing at all - they managed to get $60 from a lot of poor suckers on that.  

And they talk about how EA nickels and dimes their customers to death - as if that's worse than Netflix doubling their prices  

the only game series I like from EA is NFS. other than that, they suck

As far as gaming goes, Capcom is up there, say with Marvel Vs. Capcom 3; not to mention that some Youtube accounts were deleted because of what Capcom does

[bob]

[InformationGeek]

Now there's a blast from the past!

Capcom does that all the time, from Resident Evil 5 to Raccoon City and most recently Street Fighter X Tekken.  They even go so far as to say that they see no difference between on-disk DLC and actual DLC.   

OH yeah, Capcom is really getting bad with this DLC stuff.  I believe in a fan vote, they were recently voted the second worst video game company, just losing out to Activision.

[Leah]

hmm, seems that EA won, yet I believe that this is mostly based on gamers point of view, since the Rolling Stones did an article on BofA: Warning: Political Warfare isn't allowed on this:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/bank-of-america-too-crooked-to-fail-20120314

[bob]

Now there's a blast from the past!

I used to work there

my boss tried to convince me to drop out of school to sell their overpriced crap....while recruiting victims at my college

[Hammock Rider]

Monsanto.

[Ed, Ego and Superego]

In the last two years Comcast in our area has been crazy for the customer service.  They have won back a lot of my lost loyalty for being competent polite and accomodating.