What happens when you take companies many Americans love to hate and place them into something we all love to love – namely, a tournament bracket? Welcome to The Consumerist’s Worst Company in America 2012 tourney!
Many of us have companies out there that we just simply detest. Maybe Comcast didn’t show up this year to install your cable. Maybe a Target cashier was rude to you and wouldn’t allow you to return something. Maybe you’re just a spiteful human being who enjoys anything that fosters enmity. If so, then the real tournament match-ups aren’t between Wichita State and VCU, or Vanderbilt and Harvard, or a possible Kentucky/North Carolina championship. Instead, it’s favorite Netflix vs. that upstart GameStop. Or the tenacious Spirit vs. that perennial top seed Delta. And maybe, if we’re lucky, we could see the top-ranked U.S. Postal Service go head-to-head against student loan giant Sallie Mae.
Personal finance site Consumerist has compiled a slate of companies often derided to face off in a 5-round tournament for the ultimate prize in animosity: The Golden Poo. The winner will be announced April 4.
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Telecom companies such as DirecTV, Dish Network and TimeWarnerCable have a total of 9 spots in the bracket. (Think of them as the Big East Conference.) Then you’ve got financial services spots (the Big Ten, if you will), which include PayPal and CapitalOne. From the mid-majors you’ve got video game maker Electronic Arts, AT&T and UPS, among many others.
So if you’re not in the mood for a college basketball tourney, you can let your anger out and vote on the worst company in the world in a different kind of March Madness — one where the emphasis is on mad.