USA - Comcast is crowned Consumerist.Com's 2010 'Worst Company in America', Ticketmaster came second

[prnewswire] The fifth annual Consumerist.com's "Worst Company in America" tournament came to a close late last night and crowned Comcast as the Grand Champion, joining the likes of AIG, Countrywide and others. The final death match round which ran from Friday, April 23 through Sunday, April 25 was heated and pinned Comcast against top-seeded Ticketmaster.

The merge with NBC and consistent track record of inept customer service, created the perfect storm in Comcast's journey to seek redemption after placing runner-up in 2008 and 2009. With more than 9,000 votes being cast overall in the final match-up, Comcast is taking home the elegant golden poo trophy.

This year's runner-up, Ticketmaster, is no stranger to the final rounds of 'Worst Company in America,' having made it to the Final Four in 2009. Their impending merge with LiveNation to produce an uber monopoly on live events was sure to have pushed them into the final rounds this year.

"The match-ups witnessed in this year's tournament were intense," said Ben Popken, Co-Managing Editor of Consumerist.com. "Never did we think we would see certain companies, like Apple go as far as they did, and others like last year's winner AIG, drop out in the first round. We are honored to provide Comcast with the Golden Poo Award."

For six weeks the bracket-style, single elimination tournament, similar to the NCAA basketball tournament, plowed through 32 nominees in head-to-head match-ups, scaled down by Consumerist.com visitors' votes until the final round on Friday, April 23. Consumers were able to log on to Consumerist.com and participate in each round of the 'Worst Company in America' and chime in through comments on the site.

"This tournament is a vehicle for us to get a pulse on what companies did wrong throughout the year to consumers," said Meghann Marco, Co-Managing Editor of Consumerist.com. "This year it is clear that poor customer service, among other issues by Comcast really rubbed consumers the wrong way."

Be sure to check out Consumerist.com throughout the year for consumer-driven advice about dealing with everything from non-existent customer service to onerous cell-phone contracts to ever-shrinking (and ever-more-expensive) grocery products.

Comcast Is Crowned Consumerist.Com's 2010 'Worst Company in America'