Our friends at The Consumerist invite you to participate in the 2014 Worst Company in America contest. Readers are invited to cast a series of votes — one each day — to help narrow the field to the truly abysmal, the god-awful, and the despised. The ultimate winner receives the Golden Poo award.

Not surprisingly, the nation’s biggest telecom companies are among the regular finalists. The big ones are all there — Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, and AT&T.

Hated cable companies frequently beat down big banks like the vipers at Chase, where settlements in the hundreds of millions with the government for wrongdoing are almost a monthly occurrence. Voters would rather fly the Unfriendly Skies with Divided Airlines, Last Frontier Air — even US Scare — than deal with Comcast’s offshore customer service. The bad boys at Electronic Arts and Koch Industries bring knives to AT&T’s gunfight on good customer relations.

Over the last eight years, Comcast turned up as the big winner of the Golden Poo award in 2010 and either runner-up or third place in 2008, 2009, 2011, and 2013. AT&T achieved third place in 2012. Time Warner Cable and Verizon are usually eliminated in the finals, but their regular appearance on the nominations list is not something they can be proud of. Time Warner Cable has already managed to beat back EA, big winner in 2012 and 2013. So this year they might go all the way to the top… or is it bottom?

Despite claims of improved customer service and better broadband, Comcast and Time Warner Cable’s customer satisfaction scores are in near-free fall in the latest Consumer Reports National Research Center’s survey of consumers about their experiences with television and Internet services.

Although never popular with customers, both cable operators plummeted in the 2014 Consumer Reports ratings — Time Warner Cable is now only marginally above the perennial consumer disaster that is Mediacom. Comcast performs only slightly better.

In the view of Consumers Union, this provides ample evidence that two wrongs never make a right.

“Both Comcast and Time Warner Cable rank very poorly with consumers when it comes to value for the money and have earned low ratings for customer support,” said Delara Derakhshani.  “A merger combining these two huge companies would give Comcast even greater control over the cable and broadband Internet markets, leading to higher prices, fewer choices, and worse customer service for consumers.”

These ratings reflect Internet service only.

Comcast ranked 15th among 17 television service providers included in the ratings and earned particularly low marks from consumers for value for the money and customer support.  Time Warner ranked 16th overall for television service with particularly low ratings for value, reliability, and phone/online customer support.

Another ratings collapse for Comcast and Time Warner Cable

Comcast and Time Warner Cable were mediocre on overall satisfaction with Internet service.  Both companies received especially poor marks for value and low ratings for phone/online customer support.

“In an industry with a terrible track record with consumers, these two companies are among the worst when it comes to providing good value for the money,” said Derakhshani.  “The FCC and Department of Justice should stand with consumers and oppose this merger.”

For as long as Stop the Cap! has published, Mediacom has always achieved bottom of the barrel ratings, with satellite fraudband provider HughesNet — the choice of the truly desperate — scoring dead last for Internet service. We’re accustomed to seeing the usual bottom-raters like Frontier (DSL), Windstream (DSL), and FairPoint (DSL) on the south end of the list. But now both Comcast and Time Warner Cable have moved into the same seedy neighborhood of expensive and lousy service. Comcast couldn’t even beat the ratings for Verizon’s DSL service, which is now barely marketed at all. Time Warner Cable scored lower than CenturyLink’s DSL.

Breathing an ever-so-slight sigh of relief this year is Charter Communications, which used to compete with Mediacom for customer raspberries. It ‘rocketed up’ to 18th place.

If you want top-notch broadband service, you need to remember only one word: fiber. It’s the magical optical cable phone and cable companies keep claiming they have but largely don’t (except for Verizon and Cincinnati Bell, among a select few). If you have fiber to the home broadband, you are very happy again this year. If you are served by an independent cable company that threw away the book on customer abuse, you are relieved. Topping the ratings again this year among all cable operators is WOW!, which has a legendary reputation for customer service. Wave/Astound is in second place. Verizon and Frontier FiOS customers stay pleased, and even those signed up with Bright House Networks and Suddenlink report improved service.

Ratings are based on responses from 81,848 Consumer Reports readers. Once again they plainly expose Americans are not happy with their telecom options. The average cost of home communications measured by the Mintel Group is now $154 a month — $1,848 a year. That’s more expensive than the average homeowner’s clothing, furniture or electricity budget. The same issues driving the bad ratings last year are still there in 2014: shoveling TV channels at customers they don’t want or need, imposing sneaky new fees along with broad-based rate increases every year, low value for money, and customer service departments staffed by the Don’t Care Bears.

Gov. Cuomo

New York State is hardly overwhelmed with excitement over the merger of the nation’s largest and second-largest cable operators and is taking steps to give regulators enough power to derail the merger.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has decided the state will not be a bystander as the $45 billion deal is reviewed by federal regulators and is seeking new powers for the state’s Public Service Commission that could force Comcast and Time Warner Cable to prove their merger is pro-consumer.

The New York Post reports the new approach would be the opposite of current rules that force the PSC to carry the burden of proof that a deal hurts the public interest.

“[The proposed changes] are very important arrangements, and the state has a valid role in making sure that the consumer is protected,” Cuomo said at the State Museum in Albany.

A source told the newspaper the rules change “could essentially kill the deal.”

Since the federal government deregulated the cable industry in the 1990s, state and local officials have had little oversight over cable service and pricing, but in many states regulators still have a voice in mergers and other business deals.

The Cuomo Administration denied the rule changes were specifically aimed at Comcast, claiming that the state was simply mirroring the type of regulations impacting gas and oil companies doing business in New York.

If the deal fails to win approval in New York, it would mean Comcast could not assume control of Time Warner Cable’s lucrative franchises in New York City and most of upstate New York. Analysts speculate Comcast is especially interested in aligning its operations in northern New Jersey with those of Time Warner Cable in New York — both part of the largest television market in the country.

So far, Comcast does not seem concerned about Cuomo’s proposal.

“We are confident that the pro-competitive, pro-consumer benefits like faster Internet speeds and improved video options resulting from the transaction are compelling and will result in approval from the state,” Comcast said in a statement, adding that it looks forward to “presenting the multiple consumer benefits” of the deal for New Yorkers.

Reuters reports Florida, Indiana and Pennsylvania — home state for Comcast’s corporate headquarters — will also be taking a closer look at the merger.

Florida will be coordinating with U.S. Department of Justice’s anti-trust officials to review the deal.

“We are part of a multistate group reviewing the proposed transaction along with the U.S. DOJ Antitrust Division,” the Florida attorney general’s office said in an email.

Indiana is studying the impact of the merger on its state, and Pennsylvania promised an “independent review.”

The attorneys general group is focused on broadband instead of cable television in assessing the $45.2 billion deal, according to a source familiar with the effort who was not authorized to speak on the record.

Normally when one learns they are losing a job after only a few months in management, it is a time for sober reflection and emotional recovery.

Not so for top executives at Time Warner Cable who can expect Golden Parachute packages that rival the Powerball jackpot.

CEO Robert Marcus, who will eventually walk away from Time Warner Cable after becoming its CEO only this year will receive a package worth up to $80 million, according to a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That is way up from the estimated $56 million severance package he was anticipating.

In addition to more cash and stock options, Time Warner Cable created something called a “supplemental bonus opportunity” that will hand Marcus an extra $2.5 million in walk-around money if he agrees to stick around until the merger is completed. The idea behind the bonus incentive is to keep executives happy during the pendency of the merger. If top employees defect or lose focus on Time Warner Cable’s operating plan over the coming year, it could rattle the value of the company’s stock.

Most regular employees are not invited to the enhanced compensation party and will spend the rest of this year updating their resumes before the combined company finds millions in “cost savings” from anticipated layoffs and call center closures.

Time Warner Cable’s Golden Parachute Compensation

Among the benefits for the top-five executive officers:

• accrued but unpaid bonus for any previously completed fiscal year, based on actual results for the year;
• pro rata bonus for service during the year of termination, based on actual results for the year;
• 36 months of continued salary and bonus payments, paid on TWC’s normal payroll payment dates for salary, where the bonus component is set at target.

Wall Street Bank Money Party

In the all-encompassing merger proposal submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Time Warner Cable noted it sought the advice of several Wall Street investment banks and related institutions. Unsurprisingly, based on the material submitted voluntarily by Time Warner Cable and Comcast, the banks submitted written reports declaring that the merger proposal seemed fair. For that, these advisers were well-compensated. In all, Time Warner Cable and Comcast will pay a combined $135.5 million in fees in return for the positive assessment of the merger’s potential:

• In connection with Allen & Company’s financial advisory services, TWC has agreed to pay Allen & Company an aggregate cash fee of $25 million, a portion of which was payable upon delivery of Allen & Company’s opinion to the TWC board of directors in connection with the merger and $17.5 million of which is contingent upon consummation of the merger;
• In connection with Citi’s services as TWC’s financial advisor, TWC has agreed to pay Citi an aggregate fee of $36 million, of which a part was payable upon delivery of its opinion and $28.5 million is payable contingent upon consummation of the merger. In addition, TWC has agreed to reimburse Citi for certain expenses, including fees and expenses of counsel, and to indemnify Citi and related parties against certain liabilities, including under federal securities laws, arising from Citi’s engagement;
• TWC has agreed to pay Morgan Stanley for its financial advisory services in connection with the merger an aggregate fee of $36 million, of which a part was payable upon delivery of its opinion and $28.5 million is payable contingent upon the closing of the merger;
• In connection with Centerview Partner’s LLC services as the TWC independent directors’ financial advisor, TWC has agreed to pay Centerview an aggregate fee of $11 million, portions of which were payable upon the rendering of Centerview’s opinion and in connection with its engagement and $3 million of which is payable contingent upon consummation of the merger;
• J.P. Morgan has acted as financial advisor to Comcast with respect to the proposed merger and will receive a fee from Comcast for its services equal to a total of $27.5 million, $25 million of which will become payable only if the proposed merger is consummated.