Fresh off their lowest score ever in the American Consumer Satisfaction Index for customer satisfaction, Comcast comes in second place (only behind the perpetually imploding AOL) in MSN Money's customer service hall of shame. Sprint, Qwest, Time Warner Cable and Cox also make appearances on the website's list of the ten worst companies in terms of customer satisfaction. The lagging economy has seen a spike in poor service as companies "start to cut the wrong things," according to one analyst.

Most of the companies on the list, all of which offer comment, blame poor scores on their size, the media, or renegade lemurs. Unfair media coverage and size is often cited as an excuse for Comcast, though equally mammoth companies like AT&T don't seem to have the same problems. Still, Comcast insists the media clouds the public's otherwise wholesome perception of the cable giant:Like when Comcast uses seat fillers at public hearings, grandmothers go crazy due to poor service and bust up the local Comcast office with hammers, or the company lies about throttling upstream p2p traffic. Or when their technicians fall asleep, kill, dig in the wrong yard or blow up laptops, dishwashers or old people.

That said, Comcast says they're trying hard to address customer complaints. The company has hired some 15,000 support reps, increasing their support staff by 30%. They also say they're improving their technician diagnostic tools, investing in more staff training, creating a more unified outage credit system, and "continually soliciting feedback from customers, employees and outside consultants." There's plenty of that for free in our forums.

To do my part, in the future I won't mention when Comcast techs get caught torturing kittens. I'll only write about Comcast when they're either a) saving puppies; b) saving the universe from befouled demons of the nether-verse; or c) saving even cuter puppies.