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Companies you don't like to buy from, and why

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Techniquest

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I was able to tolerate them for a long time, until it suddenly struck me how gruesomely cheesy all their marketing and branding is. I ended up finding it really grating taking journeys on their trains, and I'm quite glad to see the back of them.

I used to love Virgin Trains, although that whole thing with actors' recorded messages about not flushing certain things or whatever was annoying. The original one of those, that just said the message and not trying to be funny, that one was fine. I still find it mildly amusing to ponder upon whether anyone ever actually tried to flush their ex's sweater! :lol:

That being said, I did a Stockport to Manchester Piccadilly leap on a 390 when I was up there last time (can't remember when) and the lengthy announcement about the on-board entertainment streaming system was irritating. I think with all the other announcements, including the ones for arriving into Manchester, nearly half the journey had some form of announcements going on!

I've not done a proper journey with Avanti West Coast yet, but hopefully they'll not be as frustrating!
 
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Swanny200

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Nestle and associated brands: Firstly because of the way they treated and still treat women in Africa and force them to feed their formula to their babies, the way that their owner sees Water as not a necessity, the way that their beauty brands tainted the body shop brand when they bought it by testing on animals again.

Currys/PC World: Overpriced, half of their staff need to learn what they are selling and the other half need to stop bullying a customer as soon as they come in the door

Anything Mike Ashley has touched with his grubby little hands:Pretty much as others here have stated.

Bounty Group: Have had 3 kids, on every occasion they have sent a pushy woman into a ward to take photos of your kid and hand you a pack of cheap crap, when you refuse they come across as really nasty, on one occasion I had to complain as she walked in when wife was getting an internal scan and refused to leave, on another occasion she barged in on a woman who had just lost her baby and again got nasty when asked to leave, most of them chainsmoke outside and then walk straight onto the wards too.

Huawei: They make great kit, but I won't even have a router of theirs in the house incase things go tits up because of Trump and his fascination with China

Ryanair: Nasty Nasty man who thinks that he can bully people because he has plenty money, reminds me of the guy who runs Pimlico Plumbing

Dyson/Weatherspoons: Both run by brexit supporting men who think that they can bully people with their views

BT Openreach: Move into a new house, can I have Internet, only if you are willing to wait 5 years for 12 engineers to come out, look at the line, blame the developers when they themselves fitted the cabling, then ask you to foot the bill for them to dig up the street and replace the cabling, called Virgin and they said "How about next Tuesday!"
 

py_megapixel

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Nestle and associated brands: Firstly because of the way they treated and still treat women in Africa and force them to feed their formula to their babies, the way that their owner sees Water as not a necessity, the way that their beauty brands tainted the body shop brand when they bought it by testing on animals again.

Bounty Group: Have had 3 kids, on every occasion they have sent a pushy woman into a ward to take photos of your kid and hand you a pack of cheap crap, when you refuse they come across as really nasty, on one occasion I had to complain as she walked in when wife was getting an internal scan and refused to leave, on another occasion she barged in on a woman who had just lost her baby and again got nasty when asked to leave, most of them chainsmoke outside and then walk straight onto the wards too.
Hadn't heard of Bounty before now, but I had heard of (and placed on my "blacklist") Nestle. I agree with you that any company with a business model that relies on harassing mothers with babies is the lowest of the low.

Nestle's competitor, Danone, engage in similarly awful practices, and they also have a boycott call against them, which may interest you: https://www.babymilkaction.org/danono
 

Swanny200

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Hadn't heard of Bounty before now, but I had heard of (and placed on my "blacklist") Nestle. I agree with you that any company with a business model that relies on harassing mothers with babies is the lowest of the low.

Nestle's competitor, Danone, engage in similarly awful practices, and they also have a boycott call against them, which may interest you: https://www.babymilkaction.org/danono

Yes, nice to see someone else who has found baby milk action, everyone else that questions myself or my wife on why we don't have nestle or danone in our house is don't believe us till we point them there.
 

OuterDistant

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Yep, "head of the business is a thoroughly dislikable and/or disreputable individual" is a red flag for me. Hence why I share in the avoidance of Sports Direct and Ryanair.
 

Trackman

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Nestle and associated brands: Firstly because of the way they treated and still treat women in Africa and force them to feed their formula to their babies, the way that their owner sees Water as not a necessity, the way that their beauty brands tainted the body shop brand when they bought it by testing on animals again.
A big thing with the student union back in the day, I'm glad the fight is still going on.
I remember a newsletter about Kit Kats (banned!) when Nestle bought them out.

For me BT and Talk-Talk as the customer service is non-existent.
Talk-Talk even more so.
Could be countless more, but with me I will never put my hand in the fire twice.
 

D365

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Apple products - I just don't buy into their "system" and their premium prices - also the idea of having to upgrade so often - however, years ago, I did try them and bought an iPhone 4s and an iPod - naturally, the iPod is still in use today...

That, I don't understand. Apple provides software updates for five year old phones. How many other phone manufacturers do that?
 

py_megapixel

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That, I don't understand. Apple provides software updates for five year old phones. How many other phone manufacturers do that?
Android manfacturers are rather terrible about providing software support, though this is improving rapidly.

However, there are a host of other reasons to avoid Apple, including:
  • Anticompetitive behaviour
  • Poor working conditions and low pay at manufacturing plants
  • Anti-consumer attitude to device repair
  • Poor hardware design (for example poorly designed cooling fans on laptops; poor quality materials causing phones to bend)
  • As a leader in the industry, being largely responsible for removal of popular features (e.g. headphone port, fingerprint readers, notchless screens)
  • Being overpriced compared to the competition
 

Swanny200

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Even though I inherited my late father's ipad pro, I detest apple and the way they do things, however the ipad pro is brilliant for photo editing on the fly and graphics tools. Phones wise, I agree that although Android software support used to be really bad, it has improved dramatically over the last 6-8 months, although it still lags with some manufactures where they want to bloat the original android OS with their own apps.
 

jb108822

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Nestlé: Lots of ethical concerns about them that others have mentioned in this thread. Luckily, it's usually quite easy to avoid products made by them, though the one product I find really hard to get hold of that isn't made by Nestlé is condensed milk.
Wetherspoons: Spoons is decent if you want somewhere familiar and cheap food & booze. I'm not a huge fan of how you have to go on a mission to find the toilets in every single one, but that's a limitation with the buildings they're in. I think the way Tim Martin's forced his political ideology onto his pubs (including allegedly sending people out from head office to ensure the Brexit propaganda is properly displayed) is pretty poor, though given I'm a Remainer, that's not much of a shock. What thoroughly annoyed me was his conduct at the start of lockdown, basically coming across as not really caring much about the welfare of his colleagues. Now, I'm taking the stance that I won't go to a Wetherspoons unless I'm desperate and haven't got much time to find anywhere else to eat/drink. There are plenty of other pubs where I'd rather spend my money, such as the two by Congleton station
Sports Direct: I'm trying to avoid swearing here, but Mike Ashley is just a despicable person who has no concern for his employees. Their footwear selection is decent, but that's not enough to make me want to go there. I'd much rather go somewhere like JD Sports for trainers these days, and I'm lucky that there's one of them in Hanley. Bit of a trek for me, but it's worth it.
Ryanair: They're cheap, and for good reason. I don't like the garish interiors of their planes (might be sensory-related due to my autism or something - I dunno). The constant announcements irritate me. The on-time fanfare is just pointless. Michael O'Leary's ideas for making more money are just nonsensical, though I'll concede they make for interesting PR. Oh, and I'm still not over that really rough landing I had when flying from Manchester to Eindhoven in July 2015. I've NEVER had a landing that bad before or since - it was like a kangaroo bouncing down the runway. I only go for Ryanair if there's no other option, which isn't usually the case. When it comes to budget airlines, I much prefer easyJet. Never had a bad experience with them.
 

Swanny200

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From an airline perspective, a pilot I one knew told me that Ryanair pilots ride by the seat of their pants, there is very little fuel for a go-around and usually on the 2nd time they are demanding to land as they are close to fumes, that is one of the reasons they call so many emergency landings with ATC. Their pilots are scared of speaking out for fear of losing their jobs but behind closed doors are very critical of what they are forced to do, the pilot I knew woked for Flybe and said that although they were not perfect at least they flew with contingency fuel for an alternate or multiple go-arounds unlike Ryanair.
 

jb108822

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From an airline perspective, a pilot I one knew told me that Ryanair pilots ride by the seat of their pants, there is very little fuel for a go-around and usually on the 2nd time they are demanding to land as they are close to fumes, that is one of the reasons they call so many emergency landings with ATC. Their pilots are scared of speaking out for fear of losing their jobs but behind closed doors are very critical of what they are forced to do, the pilot I knew woked for Flybe and said that although they were not perfect at least they flew with contingency fuel for an alternate or multiple go-arounds unlike Ryanair.
Yeah, that makes sense from what I remember hearing about them as well. I'm sure they've been criticised for it in the past as a safety issue.
 

Mcr Warrior

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When it comes to budget airlines, I much prefer easyJet. Never had a bad experience with them.
Once had a flight with QueasyJet from Edinburgh to Gatwick where the baggage reclaim process took longer than the flight itself. Why's that QueasyJet's fault rather than that of the baggage handling agents at Gatwick; maybe it was because their Edinburgh check-in staff required me put a fairly small soft bag in the hold rather than allowed in the cabin, due to being marginally over-size. Rules is rules, I suppose! :rolleyes:
 

Swanny200

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Yeah, that makes sense from what I remember hearing about them as well. I'm sure they've been criticised for it in the past as a safety issue.

Yes, I think rules were put in place after a very close call a few years ago, but he still tries to get round them, any £ he can save, he will which is good from a business point, but not when that business is air travel. Since it all came out about the low fuel, he tried suing people for libel and IIRC he lost, badly. Now I get that their safety record is one of the best in the industry, but being an Irish registered company, there are certain reports pertaining to safety that he doesn't have to file, stuff like passengers being incapacitated due to an issue or failures of any systems on the aircraft, every other airline has to.

The hard landings I did read are down to the fact that a lot of the airports that they fly into are secondary airports with smaller runways, with longer runways you can raise the nose and flare giving you a softer landing then braking with all 3 sets of landing gear on the ground, with a smaller runway and a 737, you have to get all 3 sets of gear on the ground quicker to give you plenty of room to brake and stop, hence the bad landings, unfortunately I feel that because the pilots are used to doing this at the smaller runways, they do it at every airport.
 

jb108822

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Yes, I think rules were put in place after a very close call a few years ago, but he still tries to get round them, any £ he can save, he will which is good from a business point, but not when that business is air travel. Since it all came out about the low fuel, he tried suing people for libel and IIRC he lost, badly. Now I get that their safety record is one of the best in the industry, but being an Irish registered company, there are certain reports pertaining to safety that he doesn't have to file, stuff like passengers being incapacitated due to an issue or failures of any systems on the aircraft, every other airline has to.

The hard landings I did read are down to the fact that a lot of the airports that they fly into are secondary airports with smaller runways, with longer runways you can raise the nose and flare giving you a softer landing then braking with all 3 sets of landing gear on the ground, with a smaller runway and a 737, you have to get all 3 sets of gear on the ground quicker to give you plenty of room to brake and stop, hence the bad landings, unfortunately I feel that because the pilots are used to doing this at the smaller runways, they do it at every airport.
That's an interesting point re: the runways. With the Manchester-Eindhoven flight I took, Manchester's runways are 10,000ft long, and Eindhoven's is only slightly shorter at 9,842ft, so that may well have something to do with it. Though I flew into Moss-Rygge back in 2016 with Ryanair, and the runway there is 8,012ft long. Smooth landing. Guess we must've had a good pilot on that flight.
 

C J Snarzell

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Sports Direct easily comes top of this list. Mike Ashley really did do the dirty on many employees at his former Wigan warehouse last year. The man is a snake.

CJ
 

306024

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Common theme here...

Ryanair for awful customer service. Got my compensation eventually after a fight, but the nail in their coffin was a flight attendant who was doing a sudoku puzzle as we were coming in to land.

Whetherspoon because of Mr Spoon and his political views.

Anything Virgin unless I come out with a profit. So free tea coffee etc on their trains was OK.
 

ABB125

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Common theme here...

Ryanair for awful customer service. Got my compensation eventually after a fight, but the nail in their coffin was a flight attendant who was doing a sudoku puzzle as we were coming in to land.
I suppose in a way that's a good thing for nervous fliers: shows that there's nothing to worry about...
:)
 

DerekC

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I am reluctantly using Amazon at the moment - but never for anything electrical, I bought a bathroom light a few years ago which was visibly unsafe, had a fake CE mark and instructions which if followed would have electrocuted you - but there is no way to complain. I reported it to trading standards but didn't get anywhere. As far as Amazon is concerned you can send it back and put a ones-star review on the website, but that's it! They take no responsibility for what they sell.
 

C J Snarzell

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I would also add DW Sports because of Dave Whelan, but alas they have now gone to that shopping mall in the sky.

CJ
 

SteveM70

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I would also add DW Sports because of Dave Whelan, but alas they have now gone to that shopping mall in the sky.

CJ

He’s an absolutely vile human being. Luckily I’ve never had to set foot in one of his shops
 

Tracked

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Wetherspoons - Behaviour of owner, also; cleanliness (might be different currently), quality of product (stopped drinking cask beers in there, due to indifferent quality and choice), and service.

WH Smith - Repeated incidents of branches on stations having a section of "Meal Deal" branded shelving with non-meal deal stuff on. The tipping point was when it happened when I visited two separate branches on the same day a few years ago (Swapped at 1st, left at the 2nd and went off-station to Greggs). Only used them for convenience of location, don't think I'd gone in for anything else from them for some time beforehand, books/pens are usually cheaper elsewhere.
 

C J Snarzell

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He’s an absolutely vile human being. Luckily I’ve never had to set foot in one of his shops

I wonder if Mike Ashley is Dave Whelan's love child? Both are totally ruthless callous businessmen who have long held portfolios of s**ting on the little people.

CJ
 

kermit

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I do hope the odious Tim Martin of Wetherspoons is picking up the level of disapproval expressed on this forum, though the membership of this forum seems quite often to be unrepresentative of the more general view. He hasn't had a penny off me since March. Interesting as well that Currys garner so many criticisms about their customer service. To say they have been long term serial offenders would be an understatement. I remember in the 1980s they decided it would be a great idea to start selling electric guitars. This had the effect of making their knowledge of the other products look marvellous! I feel truly sorry for any aspiring musician who had their enthusiasm extinguished by trying to grapple with the crap they sold. Mind you, this was a time when staff in real music shops would routinely sneer at and belittle anyone who didn't meet their criteria, so the customer was between the devil and the deep blue sea. Anyway, on account of their crappiness, I haven't bought anything from Currys for 35 years. I'm expecting to see my boycott taking effect any time now....
 

SteveM70

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I wonder if Mike Ashley is Dave Whelan's love child? Both are totally ruthless callous businessmen who have long held portfolios of s**ting on the little people.

CJ

They openly despise each other. Goes back to when Ashley asked for a meeting with Whelan about opening stores in the north selling football shirts and Whelan said “there’s a club up here, son, and you’re not in it”.
 

jb108822

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I do hope the odious Tim Martin of Wetherspoons is picking up the level of disapproval expressed on this forum, though the membership of this forum seems quite often to be unrepresentative of the more general view. He hasn't had a penny off me since March. Interesting as well that Currys garner so many criticisms about their customer service. To say they have been long term serial offenders would be an understatement. I remember in the 1980s they decided it would be a great idea to start selling electric guitars. This had the effect of making their knowledge of the other products look marvellous! I feel truly sorry for any aspiring musician who had their enthusiasm extinguished by trying to grapple with the crap they sold. Mind you, this was a time when staff in real music shops would routinely sneer at and belittle anyone who didn't meet their criteria, so the customer was between the devil and the deep blue sea. Anyway, on account of their crappiness, I haven't bought anything from Currys for 35 years. I'm expecting to see my boycott taking effect any time now....
Problem with Tim Martin is that I honestly don't think he cares what people think of him, so long as he's making shedloads of money.
 

DB

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Android manfacturers are rather terrible about providing software support, though this is improving rapidly.

However, there are a host of other reasons to avoid Apple, including:
  • Anticompetitive behaviour
  • Poor working conditions and low pay at manufacturing plants
  • Anti-consumer attitude to device repair
  • Poor hardware design (for example poorly designed cooling fans on laptops; poor quality materials causing phones to bend)
  • As a leader in the industry, being largely responsible for removal of popular features (e.g. headphone port, fingerprint readers, notchless screens)
  • Being overpriced compared to the competition

And it's extremely difficult to repair. The computers are the worst - even replacing a laptop battery is a load of hassle, and all the major components are soldered to the motherboard so if any of them fail it's probably a write-off due to the sky-high repair costs and their strict control of who can buy parts. For a number of years the laptops also had the most flimsy, fault-prone and unrepairable keyboards I've ever come across.
 

py_megapixel

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And it's extremely difficult to repair. The computers are the worst - even replacing a laptop battery is a load of hassle, and all the major components are soldered to the motherboard so if any of them fail it's probably a write-off due to the sky-high repair costs and their strict control of who can buy parts. For a number of years the laptops also had the most flimsy, fault-prone and unrepairable keyboards I've ever come across.
Yes indeed. If you haven't already found it, the YouTube channel run by Louis Rossmann of Rossmann Repair Group might be of interest to you.
 
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