I Won't Buy from (Company Name)!

[BlackCurtains]

Is there any pet food you guys recommend, since there seem to be so many who use gross byproduct?

Canidae/Felidae, Natural Balance, Taste of the Wild, Wellness, Innova, Orijen

Just want to second Wellness My cats and dog eat that exclusively. Both dry and canned (for the kitties).

[StarSwirl05]

I dunno, haven't had any problems with my HP purchases but not buying anything from Utz (sells cheese dip but that's all I know). Their cheese dip is awful. It's not smooth, more glob-y and just badly textured. Definitely not buying anything from dyson (my mom did). Sorry, dyson fans but I just think they're overly priced hunks of scrap metal. Seriously: $230 for a fan? No thanks. Mine works just fine (has for a good number of years), is less expensive and TBH, I don't find any "unsettling buffeting" at all.

[kittybethy]

Toshiba, I'm not buying anything from them again if I can help it. I've had nothing but bad experiences with their products.

 I won't buy HP for the same reasons!  Printers, laptops, software, I'm never buying anything from HP again!

I feel the exact same way! HP is garbage!
BTW...I love your new avie!

Thanks! I love her too!

 Kanthanka drew her for me!

[plushroo]

Emerson! Even though I've only owned vcr's from them, I'm reluctant to buy any kind of electronic from them again because I've had 2 vcr's from them about 10 years ago and neither lasted a year! Really crappy quality. One would barely record and the other just quit. Guess they were trying to get people to use DVD players more.

[TraderTif]

I don't tend to get too picky, as I wouldn't be able to buy anything if I did......

But I tend to stay away from Home Depot, as I don't like their persistent support of the "gay lifestyle" (for lack of a better term).  I steer clear of Pepsico and Nestle, when possible, for the use of fetal stem cells in flavor research.  And there are several brands (and major charities - Komen, etc.) that I avoid for donating to Planned Parenthood. 

Makes it a major pain to shop during October, I tell you, when everything in the store is festooned with a pink ribbon, all going to Komen.  (I'm like "I just want a box of broccoli!!  UGH!!!")

I love my Comcast internet service........but I had SO much trouble getting it installed - I've lost all respect for Comcast customer service, and I'd be hesitant to get anything new with them.

[Ginger]

After the horrible treatment I got while working there: barely getting scheduled, sent home early the few days I was scheduled to come in, working five and a half hours twice with no break whatsoever and being given bullcrap excuses as to why they had no hours for me, I will never ever give Dairy Queen a cent of my money. I'm so mad at them after that, that I can't even look at Dairy Queen garbage on the ground without feeling highly annoyed.

I work at Dairy Queen right now too. Obviously under a different store owner but it comes with its problems too. Sorry you had such a crappy time there...wow. The only thing that keeps me sane is that I get the day shifts so I don't have to deal with the insane night crowd. 
 
hmmm... I avoid Starbucks now. I used to like the burnt coffee taste but the last few times I have gotten it, I just felt sick on it. It's also way too expensive.
 
Wendy's has been avoided for over 5 years. We went through the drive thru once and all we ordered was 6 jr. cheeseburgers and all of them were the same. The manager had a hissy fit and rudely yelled at us to come inside if we want to make an order that large. We were the only car in line. Really, I operate a drive thru myself, COME ON, that's nothing! lol
 
I also no longer shop at Forever21. Nothing super personal there, but you really do get what you pay for.
 
I'm surprised so many people have trouble with Dell laptops. Maybe I just got lucky! I had my first one for 7 years and ran it every single day. This one is five years old, took a beating and shows age but it is still going! I never had to deal with their customer service though. I figured when the 7 year old one never started up one day, it was just plain time for a new one. LOL.
 
EDIT: Oh, I used to avoid Best Buy only because whenever I would go in, the employees would always HOVER and follow me around as if I were going to steal or something. Or maybe they were trying to stick around customers so much so they wouldn't get into trouble. It was VERY uncomfortable and awkward to me. They got a very nice, polite letter and took it into consideration. Then I went back later and it was a perfect balance of not hovering, but still being available if you needed help. Stayed that way ever since lol!!
 
EDIT AGAIN: Holy smokes. Pepsi and Nestle are on my avoid list too now, until I do more research and it 100% proves otherwise.    Fast search shows that Kraft does it too? 

[littlexflitter]

I won't buy Dell products due to bad products and awful customer service.

I won't use AT&T or Comcast services due to repeated terrible customer service from past experiences.

I won't shop at Hobby Lobby because I don't believe in the things they believe in. Same for Chick-fil-a and Salvation Army.

[Rad]

This is more of a 'learned my lesson' than 'avoid company' story. And it's sort of long...

My husband and I have Sprint and in July 2010 I got a new phone upgrade for cheap for continuing to be with the company. Phone's ok and all is good for a couple of months. November rolls around and the phone decides to randomly turn off. Not a big deal, it doesn't do it while I'm on a call, and I can turn it right back on. For another month it shuts off on its own, still a little annoying but not enough for me to do anything about it. Then it shuts off and takes a few tries and a battery removal to turn on. Then it shuts off while I'm on a call. This is not ok as I drive a slightly junky car and I don't want to be stuck on the side of the road if my car breaks down and my phone is acting funky.

Now, we don't have any insurance on either phone and I tell every single person I speak with throughout this whole ordeal that we don't. I make sure they understand this and that we don't have the money to pay extra; doesn't this qualify for a free fix? And every time the response is 'Yes, you'll get a free repair.' We didn't buy the insurance because I don't beat on my phone and my husband's phone is one of those "indestructible" ones because he's an EMT going for his paramedic's license and he treats his phone well too.

So I call Sprint and they give me a bit of a run around to tell me to call the company that sells the phone. They give me another run around and say 'Why didn't you call Sprint?' and I say I did, they told me to call you. So they tell me they'll fix it free as long as I didn't break the warranty (which boiled down to "I didn't try to 'drown' my phone and I didn't chuck it.). I am to send them the phone and they'll fix it over the course of seven business days. Now, if shipping there and back takes at least three days each = six days and they'll have to keep the phone for at least seven business days, that's a possible total of three weeks (allowing for weekends) that I'd be without my phone! Heck no! So the company says that I can take my phone in to Sprint, Sprint will send them the phone and give me a loaner phone for free. Ok, I'm fine with that. I call our usual Sprint store to confirm and they say 'Sure, we'll help. We'll confirm 1) free fix as warranty isn't broken, 2) loaner phone available, 3) double check: yes, no cost to you.'

So I go to the store and they basically deny everything. They won't give me a loaner (they don't have one and that's not their policy). I will have to buy insurance to get the phone fixed. The good news is I'll either get a new phone or it'll only take three days to fix the one I have. The insurance is $4/three months = $12. My husband and I decide that that's not too bad and we buy it and I hand over my phone. While I'm there I ask if this insurance that I just bought will cover fixing my husband's phone; the earpiece doesn't work and he has to use speaker phone. They say sure, as this is something that usually happens with this type of phone.

So my husband goes in about two weeks later to get his phone fixed and they tell him that he has to get his own insurance! That one is about $25 so we say ok. (Really annoyed at that because this is a typical problem with his phone type!!)

Funny thing is the guy in front of my husband was having the same sort of run around/denying problem we are! He'd bought his phone through work at his local Sprint store and a month or so later was having trouble with it. His local store had told him to go to our store to pick up a replacement. His store had called our store and our store said 'yes, we have a phone.' Only the poor guy arrives at our store (approximately 45 minutes out of his way) only to find that they don't have the dang phone!

Lesson learned: Take notes and write down who I'm talking to so that I can prove 'they said so'!! Still annoyed at them for this... What a headache! We don't really want to change service providers because then we'd have to buy a new plan and phones and possibly have to change numbers. We don't have the extra money to do this and besides this we've had no problems.

[TokiBear]

Is there any pet food you guys recommend, since there seem to be so many who use gross byproduct?

Canidae/Felidae, Natural Balance, Taste of the Wild, Wellness, Innova, Orijen

I will only feed my dogs Natural Balance and they love it.  Plus, its way more affordable than Wellness, Innova, Orijen... etc  The others are really great, just not in my price range.

[HavACrumpet452]

I feed Castor and Pollux Organix dog food and 4Health

[StarSwirl05]

One that I forgot to mention that I won't buy from is T-Mobile. Service is terrible. Just setting up took 5 minutes and multiple tries when they clearly said "a few seconds". Didn't even keep login info either so I'd have to login all the time.

[StoryDreamer]

Ugh right now it's Dirt Devil and Hoover. I've bought two vacuums from them - bagless - that both stopped working within six months! Four months even. I'm just going to buy the plain bag vacuums! Ugh. Over 200 wasted.

I dont support Chick-fil-A or Susan G. Komen.

I've had nothing but good experience with Toshiba but YMMV.

[Roccoriel]

Well, it's not a company, but it looks like I won't be visiting Atlantic City, and I'll be suggesting to my friends that they avoid it, too.  They're bringing back diving horses (where they make a horse dive 40 feet into a pool), and won't get a single penny from me until they cancel it.

I also try to avoid big food chains and buy local, free-range, etc. when possible (though I live on imported cheese).

I try to avoid Walmart (I'd rather pay more for stuff that I won't wear out).

I won't be buying anything from Susan G. Komen again. 

I don't buy any fast food.

I don't eat at one restaurant near me that gave me food poisoning...


I won't use Geek Squad (because they have ripped my boyfriend and me off repeatedly by fixing things that weren't broken, ignoring what we brought the computers in for, at the end of the warranty, so that we then have to pay to get it fixed) OR the small computer repair shop nearby (because they charged me for parts that my computer didn't need, couldn't fix it anyway, offered me a refund for the parts, and then no matter how often I contact them, never refunded me).

[EStRanger]

[Snip] Oh!  And Cox Communications internet and cable.  Hate.  [Snip] I turned my bank on them (I love you, Chase Bank), and they got me all kinds of refunds and special offers, but it happened again the following month so I dropped Cox for Dish Network and have never looked back.  I LOVE Dish!  It's gone out fewer times in bad storms than the cable did.

Seconding SO MUCH HATE for Cox. My boyfriend and I joke that they're well-named (we're gutter-minds). Our digital phone and Internet have gone out FIVE TIMES since the week before Christmas, and that first week they were out for over five days! *Not* good when you're trying to do last-minute Christmas shopping online and relatives are trying to call you to say happy holidays. Cox took the Sony PlayStation Network route and won't own up to the problem. They only say every time, "We're aware that some users may be experiencing problems, and we are working hard to fix this issue." Losing service five times in six weeks is just unacceptable. It's not even like we're out in the sticks--we're in the middle of town, where the physical network lines and such are supposedly maintained best for our area. If this is the "best" service for our area, I pity the people living further out. And don't even get me started on how often our cable TV and Cox DVR box crap out.

I'm sorry, but a lot of my income depends upon being able to get online, and Cox cable is a service we're paying for--it's not right to keep your customers in the dark! And there's been no compensation for what is now over a week's total of no service since December. We've been looking at Verizon FiOS in our area, but haven't heard enough consistent opinions on it yet to make the switch.

I'm jealous you have Dish now! We had that at my parents' house before I moved to my current location, and I loved it. Cox has been nothing but a step backward.

Also seconding the dislike for Salvation Army and their homophobia, as well as the horribly rude people who work at the one my family used to take stuff to. We once dropped off a box at the dock, only to have this real roughneck-lookin' type yell at us for bringing them clothes "covered in cat hair that [they'd] just have to throw out" (there was some cat hair caught in the tape on the box). I pointed out that there was no hair on the clothes, and even if there was, it would wash out. The guy started griping loudly that they shouldn't be expected to wash clothes before putting them out for sale (uhhh...you mean there's NO sterilization whatsoever at that shop?!)

I said, "Fine, we'll take the box to Goodwill. I know for a fact the one on [street name] actually cleans the things they sell" and grabbed the box. At which point the guy said he was going to call the police, because I was stealing from Salvation Army. His claim was the box--MY box--became their property the moment it touched their dock. Their property. Which he'd already said he was going to throw in the trash. Which is sooooo not how it works.

I grabbed the box, told the guy to do something to himself with a rusty dull knife--something that I will not elaborate upon here since the language I used would get me kicked off this forum --booked it to the car, threw myself in along with the "hairy" box, and floored the gas pedal out of there and on to Goodwill before he could get my plate number. The nice ladies at Goodwill were horrified at my story and the fact that this Salvation Army didn't sanitize their used clothing. One of them even said she was going to report the SA to the health department and/or the police. I honestly have no clue if that Salvation Army is still there anymore, as I never again took my donations anywhere but Goodwill. Boy, I hope Goodwill doesn't also have unsavoury political connections, or I'll have nowhere to take my donations! =^^;=

[Wardah]

Well, it's not a company, but it looks like I won't be visiting Atlantic City, and I'll be suggesting to my friends that they avoid it, too.  They're bringing back diving horses (where they make a horse dive 40 feet into a pool), and won't get a single penny from me until they cancel it.

Correct me if I am wrong but I don't think it is the city of Atlantic City that is doing it. It doesn't really make sense to not visit a city just because one company there is doing something unsavory especially since I don't think the city can do anything to stop it.

Edit: The company that was going to do it canceled anyways.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/15/us-usa-horses-diving-idUSTRE81E20M20120215