What brands do you avoid at all cost?
I don't keep up with the news all that much, and many of the reasons to avoid something don't make it there anyway. So I'm asking here to make a big list of things to avoid. It could be anything from bad security practices to really frustrating packaging. Working as a cashier myself, I definitely know there are plenty of brands I avoid purely on the basis that their product is a pain to stock.
On the flip side, what's the alternative? If you avoid Pepsi, for example, what do you turn to instead?
Cemusa, they buy all the fucking cement in my country which is corrupt and has no ability to tarrif it or anything then sell it back to us at extremely high prices so my country, which is the Saudi Arabia of cement, is filled with half built buildings because no one can afford fucking cement. Fuck American corporations
Lenovo (Fuck lenovobios, bad hardware quality past 2010 or so)
Sager (Scammed me by selling a laptop with too high power draw that resulted in crashes)
Microsoft (Mega spyware corp, bad software, worst OS on the planet)
Apple (Likely spyware corp, Bad locked down devices, anti right to repair, overpriced)
Google (Biggest Baddest spyware company, monopoly on many platforms)
Nvidia (Extremely hostile to open source, will likely never work on OpenBSD unless Nvidia seriously changes their stance; even then there's so much bad faith at this point I wouldn't trust them)
Meta/Facebook (Mega spyware corp, zuck is a lizard)
Tesla (Loudest most-punchable most-hatable fascist at the helm, employees caught spying on users through interior cams)
All major phone manufacturers (Android sucks, iOS sucks harder)
Pine64 (Charging circuit is software controlled for some insane reason, supports Manjaro)
All major smart TVs (spyware, always-on microphones, locked down OS with ad-ridden clients)
Okay companies:
Valve (Still hosts a shitty DRM platform, but it's the best one; only listing because the Steam Deck is awesome)
Framework (Pro user repair, good hardware, no complaints; look forward to RISC-V board)
Let me give you a complaint for Framework: apparently they were having a hard time releasing bios updates in a timely manner (as in, they were over a year late iirc) which pissed a lot of people off.a
Honestly.. Google Play.. someone re-gifted my son a $20 Google Play card a few years ago, and I tried to buy something for him and realised the card was about 2weeks out of date, and after about 10 back and forwards with support, they wouldn’t honour it.. a trillion dollar company. I get it, but their cold indifference just seemed mean
Nestlé, Amazon, Coca Cola, Mars & its associates, Mondelez ("Kraft" for the 'muricans). I try to avoid basically any corporation greedy enough to go against human rights in the name of profits.
Whatsapp is difficult for me to avoid, but I've been pulling it off for years now.
Honestly here in the NL it's almost as if people see it as some sort of government institution. We have neighborhood watches on there and they openly display the logo as a form of security measure. Honestly it's kinda creepy that that kinda stuff flows through their opaque servers and software.
I'd prefer an open and distributed protocol, with the largest node being government run. You can't avoid such large nodes, so it's better if they are run by a centralized democratic system. Aka @gmail.com, Lemmy.ml, mastadon.social (did I get that right?)
This is always so shocking to me as an American where not many people use Whatsapp. I wouldn't doubt if snapchat is more common than Whatsapp in the states.
Sony, for all sort of reasons (the rootkit and other DRM, pushing proprietary formats like MemoryStick and ATRAC3, removing OtherOS (a.k.a. Linux) support from the Playstation, etc.).
Blizzard, because of Freecraft and BNetD (I was boycotting them long before they merged with Activision).
Ideally, I would boycott Nestle and the other abusive agri-conglomerates, but honestly probably a lot of their products slip through because (a) it's hard to tell what's made by who because of all the subsidiary brands, and (b) with all the consolidation, pretty much everything is made by some shitty megacorp these days. I mean yeah, if I eschewed normal chain stores entirely and tried to buy everything from local small businesses or something then I guess I could avoid them, but ain't nobody got time (or money!) for that.
I mean, lots of them. But I have a personal vendetta against Amazon. I worked at two companies for a few months, which supplied to Amazon among others, and it was just ridiculous how similar and bad their experiences with Amazon were.
At both companies, whenever we had to stock a delivery to Amazon, we had to use these brand-new pallets, which looked like you could break a toothpick out of them and it'd be sanitary.
Why did we not use old pallets? Because even though Amazon demands all the products to be packaged individually (so they can send them out to customers directly), if even just a handful of the packages get damaged during transport, they will send the whole truck load back at your cost.
And the asshats would take our brand-new pallets, then send back old-ass pallets, which we were then forced to use for all our non-shit customers.
No one at these companies wanted to work with Amazon. It was just that a significant amount of orders came from there, because of people like you and me using Amazon. So, I decided to not do that.
During the pandemic, lots of offline shops built up a web shop, so that's where I order most stuff. Often enough, just opening up a map and looking at the shops near you, can already give you an idea. I'll also just do web searches for a product and see if any specialty, offline-first or manufacturer shops show up.
What also often works, is to look on big aggregator platforms like Amazon, Ebay, Etsy etc., but when you've found a product, then look if that brand/manufacturer has an own web store, or again via web search, if there's any other smaller stores also selling that same product. If you do that a few times, you'll usually find decent stores where it's worth looking at their other products, too.
That's kind of also what I actually like about doing this: Anyone can sell any crap or scam on Amazon et al and since you can't look at it for real, it's difficult to tell what's garbage and what's not.
These specialty/offline-first/manufacturer shops usually have a reputation/customers to lose, so they generally only sell stuff with a minimum of quality.
Also, if you order multiple products, you don't get a bazillion different packages delivered, but often rather just one, with all products combined.
EA got my account stolen with 1200+ hours of playtime via fraudulent support tickets. That's why, I am not touching anything EA's involved with ever when they absolutely suck at account security.
I refuse to pay a premium for locked-down proprietary hardware solely because it looks more visually pleasing than an alternative that performs better.
Tell that to my 2014 MacBook Pro that is still going strong. I can do CAD and video editing and the thing still performs fine. Battery life decreased a bit but still lasts way more than enough.
and the new Apple chip ones are also ridiculous. I have one for work, and was able to leave my computer closed in my backpack for several hour running code training an ML model. The thing did not even get warm and the battery went down by 2% only.
That being said, I think the best computer is the one that works for YOU. In my previous job I was forced to use windows and boy did I suffer! Even Office felt clunkier on windows than Mac.
Nestle (not easy because the branding is not always obvious, but once you have it memorized it’s no problem)
Tesla (easy because the cars are shit anyways)
Müller (Luxembourg dairy product company that has close ties to the German fascist party AfD. Relatively easy but they do have some subbrands that are not obvious)
I've been boycotting muller for a while kow because they had the most obnoxious ad imaginable and this was before I couldn't take it any more and went for blockers.
Although I must admit part of me hopes that if we ever do go full cyberpunk that there will be a huge müller pyramid full of cows.
The owner of the company is regularly meeting with Alice Weidel (one of the lead members) and says openly that he is interested in her party’s political views.
You know you’re probably dealing with the baddies when the Criticism and Controversy section of your main article on Wikipedia grows to the point where it links to another Criticism of Walmart main article.
I gave up trying to maintain a principled list of companies because globalization and supply chains make it too hard to really find a single asshole.
Your chocolate was picked by slaves. Your clothes were almost certainly made by exploited workers. Does that toy have a lithium ion battery? You’re not going to like how many of the raw materials were extracted. The name of the company on the sticker of the shit you bought is just a small piece of the rot.
The saying "there's no ethical consumption under capitalism" is pretty true for most of us right now. The oligopoly we have going on makes it extremely difficult to consistently do the right thing. The only real way forward is to regulate the shit out of these products. If only we had another Upton Sinclair to scare the general populace into giving enough of a shit to demand unilateral action.
Fair enough. I've never been, don't much like coffee, and I can't say I ever plan to go there. They don't sound like the most pleasant of places to relax in.
Even if you like coffee, they make absolute shit coffee. Go to a local coffee place instead. I like my Vietnamese coffee, so any Vietnamese coffee place will give me much better cup.
This might be an unpopular opinion but I avoid Western Digital hard drives after their two recent issues:
In 2020, they silently started selling SMR (shingled magnetic recording) drives as NAS drives, without labeling them as such, even though they're not appropriate for use in a NAS. They can get very slow and cause issues during RAID rebuilds. https://www.tomshardware.com/news/wd-fesses-up-some-red-hdds-use-slow-smr-tech
In 2023, they started flagging drives with a warning just because they had been powered on for three years (26,280 hours), even if all the SMART data was fine. The "fix" was updating systems like Synology to totally ignore WD's alerting (WDDA) and only use SMART. I think the warnings are still present, but NAS software just ignores them now. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/06/clearly-predatory-western-digital-sparks-panic-anger-for-age-shaming-hdds/
Both were intentional changes to try and increase profits.
I'm using Seagate Exos drives, which are the same price or even cheaper than WD Red Pro drives, when on sale.
When I first started using external drives I always used WD. I had two fail on me. Switched to sea gate and the one drive I got is still kicking. Will never use WD again.
Huh, I didn't know about that. I only bought mine because they were the only ones the store offered, but I guess I'll try to find another brand when it comes time to replace them. I've been meaning to get a new NAS sometime anyway, so that's a good excuse as any to do so.
Their drives are good quality and work well. I just don't want to give them any money after they intentionally misled customers :)
I'm in the USA and bought two brand new Seagate Exos "X20" 20TB drives for around $250 each last year. One from Newegg and one from ServerPartDeals. Normal price is over $350, but I'm sure they'll be on sale again at some point.
The chain's owners regularly donate to anti-LGBT organizations. They used to do it through company donations, but after being called out for it they stopped donating through the CFA corporation, but still donate privately to the same organizations.
Any brands that make devices that plug into mains power that aren't UL or ETL certified. I've seen way too many cases where people buy generic smart switches with no certification and they trip the circuit breaker or catch fire due to poor quality construction. Certification isn't perfect, but it's way better than products not being certified.
As a Britbong, I'm always proud of not only BS1363 and the safety it has brung us over the years but the fact that I know that number off the top of my head.
I usually have a goldfish memory for things like that.
Samsung. For a bunch of reasons, but I think the main starter of it was when I learnt this story.
Amazon. I don't think I need to explain why on this site.
Obviously both of these are near impossible to avoid completely. Samsung makes the internals of far more products than they put their name on, and AWS runs a big percentage of the web. But I avoid their store, Prime, and Audible.
Holy shit I hadn't heard that story, that makes my blood boil. I would have contacted my embassy and turned that shit into an international incident. Also isn't paying for someone's flight in and refusing to let them fly back home some kind of trafficking charge?
Anyway, I guess it's easy for me to say because I could at worst afford to pay for my flight home in a pinch.
Completely agree on both points. I actually use a Samsung phone, and it's been nothing but a privacy nightmare. I'm planning to switch as soon as I've saved up enough to afford it.
Yeah, Amazon is a mess. I personally avoid anything even tangentially related to them. I've noticed that they tend to be lower quality with worse privacy than the alternatives, and their only benefit is price. Even then, Audible is a ripoff on a massive scale.
This guy pisses me off so much. Hunting like this (where it's private land, the staff do all the work of finding you a prize, & they basically point you at the endangered animal when it's time to pull the trigger) is so obscene, grotesque, unnecessary, and self-fellating. Fuck this dude in particular.
I truly do not know. I was using Budget, my truck was in the shop and two days' rental was going to be $142. Two hours after reserving it my mechanic tells me he's going to have me done today - so I cancel the reservation.
Because I chose "pay now" rather than "pay later", I'm charged a $150 cancellation fee on a $142 rental (the fee posted on the website - $50 - is not for "prepaid" "same day" cancellations - not that the website told me this anywhere obvious, of course).
So I literally would have done better financially to drive the fucking thing around for two days for no good reason.
Protesting to customer service gets me a resounding "go fuck yourself."
I'm now open to suggestions, I was using Budget because they had the best prices of what remained to me, but never again.
I avoid Nemix RAM, because the first time I bought a bunch of sticks from them, they had an 18% failure rate. I paid to ship the bad sticks back, and they sent me more bad sticks. Nemix said they worked fine, so I sent them the Memtest screenshot with all the errors. They didn’t want to pay shipping to replace them again, so I just returned them and got some Micron RAM, and it’s been working perfectly.
Relatable. I'm in a pretty Apple heavy area, so I'm in the minority in my dislike of anything Apple. At least they are easy to avoid, with how obvious they make their branding.
Hyundai . i will never buy another one again. ever.
seats are hard as rocks. they break down way to fast. the rear view mirror is set way to low in the window creating a safety hazard for looking forward. it needs to be set much higher on the window. (so i have to look up a little to see the mirror... so f'ing what?!) get the damned thing higher so it doesn't block my view when i try to look front and right of the car.
that's just a few of my annoyances with that car. i'm done with that company.
They have virtually zero consumer protection laws so companies can get away with selling utter crap at inflated prices, and so obviously, they do.
Samsung home appliances, Hyundai and Kia cars, TVs with adverts built in (lol) are just a couple of examples of good quality products that have specific models that they only sell in the US because they can get away with it
Gillette. Due to their toxic masculinity ad. Why are they talking about that stuff? I went to them for shaving stuff, not for a talk about toxic masculinity or whatever. The good thing about the ad. It got me into safety razors. They're way better then cartridge razors. So thank you, Gillette. For making me stop using cheap plastic razors.
Same here. It got me to try other brands (I used to buy Gillette out of a habit) and all of them turned out to be better and cheaper. In the end - Wilkinson for the win!
Also, you got me to look up what a safety razor is. Looks classy!
Reasonable. Personally, I never learned how to use a razor, so I just use an electric shaver. It doesn't give as good a cut, but I'm happy to contribute to a boycott anyway.
Alright. Ima be ur daddy and tell you have to shave in 3 minutes flat.
Acquire some BIC single blade razors
Head to shower, put it on steaming hot and apply steaming hot water to face. Getting a hot towel after getting out of the shower and leaving it on your face for a while makes a tough shave even moar comfortable.
Lather shaving foam all over face
Run BIC razor under cold running water and shave until your face is like a baby's bum
Rinse thoroughly with cold water to remove all lather
If it's the ad I'm thinking of, I actually kinda liked it. But I definitely agree with you on the safety razors. Better shave and better for the planet. Don't buy plastic cartridge razors, you're getting ripped off and needlessly contributing to the plastic problem. Now if only I could find blades that a 100 pack didn't mean 20 plastic 5-packs of blades, but it still is a lot less waste than a cartridge razor.