Hey everyone,
I recently thought today of companies that I actively avoid and the reasons why.
Harvey Norman is one for keeping JobKeeper payments and Nestlé due to multiple reasons.
Please explain in the comments which companies you boycott. An explanation and link to relevant documentation/articles would be good!
Personally, I don't think promoting a vegetarian lifestyle outweighs the atrocities they inflict on their own each day, let alone have done to communities and first nations across the world. But hey, bright side I guess!
Anything with palm oil, seriously leave the palm trees alone
i don't think people have a problem with palm oil because they cut the palm trees down.
Gladys berejekan or whatever her name is 😂
berejiklian? 🤣 idk
edit - oh wow i got it
Honda - poor reliability, rude salesmen, fixed pricing policy, $60k Honda Accord.
JB Hifi - always have difficulty price-matching their stuff. Why buy from them when you can get better deal elsewhere?
TPG - had them for 2 years on a contract. Super slow internet connection, a lot of outages and poor customer support.
Tiger Airways - I'm glad that they went out of business.
I would also avoid buying any tech stuff from Chinese brands (Lenovo, Huawei, MG) as I don't trust them.
damn i kept hearing honda was up there with toyota …
Probably in some other markets but not in Australia. I think they will soon follow Holden.
I must tell all my mechanic mates that, as they all spout Honda Honda Honda as reliable and a sure thing.
May be your experience was poor?
Honda - poor reliability,
Have 2 Hondas in the family, one is ~15yo, still going strong and more reliable than the camry we replaced.
rude salesmen,
Depends who you get isn't it?
fixed pricing policy,
New policy. Toyota and the like may follow soon.
2 Hondas in the family, one is ~15yo, still going strong and more reliable than the camry
Were they all brand new?
KOGAN!
Kogan - for obvious and well known reasons.
Flight Centre - for their refund policy. Even before Covid they had very high cancellation fees. Read this month's (August) Choice Magazine for their scathing story. The CEO's name is 'Skroo' Turner. Think about it…
99 Bikes - Because it's mainly owned by Flight Centre.
PayPal.
I stopped using PayPal altogether. Sold a camera to a buyer and provided tracking, PayPal locks funds and demands ID despite giving them ID a few times in the past and having no issues with past transactions since I signed up in 2011. I provide my ID and it took 72 hours to review. Funds were finally released and after withdrawing the funds, received a message that there is a 72 hour security check and the withdrawal was halted.
Really terrible company that loves to keep your funds.
Wow, this thread shows how tough businesses have it these days with the most bizarre and unjustified reasons people won’t use them!
f____k businesses big or small
customers should be harder and demand better
businesses should work harder to earn their money
Nope, customers have become totally entitled, thinking that businesses need to fall over themselves to please them!
End of the day, businesses want money and customers can walk.
So they walk.
Big market out there. No one business is unique and has to be patronised.
Catch - bad return and refund policy and shipping fee
SamDung - not original, good spec'ed but poorly engineered software and services and not enough attention paid to details. Have bought Samsung devices two times in the past starting with Galaxy S2 which had a terrible issue with electrical interference while listening to audio through the 3.5mm jack and it was not an isolated issue but a chronic issue due to poor engineering. The second was the Galaxy Note 5, supposedly their flagship most expensive phone which had issues with S-Pen sensitivity around the screen and since all the phones on the floor displayed the issue, as per Samsung it wasnt an issue!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN41nE1lWGI
Promised myself to never buy SamDung again.
I don't boycott because it is a privilege to do so, just like being vegan.
22 million reasons why I boycott Harvey Norman
Grill’d and their dodgy wages
Most stores have increased pricing during covid PLUS there is a hefty delivery fee or you spend more to get free delivery.
The new rule is buy nothing unless we need it.
Only restaurant food delivery every 10 days or so we pay $16 for delivery. Comes ready to be reheated or need to finish cooking.
Small treats during this crazy time. As we cannot collect for places that are more than 5km out and that's all of them, we are getting less treats.
They dont exist anymore but Onetel 😂 I'm still salty
Crown and Star Casino and every place that has pokie machines
I try to avoid as many Made in China crap I can. Want to avoid supporting the communist party.
I also try to avoid as many American products as I can as I dont want to support .. well America, with the exception of Apple products. Their stance on privacy is appealing to me.
Also specific companies and their reasoning below:
*Volkswagen - had a Golf R which was good as a car but the interior was made of cheap crap. Made owning it really annoying. Also the alto dealerships near me just had leeches for sales staff. What car dealer doesnt tho amirite
*PetBarn - for no reason but they stock predominately made in china junk
*Harvey Norman - Seems like they arent competitive with pricing
*Digidirect - Rude staff
*Georges cameras - Rude staff and just generally not competitive pricing
*Japanese vehicles not made in Japan - I personally feel like this is misleading .. is its really a Japanese car if its not made in or by the Japanese?
*Hollywood and associated companies/brands - Movies and media have been used to inform and influence.. ie stupid people influencing/creating stupid people.
*Hugo Boss - had a shirt I didnt like once
Well these people who boycott Chinese must live in a shoe box or a cave it's virtually impossible
Statement says as many as I can. Entirely boycotting would be difficult I agree, but just because you cant entirely, doesnt mean you should completely embrace
For major purchases and appliances etc it can be done, just requires a little research and often more money spent.
Can it be 100% eliminated? Of course not, assembly of parts or chips or other items supplied via china work their way in to products everywhere.
Usually the higher amount paid pays off in quality or at least just knowing your dollars aren't going to support China.
I avoid purchasing anything food based that is made in China.
I enjoy cooking and noticed a while ago that I had a bunch of tomato paste cans and when checking the used by date noticed they were Made in China. Binned them instantly. Since then, I always check my food purchases and never buy MIC..
*Hugo Boss - had a shirt I didnt like once
LOL
*Japanese vehicles not made in Japan - I personally feel like this is misleading .. is its really a Japanese car if its not made in or by the Japanese?
Oh man I have bad news for you about where most cars are made now.
:)
I know, its a bit shit IMO.. doesn't mean I will stop complaining about it though.. isn't that what the internet is for?
Little Birdie - Airpod pro fiasco
WOW WHAT ENTITLED PERSON'S
Why not be 'entitled'. You're spending your money, not their money.
I don't think you, you think, you know what that word means
I've run out of negs, but I thought I'd personally write a note disapproving of your post.
Catch and Kogan.
Why Catch? Is it much the same as Kogan? Never bought anything there except Catch Connect.
$15 a month for 18 Gb of Data. Unbeatable. Optus network.
kogan dicksmith and many webstores cos they spam the shit out of me, every friggen day. they somehow get around the built-in spam filter too.
Amazon… I just hate Jeff, there's something about him that I just want to punch him in the face
Add little birdie to a bunch of people's lists after tonight's shit show.
Anything Murdoch related, Harvey Norman has to be right up there too. Anything made or at least owned by a West Taiwan company where possible although obviously difficult.
Tangerine Telecomm. I'm considering dumping it. Not sure if anyone else had this happen to them. Every time when I make a referral, there's no communication from Tangerine that my referral code has been used. They never give me the referral credit and I always have to chase up. Maybe that's how referral works for Tangerine: keep referring. We just keep your money.
+1 for Kogan.
Ordered a screwdriver set, took 4 months to ship after they assured me it was just a stock issue. They then cancelled the order saying they couldn't source the product whilst selling the same product on their website for $5 more.
And they still haven't refunded me which is now 6 months after they cancelled the order.
Pathetic company
Apple
Sony - i had a god awful experience with them when I bought a TV. Ive been a sony user for a long time but they lost a customer.
Mydeal - again, another poor experience.
Tbh with most things now, if I can buy it direct or from a "smaller player" then I will happily give them my money over going to the big boys.
as much as i dont like gerry harvey i'm not adverse to buying something off him if its deep deep discount to the point you know its costing him money
last two laptops i got from him
of course there's the usual mob like circles.life (LOL)
and any shopping square company
i would tend to try to avoid any company with say distinctly 'asian' business methods… eg. asus gigabyte if you have to rely on the local mob
also try to avoid any of the mobile majors
my life got a WHOLE lot less stressful once i divested of any telstra optus accounts
voda is best of a worse bunch
Boycott liberal. Too dishonest and helps the rich.
Uber. Both ride-share and eats. They exploit vulnerable people in society and don't look after them when they die https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-25/background-briefing-u…
As a personal aside, I am quite capable and have enough "get up and go" to fetch my own take away food, putting more money in the pocket of the restaurant.
This. Its exploitation full stop. Then have a look at Travis Kalanick's house. As as aside I tend to try to avoid any kind of home delivery. I avoid most types of courier service. And I have worked long time in logistics.
For me I'd rather take a short drive or pick stuff up on my way home.
Woolworths.
A number of years ago they put out ads everywhere that had a checkout person ask over the store PA: "price check on XXXXX" to which a reply came back over the speakers "That's ##% off" (replace the XXXXX with whatever item was on sale and ## as whatever percentage it was. This would repeat 2 or 3 times for different items
This ad infuriates me to this day. % off is not the same as a friggin price check. I'm sorry Kim* from marketing, if you responded that to me while I was the checkout person/ person waiting for their purchase to be rung up/ person waiting in line at he checkout, I would find you and strangle you for wasting mine and everyone elses time
More recently and to a lesser extent their camera on the self serve checkout is cause for concern. I don't want to see my ugly face on the screen as I do my shopping.
*name picked at random, no offence meant to any Kim's unless you wrote that ad in which case take full offence.
AMAZON
there's no reason you should ever need to enrich bezos. zuck. dorsey.
for me Amazon is the hardest to avoid because they truly have some good deals going however saying that… I Have a a two storey house full of bullshit I dont need so i dont need Amazon to help me on my way to hoarding all the electronics and shit.
ALso be aware of any Facebook companies like Instagram, Oculus etc. Amazon and Ring etc.
Amazon unfortunately like Microsoft have inflirated all corners of the internet. You dont know if you're hitting an AWS site (or Azure).
Amazon are like Nestle, you dont know if you're inadvertently using their product.
MS and Google deserve a mention too. Dont buy Alexa or Google IOT devices. Its a sad day when Microsoft is the least evil of this group.
avoid shithole banks
St. George Westpac BT super is pretty much a no go for a variety of reasons.
Frankly all of them are pretty scummy.
Most of them you really dont want to be involved with NAB ANZ eww…
Red Rooster
Coles
Telstra
Apple
I started boycotting some Chinese products like phones, TVs etc simply because of the CCP putting up barriers to importing Australian wine, lobster etc.. and ruining some livelihoods. But I don't go out of my way to look too hard - a lot of things are only practicable to source from China.
Anything on the BDS list.
Quite an emerging community and youth that are onto this. Yes, its impossible to apply this to your everyday life but whatever is possible we boycott. Simpl.e
Gillette coon they are so easy to find alternatives
Apple is a company I boycott. They have monopolised there over services centres and charge ridiculous prices for services.
Also I have an issue with how they despise third party repairs which should be allowed.
Not 100% a boycott, but avoid buying/using:
- ebay - due to unknown product quality and their support of bad sellers/products.
- Kogan - bad customer service and false advertisement
- XiaoMi - for its large support by oz-bargainers. Feel the needs to support somewhere else.
- AusPost - for difficulty reporting incidents and make sure they are properly attended to. Same issue with non-delivery keeps happening, etc.
- Coles - for their tie to ebay
Finder - Horrific ads.
No one else.
Bose. The only good thing they ever made are noise cancelling headphones, but out of warranty support is a massive scam.
Wilson Parking - a legalised scam, issuing fake fines they cannot issue, tricking people into believing they are real fines.
also lol
Wilson Parking (Chinese: 威信停車場) is a Hong Kong-based car parking management company. It first opened for business in Perth, Western Australia in 1962,[1] currently operates in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea and Mainland China.[2] In Hong Kong, it manages some 400 car parks with 103,000 bays.[3] Wilson Parking in Hong Kong and Mainland China are wholly owned subsidiaries of Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited.[4]
Its head office is in the World Trade Centre (世界貿易中心) in Causeway Bay.[5]
aramex / fastway
PayPal
Caltex, BP Shell 1.90 for petrol vs 1.35 from my independent Servo
where do you live? I don't think I have ever seen 1.90 except in rural zones, in which case 1.35 would be crazy cheap
I live in Lidcombe around here is 1.35
I drove to my parents place last week Carlingford to drop off some food
Petrol there was reaching 1.83 for standard unleaded Shell and Caltex on Pennant Hills road I think premium was 1.87… and people were filling up there!!!
cheers (coon) cheese for giving into pressure of political correctness - they could have just put a disclaimer on the packaging saying Richard Coon was our founder
Nestle, enough said
Toyota - cars boring as batshit. You only have one life.
GR Yaris?
hardley normal - job keeper rort despite huge profits
apple - corporate bully, overpriced products, hypocritical cash grabs (no charger block with phone but same price, changing charger sockets all the time causing huge amounts of other electronic gear to be rendered obsolete - like speaker docks etc, removal of headphone jack so you have to buy either new headphones or an adapter)
tesla - full of un-objective fan boiz, poor build quality, worst build quality and number of defects of all car makers, tiny brand support in australia, egomaniac as ceo
amazon - corporate bully, poor worker culture, egomaniac as ceo
twitter / instagram / tiktok / snapchat / etc - destroys mental health, ticking time bomb for the younger generation, spreader of fake news
news corp - no explanation required
kogan, goodguys, hellofresh, shopback, age, twitter, facebook, amazon, toyota, honda, choice, apple, coles, aliexpress, ebay
Kogan - Too many horror refund stories
The Age - No explanation required
Coon - Woke
Woolies - Woke
Qantas - Woke and bad customer service
Red Rooster - Boring
Car next door. Looking for any kind of opportunities to loot money from car owners and riders. Myself had a horrible experience that their GPS device destroyed two car batteries back to back with no compensation.
Gillette - for bashing men by virtue signalling
VW/Audi cars.
They cheated, really badly.
Cheated consumers and environment
Not brands per se, but I boycott:
dentists with bad teeth;
obese doctors; and
crazy psychologists.
Fat doctors really drive me nuts. Can't trust them if they're not practising what they're preaching.
Nestle
Reddit drama, and their domination of poorer countries. I was shocked when I visited Philippines and whole TV had space was just them selling Milo and Random baby formula's
Facebook. Never felt the need to join, and never will.
Harvey Norman. Can't stand Gerry Harvey's whinging.
Mercedes. Once bitten, twice shy. It's just a car, nothing revolutionary or life changing.
This is a bit of a moving target, but any company that does saturation advertising. Seeing an amusing ad for the first time is great. After the 20th time it becomes tedious, annoying and I actively don't want the product.
Samsung - had a really bad after sales support experience on a brand new 82" TV. Way too much heartache man.
Aust snail Post
Aramex. Not sure how to boycott them sigh~~
PC Case Gear - End of 2016, was looking for my first job and they had a pick/pack opening. They called saying they just needed to do a trial session which for factory work, practically means you're in as long as that session goes fine. When I went there were 5-6 people doing 'trials' and they said we were the 3rd batch for the week and they had more trials for the whole of next week. Pretty much free labour somewhere around ~30-45 people x 2 hours.
I will never buy anything from them and will go to CPL, Scorptec or anywhere else, even if it costs more.
Nick Scali
Bad experience with last sale and very rude with customers service. Never again!
Volkswagen and many other German Cars
So Gerry Harvey is repaying the corporate's portion of jobkeeper ~$6M. He's not explicitly saying why but it's probably in response to the general sentiment in this forum, just a guess.
Still going to boycott.
Gerry negged you!
The usual suspects plus any of these companies listed here.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/the-asx-listed-companies-keeping-jobkeeper-despite-making-profits-20210902-p58ob7.html
Volkswagen
For manipulating software on their diesel cars to change emissions data so that they could evade emissions regulations.
Camelbak, Giro and Blackburn.
Even though these are all in the cycling space their parent company Vista Outdoors is a massive ammunitions manufacturer and donated $500k USD to the National Rifle Association (NRA) who lobby against gun regulations in the USA.
https://www.bicycling.com/news/a20049195/vista-outdoor-boyco…
They might be a Church but they are one of the reasons for the big uptake in vegetarianism in western countries so at least they are not all evil.