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[Misc] Companies you hate, and will avoid using/buying from if you possibly can







Oh_aye

Well-known member
Jul 8, 2022
2,121
Spoons - Tim Martin is an absolute shit of a man, who has played his part in wrecking the country. Never going to willingly give him a penny.

Dyson - another traitor to the nation, and frankly every single one of his products I’ve ever used has been shit. All style / design over function or reliability.

Subway - just revolting food.
An excellent selection
 




mejonaNO12 aka riskit

Well-known member
Dec 4, 2003
21,927
England
PurpleBricks

Truly truly awful.

I'd read really good things about them and the reviews were good. Our house was clearly a first time buyers house and should have been a simple sale. I paid the extra £99 or whatever it was to have the local agent/expert conduct our viewings for us to maximise time slots. You can do the viewings yourself if you want but we were both at work.

Our 'agent' or whatever they call themselves was cancelling our viewings and pretending the viewers were the ones cancelling them.

I had a 'portal' where I could see all the viewings. One day I called a few of the viewers directly (they submit their contact details on there) and they all told me it was cancelled by us saying it wasn't a good time.

Took a lot of arguing to eventually get my full refund. They argued the basic fee was still payable and only the additional cost paid to have the agent do our viewings should be refunded. I argued that agent not doing their job made the rest of the fee completely redundant. Got there in the end.

Went with a proper estate agent the next time and they were great for us.
 


Bold Seagull

strong and stable with me, or...
Mar 18, 2010
30,465
Hove
Another Apple hater here.

All through my career there's been challenges getting Apple products to connect to industry standard systems - Novell, Windows, Linux, VAX VMX, Unix - you name it, it's always Apple products that create the issues.

In the modern day - Apple are the only manufacturer who's products can't be charged with a generic USB C charger. Why ? Because they want to be seen as different and hip. Don't get me started on the headphone socket !!! Thank god the EU is dealing with it - there's a few on here who would never have expected to see me type those words :lol:

As for customer service - Mrs WS always insisted on me helping her with issues she was having with her iPhone ( she's given up now because it always ends in a argument of "Well you work in IT" with my retort "And I told you not to buy this crap" ). Anyway, once I agreed to take it to the Apple shop for her. You had to make a f***ing appointment !!!! Really ?? Then sit on a bench for 45 minutes plus with other Apple owning wankers until your number came up. NEVER again. In fairness they fixed it in ten minutes.

So for me - Apple, Apple, Apple all day long.
I'm not going to be all Apple fan-boy here, but weren't Apple the first home computer to properly use and market the mouse? And you mention USB, weren't Apple the first manufacturer to include a USB? Before that you had a range of serial, SCSI, parrallel ports etc.
 




Harry Wilson's tackle

Harry Wilson's Tackle
NSC Patron
Oct 8, 2003
56,197
Faversham
It's a shame as their older stuff was actually great.

I had an iPod classic which for the time was fast, had massive storage and looked nice.

As time has gone on they've just gotten worse and worse though.
I have four iPOD classics (last gen, and last but one). I also have a PC where I declined the iTunes update. So I have a great system for making and storing portable music.

These iPODS were going for over £400 a few years ago but we bough one recently for £60.

Back to the OP's question:

News Corp
GB News
Birds Eye
Findus
Kraft (OK, all processed food)
C&A (do they even exist anymore?)

and the shittiest of them all....

Bing! f*** off Bing. You're shit, Bing.
 


Arthur

Well-known member
Jul 8, 2003
8,762
Buxted Harbour
PurpleBricks

Truly truly awful.

I'd read really good things about them and the reviews were good. Our house was clearly a first time buyers house and should have been a simple sale. I paid the extra £99 or whatever it was to have the local agent/expert conduct our viewings for us to maximise time slots. You can do the viewings yourself if you want but we were both at work.

Our 'agent' or whatever they call themselves was cancelling our viewings and pretending the viewers were the ones cancelling them.

I had a 'portal' where I could see all the viewings. One day I called a few of the viewers directly (they submit their contact details on there) and they all told me it was cancelled by us saying it wasn't a good time.

Took a lot of arguing to eventually get my full refund. They argued the basic fee was still payable and only the additional cost paid to have the agent do our viewings should be refunded. I argued that agent not doing their job made the rest of the fee completely redundant. Got there in the end.

Went with a proper estate agent the next time and they were great for us.
I'll second this. I used them in 2016 when they were relatively new on the scene and they were awful.

I got sold the dream by them and as soon as I signed on the dotted line it was like I didn't exist.

The photos for my listing were taken by the agent on what looked like a £50 digital camera from Argos. I had a woman come and view who made me a verbal offer there and then and I never heard from her again (that might not have been their fault but based on your experience who knows). Then had nothing for weeks and weeks and no contact from the agent. Everytime I called him it went straight to voicemail. I ended up ringing thier head office and getting his boss' number. I got a call back from him that afternoon and they came round and re-did all my photos and relisted on Rightmove. Eventually it did sell and I probably did save a few quid but was it worth the hassle.....no!

It still boils my piss now when I see one of their adverts "Purplebricks, aren't they just online?" YES THAT IS ALL THEY f***ing ARE!
 


Herr Tubthumper

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 11, 2003
62,731
The Fatherland
WH Smiths - there is nothing I can get in there that I can't for for half price somewhere else.
Do they still try and flog you a Terrys chocolate orange and a huge bar of Cadburys at the till?
 




Beanstalk

Well-known member
Apr 5, 2017
3,031
London
Aside from the obvious ones (The Sun, Daily Mail, etc.) it's probably only Brewdog that I actively refuse and discourage others from buying.

Firstly, they're a hideously run company that have done some pretty rank things. Secondly, their beer is crap with nice (unpaid) marketing attached to it.
 


CheeseRolls

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jan 27, 2009
6,233
Shoreham Beach
Bah I can't even give a straight answer to a simple question this morning.

Hate is not too strong a word, when it comes to Southern Water. Obvious criminal behaviour and exploitation of a local monopoly, quite literally a shit service. There is no choice or alternative.
 


The Clamp

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jan 11, 2016
26,206
West is BEST
Not that I hate them but my bank is making a right old song and dance about my “savings rates going up”.

Indeed they are. By a laughable rate and nowhere near the inflation rate being inflicted on borrowers and home owners.

NatWest, if you’re going to insult me, at least have the grace to not make out you’re doing me a favour.
 




Stat Brother

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 11, 2003
73,888
West west west Sussex
Hey @Bozza I assume this was such a rip roaring financial success for NSC:-



You're getting us to pay for another Mods Meat Up, by preying on our negativity.
 


The Clamp

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jan 11, 2016
26,206
West is BEST
Bah I can't even give a straight answer to a simple question this morning.

Hate is not too strong a word, when it comes to Southern Water. Obvious criminal behaviour and exploitation of a local monopoly, quite literally a shit service. There is no choice or alternative.
Hate is a good word for SW. Pumping shit into our seas and waterways.
 


Bozza

You can change this
Helpful Moderator
Jul 4, 2003
57,315
Back in Sussex
Hey @Bozza I assume this was such a rip roaring financial success for NSC:-



You're getting us to pay for another Mods Meat Up, by preying on our negativity.
I'm not entirely sure where I'm going to spend all of the £0.00 earned since that thread started on 30th May...

Screenshot 2023-06-23 at 10.45.18.png
 




1066familyman

Radio User
Jan 15, 2008
15,235
Worrying this. My missus is dealing with them right now regarding a pension payout
In a nutshell, and without going into too much detail, they used every trick in the book to delay as long as possible a policy payout when my Mum died. Aside from adding more stress to an already upsetting situation, their purposeful delay could have had further ramifications.

Terrible company!
 


DanR

Active member
Dec 26, 2020
177
Peasmarsh
Aside from the obvious ones (The Sun, Daily Mail, etc.) it's probably only Brewdog that I actively refuse and discourage others from buying.

Firstly, they're a hideously run company that have done some pretty rank things. Secondly, their beer is crap with nice (unpaid) marketing attached to it.
Brewdog also gets my vote.
 


1066familyman

Radio User
Jan 15, 2008
15,235
Curious as to why? I love my SE200, though I appreciate they’re pricey (got mine in a 35% off deal).
In fairness, I haven't ever listened to one, so my judgement might be premature, but I read a LOT of DAP reviews and own Sony, Cowon and iBasso DAPs.

It appears to me, and a lot of others, that whilst undoubtedly making good products, you're paying a premium for the name. Similar to Apple really, except at least A&K can't lock you into an 'ecosystem' in the nasty way Apple do.

I'm off to London CanJam this year. If A&K have a stand there then I'll make sure to listen to a few of their products to see how they shape up and if they can justify their premium price.

Oh, and I personally don't like the look, odd shape and styling of their DAPs much either :lol:.
 






The Clamp

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jan 11, 2016
26,206
West is BEST
I have mixed feelings about apple but there’s no dint their devices are easier to use that android or windows stuff.

Android phones are a pain in the arse.

However, every single iPhone I’ve had has stopped charging after three years. Which I’m Convinced is deliberate.

I’m also not impressed with the tinkering they do. They haven’t been innovative in the phone market for years. Nobody has really though.

Folding screens? No thanks.
 


mikeyjh

Well-known member
Dec 17, 2008
4,607
Llanymawddwy
I used to be very anti-apple but got fed up with windows being slow and turning on the fans like billyo that I’ve swapped to MacBooks and haven’t looked back.
I think it's product specific and cyclical thing. I used to have an iPhone but would never go back from android, love my iPad so thumbs up for that. Right now, I'm typing on a windows machine with an iMac next to it. I switched to Macs bac in about 2011 and have loved it but the 2 devices I am using right now of similar spec and age? The windows machine absolutely widdles on the mac for the things I need it to do - Data processing and acoustic analytics are two of activities my retired world has led me in to. As an example, I can process a 32gb SD card in about 15mins on the PC, several hours on the mac (ignoring the gymnastics I have to do to get the SC card in! This is, in part and as @Westdene Seagull alluded, due to the amount of crap you have to install on a Mac to make 'normal' things work!
 


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