Shell

...oh, ametc, that makes me so sad and angry at the same time. They need to be reported to the Humane Society, the BBB, and any other proper authorities. Animals don't have a voice and need us to speak out for them.

__________________
..."Say what you think. Those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind" ~ Dr. Seuss

Skitto

Too much jargon, oust her!

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Yeah, well, you're just that awesome, I guess. It's not like I guessed so anyways.

Lindy

This certainly doesn't apply to the Sheltie that lives across the street from me.

Lindy

Shell

Skitto, no more than your post #73 in which, btw, you say you're respectful of others

Like my signature says, "those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind"

Shell

__________________
..."Say what you think. Those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind" ~ Dr. Seuss

Latenter

Like others have said, Exxon, and the RIAA.

Apple, not because they're evil, but because I don't like paying for a brand rather than quality, and that many people who prefer Apple (religiously) just don't know any better.

I used to not buy anything from Sony, but I have been buying from their games/Computer Entertainment division. Proprietary formats, "We know better than our customers" attitude, rootkits, etc.

State Farm insurance, because they tried to screw me and my wife after a claim. Not just giving an unfair settlement, but also stalling, delay tactics, ignoring messages and calls left, lies about what had been said before, etc.

Baraka_Guru

Boycotting companies doesn't have the same effect it used to. We live in an age of business where companies choose their customers, not just the other way around.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

jevons1212

Hey I am from China.Here is better than you may think,to my opinion of course

frogza

I boycott a local business owner because he is a jerk. He owns 3 companies here in town.

passthru

There are only a couple that have screwed me directly, but many others that I tend to avoid for other reasons.
I bought a "refurbished" iPod directly from Apple, but it didn't charge. After several weeks of jumping through tech support/cust. service hoops, despite my clear explanations why those hoops didn't make sense (they made me jump anyway, because I owned a PC, it was the problem), they finally admitted the iPod should be replaced. I had to point out more obvious facts to make that happen, I placed the order 2 weeks earlier yet the warranty expired 2 months earlier, then we cross shipped. However, the only method they had of informing me where to drop off my package led me to a DHL drop box that it didn't fit into! Holy crap I hate those scumbags.
AT&T, the very week they took over Cingular, mysteriously credited $300 on my account. But they corrected it twice. So my bill said I owed ~$340 instead of $40 and every cust. service call resulted in transfer to the next level up 3 or 4 times. Each ended with the person admitting it made no sense, but they'd have to investigate more.

Plenty of other just stink so I avoid them. Comcast's definition of service disconnection doesn't include completely disabling Internet service, and they billed me for a month when my service was still "active".
I rarely buy music because the only advantage CD's have are audio quality, but sadly it's been intentionally lowered as a marketing move.. and trying to fix it got customer complaints.
Starbucks is pretty bad. When I'm in a hurry or not paying attention and mis-pack my grounds while making espresso, it still comes out better than the burned crap Starbucks consistently achieves. I went to Starbucks with family then to a little stand we happened to drive by, and my family noticed it made the car smell better

I have the feeling that every large company has screwed somebody over; it's only a matter of chance or time before any big corp goes onto your blacklist. I could come up with a much longer list of good experiences with local and/or small companies.

edit: Oh I totally forgot Old Chicago! The vast majority of their serving staff is great and very friendly, so I still go all the time. The premise of their business is nonsense. They're not from Chicago, they're from Denver. Guess why I know this. After complaining about different beers each visit, even trying different glasses thinking wash soap was getting left on somehow, I stopped ordering beer. A couple weeks later, a server who knew me said a high up manager had visited from Denver and noticed something was wrong with the beer. It turned out something in the delivery had grown mold! My complaints never got the dipshits to check, so they'd been serving moldy beer to all customers for weeks! Also, their one bad employee almost punched me, served alcohol without checking ID, and was promoted to become a regional trainer! Sadly, I'm on my way to Old Chicago now.

ZombieSquirrel

I don't do Tim Horton's anymore since reading THIS article.

Granted, they stopped after the protest calls and such.

I shop as local as I can. Produce is actually cheaper at the farmer's market in my town than at Wally World.

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Attack ZombieSquirrels

Vigilante

I don't buy CDs or tobacco anything. It's not that severe though, I do buy cigars for my Dad and CDs for my wife. Not for me, though.

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We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
-Winston Churchill

cdwonderful

Intuit, neither buy, sell, or even pirate their product.....which is saying something.

their treatment of their employees is the main reason.

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Never try to teach a pig to whistle
it wastes your time,
and annoys the pig.....

cellophanedeity

I don't shop at Walmart, because it's a disgusting place filled with crazy people. I don't care how low the prices are, I'm not doing it. I won't eat at Applebee's for the same reason.

I always try to purchase Canadian grown food. I prefer to pay for Canadian grown music and fiction too.

__________________
who am I to refuse the universe?
-Leonard Cohen, Beautiful Losers

TUDelftstudent

I never go to McDonald's or KFC, but that's also for health reasons. Other than that, Microsoft is on the list.

I just can't stand what they did with the X-box. They sold broken devices of which they knew they were broken.

It's gonna be Mac for the rest of my life

girldetective

I do not buy Nike products, or eggs that are not humanely raised (often spending quite a bit more per egg).

In addition, I do not deal with Chase, or any of their holdings that I know of.

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As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons...be cheerful; strive for happiness - Desiderata

thirdsun

Amway. It's a total cult.

[I have firsthand experience. My first wife's blind devotion to it and network marketing hype ended our marriage in 1992.]

highthief

Me too. Free range only.

---------- Post added at 05:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:05 PM ----------

Oh man - that was the actions of an individual branch/district manager (who I imagine has been sacked by now). Tim's actually has a policy of not getting involved in stuff like that period.

__________________
Si vis pacem parabellum.

DerekP

I used to boycott entire chains based on principle, but I find myself now more angered by their local representations.

I have boycotted Exxon for as long as I have been driving (close to 10 years now) because of their active resistance to any and all environmental initiatives. Improved automobile mileage, investments in clean energy, and basic environmental protections have all found Exxon's dagger in their backs. Luckily they make this easy as their gas stations are generally more expensive anyway.

I used to try to avoid Walmart, however that changed when my wife worked there for a year. I have a good friend who worked at Target at the same time, and was able to compare their treatments. Walmart (at least the local one here) does right by their employees, while Target plays all the games that people attribute to Walmart. However, I still cringe at the constant loop of Tracphone commercials blaring everywhere when I go into Walmart.

The local Econolodge for botching my wedding booking and charging me 700 dollars for rooms I never wanted booked in my name and refusing to deal with me.

Best Buy is a practical boycott - I will go to them for emergency computer parts, only after exhausting all other local sources. Mainly, I just don't bother checking them for prices anymore because they're always close to or the most expensive.

Verizon I had on the list for a while for selling my number to a host of telemarketers the day I got my phone. They are about to be on the list again because I've just moved and they've taken over 3 weeks and still don't have my DSL running, and all they can tell me is it was an order glitch (which they somehow couldn't figure out the first 5 times I called) and that there is a rush on the order. I told them they're going to have to race Time Warner to get my service now - whoever connects me first is who I'm sticking with.

Time Warner was on my list, both for trying to make me pay $500 for the previous tenants when I moved into my previous apartment and for the recent silliness they tried with their internet services. However, at this point I'm willing to settle for the lesser of two evils. There's not a whole lot of practical choice where I live.

Edit: Oh, and I forgot the Kirby Pyramid scheme of vacuum selling, but that probably goes without saying.

Leto

ditto.

My affirmative shopping action usually stems from the desire to shop locally. Which I am finding very difficult to do.

for example, I noticed that this year and last year, the grocery was not stocking local strawberries in season (No Frills). All the strawberries were shipped from California. So they must have been picked while not ripe, and then trucked for 3 days to get here. And it still must be cheaper than getting supplied from a farm 10 Km from the city.

Same goes for Peaches, tomatoes etc. Unless it doesn't grow in Ontario, or at least Canada, or if it is out of season, I will not purchase it. I would rather go to the local (& pricey) farmer's market.

__________________
You said you didn't give a fuck about hockey
And I never saw someone say that before
You held my hand and we walked home the long way
You were loosening my grip on Bobby Orr

http://dune.wikia.com/wiki/Leto_Atreides_I

laconic1

Same here. I used to love Best Buy, either I've gotten smarter or they have changed in a bad way. I needed a new keyboard after my old one completely went out. I had found a basic no frills Logitech one online I liked for $20 shipped. I figured if I could find one locally for maybe $25 I would get it locally and save the hassle of waiting. I went to Best Buy and the cheapest keyboard they had was $60 for a no name brand!!! This came after another Best Buy location stopped me like I was a shoplifter because I didn't buy their $40 USB cable when I could get the cable I needed for $5 shipped online. I ended up settling for a Logitech keyboard for $13 from Wally world.

Needless to say I will never set foot in a Best Buy again.

DerekP

They've definitely changed in a bad way. I remember when my local Best Buy was first built back in '96 or 97 when I was still living at home. That store was awesome! Decently priced movies, CDs, and computer parts and the people who worked there actually had a clue. I got into a habit of just going there to shop instead of checking the other local computer stores I was used to. Then I moved away and didn't have one around for a couple years. Came back around 2002 and couldn't figure out what happened! It had turned into Circuit City - expensive with salesmen who followed you around and tried to upsell you when you weren't even asking for their help.

I often wonder about companies that change like that. Do they set out to be just another expensive, pushy big box in the beginning, or does something in the marketplace corrupt them? Are the first couple years a sham to get people to like them, or is the later form them selling out?

boink

yes, I do boycott one company but it's personal.

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when you believe in things that you don't understand, then you suffer. Superstition ain't the way.

Salem

I wont buy Iams, or any pet foods with Meat Meal and or Bone Meal in them.

highthief

wow, what a couple of assholes!

__________________
Si vis pacem parabellum.

cadre

I try my best to boycott Walmart because I just don't like how they do business (I also don't like being in their stores).

I never buy products from IAMS, Nutro, or Purina. Blue Buffalo is the only brand of food I feed my animals. This is mainly a quality issue.

I also do not buy American cars because they just don't beat the competition.

It's not so much that I avoid certain companies but I favor some companies and will go out of my way to support them. For instance, I will buy gas from BP over Exxon and I support Google and Apple over Microsoft.


This is funny because I've boycotted quite a few hometown companies recently. After working for and with quite a few companies in my little college town, I came to the conclusion that some of the owners were very ignorant about how to conduct business, they relied on the loyalty of customers like you, CG, but that will only take them so far.

Why BP?

What is wrong with meat meal? All 'meal' means is that it has been dehydrated and ground.

__________________
My life is one of those 'you had to be there' jokes.

Ce'Nedra

Starbucks. Mostly because of local pride, though. Community Coffee is so much better.

And I don't go to Wal-Mart just because it feels like a dirty place. That's probably more of a snob thing.

Whenever possible I try to support local businesses. Customer service tends to be better, food products are fresher, and it makes me feel like I'm helping the community.