Are there any stores or companies you refuse to shop from or deal with?

[User1055]

As the thread title says - I have just decided to shop anywhere except a major high street electrical / computer company from now onwards after a couple of poor customer service issues. I shopped there from convenience, but I'm fed up with them now.
This got me thinking. I avoid any MLM, even though I really like some products I was given as a gift, and stores with poor ethics regarding production, worker treatment, etc.
Do you have any you actively avoid?

I avoid my local sports direct after going in there one Sunday morning to buy new trainers heavily pregnant in a heatwave. The staff were stood around laughing and chatting , there were boxes piled up on the seating so I had to stand and most of the shoes on display had no prices 🤬 so I ended up stood there for 20 minutes trying to get someone's attention. I eventually left and walked up the street to a smaller sports store and got a fabulous new pair of shoes for a fab price and had amazing customer service. I went back to the sports direct ad told the manager exactly what happened and that several people had also left his store to go to the smaller one.

I avoid my local charity shop because the manager is a drunken mess most evenings and once abused me on Facebook messenger because she didn't like my dp🤣🤣 I was always friendly with her and was so shocked I couldn't deal with the awkwardness of going back in there. A lot of local people avoid the shop because of her as well.

Sandals holiday company for having homophobic no same sex couple policies for years and years. I suspect they have had to change now, but will never use them.

Ocado, after being a customer for so long that I was on their freebie panel, with how badly they reacted to the fact that an Woman: Adult Human Female billboard was being posted by the same advertising platform they used
Switched to Sainsbury's three years ago and now cancelled my delivery pass after their "gender neutral" (mixed sex!) toilet introduction. Please let Morrison's stay on the side of women 🤞
Starbucks for their support of Mermaids
Innocent smoothies and Oatly for ill-judged anti women campaigns
Body Shop for their treatment of JKR

And not on the same theme at all... A local steak place in Battersea after they kicked us out when some affluent looking tourists wanted our table

Lush - have had some awful campaigns
Anti-police
Naked / apron
'Kiss the t-shirt'
The anti Badger cull. The badger cull is very very contentious, and many in the farming community were very much against it too. But Lush started to refuse to serve people they thought were / looked like farmers.

They really aren't love. MN is an echo chamber. In the real world no one cares about your little trans right quibbles. Most of us would prioritise a lack of animal testing. Have a nice evening 👍🏻 🏳️‍⚧️

Hahaha. I do prioritise not testing on animals. I also avoid companies peddling misogyny.

Ryanair - obvious reasons
Ford - shit car front new nothing but trouble and couldn't care less.
Wetherspoons Brexit related
Daily Telegraph ditto
Oxfam blatant profiteering and scandal
Ecco had a pair of shoes that literally disintegrated after 6 wears, after multiple emails they advised me that as I'd bought them in a shop not on line it wasn't their responsibility and take them back to the branch even though that branch had shut down. I'm not usually a quitter on the customer service front but they were successful at wearing me down and I gave up.
Ocado refused to honour lots of vouchers which I was unable to use as I couldn't get into their website at the start of the pandemic and they expired.
Local Boots, vile, grubby store with rubbish selection of stock.

Amazon - poor treatment of staff, tax loopholes
Lush - don't agree with their ethics or treatment of staff
MLMs
Nutella - palm oil (Nocilla is better anyway!)
Starbucks - tax dodgers

I don't live in UK and have never bought from Dyson or Next but would not do so nor set foot in Wetherspoon's because of their support for Brexit.

I actively avoid Nestlé, but do occasionally buy their products.

Vodafone, once my contract comes to an end I'm off after 26 years. Overpriced and terrible customer service. The last straw was being utterly patronised after waiting for 25 minutes to get through. And they still didn't resolve the issue I had that prompted me to call

The Sun because of the lies they printed after Hillsborough.

Ryan Air. I swore I would never fly with them again after they changed our flight times a week before we flew out losing a day of our holiday. I stupidly gave them a second chance and they changes their policy after our booking meaning we had to pay massive amounts for our previously free carry on luggage.

Wetherspoons because the owner supported Brexit and now has the brass neck to complain about it's impact , with no demonstrable understanding shown of a connection between the two. Also the way he treated his staff during lockdown.

The Works in our next town because none of the staff have worn face masks , except for one who wears it as a beard hammock. The chances of all of their staff being exempt is unlikely.

I forgot about The Guardian.

I boycott them for obvious reasons.

In the real world no one cares about your little trans right quibbles. Most of us would prioritise a lack of animal testing

In the real world presumably you also don't give a shit about their disablism, coercion of a largely female staff into unethical and abusive practices, or worry about the fact that their big corporate desire to jump on the political fashion of the day regularly results in them having to swivel on their opinions faster than the average carousel.

Clear signs of a strong ethical stance that, not a corporate just out to grab every capitalist penny going

Incidentally - their animal testing and sourcing descriptions are very carefully worded on their websites and differ by geography. You might want to check into that if you claim to care about them.

I generally avoid companies with poor customer service (yes tradespeople, that includes you if you require a convesation with the nearest available penis before graciously taking my money).

I also try to avoid companies with particularly poor track records on staff treatment/coercion.

RyanAir and others showing particularly egregious disablism (quite a few in that category)
Cosmetics companies making money of out skin lightening claims which includes some of the feted "cruelty free" brands.
Shops with unisex changing rooms separated only by dodgy curtains and no real privacy and non accessible changing rooms (funny how often those things come together).
I've supported BabymilkAction for decades - not always successfully though as brands belong to so few global multinationals and move around but I try.

La Redoute. I bought a pair of shorts from them online in my normal size, but when they arrived they were humongous! I contacted them to return them and they said that sizes on the labels are more of a guide and not accurate, and more importantly they dont accept returns!! Im still fuming nearly 8 years later.

Ohh another one.
Hoover/candy/ electrolux etc after their shit show with the tumble dryers recall.

It’s more difficult than it sounds given I don’t have Miele budget and they have so many brands

N*stle

Robert Dyas due to appealing customer service i received twice i stopped going for years then relented and had a problem with what I bought and again customer service was appealing. I am never returning

Local pizza place it looks grim and they have no hygiene certificates up

Local butcher as he has no sink he uses a bucket of water to wash his hands in.

Most cheap shops as they have a certain smell of all the cheap fabrics, plastic and glue

😂

Lush, Yankee Candle and Shoezone as you need full on breathing apparatus to enter the shops because of the stink, a covid mask doesn't quite cut it

@ThatSunnyCorner

🤣🤣 I wouldn’t be so trashy to open the door naked, also I don’t believe every male is a rapist or voyeur. 😉

Could you tell us how to identify which ones are rapists and voyeurs then, you know, just to help us when we're semi naked in a cubicle?

You might want to read the research paper on what happened in Target when men were allowed in women's changing rooms. Absolutely hilarious. Not.

@Thewiseoneincognito

You may also want to read the statics around harassment, sexual assault and voyeurism in gender neutral changing rooms, it's an eye owner.

We have regulations around safeguarding of women and children for a reason.

Can I ask what the issue is with nspcc, I donate every month wondering if I should reconsider?

@slightlysnippy because they lauded and supported a 'celeb booker' staff member who filmed and then uploaded the videos himself wanking in the staff toilets, and also wearing a rubber suit he would urinate in to work so walking around in this with the urine sloshing about in a building that had children in it. A member of staff who raised this as a concern was ostracised and called several versions of 'phobic'.

@MichelleScarn thanks for the explanation I was not aware, just awful'

@MichelleScarn wow. Thanks for the heads up on that one

@slightlysnippy

Can I ask what the issue is with nspcc, I donate every month wondering if I should reconsider?

The NSPCC twitter account also urged followers to report the accounts of anyone raising concerns by twitter to try and get those accounts suspended - these were many ordinary concerned women. I found that attempt to stop people raising safeguarding concerns chilling

Starbucks, Costa etc
Boots, bad customer experience
Specsavers bad customer experience
Local shops x 2