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?

Amazon, Starbucks, Lush and The Body Shop

Bensons for Beds - sold us a bed that the base caved in on within months - lied to get out of honouring the warranty and generally just behaved like utter shitbags and have a pretty clear history of this.

Starbucks
Always san pro
Lush
Body Shop
Flora Margarine (not that I ever used it anyway)

@AtomHeartMotherOfGod

I'm probably hugely hypocritical in many ways when it comes to purchasing habits but I avoid:

Starbucks
MacDonalds and all similar 'fast food' restaurants
Oreos
Nestlé as far as possible
Tesco - their meat supplier is razing the Amazon
Nutella - hear Ferraro have an approved palm oil policy now but as I've heard of companies dodging the standards with underhand methods, avoidance is best
Estée Lauder
Amazon when possible
Super cheap clothing suppliers

Ethical Consumer and Greenpeace are good places to check.

I do try not to be too intransigent about this sort of thing, having rolled my eyes massively at my MIL who refused to use a multi-award winning butcher in the village because she wasn't impressed by the bacon 25 years ago. But I do have some red lines....

As above (although I didn't know that about Tesco's meat - I shop there but buy meat from the butcher) and also:

Lush

Bodyshop

Asda

Two local electricians, one because he quite clearly tried to pull a fast one last time he worked for us and one because he is the ex-husband of a friend of mine who treated her and their disabled child utterly vileley when he left them.

Carpetright (are they still going?) the only reason we used them more than once was that their only solution for the appalling service the first time was to offer us a very large discount on our next purchase. Second experience was better but confirmed our boycott nonetheless.

One local plumber who 'tested' a toilet after fixing it by peeing in it with the bathroom door open.

Also I don't know if it counts as boycotting the others, as we probably wouldn't use two banks at once, but we bank with Triodos, avoiding the big ones.

currys PC world, zero help whwn product faulty, Argos, everthing from there appears faulty. Waitrose after very rude "customer services".

@Towerofjoyless

Mydogisagentleman why TOPS tiles? Im looking at tiles atm and just got a sample through today from them so curious as to why.

I worked there about a million years ago during the transition from lovely chain to corporate assholes. (Basically when the son took over) They will sell you things you don't need, upsell you, harass until you tell them to piss off, their non tile bits and bobs are bad quality and expensive, they screw over the tradesmen on a regular basis and the staff are treated badly.

Anyone know how to find out which own label products are made by certain suppliers?
So for example to boycott Nestle are there Tesco/Asda/Sainsbury’s branded lines you need to avoid too?

Yes on any mlm

Lucy and Yak. They have lots of pics on their website of a diverse range of body types and sizes and actively promote themselves as size inclusive. But in reality have ver little available above a size 18.

@jackstini

Anyone know how to find out which own label products are made by certain suppliers? So for example to boycott Nestle are there Tesco/Asda/Sainsbury’s branded lines you need to avoid too?

No. But there are tons of brands they own. Boycott list here www.babymilkaction.org/nestle-boycott-list

Costa. Bad customer service

Sports Direct, for so many reasons.
RyanAir will never see a penny of mine again, don’t get me started on how absolutely dreadful they are.

I don’t believe every male is a rapist or voyeur.

I’m going to get my house though that you take precautions related to men.

The Body Shop (I’d love to know what impact that tweet had on their sales figures)
I avoid Amazon unless I can really help it.
Aldi (not really a boycott but I can easily shop at an alternative with majority UK shareholders)

Nestle although this boycott has been going on for 30+ years and sadly shows no signs of doing any good, I'd quite like to taste evaporated milk again

McDonald's

I never go to Starbucks and can't even remember why

I don't boycott other fast food chains like KFC etc. I just have no interest in them

Currys/PC World
TalkTalk
EDF
Nestle
Murdoch or Harmsworth products
Wetherspoons
Samaritans Purse/Operation Christmas Child
RSPCA

Any local restaurant/takeaway that scores low on hygiene (love the 'Scores on the Door' campaign).

Any charity that sends me branded tat (thankfully much less common now but the Red Cross used to be buggers for sending out coasters, pens, diaries, cards, all sorts of crap that cost money to produce and post).

Any company that runs an ad campaign wanging on about supporting charity and then has tiny small print somewhere saying "0.01p of every purchase goes directly to charity".

I'll sometimes take information from chuggers but never give information or sign anything.

@GoodbyePorpoiseSpit thank you. I'd not heard of that story.

@Gumbo

Victorian Plumbing. Truly horrific customer service - when you are finally able to reach them, which can take hours since they've actually removed any phone numbers to ensure they can't be contacted by phone. And when I say they're mind-blowingly unhelpful I'm being exceptionally kind. Never again!

Oh yes. We had the WORST experience with their customer services. Took months to sort.

See also Gourmet Burger Kitchen. It's been months and I'm still waiting for them to get back to me re somebody hacking my account, stealing my details and spending my money on burgers. I've tried email, phoning, social media. Nada.

Lush - after their anti police campaign.

I'm pretty easy going as a whole, but that campaign was awful!!

Starbucks - don't like their coffee.

Dreams beds - I had an encounter with a salesman in there once, who rather contemptuously described my choice of mattress as rubbish quality and very inferior, and I should buy a much better quality (and far more expensive) one, and he blithely ignored my assertions that I was on a restricted budget. I walked out.

I'm boycotting M&S from now on. Received v poor customer service. I also think their standard of staff and training must have seriously plummeted in recent times. I couldn't believe the way some members of staff behaved recently online, customer service in store and in cafe. You used to feel like you were receiving great customer service. Now it's like being in a rough as ropes joint.

After reading these posts I am duty bound not to patronise any of the businesses mentioned; so i'm just sitting here in a loin cloth!

@ThreeWitches

I'm sorry that was your experience but most shops have tiny toilets only permitted for staff use

This.

Friends with a staff toilet in a tiny boutique let customers use it until they had to close twice because of the mess left. Second time the poop was decorating the walls smeared in by a little old lady. So nope I wouldn't let anyone use any loo anywhere

Boots - terrible customer service. Staff too busy gossiping to help. Seems to be a theme with others saying the same.
Any window company that wants to speak to my husband or have him in the room to buy windows. Ffs.
Amazon.
Sports Direct.
Pub in the village who have their own group of in crowd customers. Walk in there and it all goes quiet whilst they stare at you.
Argos - after they treated my friend’s husband who was a a manager there very badly.
Always - for adding fragrance.

@Mrbob

Amazon A small shopping centre in a posh area of town where people are REALLY snooty to anyone not dressed up to the nines. I find it amusing because I actually earn quite a lot but I will be buggered if I am getting botox and highlights just so they deign to be polite to me

I had visions of Pretty Woman when I read this which made me smile. It'd be better still if you did the "Big Mistake" thing 😆 x

@BeKindhahahaha

Fenwick 'French Salon' Newcastle.

Had a Pretty Woman on Rodeo Drive moment in there at the beginning of June. I think because I was wearing White Company linen, which had crumpled on the car journey.

I failed to assert myself with the aggressive shop assistant and she was so rude/caused such a scene I had to go to the loos for a good cry.

It was a truly astonishing experience. Like something you'd expect late at night when some people become aggressive in drink.

I haven't been in the store since and don't intend to go back, and I was a regular shopper there. (If I needed new furniture/carpet/bedding/clothes, I would head for Fenwick.) It just represents unpleasantness to me now.

The woman concerned I would imagine being nasty to people in life generally, she was so mean-spirited, it was as if I represented a channel for all of the anger she was feeling that day. I think if it had happened on public transport or somewhere I would have called the police.

anybody who doesn't recognise the crumpling of genuine good quality linen clothing shouldn't be in any kind of aspirational retail.