My top company that I will never give another dollar to is Adobe, as they forced me into a 1 year "contract" with a $200 cancellation fee after forgetting to cancel their one month discounted trial in time.
Other companies for myself include Dell, HP, and Canadian Tire.
Obligatory "fuck Adobe". My proudest moment last year was cutting our company's Acrobat licenses by 70% and taking about a million bucks out of their greedy little pockets.
Nitro Pro is great anyway. It does the job.
Mine is Sony. First the rootkit scandal, then the removal of Other OS from PS3s after featuring it as a selling point in the marketing. Totally deceptive and I won't give them my money.
Here's one nobody has mentioned yet. Hasbro. Owner of Wizards of the Coast which recently tried to massively fuck over D&D players and sent hired mercinaries (literally Pinkertons) after one of their Magic: The Gathering players for something that totally wasn't the player's fault.
This sounds insane, can you provide more context?
So, D&D first. WotC back in 2001 realized something. There are a few books that they sell a ton of copies of and make a lot of money off of. (The Player's Handbook, The Dungeon Master's Guide, Monster Manual, etc.) And then there are a ton more books that take a lot of effort to make but that they don't sell many copies of so they don't really make much money on them, but they still have to be made in order to ensure that the more profitable books sell. (These are mostly the published adentures.)
They figured that it would be in their best interest to incentivize third parties to write a lot of these published adventures so that WotC itself could focus more on the core books. So they licensed a lot of their core content under a license (The "Open Gaming License version 1.0a" or "OGL 1.0a") that allowed third parties to use it in their own modules and sell those modules. It created a vibrant ecosystem of publishers.
The OGL 1.0a was intended as a perpetual license. They promised third party publishers that the wording of the license didn't allow WotC themselves -- creators of the OGL 1.0a -- to revoke the license. (This was on an official FAQ on WotC's site.) So you'd be able to sell your module that included verbiage and elements from official D&D materials forever.
Well, in 2022, they changed their tune. They created an "OGL 1.1" (which was not "open" the way the 1.0a was) and started pressuring publishers they partnered with to accept the new license. It basically allowed them to rip off any third party content and include it in official WotC stuff without paying the third party publisher and also ban the publisher from using the material they wrote. It also put ridiculous restrictions on virtual tabletop software (software for playing D&D remotely.) Now, that's not so catastrophic because they couldn't revoke the OGL 1.0a and publishers were under no obligation to accept the OGL 1.1, right?
Well, they came up with a legal argument why the language of the OGL 1.0a that they'd been telling everyone couldn't be revoked on existing works actually was something they could revoke. Basically, if they convinced a court they could do that, every third-party D&D module that relied on the OGL 1.0a would have to accept the OGL 1.1 terms that would let WotC rip off their work or stop sales immediately.
There was massive backlash from the community. D&D players were remarkably unified in their response. And the CEO of WotC was really tone deaf and dismissive and soured WotC's relationship with the D&D community even further. Enough subscriptions to D&D Beyond (an online service owned by WotC) that shareholders started asking tough questions at shareholder meetings.
So, finally, WotC hired a slick PR firm to smooth things out. And, honestly, I have to admit they did good. They ended up leaving the OGL 1.0a in place (unrevoked it, sorta). But also, WotC had already said "actually, we can revoke it" and nobody trusted the OGL 1.0a any more. So WotC also dual-licensing the same OGL-1.0a-licensed content also under a Creative Commons license that is (more certain to be) unrevokable and is more open than the OGL 1.0a. The upcoming version of D&D will be OGL 1.1 only, but players and third party publishers are pretty unified on the idea of refusing to migrate to the new version and the current version is safer from the evil clutches of WotC than it was before this whole fiasco went down.
Now, the consensus among the D&D players is that WotC isn't the bad guys so much as Hasbro, WotC's parent company. When WotC backpeddeled and did the dual licensing thing, I decided to end my boycott of Hasbro. (I was actually DM'ing a D&D campaign at the time.) I looked forward to buying more D&D books. To seeing the latest Transformers movie and the D&D movie. Stuff like that.
And then, very shortly after that all went down, there was the other fiasco started by WotC.
I'm a little less familiar with this one, but some player of Magic: The Gathering purchased packs of MTG cards from a small reseller and the reseller fucked up. The reseller, not knowing the difference, gave the customer packs of a not yet released but similarly-named line of cards that weren't supposed to be available to customers at all yet.
The customer made an unboxing video of these not-yet-officially-released cards and stuck it on YouTube. And that's when shit hit the fan. WotC could have DM'd the customer on YouTube and asked if the customer could take down the video and exchange the cards for the ones he'd actually purchased, but instead they sent the actual, literal Pinkertons (a private security/mercinary company known for union busting and lots of illegal quasi-military/quasi-police actions against innocent people) to go harass the customer's neighbors and intimidate (like while sporting assault rifles and body armor and camo -- on the customer's front porch) and bully the customer.
Now, my understanding is that the customer did nothing legally wrong. The fuck up was the reseller's. The customer was under no legal obligation to return the cards or take down the video or otherwise cooperate in any way. The customer also said in later videos about the whole situation and the visit he got from the Pinkertons that they would totally have fully cooperated if they'd have just contacted him and asked.
As soon as I heard about WotC sending the Pinkertons after a customer, I recommitted to boycotting Hasbro and I intend never to end that boycott. I really didn't expect something far worse to follow right on the heels of the OGL 1.1 fiasco.
They accidentally sent a notable player (dont remember if they were a content creator or something) an unreleased card. Pinkyboys showed up at his house and harassed him to return it.
Reddit because of the API pricing change change
Unity because of the charge per game install thing
Reddit because of the API pricing change
Yeah that did it for me as well. I was a huge fan of Apollo until the developer decided to shut it down because of that.
Luckily Lemmy fills the gap pretty well, and the Voyager app is almost as good as Apollo used to be.
Blizzard
Back when they implemented Real ID and forced people to provide real namr and identification for playing the games they paid for, these motherfuckers locked me out of my account for account sharing because someone logged in from another country. That was me, logging in for my lunch break at work, about 1 hour away from home. They demanded I not only gave them my real name, but even send a copy of my passport to them by email. Obviously I refused. I had the original box and the game code, but they didn't care. There were no other fraud indicators. Just me logging in from work and using a pseudonym. I never got any of my games back. Fuck them
HP. This one is easy. Low hanging fruit. For me, I bought an expensive gaming laptop that arrived defective. I asked for a replacement, they denied and required I send it in for repairs. Waited a month for them to tell me there isn’t a problem. Asked for a refund instead of having it shipped back. They said that’s not how it works, they have to send it back first. So I get it, with the defect still, and call to get a refund. They initially deny a refund due to being outside the refund period and offer a “buy back” credit. I had to spend an hour explaining why that’s not happening and why they’re going to give me a refund or expect to see me in court. Keep in mind, I hadn’t used this laptop more than an hour or two and it’s been shipped around and forth for two months. I did get my refund at least, but the headache was insane and I refuse to even look at HP products.
Adobe: Already said by others. For me, it’s because they charge an insane amount of money for barely-functional software. I used Affinity products instead.
Google: They cancel their services so quickly, it’s more like they’ve blacklisted ME. I refuse to pay for anything they offer in the event it will be discontinued in a year or two. RIP Play Music.
Amazon: Prices increase, service quality decreases, value decreases exponentially. The product I paid for at $79/year was far more superior to whatever Prime costs today. Mostly third party cheap trash. Unfortunately, and most likely by design, there are just a few specific reasons I’m forced to give Amazon money every so often. But at the very least, I’m making the highest conscious effort to avoid them.
I’ll update this if I come up with more.
Edit 1: Netflix: They keep removing quality content and increasing prices. Anti-consumer shit. They are both the reason I stopped pirating and considered starting again.
Apple. They make some decent stuff but it has repeatedly become more expensive to own and maintain because repair is nearly impossible. And because of the monopoly they are building it is guaranteed to get much worse.
Additionally everything they do has a ripple effect across the industry. The average flagship phone is now over $1000. The average phone doesn't have a headphone jack or micro SD expansion, or replaceable battery, and are all impossible to repair. Computers impossible to upgrade. Extra ram and SSD capacity being prohibitively expensive (8gb of ddr5 is 40$, apple charges 200$, similar scheme with their proprietary SSD's)
It's apparent that with Apple's continued success the rest of all of our electronics have continued to get worse and predatory to squeeze more money out of us.
We reap what we sow and if we sow a company that is hellbent on enshittifiying all of our everyday devices and gouge us for our money, we aren't going to have any other companies left (or at least those that won't participate in this practice)
I work in computer repair and I have witnessed first hand how hostile aAple is to the consumer. Serialized components that are impossible to replace, to perforated cables that tear more easily during disassembly. It is dumbfounding that a company with such little respect for their customers is so successful.
X, Musky asshole
Tesla, Musky asshole
Chic Fil-A, homophobic corporate politics
T-Mobile, does not stand behind promise at purchase
Verizon, loud skank stores
Papa Johns, owner asshole opposed Obamacare
Hobby Lobby, right wing Christian asshole ownership/products opposed Obamacare
MyPillow, asshole MAGA owner
Trump brand any business, asshole MAGA cheeseturd ex-president loser of 2020 election by many votes
Too many more to name, and too many worthwhile brands and businesses to support.
Nestle. They're our closest living example of an evil corporation run by a cartoon supervillain.
Local coffee shop.
My wife designed some ads and logos for them then they stuffed her when she asked for payment.
My wife is a creative. It’s insane how many people are totally comfortable with stiffing designers
Because it's not "real" work. You gotta get paid up front and put a limit on changes. You're either good, or you're not. Let the market sort it out, but don't work for free.
Nestlé is the big one for me. Their stance on water is...evil.
HP
No explanation needed buddy
The ones that I come across nearly every day in one way or another:
Twitter - manipulation, right wing bullshit
Facebook - privacy, manipulation
Reddit - manipulation, right wing bullshit
Walmart - exploitation, right wing bullshit
Nestle - exploitation
Chick Fil A - right wing/religious bullshit
Papa Johns - right wing bullshit
McDonalds - exploitation
Wells Fargo.
The short version is, they forced me to close my savings/checking account due to $32 in insufficient funds that was reported to Chex Systems by my former bank, and told me that I could reopen them once the report was cleared.
I got the report cleared with proof that it was due to a third party (AOL - who admitted it and got the report removed) that made unauthorized charges to an account I had closed.
When I went back to get my accounts reopened, the manager spoke me like I was the scum of the earth for ever having been reported, even though it wasn't my fault and I had proof. She told me that I couldn't open an account at Wells Fargo for 7 years, and said I could come back after that and open accounts.
As if I would ever go near Wells Fargo again after treating me like that over a $32 report that I had proven wasn't my fault.
I loathe Samsung. Their bootloader unlocking is bullshit. Never getting another dollar from me ever again.
Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Reddit, X, Tesla, Sweet Green, Chick-fil-A, etc.
Google/Facebook: spyware
Microsoft: Windows is spyware and I’m just done with Windows. There are many better options for software.
Reddit: CEO is a prick. Gone the way of Facebook
X/Tesla: CEO is a prick, racist and anti-semite
Sweet Green: CEO blacklisting students for protesting war
Chick-fil-A: Run by far right bigots
Google, should be self explanatory, but for me specifically for pretty much making YouTube worse with every change they make since that's the only service of them I still use. And I'm not going to also pay them to sell my data.
Epic Games, for continuously fucking over Linux players and Unreal fans (and well players in general but specifically those two groups).
The most recent one: EA. I had disliked them and their practices for quite some time now, but there was a game on sale that I found interesting enough to purchase .. it was like 2 Euro or whatever, so no big loss. AFTER the download they wanted me to sign an electronic agreement to basically harvest all of my data and requiring me to be permanently online in a singleplayer offline game at all times so they could monitor me, and if I didn't agree I wouldn't be able to play the game. No refund. I uninstalled it and will never purchase anything from them again - that was the last straw, the last ever chance I was willing to give them. And no there was no warning of any kind before the purchase - they deliberately waited until after they had my money to "ask" for that bullshit.
Goya. It's easy to forget amidst the tsunami of far more severe bullshit between 2016 and 2020, but when Trump abused his authority to hawk a fucking bean advertisement in the oval office instead of leading the country during a pandemic... yeah, decided I'd never buy a Goya product again, ever.
Comcast (Xfinity) We couldn’t get a good signal in our house and were told the cable was old and needed to be upgraded. They wouldn’t cover the upgrade. A local fiber optic company came through and we dumped them.
Apple. Vendor lock-in and anti-competitive practice. I'd boycott Google too but at the time of writing I can't dump the mail for example.
Tesla, until they sign an agreement with the Unions in Sweden. I'm voting right, I'm not a member of an union, but if you want to do business here you follow our culture and norms.
Probably half a dozen more I can't think of now.
EA, Nestle, Amazon.
Surely I don't need to explain why.
Anti-consumer practices. The gaming and software industries are full of it.
Have shown that they have no problem screwing over their business partners. Even though they walked it back, they cannot be trusted to not try it again. You would have to be a fool to start a project in Unity now.
Meta
Chick-fil-a
Hobby Lobby
AT&T
Eden Foods
Twitter
Tesla
Apple
Johnson & Johnson
Any company that includes a bible verse on it's product.
NRA
Salvation Army
Chick-fil-A. Direct support to anti-LGBT+ groups. Then after they said they would stop, they were found to still be doing it. But don't worry, they said they'd stop for real this time.
Payless Shoes. Awful experience checking out once. No reason to ever go back. They're closed now, so nothing to worry about there.
I just try to avoid giving money to any of the tech/media giants. Doesn’t mean I’ll never buy anything from them, but I’ll actively seek to find alternatives to their products.
Easyjet. They sent us an update in their app saying they delayed our flight a few hours due to ill pilot. We were waiting near the gate (nearest cafe) but not quite within view, and no flight boards nearby. They decided not to delay after all but did not send an update to the app, and nothing over loudspeakers. My paranoia got the better of me so i wandered down to the gate around the original time of flight to take a look. When I saw they were boarding after all i called the family down, but we had missed it by a minute or so. They would not let us board. They preferred to delay the flight while they unloaded our baggage. We had to pay for and book with another airline to arrive at our hotel at midnight losing a day of our Greek Island holiday. When we complained to their service desk, they refused to refund us, and said "we DO suggest you always keep up to date by watching the flight boards". There was a giant sign by their desk that literally said "download our app to keep up to date on your flights". I will never give those fucks another dollar, and I tell this story to anyone who will listen.
Walmart.
At even faintly busy times, they have lines waiting to self checkout, because half the self checkouts are closed. And of course, they have only one regular register open with 8 people with full carts in that line.
It's nuts to me that every Walmart has like 30 checkout lanes and AT MOST there are 4 open and then they have two sides with self checkouts where only 1 side is open.
Doesn't make any sense to me.
Anything poisoned by the hand of Elon Musk. I loved Twitter ten years ago... now it's a toy for a vain, self-consumed fool, a stupid child allowed to play with power tools. I deleted my accounts months ago and studiously avoid visiting the site, or any links leading to that site. It fills my mouth with bile just thinking about what it's become.
I've also been trying to find an Amazon Smile alternative after Amazon killed it earlier this year, but haven't had any success yet.
Apple, because their phones are shit, and they made their phones with child labour. Red bull because they haven't withdrawn their products and business from Russia like McDonald's did. Volkswagen, because they fucking lied on all of their vehicles with the emissions test. Blizzard, because they rape and sexually abused all of their female workers. Shell gas station from an oil spill they refuse to clean up. Riot Games due to them not completing my refund. KFC because I got sick from their food twice. Sam's club, because they thought my membership was expired even though it was not, and I clearly payed their stupid membership fees the day of, to shop in their warehouse they wouldn't let me shop, so I issued a charge back from my credit card company and never went back. Prism kites, more specifically the synapse models, fuckin main left cord just snaps in the middle without me being in a full headwind. Shite product, and company. Ford, because their engine mount placements for the escort were terrible, and I shouldn't have to remove part of the subframe to get it off, just terrible engineering. Now I drive a Toyota, and I'm happy
Hobby Lobby and Chick Fil A — homophobia and weird religious nonsense/political involvement.
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