For us, the consumers, one of the greatest things about business, economics, and everything in-between is the freedom to make a choice.

Don’t like the taste of a particularly soft drink? Switch brands. Don’t enjoy a given company’s corporate practices? Screw them and go to the competition. Don’t like the idea that some retailer is abusing labor laws and its employees? Do your shopping somewhere else.

While everyone’s experience is different, it’s still worth noting that being an informed customer will quite likely help you avoid any bull's pies you might run into given a particular company.

And Reddit is here to help. A thread asking folks to share companies, and subsequently their experiences with them, that led them to swear to never support them ever again. Nearly 15,000 upvotes and over 10,000 comments later, the thread went viral, and here we are, presenting to you the most upvoted responses.

Scroll down to see how people online feel about various brands and companies based on their findings and experiences with them, and while you’re at it, vote and comment on the submissions you found most useful!

More Info: Reddit

#1 Multi-Level Marketing Companies

Any MLM. Just, no.

My mother is law is a saint, but she’s really gullible. She had a “friend” convince her into buying into Doterra and convinced her she would make a lot of money.

Mother in law now has boxes upon boxes of Doterra [dung] cluttering up her house. Every year I get essential oils as stocking stuffers. LOL, I don’t mind it, I think they smell nice. It just [angers me] that she was roped into this pyramid scheme and lost a lot of money.

She’s such a sweet kind woman and someone took advantage of that.

Image credits: I_am_dean

#2 Goop

sleeo_xoxo said:
Goop because I’m not a sucker.

CaptKnight replied:
Seriously though, why name the company Goop? Bad enough it’s all [bullpies], but it’s not even something classy sounding. Gwenyth Paltrow is on my boycott movies list with the only exception being minor roles where I don’t have to see her much.

Image credits: sleeo_xoxo

#3 Walmart

funeralxfog95 said:
Walmart

I used to work there and refuse to go there ever again. I put in my two weeks July 2020 and I haven’t gone there since. I refuse to step foot in any Walmart ever.

offspring515 replied:
Yep. After I lost my job I got a job doing stock at Walmart until I could find something in my field.

The hiring manager told me he could give me about 30 hours a week and he knew I needed to work overnights or weekend shifts because of my wife's work schedule so I could watch our young son.

After a week of this they schedule me for 12 hours the next week. 3 noon to 4 pm shifts.

I go to my manager and explain the two issues. Not enough hours and hours I cannot work.

He shrugged his shoulders.

Like a fool I went along with it. I was desperate for any money coming in as my wife was just returning to the work force after six months and I lost my job right before she went back. We finagled it so my father-in-law could watch our son that week.

The next schedule comes out and I have 16 hours and all morning shifts. These I can't work at all because my FIL's work schedule wouldn't allow him to help and he was the only local relative we had who could watch our son. We couldn't afford (and didn't really trust tbh) outside help.

I go to my manager again and he starts to chew me out for complaining about the schedule. I lost it on him.

"[MOTHER-SHUT-YOUR-FILTHY-MOUTH] YOU'RE THE ONE WHO PROMISED ME 30 HOURS AND OVERNIGHTS WHEN I STARTED TWO WEEKS AGO! BUT I GUESS YOUR WORD IS LIKE THIS STORE A BUNCH OF [FUDGING BULLPIES]!"

I am very easy going. I do not get upset like that with people. Especially not in a semi public place where others can hear it. But the combo of no sleep because of a new baby at home, stress over losing the lions share of our income unexpectedly and this a-hole lying to me then chewing me out for asking how we could fix it was too much.

He just stood there stunned and I walked out of the store never to return. [F] Walmart and their scummy tactics, anti union [BS] and the lies they tell poor, desperate people to keep them working there.

Image credits: funeralxfog95

#4 State Farm

State Farm.

Before we met, my wife was in a car accident that permanently damaged her neck, forcing her to drop out of college and abandon her dream to play violin professionally, and requiring her to get an injection in her neck twice a year for the rest of her life. She's been in a 4-year legal battle with State Farm as shes entitled to over $100k since she was no way at fault for it.

But they will not budge and keep demanding ridiculous things from her. Next month she's actually scheduled to fly back to the state where the accident happened so she can undergo a 10-hour psychological analysis (when she asked her attorney why they're asking for that, he pretty much said "because they can"). State Farm also recently requested she shoot a video of her attempting to play the violin and then talking to me about how it make her feel that she can't play it painlessly anymore. In a recent deposition, they actually asked her if she had intentions to get medical treatment were they to award her with the money back when it happened. They even at one point asked for a printout of everything she ever posted, commented on, or messaged on Facebook so they have proof her life was indeed affected by the accident (fortunately her lawyer talked them out of that one). The list of demands from State Farm gets more and more insane.

They've become such a pain but we've made the decision to fight it out as long as we can, because giving up is what they want us to do, and we want to prove to insurance companies that they can't screw over their clients like this. So yeah. Screw State Farm (and honestly most insurance companies)

To clarify, she has had a lawyer since the day after the accident, separate from State Farm, and he isn’t getting paid a dime until the settlement is met. State Farm was her insurance; the other guy’s insurance paid out $25k which barely covered her initial doctor’s bills. She filed an underinsured motorist claim, which is what she’s currently in the lawsuit over.

Image credits: Ben-Stanley

#5 Starbucks

PaticusGnome said:
Starbucks. It’s just too easy to support a local coffee shop if I’m in a situation where I can’t make my own coffee at home.

Nordseefische replied:
I live in Vienna, and i will never understand how someone can go to a Starbucks in Vienna. It's the city of Kaffeehäuser (coffee houses). It's cheaper, better tasting and most importantly so much more beautiful in almost all of them than inside a Starbucks.

Image credits: PaticusGnome

#6 Ticketmaster

username987654321a said:
Ticketmaster - too many fees. Just don't go to live concerts anymore.

Soulphite replied:
Ticketmaster:
- Ticket price: $40
- Service fee: $20
- Paperless fee: $5
- Fee fee: $3.15
- Because we can fee: $2.00
- You wanna go fee: $12.00
- Print-from-home fee: $6.50
- No physical copy fee: $16
- No refund policy agreement fee: $8.00
- Total: $112.65. [Screw] you very much.

Sucker.

Image credits: username987654321a

#7 Nestle

ok_ad748s_alt said:
Nestle for both reasons

[Writer's Note: quite likely referring to aggressive baby formula marketing, slavery and child labor, anti-union activities, among other possibilities.]

poopybuttfacehead replied:
FYI Starbucks and Nestle are best buds now and have signed a multi multi million dollar partnership.

[deleted] said:
Of course they do.

Image credits: ok_ad748s_alt

#8 National Rifle Association (NRA)

Firearm owner here… the NRA. I’ve avoided joining since, well, forever. Something was always fishy about the group. I own my guns for my own reasons and don’t need membership dollars funding PACs I don’t agree with, nor do I need to be listed as a gun-owning member anywhere but the places necessary for legal outright purchase. They fear and lobby against gun registries, but truthfully they’ve essentially established one of their very own through membership! What [shirt] show as of late…

In the famous words of Ludacris, stay up out my bizna$$…

Image credits: FankDarrik

#9 Progressive

Progressive

A few years back, an idiot crashed into my parked car with a lawnmower while I was at work.

The owner of the lawnmowing company decided to play games and not pay for the damage.

My Progressive agent ghosted me and his supervisor never returned my calls.

I eventually got the money but Progressive didn't do a damn thing.

Image credits: The_Height_of_Folly

#10 Wells Fargo

poopybuttfacehead said:
Wells Fargo. They have scammed their customers so many times (including opening fraudulent accounts) and paid millions of dollars in fines and just keep doing it anyway.

Morgueannah replied:
Before the whole scandal dropped about opening accounts, I interviewed for a teller job at Wells Fargo. During the interview, I was told in order to get a "jump start" on the yearly goals, all tellers were expected to get "all of your family and friends" to make new Wells Fargo accounts each January. I forget the precise number but it was more than 20 new accounts in one month (and you couldn't count the accounts you actually got while working from clients looking for services). When I said that none of my family lived in state they got really hostile, talking about how I'd have to commit to having them make accounts at a bank 500 miles away if I wanted to be considered for the job.

I walked out of that interview confidently knowing I would never bank with Wells Fargo if their poor tellers were under that much pressure to upsell me on everything. I was so far from shocked when I found out what was happening because just the idea of being put under that much pressure made me walk away from the interview. I could definitely see that as something people that actually accepted the job would sink to to get those managers off their backs.

Image credits: poopybuttfacehead

#11 DuPont

theflash207 said:
DuPont, it's insane how soo many people have no idea of what they did.

[Writer's Note: DuPont are the creators of Teflon, which was later identified as being highly toxic to the human body.]

DaFightins replied:
You beat me to it, I will always say DuPont. They withheld medical records from my father and his fellow coworkers for years; which would have revealed they had work related cancer. When it was finally discovered, DuPont could not cover it up fast enough and all their lies were uncovered. Many of the employees were young and had so many years taken from them.

The suffering all of them went through, I still am disgusted by that company.

Image credits: theflash207

#12 Meta (Facebook)

skycatminepokie said:
Meta. What if I don't want to share my private info with you?

Ok_Butterscotch1549 replied:
God that name is so bad.

canadianformalwear replied:
Not as bad as the stink of Facebook

Yes, friends I know it’s the same company. That’s the point. They’re trying to obfuscate their bad press and company baggage, and walk away from FB being considered the foundation of what they are as a tech company. Still evil.

Image credits: skycatminepokie

#13 "Literally Any [Company] That Interrupt My YouTube Videos With Their Ads"

Iceman1701 said:
Literally any that interrupt my YouTube videos with their ads.

Ifonlyihadausername replied:
Basically how I live, if your adverts ruin the content I want then I will never buy your products.

Image credits: Iceman1701

#14 Amazon

Educational-Ad2063 said:
Amazon. Sometimes it's hard because they are the only place to get some odd ball crap. But I've ordered from them only twice in the past year or so. I might use their search engine to find what I'm looking for and get part numbers and names.

Them go to the original manufacturers site and order from them. It usually cost me more, but screw Amazon.

vampierem replied:
Came here to say this, I haven't bought anything from Amazon in over a year because they are such a terrible monopoly that I refuse to support. Ebay has been a good alternative for most things I can't buy locally.

Image credits: Educational-Ad2063

#15 BassPro

Basspro shops and other big box fishing stores. Rather support small local stores. The owners and staff are usually knowledgeable about the area.

Short story. Angling Outfitters in Woodstock On. Highway 2.

Joslyn the owner took me outside in the parking lot and taught me how to properly cast a float road/centerpin reel. 20 mins of his time.

Bass pro ain't doin' that.

Support local.

Image credits: DeadJamFan

#16 The National Football League (NFL)

NFL

- stadium scams: they threaten to move the team unless the city gives them a new stadium at basically the taxpayers expense. Atlanta took money from their public schools to fund a stadium that they get 0% back on .
- taxes are never what is promised. A city has never made money on a stadium. The tax revenue has never been enough to cover the investment.
- use of eminent domain to build these stadiums
- concussion coverup
- use of slave labor to the point that CBP (American customs) has rejected shipments of official NFL merchandise because it is illegal to import anything made by slave labor into the US
- many of the BLM shirts that the NFL (and to be fair the the NBA) were wearing were traced back to Haiti where black children were making these shirts for pennies an hour.
- Total disregard for CTE, as soon as it became apparent that safer helmets weren't going to work they tried to hide it, then they got "lucky" with the protests.
- most employees of the stadiums employee people at poverty wages in major cities, most are the minimum wage
- cheerleaders getting paid minimum wage (or less)
- the NFL does not give a [frick] about domestic violence, there is more of a penalty for players who dance in the end zone than who beat women.
- alumni of the NFL get arrested at rates much higher than other sports team's alumni.

TLDR: The NFL is evil

Image credits: [deleted]

#17 John Deere

John Deere. They're working with apple and others to lobby against right to repair. They also have unnecessary software traps to prevent the user from repairing anything themselves. they recruit tons of people from my school to develop this garbage since we're near their HQ. Every person says they're absolutely terrible to work for which doesn't surprise me one bit.

Image credits: inventor121

#18 Bank Of America

Outrageous_Click_352 said:
Bank of America. Way too fee happy.

heaven-in-a-can replied:
When I was in college (‘08-‘12) I had an account with them. It was supposed to be a student account that would stop unnecessary fees and stuff. Accidentally overdrafted my account and got hit with a $35 fee. Couldn’t pay the fee so it charged me AGAIN. All in all I ended up in the red $110 in various overdraft fees. As soon as I could close the account I did. [Screw] BoA.

Image credits: Outrageous_Click_352

#19 Allstate

Allstate. Several years ago, our house burned down. Started in garage—part of the house burned to the ground, the rest had to be gutted from attic to basement. Property adjuster tried to say the burned and cracked brick was there before the fire! Also dragged his feet on every decision possible and then lied and said our (re)builder told him that the 2 feet of water in the basement did not ruin our water heater and other appliances so they didn’t need to reimburse us for those (got caught in the lie when he couldn’t produce email/letter). The Content adjuster cut reimbursement rates to ridiculous levels (eg, Q down comforter=$50). Finally after many months of fighting, got most (but not all) what we were due. They doubled our rates and then they blacklisted us with all insurance companies for 3 years so we couldn’t leave. I wish they’d go bankrupt.

Image credits: stzulover

#20 Match Group

Match Group

They're the ones who run the most popular dating websites (Tinder, OkCupid, PlentyofFish, etc.)

Their sites are specifically designed to keep you hooked by making you insecure and unhappy, so you'll keep spending money on them.

Image credits: Firree

#21 Electronic Arts (EA)

[deleted] said:
EA. They started the monetization of the video game industry. Ever since they developed pay walls and battle-passes, the quality of games has been absolutely [shalala].

[F] you EA.

yavimaya22 replied:
Related: Blizzard. [F] Blizzard.

HappyHippoLord said:
Blizzard. From covered up sexual misconduct, to silencing Hong Kong protestors, and then denying it all and trying to say sorry for nothing! ?

Image credits: [deleted]

#22 Jaded London, And Other Fast Fashion Brands

brownguyinthecorner said:
Jaded London, ASOS, Primark, PrettyLittleThing & any other fast fashion brands that I can’t remember off the top of my head.

gozba replied:
Child labour related?

brownguyinthecorner replied:
It does go further than that for me, but my opinion does stem from their exploitation of child labour.

Image credits: brownguyinthecorner

#23 Lenovo

Lenovo from this point on. Absolutely abysmal customer service and desktop PC’s. It died after 7 months, a tech came out to repair it 3 times and failed. The final repair attempt was a new CPU (that’s important for later)

Lenovo wanted me to send the PC back to their depot and told me it may be 2-4 months before I get it back. I needed a PC so that wouldn’t work and asked for a refund since the PC was still under warranty.

Lenovo closed out my case as “resolved” and ignored me. I tried again and the same thing happened. Even though it was under warranty, they closed out my case.

I tried a third time and got transferred between every department imaginable for two hours before someone finally said this treatment is ridiculous and agreed to help me. I never heard anything else.

Now, I’m trained as an IT field tech and thought maybe I could revive the thing. Turns out the tech bent two pins on the CPU and killed it and the motherboard. Then I noticed Lenovo had sent a dual core Athlon 200GE to replace my Ryzen 3200G!

I called again and was told that there was nothing they could do since it was out of warranty. I mentioned the incorrect part, and that all of this happened under warranty and it was never resolved. They still didn’t help.

The ONLY way I got any help was to file a complaint through the Better Business Bureau. It got sent to a Lenovo case manager who was able to verify everything in my complaint using their call logs and even sees where they sent the wrong part. She said I should have received a full refund the very first time I asked.

I’m finally getting my money back after a year of fighting with this damn company.

Before you purchase a Lenovo product, read their BBB page to see what you’re getting into. This was the second nightmare repair ordeal I’ve had with Lenovo and that’s enough for me.

Image credits: duddy33

#24 GoodWill

LuvinLife125 said:
Goodwill

They are a horrible company who exploits the disadvantaged, while raking in huge profits under the guise of charity.

akjd replied:
What's a good alternative?

I recently moved, and got rid of a lot of junk that was still marginally useful. Took it to Goodwill just because it was an easy way to get rid of stuff that wasn't just filling a landfill.

zimbabwe7878 replied:
I would just google "Thrift store" in your local area and find ones that are nearby.

I did see somewhere that 90% of donated items get thrown out anyway, so the best thing you can do is try to get more use out of things yourself or give them to people you know that will use them, or even sell them cheap so you can find people that want the stuff.

If you have nice stuff I'd say look at the more upscale thrift stores or consignment places since they are selective in what they take, which to me hopefully means they are more likely to sell the item than throw them away.

Image credits: LuvinLife125

#25 British Petroleum (BP)

BP.

After the Deep Horizon oil rig catastrophe they have lost my business. I realize that crude is co-mingled for processing, but I still refuse to give my $$ to their stores.

Image credits: AnotherOutsideRun

#26 Comcast

Comcast. For monopolizing cities, which prevents other options, charging you ridiculous fees. Data caps (complete [bull feces] they only do it in certain cities where they can get away with it). Till the day I die I will NEVER.

#27 Nike

Nike

Just say no

I don’t buy Nike. Has zero to do with the quarterback.

It kills me that their shoes are made in sweat shops in Asian countries. They don’t manufacture anything in the USA. They’ve sold our youth on this idea that they can’t be happy without a pair of their shoes. Even their basketball camps are suspect. I remember when kids were getting jumped at their bus stops and their shoes stolen off their feet-this was a recurring news story for awhile. Can’t even give Mom or Dad a job, pay pennies on the dollar for every shoe sold. Nope. Make fun of my New Balance all you want, but supporting families in Maine & Massachusetts means much more to me than a swish & a dollar for Taiwan.

#28 Yelp!

I'm surprised Yelp isn't in the top comments. Harassing business owners to pay for advertising, and if they don't, they filter out all the legitimate positive reviews and their employees leave fake negative reviews. Check out the documentary "Billion Dollar Bully."

#29 YouTooz

Youtooz. Stealing designs from small Twitter artists without compensation or even credit is a low blow. Plus, their figures are downright ugly and cheap looking and I'm tired of pretending they're not. I wish content creators would stop working with them, they're shady af.

Image credits: AngelicCinnamonBun

#30 Blue Bell Icecream

Ghostusn said:
Blue bell ice cream after their food poisoning cover up.

skyecm replied:
Amen, friend. It's a hard road not supporting Blue Bell considering I live in Texas, but they chose profits over human lives. They knew their product was contaminated by listeria and did nothing. Not. One. Thing. Because of that, 3 people died. They may have had underlying issues, sure, but shoving listeria in their mouths wasn't doing them any favors. I understand food contamination will be a growing issues as our supply chain increasing becomes single source, but this isn't that: Blue Bell knew the entire time.

#31 Marriott

Marriott:

For years, as a road warrior, I would show up late night at a Marriott where I had a reservation and they would have given away my room because they overbooked. Of course, if I dared to be a 'no show' they would have charged me for a room I did not use. Their proposed solution was for me to stay exclusively at Marriotts and become a Black Diamond member then they would promise to honor my reservations and stiff someone else -- no thanks.

The last straw was when they raised rates after 9/11 to make up for lost revenue. Only people who needed to travel were travelling and Marriott price-gouged us.

Why pay a company to treat you that way? Never!

Image credits: Canopach

#32 Rockstar Games

Rockstar because I’m holding a petty grudge against one of their employees.

[Screw] you, Flapjack.

So, Flapjack is the username of a guy that was brought into our gaming clan/discord by a mutual friend/member. He was some kind of team lead in development at Rockstar working on RDR2 at the time and the guy that brought him in was an acquaintance that was hoping Flap could get him a job at Rockstar at some point. I didn’t like Flap from the start. He was an arrogant know-it-all who threw his job status right in your face and demanded you worship him about it. Most of the guys in the clan kinda did, but I couldn’t stand the guy.

So one day in discord Flap made a claim that Romania is over 2,000 miles from Russia. Apparently there are Romanian characters in one of the GTA games or something and he was [upset] that everyone was mistaking those characters as Russian. Well, of course I immediately challenge this arrogant [know-it-all] on it. Romania 2,000 miles from Russia? Get real. The fallout was swift. He immediately [jumped] back at me, because the geographical center of Russia is 2,000 miles from the geographical center of Romania, what kind of peasant must I be to measure the distance between two nations by the distance between their closest borders? Everyone knows you determine that distance by geographical center! I decided I’d had enough of the guy so I carried on the argument until he got too [infuriated] to continue and he left the clan, but not before he had some choice words for me.

A few of the clan members followed him out but maintained a friendship with me. When they wouldn’t denounce me, Flap had the same kind of meltdown toward them, banned them from his discord.

A few months later I reached out to Flap just to try to clear the air a bit. I apologized to him and said I wished things had gone differently. He said he appreciated the gesture but I can still get [bent].

I still sleep fine at night knowing Romania isn’t anywhere near 2,000 miles from Russia.

Image credits: Thiek

#33 DoorDash

Life_is_also_short said:
Doordash. They brought two sides and a drink and forgot the entrées. I contacted them and all I could get was Doordash credit. [Screw] your meal. [Screw] your money back for something you didn't receive. Well, [screw] you Doordash.

Safe-N-Proper redplied:
[Screw] door dash based on the fact that they always charge me 1 cent more than I authorize.

I complained 3x about a bug in it, sent my screenshots etc, the 4th time I claimed a fraudulent charge on it, and the prior 3 orders. I have not spent money with them since and instead learned how to cook.

Image credits: Life_is_also_short

#34 Better.com

Admirable-Basil8303 said:
better.com, because they fired around 900 people at once over a ~3 min zoom call, like whaaat?

FFC1011 replied:
Right between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

#35 TurboTax

TurboTax. Lobbied against free taxes. Completely rips you off with their services and tries to deceive their costumers into paying more with their web design. Charged me for their service up front in the middle of the pandemic even though taxes were late because the "deadline had passed". Just a [shoddy] company all around.

Image credits: Ok-Industry3994