We’ve all had those moments when we’ve said we’ll never buy from a certain company again. Whether it’s due to a frustrating customer service experience, unethical business practices, massive company controversies, or just overall dissatisfaction with the product or service, it’s easy to get fed up with a company and vow to never give them our business again.
But it turns out we’re not alone in feeling this way. In fact, a recent survey from LendingTree found that about 1 in 4 American consumers are currently boycotting a company they spent money on in the past due to bad experiences or values that didn’t align with their own. And with the power of social media and online reviews, it’s easier than ever for consumers to share their grievances and warn others about brands to avoid.
We recently stumbled upon a Reddit post where people shared which brands they’ll never buy from again — and the little thing was basically begging to be shared here on Bored Panda.
We spent an unhealthy amount of time reading which companies people say you should avoid like the plague, and the responses were nothing short of epic. From big corporations to fast fashion brands, it’s clear that no company is immune to the wrath of unhappy customers, as consumers have a zero-tolerance policy for BS. But don’t just take our word for it — check out this list of brands people have sworn off for good. But be warned, this list may inspire you to join the boycott brigade.
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"Acme - I've seen documentaries on how their product hurt Coyotes."
Roadrunners tend to like them, but do not actually buy anything from them
"Any brand that is in anyway associated with Kanye."
"Jimmy Johns. When I saw a pic of the CEO holding up the head of a giraffe after he killed it for sport I've never gone there since. Sickening."
"Anything Elon Musk. A long time ago I thought he was cool. That kinda wore off..."
I also used to love Elon - that's a part of his strategy. Marketing and PR are the only things he's genuinely good at.
hellogriff wrote:
"Mypillow."
PantlessAvenger replied:
"It's a bag of shredded foam. I'll never understand how that company got as big as it did."
Eww. The shredded "foam" for memory foam pillows comes from recycled USED memory foam mattresses.
"Nestle. All my homies hate Nestle."
The entire company is just atrocious. Straight up baby killers!! I'm not even bring hyberbolic, I wish I was
"Any of those overpriced designer clothing brands like supreme."
"Not that I'm the target audience, but GOOP. sounds like a cultist capitalist's wet dream."
When I read that I was confused. I was thinking of the waterless hand cleaner that a lot of mechanics and people that work in greasy environments use to clean up. I didn't realize that Gwyneth Paltrow's company was named Goop too!
"Abercrombie and Fitch. Purely based in principle. I know there’s a new owner but I remember when their racist tshirts were all the rage and when ‘fat’ people weren’t allowed to wear their clothes. Based on that alone, they are dead to me."
I am and have always been at least 100lbs overweight. I stretched one of their jackets over my fat arms and the employee about had a stroke. I bought it, but she desperately wanted to refuse. It was for my girlfriend, but I still put it on just to make the employees mad.
"Chick-fil-a."
Was going to add this if it wasn't here. NO ONE should touch this garbage for any reason. There is no justification for giving them money.
kingbouncerwrote:
"Luis Vuitton."
picklesandmustard replied:
"I don’t understand LV. It’s ugly overpriced plastic."
I've never understood the high price tag for laminated canvas. Real leather, I get. It will last for decades. Vinyl and laminated canvas? Why?
JonnyZero0 wrote:
"Tesla."
Tom__mm replied:
"Couple of years ago, might have considered it. Now, never."
"Wells Fargo. They screwed SO. MANY. PEOPLE."
I try to avoid any institution that took money during the 2007 crash because they were too big to fail but still foreclosed on others. I closed my accounts with Chase and moved to a small town bank when they made their announcement they were taking TARP money. When Citibank bought the little bank, closed my accounts and moved to a credit union. Wells Fargo bought my car loan so I borrowed money from the credit union and paid it off before they officially took it over so they got none of my money. I'm paying .5% more but its going to my local credit union instead of WF. I'll never drive another Chevy after they took TARP money but laid off people anyway.
"Logan Paul."
"Mary Kay, Pampered Chef, LuLaRoe, DoTerra Oils, Young Living Oils, Norwex, It Works! etc. Any and all of the MLM's."
The only exception for me is Avon because they actually have pretty good stuff my mom would get me and she was always buying from them. I never got pushy recruiting vibes or felt any deception from the sales people.
"DKNY after she supported Harvey Weinstein."
"SheaMoisture Hair products. I have major issues with the ingredients they list and the sustainability of sourcing them. Example, anything they say contains Baobab (Adansonia) oil is majorly suspicious. I was born and raised in Sothern Africa and the clusters of trees are 100km apart, with a few fruit here and there, they take hundreds of years to fruit, if at all. It just isn't right. Also, the one product they said contained Mafura - thats literally the word for oil - So, what oil? Its just marketing using "Africa" like we are fools and I will not support this."
Man, I just discovered them. There are some really good alternatives though. I've been trying to double check the products available to me with the ethics of the companies. I've heard Shea Moisture was bought out by a bigger company so it was once legit but is now murky on sustainablity
"Nike & Hersheys come to mind for their child labor and human rights issues."
"Hobby Lobby."
Your religious beliefs are YOUR religious beliefs, and you have no right to use them to refuse healthcare to your employees. If the employees were their idea of "good Christians" they wouldn't take birth control, you wouldn't need to enforce a policy of not covering it.
"Anything that has the “As Seen on TV” logo on the box."
Those products were originally supposed to help folks with disabilities like arthritis or weak limbs to do normal tasks like chopping veggies, etc. Then they expanded when the TV market went nuts. A lot of it is junk but some of it is actually pretty cool.
"Shein and wish."
Shein is pretty good except for the fact their tops are always way too short (even if they’re not labeled as cropped) and wish’s art supplies are okay but they take ages to come
"The ones that constantly pay YouTube channels to do spots for them. It just makes me very suspicious of their quality. Raycon is a good example."
"Fiji water.
Aside from wild overpricing of ALL bottled water, that brand is utterly anti-environment. The bottles are made in China, shipped thousands of miles to Fiji, and filled with admittedly good-tasting water. But they're then put back on a ship, and sailed more thousands of miles to the west coast, put on trucks and trains, and shipped east.
When you work it all out, the amount of oil burnt to get that bottle to you would half-fill the bottle.
Compare to a local bottled water, or even better, tap water in a reusable bottle."
Tbh, unless the tap water in your area is unsafe to consume (Flint, Michigan, anyone?), tap water in a reusable bottle is just fine.
"I try to avoid Walmart."
the sad thing is that in small communities like mine, Walmart is the only big store where we can get certain needed supplies.
"Amazon. Cancelled my account a few months ago and found out there are a lot of online Shops with better prices and fast delivery."
Sorry, Prime is too convenient. And I love TV too much to unsubscribe.
atticusjackson wrote: "Yeezys."
uncultured_swine2099 replied:
"Adidas ripped up their contract with him so he cant profit off them anymore, but I see what you mean. I wouldn't want to wear anything associated with him either."
"Apple, and Kardashian brand Tiffany and co., and etc."
Negative-Pin8540 wrote:
"Herbalife."
Anonimouse13579 replied:
"I did a bit of research on Herbalife a few years ago after someone i met was spruiking the benefits of power tea and adding five different drinks together and it was sooo much better than coffee because caffeine is bad. Well the power tea is essentially a caffeine drink. On one page of the website they are calling out how bad caffeine is for you. But it is in most of their powders."
Juice Plus! I have a friend that sells this stuff and she doesn't understand why I don't want to sign up for 80$ a month
"Lyft.
Driver did not speak English, picked up another passenger who thought it was THEIR car, drove the wrong passenger to my address before realizing the mistake, called me to ask what was going on but again, could not speak English so not sure how much he understood, but I could hear the passenger in the background telling the driver it was not his house. I watched the driver driving around for another 20 mins on the app before marking the ride “completed”. Tried to get a refund for the ride and Lyft rejected it saying the driver had been at both the pick up and drop off locations, tried to contest this but was sent on a loop of try to get a refund, then get denied again- there’s no way to talk to a person or call an 800 number, just website & app. Finally gave up as it was only a loss of $20 but still infuriating."
"Brand name medicine. Why pay multiple times more for the same stuff with a fancy logo. Just compare the generic brands label to brand name to be sure."
Generally speaking, this is true for over-the-counter meds. But not necessarily true for prescription meds.
"Dyson:
Overpriced toys-are-us quality. Great British inventor that takes his factories to Asia to make more profit at first chance. Now buying up a ton of farm land in the UK to avoid inheritance tax and driving up land prices."
Why do people who get rich always want to avoid their share to society and use all these harmful tax avoiding strategies? She or he should be happy she/he came so far with their "idea". It's a shame.
obese_latvian_woman wrote:
"Summers Eve."
Capital_Refuse_160 replied:
"So completely unnecessary and straight harmful to lady bits. I’ll never understand why that type of stuff is popular"
There's a difference between special gentle soap for the lady bits but the douches should not be allowed to be sold. Then again, I know women who self treat infections with raw garlic and yogurt, right up the hooha, instead of seeing an affordable doc so it might not change anything
"Liberty Mutual, solely because I'm tired of being bombarded with their adverts."
"If it can be classed as such... COMCAST."
Comcast / Xfinity is a plague that sometimes can't be avoided, because there is just no competition.
"Samsung. Had a 16 month old 70in TV die and they reached out to me and offered to repair it at no charge because it was a known issue. A month later the repair facility cancelled the service ticket and when I called Samsung to ask why they told me that parts were unavailable… because so many had broken they used all the parts up and aren’t making more. Then they told me they would replace the TV… a week later they emailed to tell me they would not be replacing it. But encouraged me to have a non Samsung repair facility fix it… even though nobody has the parts.
They know the model has issues and did nothing after promising over and over that they would stand behind the product because Samsung cares and all that."
Finally, an explanation on WHY you don’t want to purchase from a company.
neevel-knievel wrote:
"23 and me."
cake--96 replied:
"I really want to try one of these just for the info, but I just can't handle the idea of handing over my DNA like that"
Use a fake name and birthdate. Then your results stand alone. Been here. Done this.
"You know every time I try to avoid a brand it turns out they're owned by a brand that owns most of the competitors too, or the competitors are worse. I will say any fashion brand though. I will buy my clothes on clearance. I don't need $130 tennis shoes and $80 jeans."
I buy from thrift shops, now, except for the off times we want to go to stores we like for something we need.
"Those mean girls from high school that now have a “company” on Facebook. It’s usually simple decals or makeup."
"Electronic Arts. Anything made by them is usually a monetized piece of garbage now-a-days."
It's sad since in their early days on f.i. the C64 they were the byword for quality games. You could buy their releases blind. They picked their name because they wanted to show games were art. So sad it slowly turned into just another parasitic megacorp hoading the IP of hundreds of good games.
"American Greetings. They bought up the drive in theater next to their corporate headquarters then moved out a few years later. That drive in was an affordable night out for a lot of families in a low income neighborhood and was always packed."
"I will never purchase Charmin toilet paper as long as I live. Those foul toilet paper bears absolutely disgust and enrage me."
"Soilent Green meat substitute."
Are you referring to highly processed, high-carbon footprint-factory-made beyond meat? Or the work of fiction that's slowly becoming a reality?
"Ford. We had a ‘12 Focus that had a faulty transmission. Ford knew about it before they sold the cars. Transmission stalls have caused some deaths bc the car sometimes stops in an intersection. Car is long gone, still waiting on the mass action lawsuit to end."
Ford pickup trucks are still pretty much indestructable, as well as the old E series vans. Everything else... not so much.
"Since so many other high fashion brands are already (rightly) getting dumped on… Escada. Every time I have ever handled an Escada piece, it was falling apart at the seams. That includes NWT pieces!"
"Reebok.
My grandparents operated a pretty fancy Italian restaurant in Florida.
Some dude came through and was a huge d*ck to everyone. My grandparents asked him to leave and he ranted about how he basically owned Reebok and how he could ruin them and police wouldn’t even arrest him if they were called.
I forgot his title but he wasn’t the CEO. Anyways, he didn’t represent Reebok well with my family."
"Welsh’s brand grape jelly or jam. My grandfather was in ww2 Welch’s gave jelly to the servicemen. The ones they got were substandard- filled with seeds and twigs. So my grandfather forbid Welch’s in our houses."
My grandparents grew up in WWII as well. According to them, all food sucked because rations.
"Razer I used to buy their mice. Breaks after a year. I still have a Logitech g5 one bought over 10 years ago that still works."
A long time ago they used to be good. I had a Razer mouse that I won for a contest and it was my favorite mouse. But now, today, Logitech all the way. Nothing beats a logitech mouse that I've found.
"Dodge. Neon. Enough said."
My parents bought a brand-new Chrysler Caravan in (iirc) about 1995. We decided to drive from Denver to North Carolina to visit my dad's family. We made it to about Kansas City, and the transmission blew. It's the only time I ever heard my dad (who's a preacher) drop the f-bomb. He never bought a Chrysler again.
"Smithfield pork products of any kind."
"Dollskill, yeah they have cool clothes but I don't like the company."
"BrewDog. From their extraordinarily toxic bro culture to the CEO trying to turn himself into the victim, this company is garbage. James Watt is human sc*m, and their beer is sh*t."
"Definitely Frontier Airlines. They trick you with a “cheap” ticket up front and then suck money out of you through all these extra fees."
They used to be my favorite airline with the best service in the industry. They were employee owned and acted like it. They then signed a deal with Republic Airlines for a service contract and First Data to handle ticket sales. Turned out First Data had a significant chunk of Republic Airlines debt and decided to force Frontier into bankruptcy by holding 100% of ticket sales for almost 3 months. Republic did a leveraged buyout of Frontier, did the same thing to Midwest, and then sold everything off to the parent company of Spirit. They've sucked since.
"Harley."
Their clothes, mainly shirts, are quite expensive and most are poor quality...womens clothes anyways.
"Hisense. Bought a smart tv of that brand that lasted 3 days before it shut off for good. Returned it and got a Samsung that worked perfectly."
I only buy an extended warranty we I buy a TV. Has paid off every time.
"I might possibly be done with Subaru unless they overhaul their entire infotainment system.
But definitely Domino's Pizza. Not because of any bad customer service experience, their pizza is just awful."
But pizza is like sex. When it's good, it's great, and when it's bad, it's still pretty good.
"Chrysler."
"There’s a hat brand called Boston Scally. I was a dedicated customer, had 10 of them. I got an order of 2-4 more in while I was on the road for work, the quality of the hats sucked, I tried to return them and was told it was outside their return window. Never again. Garbage quality, garbage service."
"Fairlife."
Why…………? Why? Sure, it costs more, but the milk is made from fairly-treated cows, unlike generic brands you might find at the store.
jordanscollected wrote:
"Subway."
MooMoo33033 replied:
"I found a bone in my roast beef sandwich there… never again…"
TikTok. It's basically malware with videos, scraping all the info it can and sending it to China.
TikTok. It's basically malware with videos, scraping all the info it can and sending it to China.
