“That Was The Last Straw”: 25 Brands People Vowed Never To Support Again

We’ve all had experiences with a company or brand that left a bad taste in our mouths—sometimes literally. From poor customer service to products that didn’t live up to their promises, there are countless reasons people swear off certain businesses forever. Recently, someone on Reddit posed the question: “What is your 'never-again' brand, store, restaurant, or company?” The answers came pouring in, painting a vivid picture of consumer frustration and some genuinely shocking experiences. Here are some of the most notable responses that caught our attention.

#1

Image source: Fishyswaze, Mike Mozart/Flickr LA fitness. Their cancellation policy made me so mad. Only can do it in person and you have to do it with a manager who’s there m-f 9-5. No issue signing me up outside those hours though. F**k LA fitness. TheDefiantGoose: I used to work at a bank and people would always come in complaining about canceling LA Fitness. They would cancel and the gym would continue to charge them and then they would have to dispute it. I saw the struggle over and over again. So more recently, for a similar type gym, I was preparing for battle when cancelling our membership. I did it online and it worked the first time easy. I was like...oh. Cool.

#2

Image source: CrowRoutine9631, Tony DiGirolamo/Flickr I might be downvoted for this, but.... Chevy. I finally couldn't take the endless repairs, the s****y dealerships who wouldn't repair stuff even when it was in warranty 50k miles ago, never knowing when the car was going to conk out. Now I'm driving a camry. Hopefully for the next 200k miles. ??.

#3

Image source: Germs15, nadbasher/Flickr ADT by far. I called them after 2 years because there was an issue with the alarm. They informed me that, although I was paying every month, their tech never activated our house in their system. Refused a refund. Edit: this was like 10 years ago in my first house. I’m not going to take any action.

#4

Image source: PCoda, Mike Mozart/Flickr F**k Nestle. I can't always avoid their products 100% of the time, but I certainly will never intentionally support them ever. Trying to privatize water is one of the most evil things, short of privatizing air.

#5

Image source: Brief_Astronaut_967, nerdy girl/Flickr Ticketmaster. Separate_Shift_3453: i have almost stopped going to see music because of how our ticketing systems are now set up.

#6

Image source: -CaptainCaveman-, Kanesue/Flickr Starbucks. Low quality drinks at premium prices. So many BETTER mom-and-pop coffeehouses out there instead.

#7

Image source: missed-apex66, Mike Mozart/Flickr (not the actual photo) Walmart. I was a vendor so I had to work inside them. They treat employees and vendors like c**p. I live next to one I drive across town to target.

#8

Image source: -CaptainCaveman-, Mike Kalasnik/Flickr Chik fil la. The most boring chicken sandwiches I have EVER eaten in almost 60 years. Whyyyyyy do people go crazy over this c**p?

#9

Image source: ThePurityPixel, vrbo Vrbo. Their policies don't protect their customers from something like this happening: Some friends and I booked a house in San Diego (for Comic Con) and drove in from out-of-state, pulled into the driveway, and discovered other people had already checked in. (A door had been left unlocked, so we entered and scoped it out but then decided to go back outside and get some answers.) 20 minutes after our check-in time, *as we were sitting in the driveway of the home we booked,* Vrbo sent us a cancellation notice. The service had double-booked the property. So here we were stranded in San Diego, having paid a massive amount of money to attend the convention, with no available rooms anywhere (except for some exorbitantly priced options), and Vrbo wouldn't help us. Many hours later, we were finally able to find something, but it was pretty run-down, and still cost much more than the place we'd booked through Vrbo.

#10

Image source: Hexxys, jm3 on Flickr/Flickr Tesla. It's a pity, too, because I really like my model 3. But I can no longer justify financially contributing to Elon Musk.

#11

Image source: TheDutyTree, Richard Eriksson/Flickr Apple I had an epic iTunes library and one day they said my songs weren't mine anymore. Probably 10k just f*****g gone. There was zero ways to contact them. F**k you, Apple!

#12

Image source: Butt_Napkins007, Esther Vargas/Flickr Twitter. In 2020, I didn’t realize exactly how much it was manipulating people until I created a second account and followed 2 republican senators. My entire feed was transformed into pseudoscience, how the virus was fake, how Biden was a criminal mastermind, yet fumbling fool at the same time, etc. I deleted both accounts and never looked back. It’s no wonder people spread misinformation and say “well everyone’s talking about it.” It literally warps your worldview.

#13

Image source: Nyssa_aquatica, Open Grid Scheduler / Grid Engin/Flickr AirBnB.  Have been stung too many times. Some places are good but when they’re terrible there is no recourse.

#14

Image source: trickedx5, GoToVan/Flickr Anything with food delivery services DoorDash, Uber. Those f*****g fees are crazy.

#15

Image source: inductiononN, Richard Thomas Johnson/Flickr Shein. I'm trying to go to consignment/second hand exclusively rather than fast fashion. Shein is the first one off the list. Tacky, cheap, horrible c**p and I'll never buy anything from them again.

#16

Image source: wombat1977, Mike Mozart/Flickr Wells Fargo. When my dad died, they made settling his accounts so hard. They kept moving the goalposts every time I came in with the last requirements they had. My dad died practically destitute. It took over a month to get ahold of the $2000 he had in his checking account. Story_Man_75: We were Wells Fargo customers for over thirty years. Found out my online banking password had been hijacked by bad guys. Immediately went to the bank the following day and asked to speak to a manager about what to do. Their sole recommendation? Change my password. I did. One week later our account was hit for a $50,000 loss. Eventually, and by sheer luck we got the funds back. But not without living through a totaly preventable nightmare. F**k Wells Fargo.

#17

Image source: phillygirllovesbagel, hattiesburgmemory/Flickr Hobby Lobby. mincynius1: Hobby lobby came to town and it took so much business from my dad's knick-knack store that he had to shut his store down. It's sad because he invested a lot of time, money, and hope in that store sustaining him during retirement. He worked all his life as a mason laying bricks and doing manual labor so running a little knick-knack store was really a dream come true for him. Just sucks tbh. polakbob: This is the one I came to say. I used to shop at HL regularly. When their scum CEO took a stand against supporting healthcare for his female employees I dropped them immediately. Haven't been back in one in probably a decade at this point?

#18

Image source: birdnerdcatlady, futureatlas.com/Flickr I still haven't bought gas from BP since the oil spill.

#19

Image source: paigez99, groundsel/Flickr Etsy. Seller issued us a full refund on some faulty chairs ($1,200!!!!), and Etsy held it and still refuses to send it to us. It’s been over a year. Typing this is making me mad again.

#20

Image source: SZ7687, eflon/Flickr AIG insurance. 40 years ago they wouldn't sell me insurance since I was divorced and no husband. crayonsocialism: Geico wouldn't sell my parents insurance 45 years ago because they were cohabiting but not married. My parents are still boycotting, and so am I.

#21

Image source: 1angrypanda, Jeff Hitchcock/Flickr Victoria's secret ruined my self esteem as a young girl. In high school I got fitted there and they said I was a 38C. Everything was uncomfortable, my clothes looked awful, but they were the experts so I believed this was the pain of being a woman; that my body was the problem. In my mid 20s I found /r/abrathatfits and learned that I was actually closer to a 32G - a size that VS doesn’t carry. Suddenly the back rolls were smoothed out, shirts fit better, and I was more comfortable. They convinced me my body was the problem, but it was their limited sizing. If they’d just told me that I’d be better off at Nordstrom, I’d probably still buy other things there. But anytime I’ve been in since, I start to feel like that insecure girl again.

#22

Image source: SarahCannah, English106/Flickr Meta Edit: Good morning, darling lovelies. Since there have been a number of comments, I am referring to Meta, the parent company of a number of apps. Not just Facebook, but Instagram, Threads, WhatsApp, etc. I left Facebook in 2016 the day after the US election. I maintained Instagram to stay in touch with folks and events, but just can’t in good conscience continue to support what I believe is a major destructive source of disinformation. And I agree that I wish municipalities, schools and other organizations would stop using them! My children’s schools are constantly attempting to get parents to use Facebook, for example. Anyway, hope you all have a warm and pleasant day (and thoughts and prayers to all Mets fans).

#23

Image source: WhydIJoinRedditAgain, Mike Mozart/Flickr (not the actual photo) In 2000 I was in college and had a part-time job doing as a substitute after-school caretaking for the YMCA. My checks were small and I didn’t have much money. The YMCA had Bank of America, and I banked at SunTrust, but I figured that I could cash my paycheck at the nearby Bank of America and just have cash. It was pretty standard practice at the time to be able to go to a bank that a check was issued from and get cash for that check. Except that wasn’t the case at Bank of America. Unbeknownst to me they had a $5 check-cashing fee if you didn’t have an account. I was surprised when I was shorted $5 (again, this might have been a $32 paycheck). They didn’t tell me about the fee first and wouldn’t reverse the transaction (I would have happily deposited it for the full amount at my own bank, even if it meant waiting a few days for it to clear). I will never go to a Bank of America. I will walk blocks to not use their ATMs. I would never set foot in their branch, because they f****d me out of $5 25 years ago when $5 was a lot of money to me.

#24

Image source: dclawton, Russell Yarwood/Flickr Sony - I promised the reps I talked to through my issue with them that I would share this engagement every chance I got. So here it goes. Sorry for the long post. I owned one of the early 55 inch LCD projection flat screen TV's from Sony. I had it for 13 months and it worked perfectly. But in that 13th month - one month after the warranty expired - a yellow grid pattern appeared on the screen. I called Sony Support about the issue, and told them I know it's out of warranty, but asked what I might be able to do to get it fixed. The very helpful rep went to bat for me and came back with good news. Apparently this was a "known issue" for which a recall has been issued. And even though my unit wasn't under warranty they would cover it, because of the recall. They told me who to call (a fairly local authorized repair shop) and that I would need to pay the repair, send them the invoice from this shop, and they would reimburse me. The technician came and replaced a part (can't remember the part, but that doesn't really matter). The total bill came to nearly $1500, which I paid and sent to the address their rep shared with me in order to get reimbursed. About a month later I received a letter from Sony declining to pay for the repair, due to the fact that my unit was out of warranty. Not concerned, I called support once again and shared with them the conversation I had with their rep, and that if I had to pay for the repair I simply would have gotten a new TV for $1500, rather than repairing it, but I took this action solely based on the direction of the Sony rep. This new rep indicted that the rep I had spoken to originally "would never have said that to me". When I challenged him and insisted it was true, he volunteered to listen to the recording with me, which, of course, I welcomed, gladly. After hearing what I said was, absolutely, true, he still refused to honor the reimbursement promised, because "the rep was wrong to offer it to me". I appealed to an arbitration board, who offered me half of the repair. I accepted, but told them I'd share this with everyone I ever had the chance to share it with, and would NEVER purchase another Sony product in my life. And, 25 years later, I still haven't caved in and bought Sony - I invite you to do the same.

#25

Image source: heelstoo, Mike Mozart/Flickr Hooters. Not for any reason you might think. The staff were fine, the food was adequate. However, for the entire 40 minutes I was in there, though, they played one song on repeat. That song was “Happy” by Pharrell Williams. I now also hate the song.