[Misc] Companies you hate, and will avoid using/buying from if you possibly can

[Weststander]

I never buy anything from anyone that has ever sponsored Palace or Manure - childish? Perhaps!

This includes Vodafone, TDK and Churchill.

Also; Groupon, Sainsbury's, Hammerite Kurust, The Insolvency Service, The Caravan Club.

 

[Badger]

PurpleBricks

Truly truly awful.

I'd read really good things about them and the reviews were good. Our house was clearly a first time buyers house and should have been a simple sale. I paid the extra £99 or whatever it was to have the local agent/expert conduct our viewings for us to maximise time slots. You can do the viewings yourself if you want but we were both at work.

Our 'agent' or whatever they call themselves was cancelling our viewings and pretending the viewers were the ones cancelling them.

I had a 'portal' where I could see all the viewings. One day I called a few of the viewers directly (they submit their contact details on there) and they all told me it was cancelled by us saying it wasn't a good time.

Took a lot of arguing to eventually get my full refund. They argued the basic fee was still payable and only the additional cost paid to have the agent do our viewings should be refunded. I argued that agent not doing their job made the rest of the fee completely redundant. Got there in the end.

Went with a proper estate agent the next time and they were great for us.

YES, I'm not sure how I missed PurpleBricks off my list.

I had a similar experience to you when I was selling my flat in Brighton back in 2015. I also paid the extra for the viewings because I was in the office most days. The local guy (apparently he was an estate agent) told me it would be no problem and they'd sort out the viewings. On the first (of not many) viewing he apparently sent his wife in his place to show the people around. She knew absolutely nothing about my flat and I ended up contacting the people directly after they left some comments saying their questions hadn't been answered. Another viewing was "cancelled" but it turned out my agent just hadn't showed up. He denied this but it was obvious he was bullshitting.

I also made the mistake of going with their solictor, to avoid having to pay the fee upfront. Unfortunately, when I did sell the place through a proper estate agent I was still obligated to use the PurpleBricks solicitor. It was all done online, which I didn't mind as I had moved to Canada by then. However, the solicitor was utterly useless. I called her up a month after the sale was agreed asking what was happening and she said "oh, I was waiting for you to give me details." From then on I had to constantly chase and the buyers nearly walked away.

It still makes me angry to think about it.

 

[Brother Sid]

BMW dealerships- condescending, arrogant , sel important dicks. Customer relations an anathema to most of them. Bought two cars from them, never again.

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

YES, I'm not sure how I missed PurpleBricks off my list.

I had a similar experience to you when I was selling my flat in Brighton back in 2015. I also paid the extra for the viewings because I was in the office most days. The local guy (apparently he was an estate agent) told me it would be no problem and they'd sort out the viewings. On the first (of not many) viewing he apparently sent his wife in his place to show the people around. She knew absolutely nothing about my flat and I ended up contacting the people directly after they left some comments saying their questions hadn't been answered. Another viewing was "cancelled" but it turned out my agent just hadn't showed up. He denied this but it was obvious he was bullshitting.

I also made the mistake of going with their solictor, to avoid having to pay the fee upfront. Unfortunately, when I did sell the place through a proper estate agent I was still obligated to use the PurpleBricks solicitor. It was all done online, which I didn't mind as I had moved to Canada by then. However, the solicitor was utterly useless. I called her up a month after the sale was agreed asking what was happening and she said "oh, I was waiting for you to give me details." From then on I had to constantly chase and the buyers nearly walked away.

It still makes me angry to think about it.

Was he called Mehmish by any chance?

 

[Live by the sea]

Online estate agents are usually completely useless but people get sucked in because they think they are saving on commission. The thing is the better the agent you use the better price you will probably get so it’s well worth paying their commission,

No agent in the US would work for 1% commission most charge 4 to 5 % even on multi million dollar properties.

 

[Screaming J]

To be pedantic, Openreach don't do dig/reinstatement, that's done by contractors and some of them are truly shocking. When I worked in the field (in the 80's) if a fault was identified underground it would be the same feller who would dig, fix and reinstate; some of them took a real pride in making the reinstatement as good as it had been.
Then the accountants came....

Yea, you are probably right. But I shall continue to hold OpenReach responsible as - presumably - it is them that hired the digging- reinstating contractors.

And I just don't like them. Even if they sponsored the Albion and gave Tony several Billion pounds to spend on new players I don't think I'd change my mind.......

 

[bluenitsuj]

Amazon and British Airways

 

[Badger]

Was he called Mehmish by any chance?

Just dug out the emails and yes, yes he was

 

[Badger]

Online estate agents are usually completely useless but people get sucked in because they think they are saving on commission. The thing is the better the agent you use the better price you will probably get so it’s well worth paying their commission,

No agent in the US would work for 1% commission most charge 4 to 5 % even on multi million dollar properties.

I think there needs to be some middle ground. Canada is similar to the US, the commission is usually 5% and it gets split between the buyer's agent and the seller's agent. I do really like the way each party has an agent looking after their interests. I sold a condo and bought a house last year and used the agent my girlfriend recommended. He was really good and made the whole process very smooth, especially in an ultra competitive market. He wasn't '5% of over CA$1M' good though. The percentage commission was fine when houses were being bought for $200k, but beyond a certain level it's just taking the piss. Unfortunately, it's a closed shop and these agents have no incentive to change it. You literally can't go and look at a property without an agent representing you.

Beyond a certain amount it should be a fixed fee, or at least a sliding scale which isn't a straight percentage. My agent was good, but I wouldn't pay someone $50k for any other administrative process in my life. The solicitor cost about $2.5k and I don't think her workload was that much less than the agent.

Going back to PurpleBricks, I actually used them after a recommendation on NSC. I know some people have had good experiences with them, I just got shafted by the most useless agent.

 

[portlock seagull]

I don’t judge companies by one experience. I’d use Amazon every time because they’ve been faultless when I used them. But I try very hard not to. I guess, and it’s my dna as BHA, I hate the big guy. I always side with underdogs, those suffered injustice. I’m a proper rage against the machine type. Mostly because there’s good reason so. Not because it’s trendy.

So I’ll add all the oil companies into this threads 101 in that respect. They can all do one. Except the ones I buy from. Because I have to. I have no real choice.

 

[happypig]

Yea, you are probably right. But I shall continue to hold OpenReach responsible as - presumably - it is them that hired the digging- reinstating contractors.

And I just don't like them. Even if they sponsored the Albion and gave Tony several Billion pounds to spend on new players I don't think I'd change my mind.......

It's that sort of petty-minded prejudice that keeps me coming back, respect.

 

[Stat Brother]

BMW dealerships- condescending, arrogant , sel important dicks. Customer relations an anathema to most of them. Bought two cars from them, never again.

Know thy customer base.

 

[razer]

It’s not cheap but M&S food is generally excellent. Well chosen wine range too. I like M&S clothes too. Tend to be simple and 'sensible'. Note, I’m not a 25-yo fashionista, as you might have guessed.

Their meat is a total rip off. I stopped buying meat there after reading "minimum 80% meat" on the packaging of a leg of lamb.

The Madagascan Vanilla custard, is, however, to absolutely die for.

 

[John Byrnes Mullet]

Apple, McDonald's.

 

[Giraffe]

DFS. Sent me a personal invite to the opening of their Goldstone store. It was too soon after. Too raw. Never forgave them.

Android/Samsung - what’s the point if it’s not Apple

NatWest - they refused me a bank card when I was a student, no idea why. Have banked with Lloyds ever since.

 

[Zeberdi]

DPD (and their chat bot customer service)
Parcel Force (and their chat bot customer service)
Hermes/Evri (and their chat bot customer service)
Yodel (and their chat bot customer service)
Royal Mail (and their chat bot customer service)
UPS (and their chat bot customer service)

They have all caused me stress and various meltdowns over the years with missing/delayed/damaged/sent to wrong address parcels and fragile parcels chucked over gates or left in recycling bins but their chat bot customer services are effin infuriating (and it takes a lot to make me effin infuriated!)

 

[GoingUp]

Sports Direct and any company owned by Mike Ashley.
DAZN - I use it begrudgingly
Any major fast food outlet (MacDs, KFC etc)
Also, I will not order from a company if these use Hermes/Evri

 

[pocketseagull]

Spotify.

I loved the convenience of it but as a business it just left a sour taste. Their CEO travels on transatlantic 15K first class tickets while paying most artists pennies. At the same time investing in arms companies and paying Josh Rogan millions of dollars. Horrible, amoral parasitic company.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Spotify.

I loved the convenience of it but as a business it just left a sour taste. Their CEO travels on transatlantic 15K first class tickets while paying most artists pennies. At the same time investing in arms companies and paying Josh Rogan millions of dollars. Horrible, amoral parasitic company.

I agree. 99% of the time I use it just to listen to music I already own or are about to buy....this is how I justify its use.

 

[CheeseRolls]

YES, I'm not sure how I missed PurpleBricks off my list.

I had a similar experience to you when I was selling my flat in Brighton back in 2015. I also paid the extra for the viewings because I was in the office most days. The local guy (apparently he was an estate agent) told me it would be no problem and they'd sort out the viewings. On the first (of not many) viewing he apparently sent his wife in his place to show the people around. She knew absolutely nothing about my flat and I ended up contacting the people directly after they left some comments saying their questions hadn't been answered. Another viewing was "cancelled" but it turned out my agent just hadn't showed up. He denied this but it was obvious he was bullshitting.

I also made the mistake of going with their solictor, to avoid having to pay the fee upfront. Unfortunately, when I did sell the place through a proper estate agent I was still obligated to use the PurpleBricks solicitor. It was all done online, which I didn't mind as I had moved to Canada by then. However, the solicitor was utterly useless. I called her up a month after the sale was agreed asking what was happening and she said "oh, I was waiting for you to give me details." From then on I had to constantly chase and the buyers nearly walked away.

It still makes me angry to think about it.

I suspect you weren't as unlucky as you think. Too many solicitors in this line of work are bone idol layabouts and wasters. They seem to rely on finding one hard working and diligent underling who does the work of multiple partners, who each contribute the square root of F 'all.