Hey everyone,
I recently thought today of companies that I actively avoid and the reasons why.
Harvey Norman is one for keeping JobKeeper payments and Nestlé due to multiple reasons.
Please explain in the comments which companies you boycott. An explanation and link to relevant documentation/articles would be good!
@Poor Ass: hmm yeah I bought a genuine Samsung phone and came as expected
but yeah they don't seem fully transparent and not answering concerns
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/10841510/redir
TA has also been ignoring his deal it seems.
Do we boycott him?
@Poor Ass: I will never buy from Mobileciti again. I thought they were a credible and popular store on here but my experience was atrocious. The main requirement I wanted was dual sim, I purchased a dual sim phone from Mobileciti. They sent me single sim model. I contacted them straight away, they denied it and said I ordered a single sim model. I had both a copy of the listing and the spec sheet which stated it was dual sim model I was buying.
Mobileciti still kept trying to deny it. Eventually they finally agreed and said they must of mistakenly listed their single sim model as a dual sim. They continued to deny my request for a refund though.
It was an agonising ordeal as I would await another 24 hrs for their next reply which would state the exact same thing as their first. Went round in circles. Eventually, their final offer and only option was to refund me a measly 5% of the purchase price and also threaten that if they did this I was not to post any negative review or request anything else.
@RoosterBooster: Pretty sure you can ACCC or fair trade and complaint. They'll shit their pants straight away.
But yes sorry to hear what you went through. Some businesses think they are above everyone
agree with Mobileciti, bought iphoneX from mobilciti ebay brand new and unlocked, after 2 years it stopped working after I tried to change carrier, turned out the phone was reported stolen by Vodaphone and locked, somehow it worked with telstra for 2 years although I often had no reception for no reason and had to restart the phone, it stopped working when switching to optus, contacted mobileciti, very painful experience for 3 months, even reported to fair trading, they denied selling stolen phone, they agreed to refund some money in the end. Don’t want to deal with them anymore.
Thank you sharing
Can't believe they sell stolen phones knowingly or not pretty bad
Kelloggs - We were led into thinking that breakfast was the most important meal of the day.
Subsequent scientific studies found that was not the case.
It was an attempt (and a quite successful one) to get more people buying their breakfast cereals - products that were heavily laced with sugar and salt.
Nutrition came a distant third, after price (profit) and taste, with the occasional kiddies' toys to gain children's acceptance.
We will not have Kelloggs in the house, ever
Interesting… Sounds the same as De Beers and diamonds. Amazing how companies can create shifts in culture.
The De Beers story is actually fascinating!
Marketing is king.
I mean, many studies have shown breakfast to be the most important meal of the day (for overall mood, energy and mental clarity), although you're right in that it shouldn't be high in sugar and carbs, rather it should be high in proteins and good fats.
Can you point to any of these studies? Genuinely interested and not asking just to be a dick.
I had also had dealings with them as a part of a third-party arrangement. I won't go into specifics, but we had an integration set-up with 10+ other major players (Think Bunnings/ IKEA/ etc). They basically dismissed the 'standard' contract we had used in the past and said if we couldn't provide 10x the benefit, we would need to pay Kogan the privilege of having partnered. Everything negative you see about them is definitely not unsubstantiated. Rotten to the core.
Agree on Kogan.
I've fully stopped buying anything from there, even if it's needed.
The entire shop is grey market material dumped to Australian market showcasing Aussie flags
Kogan registering the Dick Smith brand in Hong Kong and call it 100% Australian!
Agree. Their customer service is hopeless. Some products are not as described.
i personally think Russel Kogan is a prick and wouldn't intentionally own shares in his company as i don't trust him (i do own shares via index funds so i guess not perfectly clean here), and i don't really rate the platform however i purchased grey market galaxy buds off them and when there was a fault they were great to deal with for warranty.
I generally avoid harvey norman like the plague i actually purchased a fair bit through them over the years (5 kitchens, 6 houses worth of aircon, TVs, etc… ) but i made a mistake on the last purchase and they basically said your mistake tough bits, i agree it was my mistake but the way they dumped me with out even a geasture of good will pissed me off. On top of that i got a follow up 'why did you rate us so bad how could we fix this' after i gave them the copies of the story they never responded which pissed me off more.
I use bunnings but i dislike them, they are often not the cheapest for some stuff but they are so convenient, i dislike what they have done to the hardware industry in general, really killed off competition then slowly raised prices.
Who is Russel Kogan?
Dyson. They sell products that are overpriced and designed to fail not long after their warranty period.
Still using a Dyson DC19 which is over 10 years old. The only thing that I've replaced was the wand handle which cost about $25 from Dyson.
same reason i avoid LG and definately huawei
I got a Huawei burner phone and a Samsung S21U. The cheapie offers more bang for bucks and a less restricted interface!
I've had the same vacuum for 7+ years and not had an issue. We also have a V10 stick vac which the dust bin cracked on and Dyson shipped one straight out to me free of charge.
I have a Dyson vacuum. Died about 6 months after warranty. Phoned them up. They sent me a replacement. No questions.
Shouldn't really congratulate them for this as Australian consumer law would have covered you anyway. It's sad that we have to fight for these rights on every single transaction.
Who said I was congratulating them? I was just stating my positive experience to counter a negative one.
@ldt: I think his point is that it's unfair to count that as a positive experience, i.e. our bars are set too low. Having a product that dies in 6 months is a negative experience, and then sending you a replacement when it's legally mandated is, well … It's meant to be par for the course isn't it? … So overall I would call that a neutral experience if it happened to me.
@Grazz989: Of course it’s a positive experience! They replaced my vacuum no questions asked.
A neutral one would be 20 questions, or send it back and we’ll investigate.
@Grazz989: Worth noting that they said 6 months after the warranty finished, not when the product was 6 months old. I'd say that counts as a positive experience if they didn't have to jump through any hoops.
It's about ease of dealing with customer service.
This is what I was hearing before mine had issues, people were having easy repairs outside the 24 month period. I've got a V7 that died the week the 24 month warranty ran out. I haven't had the vacuum for two months now. The only update I got was Dyson asking for $170 from me to repair it so I told them to f@%k off.
As @Yawhae said, thanks to ACL we're covered for a lot longer than what's written on the box but it's a constant fight.
We have had a Dyson cordless vac for eleven years, and it is brilliant.
Easy to clean and empty the waste, light and dependable.
We are now on the second battery.
That is the only negative that we have found, though we knew that Lithium batteries don't last forever.
Dyson's after sale service is great, new battery supplied outside of warranty at no cost, no questions asked.
I find Dyson is one of the only brands where I can get replacement parts (in my case a battery) 6 or 7 years after purchase
We have 3 dyson vacs, and the wife has some of their fancy hair gizmos.
The oldest AC powered vac is roughly 12 years old. Still working like new.
The oldest battery vac working perfectly after a battery swap at about the 5 year mark. The new battery vac is only a few months old.
One of the wifes fancy hair gizmos failed out of warranty and they sent her a brand new unit shrinkwrapped within 2 days
They seem pretty good to me!
I bought a Dyson DC39 in 2012. I am still using it, it still works like new and hasn't lost suction at all. I was sick of buying cheap vacuum cleaners every 1-2 years. it was the best $599 I ever spent.
I will buy it again, but I think it will be few more years till I have to buy another one.
I'm not sure what Dyson products you're buying but we've had our Dyson vacuum cleaner for 12 years now and it works as if it was brand new.
To date i don't think i know of anyone who's had a bad experience with a Dyson.
Yeah, I don't get the hate on Dyson. They are expensive but invest a lot into R&D, which other companies like Samsung, Xiaomi, etc eventually copy.
It's probably because the Dyson vacuums that are lasting over 10 years aren't the same vacuums as what they're producing today.
We have had 4 2 electric and 2 hand held all broken.
The electric ones lasted maybe 5 years max, the power head broke after 2 years on the 2nd one. the first one basically fell apart and then the motor seized. The second the motor blew aswell.
The handheld they replaced the motor once after a lot of back and forth, and then the plastic around the piping deteriorated so the accessories cant be used.
Bought a Miele electric bagless this time and it is night and day different in my opinion the cleaning is significantly better and it seems more powerfull.
Dyson are not bad, 15 years ago they were probably the best now they are overpriced and average.
HATE their hand dryers - you bump your hands on the inside of them at the airport (most commonly installed) due to the TERRIBLE design. It's hard not to touch the grubby surface unless you have surgeoun hands.
HATE EM
Agree with you there, those things are always feral.
We have a number of Dyson products that have been used daily for years, in particular the fan/heater and the cordless stick vac. The only downside is yearly HEPA filter purchases, but we knew that going in.
If you take apart the vacuums you can see the solid engineering that goes into it that allows it to take the abuse (from toddlers and tile floors) and keep working.
You have consumer rights which means which state there is no set time frame on warranty periods. If your $5000 hair dryer died a month after the manufacturer's warranty period, given the price, it is reasonable to expect it should last. Google ACCC warranties.
If you don't use a Xiaomi vacuum, you may as well hand in your OzB member card :)
I used to repair Dysons as a hobby. 90% of the time, failures were due to user error.
Whats the issue if they can do the job and achieve same results as standing? Is this jealousy or something?
How dare the peasants have any comfort in their job!!!!
Pretty sure you just got punked
ikr and the fools that think someone would be that petty
LMAO
the peeps in this thread need to [insert^username]
cant stand
Hypocrite!
hahaha pun intended
What?
Lmao this is obviously tongue in cheek, shame you got downvoted to hell
what's tongue cheek
@kanmen Wow… I'm never using Amazon again. I knew it was bad but that isn't even close to moral. We need to put them out of business before other businesses decide they have to crush workers just to stay competitive.
I despise the hard left just as much as the hard right, but it's easy to see why the hard left can become so appealing when workers are treated like that.
If conditions at Amazon are indeed that appalling, what prevents workers from moving elsewhere? Are they indentured or chained to their desks?
If we let these kinds of working conditions exist, the most desperate people, who have to work there for whatever reason(for money or otherwise), are the ones who will suffer.
@KiKH: So these adults working for Amazon are dumb because they're poor? They can't make rational decisions about their personal welfare?
I can attest L'oreal are (profanity) to work for, know a few people who've worked there.
Disorganized,understaffed, overworked and more importantly underpaid in comparison to other FMCG companies in the same roles.
FMCG?
fast moving consumer goods
Why L'oreal, anything specific to L'oreal Australia?
I think the comment above answers that. That article refers to working at L'oreal brands across the world, but there are definitely Australian staff that have come out and said that they have been subjected to bullying, harassment, sexism and racism. It's a widespread issue it seems.
I'm specifically referring to the Melbourne office.
I have said this before and still stand by not shopping with Amazon. If I have to pay few bucks more to buy from a local retailer, I would always do that. Not only they abuse their workers, its bad for the consumers in the long term. Many small businesses close because they can't compete with Amazon and less competition is eventually bad for consumers. And more importantly, I can never give a cent to Jeff Bezos.
Agree with every single point. Bezos doesn't need more money.
Kogan
Harvey Norman
Supercheap, BCF, Macpac & associated Super Retail Group companies… I don't like their (lack of) Privacy Policy:
https://www.supercheapauto.com.au/customer-service/privacy-p…
6.5 Overseas disclosure of your personal information
Some of our related companies and third party service providers perform the functions we have engaged them for in overseas locations.
Due to the number of third party services providers we work with, it is not practicable to provide an exhaustive list of every country where your personal information may be sent. However, it is likely that your personal information will be sent to the following countries: China, Germany, India, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States. We may also disclose your personal information internally within our related companies located in Australia, China, and New Zealand.
I think I'll also try to dodge The Good Guys in future after it took them a month to send an in-stock tablet, when I tried to chase it up after a couple of weeks I got the run around, jokers, the workers seem to have zero care…
Do you boycot going into Supercheap or BCF to get something if no data is collected?
If they had a real good deal that wasn't members only I would consider buying from them in store, but that doesn't seem to happen…
In the 2+ years since they updated their T&C and Privacy Policy and I asked them to delete my details I've only been in there once when I was on a lap-of-Aus roadtrip and I needed wiper blades immediately, they were in the next town so I grabbed them there…
Prior to policy update I shopped there almost weekly… I can generally find everything I need elsewhere at much the same price so quitting them hasn't been an issue…
JB Hi-Fi acquired TheGoodGuys
I had no idea. Is there a chrome extension to alert when we are browsing one of those websites with dodgy privacy policy?
If that doesn't exist, that's an idea for developers.
I'm not aware of anything like that…
I only picked up on Supercheaps "we share your private info with anyone and everyone all around the world" policy because they sent out an email saying they had updated the policy, so I went and skimmed it…
I really don't get why our personal info needs to be disclosed to companies in India, China, and the likes, they wouldn't tell me why they need to do it… It just doesn't sit well with me, it's no wonder our details end up on dodgy cold-calling spam lists in India and the likes…
You'd think a Privacy Policy would be about protecting your privacy, not a disclaimer for them to do what ever they like with your info…
Agreed. It's a reason for concern.
It'd be great to have a privacy advisor tool to help, similar to Privacy Badger or Brave browser, but specific for disclosed privacy policy not cookies and trackers.
The problem is that it has to be manual for every company/website.
I am more and more interested in providing fake information to these companies but it's hard to work around my name, delivery address (PO Box or Parcel Locker probably safer), payment method, and phone number (in case they have a problem with my order).
That's great!
To add, I believe HelloFresh owns Youfoodz.
https://www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au/news/mealtime-for-he….
It seems like it was a fairly recent acquisition…
Looks like there was an interesting read replied attached to this, but it is hidden now :(
Old news and not current as hello fresh owns it, but hey, don't let the truth get in the way of a 2 year old tabloid story.
Can still make YF go bust.
Can still make YF go bust.
By that you mean hello fresh?
Why? Are they 'racist' too?
I hate PayPal but I still use them as there are not really any good alternatives
I'm just typing in my CC details more often these days. At least I can dispute a transaction if nothing turns up and not have the company cut my card up.
Yeah I used to do that, but too much CC fraud - got sick of cancelling my card and cleaning up the mess.
Same, only use them if not other option.
Hardley Normal and The Bad Guys .
Because they are baiters .
Not just baiters, they are masters at it.
I should add JD Sports ( baiters )
No matter how many times I block their spam they use different email addresses to continue .
See if you can update your email address to an alias you can easily filter. E.g. with Gmail you can add +spam to the end of your username (e.g. [email protected]) and then easily filter any emails to that address to go straight to spam. Several other providers have similar abilities. Otherwise set up an account for companies like that.
Alternatively, send a passive-aggressive email to their customer service/head office line, politely reminding them of their obligations under the Spam Act 2003 and that you will allow them 28 days to comply before seeking legal advice :)
Master baiters?
all the woke ones
Yep, Gillette, too woke for me. Switched to Schick.
is that right? Maybe overall but they did do a dodgy one recently.
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/642643
this was refurbish American stock sold as brand new and they weren't transparent about it. Google Australia wouldn't do warranty jobs.