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!
BMW due to past human rights violations
Assuming it's to do with the Third Reich and the use of slave labour, add pretty much any German brands that existed during that time to the list.
and a lot of other brands like IBM, Ford etc
Absolutely. And, of course, anything that might contain chemicals produced by BASF or its subsidiaries, or involving its patents. Not to mention Audi, Deutsche Bank, IBM, Siemens, ThyssenKrupp, Mercedes or the 100-odd other corporations intimately involved with the Third Reich.
It means I must avoid much of modern life - but I feel it's important not to compromise on moral stands.
Correct. Until reparations are made, all said businesses suffer from me not using them.
Qatar because of their invasive pregnancy test
(profanity) your cancel culture generation
Glad you could sneak it in through all the censorship on Sky, Foxtel, 7,9,10 and the Murdoch media.
Back in my day, it was merely called telling rude bastards to shut up.
Nescafe - what they did to Cadbury is the minor reason, but their history of frankly murderous promotion of formula to those without the facilities or income to maintain it, to the extent of bribing nurses to give new-borns a "feed" before their first suckle so they suck, not suckle when put to the breast, then giving a "free" tin of a product that will cost a months salary for the second one - with the direct consequence that the natural contraception provided by breast-feeding is removed and the woman can again become pregnant while the current child withers to death from malnutrition…
They do, of course, provide lots of jobs for 5 year olds in Africa tho, and not too many of them die.
Harvey Norman? Although Gerry may have maintained his salary, his bonus dividend was slashed to a mere A$24 million. How can a chap survive on that…
You mean Nestle?
tomato, tomato
Yep - shouldn't post too early in the morning…
Like before you've had your Nescafe?
Here's a list of brands owned by Nestle: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nestl%C3%A9_brands.
Don't forget to expand the 'Shareholder' section!
Nestle's promotion of formula to babies, knowing it was going to kill them, is absolutely disgusting. They still continue their despicable practices of undermining breastfeeding, despite the massive public health costs. They are just far better at disguising it these days.
Formula is a wonderful, life-saving invention. It is absolutely tragic that it has been used against the very people it was designed to help. All for the sake of money.
I was absolutely hating every company that i saw an advertisement for in Youtube (ads in the middle of videos?!?! unable to skip!??!?)
then i went premium (thanks to OZB)
and suddenly i don't care as much
maybe if we didn't have to deal with the company/advertisements, then it wouldn't be so bad and the hate wouldn't be so strong?
free ad block extension for chrome = problem solved…
True, and that worked perfectly for Chrome
but i couldn't get it to work on my mobile.
so it was more for my mobile and tablet than anything
I try to Boycott American and English brands that are everywhere in our supermarkets. Not sure why we should pay a premium to support these companies.
You are right, Chinese brands are usually cheaper 🙄
… Australian brands???
Please add a poll so we can add our frustrations.
Poll would've served amazingly!
Maybe re-post in a few years.
Any of flogs jumping on the virtue signalling wagon
I havent used Gillette for almost half a decade
Also, try to avoid giving money to Disney, EA ganes and Manchester United #Glazersout
Maccas. The documentary 'McLibel' from 2005 was enough reason for me
Kogan - Went from championing the company in its early days when they had some genuinely good value products (I still use a TV I bought from them in early 2011). Then as I made the occasional purchase from them, I noticed that the quality of products started dipping rapidly, products started dying shortly into their life, and some things were just turning up DOA. I realised they'd gone from curating a fairly small line of high quality electronics, to just slapping their name on anything and shipping with no QA. Combined with stories that they're shady with grey imports, I avoid them now.
Samsung - Bought an expensive (by my standards) 32" Samsung TV as my first big purchase after finishing high school. It broke a month out of warranty, so I contacted Samsung. They told me to take it to some random little repair shop 30 mins away. When I got there, I was told it would cost $50 to assess it. I was in uni by stage and pretty broke, but I was already there so I agreed. It took them three weeks to asses it, before telling me the repair would be $300. I would have fought Samsung had I know more about the ACL at the time. Ended up not paying for the repair and instead getting the aforementioned, equally spec'd Kogan TV for a dollar less than the repair would have cost.
..But wait, there's more. I owned the original Galaxy S phone, it was the worst phone I've ever owned. My wifes Galaxy note had battery swelling issues (this was before they started exploding). We bought a Samsung washing machine, which went to be famous for catching on fire. We bought a Samsung dishwasher that just did a terrible job of washing dishes. So yeah, it took us a while but we've finally abandoned all Samsung products.
I keep away from Fox and Sky news. They are the Murdoch brand and reflect what he wants us to think.
Not buying Scotty and his brand either and I’ll use my dollar next year to dump him and all his lying, corrupt, misogynistic, coal sniffing mates….
Also VW and their associated brands after they lied to customers and caused the early death of 12000 folks in the EU. (As far as I know the modelling not done for OZ).
Air tasker- for banning my account as I paid meterial separately to avoid their 25% fee , which ridiculous, they want copy of my id to activate my account , held about 80$ and refused to refund
Belong - for shitty NBN service and charged couple of months even after disconnection (due to frequent disconnection)and took forever after number of emails to process refund
Jetstart - for playing shitty threatening tactics at the gate before you board to get you pay for baby bag(paid 65$) as extra luggage item even though at check-in they said it's k to take baby bag . And contact centre who replay with copy paste of script and refused to listen to my case at all.
as I paid meterial separately to avoid their 25% fee
You violated the TOS
pay for baby bag(paid 65$) as extra luggage item even though at check-in they said it's k to take baby bag
It does not say anywhere that they allow free extra luggage item through at the check-in
You’ll have to carry any baby items such as food, drink, nappies and clothing needed during your flight as part of your own carry-on baggage allowance.
we let you carry the following items as checked baggage for free, regardless of fare and in addition to any checked-baggage allowance: a pram or stroller; a portable cot; a highchair; a car seat, baby capsule or booster seat.
Infants not occupying a seat are not entitled to a checked baggage allowance.
https://www.jetstar.com/au/en/help/articles/what-do-i-need-t…
that's what i find ridiculous with Airtasker , if i reimburse the cost of tradie buying material i don't know why the hell we need pay service fee for that, anyway banning people without any notice and holding money is what pissed me off , their service is horrendous if something goes wrong . hence i boycotted
with Jetstar , i know the same policy but i particularly asked check-in staff if small nappy bag considered as an extra time along with my wife's handbag , they said its fine you can take it( i even given name of the staff , they least bothered to cross check) , i had space and spare luggage space in my check in baggage i would have probably fit this extra bag inside , but due their contradictory advice i ended paying extra and no one really listens to you . the way they treated us with 3 month old baby is shit , also with jetstar(unlike virgin where you leave at gate) you cannot take pram to gate , you have to check-in at baggage drop off . So having to carry kid around terminal and walk forever in melbourne to reach remote gates where jetstar flies from is real deal breaker to avoid jetstar forever
i see nothing wrong with that, you can clearly don't value the service provided
Anything from China…..
As a keen economist in my spare time, I’d like to drill down on this question.
Are you referring to products manufactured in China regardless of headquarters of company. Or are you referring to products from Chinese companies? How about Chinese headquartered companies with local operations that hire local employees? What about organisations with supply functions in China or simply have subsidiaries or regional headquarters in China?
Or just everything (in which case my friend you would need to boycott almost everything!)
There we go, was wondering when someone would put this up. I was kinda surprise about the lack of this comment in this thread.
That's a lot of people to cott
Nestle (evil)
Apple (overpriced/overhyped)
Commbank (thieves)
Telstra (hopeless)
Hogs Breath Cafe (terrible steak)
Fox/Sky news (evil)
EA Games (evil)
Youtube (ads)
Commerical tv (ads)
Any product that is advertised repeatedly
Any product that is advertised repeatedly
Isn't that almost all products? 🤔
any product that has a logo :P
Lol you might not like ol Rupert, but is actually evil?
Any bank still charging keeping fees are thieves
Eb games, amazon
Amazon - Terrible recruiting practices. Got a job, resigned from current job, covid, waited for 2 months to start, pulled role. = no income 2 months. Arbitrary recruitment process and almost like a homicide investigation.
Darrell Lea chocolates - the company refuses to respond to queries about whether they use Chinese milk solids in their chocolate.
Not asnwering may as well be an answer.
Really disappointing if true.
My Google feedback of numerous places attest to my intolerance toward poor, rude, and sloppy service.
From victimisation of being a "falang" in Thailand, to local Chinese takeaway, with attitudes that imply my custom is not valued.
If they only they found to to review their Google Feed Back, they may find it a ba qua, of their own ill fate.
What’s a Falang?
Is it similar to being told “no round eye” in South Korea or Japan? Or being laughed at while ordering food in Thailand? I love those countries btw usually extremely nice people
Telstra after multiple episodes of absolute, rank incompetence plus first-hand experience of them actively trying to rip off older relatives. Have not been a customer for 20 years and every now and then they still contact me about my account.
Amazon as far as possible, mostly due to their union-busting, anti-employee agenda and hyper-predatory practices. I particularly hate that if anyone has a half decent sale they instantly drop their prices to match and effectively strangle the competition. The only time I shop there now is if there is absolutely no other way to get something specific (e.g. sometimes I need to get electronics parts for a hobby and there is no other way due to the limited number of places that ship to Australia).
Murdoch for destroying any form of pro-citizen, pro-environment politics in the western world and giving us leaders like Trump, Johnson and Morrison, and before that Abbott.
Qantas for changing their frequent flyer points retention policy in the small print and robbing me of about $15k worth of flights without warning. Also for generally being incompetent.
The only time I shop there now is if there is absolutely no other way to get something specific
That's not a boycott then!
It's funny how so many posters in here tell us they are boycotting a company … until it serves them not to. Such hypocrisy.
Yep, I agree, it's not a strict boycott. My hobby is fixing up vintage electronics and unfortunately it is often the case that if I need a highly specialised part to fix something from 1975 there will be only one option to get it in Australia (typically either ebay or Amazon). So either I give up my hobby (a big plus for my enjoyment of life) for the sake of taking a few cents in profit away from Amazon, or I avoid them whenever possible (thousands of bucks a year) and use them occasionally (less than a hundred bucks a year).
But it's not an illegitimate position in a country like Australia to effectively say I will never use a given product/service unless I have no other choice. We're not in the US with 300M+ people or the EU with 1B people where if you don't like company A you can just shop with company B.
Thanks to decades of mismanagement of competition there are, for example, many people who would have no choice but to use Telstra or Qantas.
I don't really hard boycott, but I certainly avoid a lot of retailers and products
I'd like to avoid Amazon but they have a really good product so I don't
I avoid Sodastream, but they also have a good product. I bought one second hand and don't buy Sodastream gas canisters so I can reduce any direct benefit to them. I do buy their bottles though, but that's only once every few years
Harvey Norman. I've avoided them for a while but I had to go in about a month ago to buy a laptop charger. Charger was massively overpriced but I needed it urgently. I went in store for maybe 15mins, and saw them sell 3yr antivirus and Microsoft Office subscriptions to two different sets of old people, and he told one of them the old version they had 'wouldn't work anymore'. They made $500 in predatory sales that quick…
Acer is one brand I have a hard boycott on, but that's just because they make terrible products
Also that cafe that was rude to me, I won't go there again
Twitter - Can't stand it's manufactured "trending topics" and is overly a boring site.
They openly censor certain topics also, like covid when it was in it's early stages in China.
Reddit - Also massively censored covid when China was trying to sweep it under the rug in it's early stages. I remember watching new on /r/coronavirus and just seeing new topics get deleted within a minute or so of being posted.
This was posts about how China were welding people into apartments and videos of the authorities making people take posts down and apologise explaining that the information they posted was incorrect etc.
back before any 'news" was being reported, I got my covid info from liveleak of all places. This was back in Jan 20 and it was mostly contained in china
So basically the summary is that most businesses, when they get big, become immoral and unethical, and all have shady practices.
We have no hope.
Yes, it goes from being a small honest business, to realising that you can become immensely wealthy if you throw all your morals out the window and become as greedy as possible.
The only way any multi-millionaire/billionaire becomes that way, is by essentially over working and underpaying staff.
Any woke companies, but it is increasingly difficult to avoid as the racist, anti-scientific, nonsensical woke rhetoric seems mainstream nowerdays and hard to avoid.
Offhand, hard "no" for Ben and Jerry, Bonds, Gillette. Also I am old with plenty of post grad education, and I now refuse to do executive courses through woke universities.
The way you use ‘woke’ suggests you hate brands that support equality.
your strawmaning ways disgust me.
Also, i thought your mob were against cancel culture
avoiding companies because they promote unfair treatment is different to assuming guilt and destroying someones life through social media instead of going through the justice system.
Pot calling 😂
Also I am old with plenty of post grad education, and I now refuse to do executive courses through woke universitie
Do you also tell kids to keep off your lawn?
Shaking the walking cane from my rocking chair usually does the trick.
It’s funny how conservatives get so triggered over progressive policies.
Go back to twitter
Starbucks, max brenner, origani, etc.
Nestlé for sure. They've got such a wide reach though so you have to be extra conscious which brands/products they own. For convenience to those not familiar, their brands/products include but not limited to: Uncle Tobies, Kit Kat, Smarties, Milo, Allens, Cheerios, Purina, multiple baby formula/products, Le Snak, roll ups, Perrier, S.Pellegrino, even 30% stake in L'Oreal.
Uber Eats, Deliveroo, DoorDash
They all have jacked up prices on top of delivery fees, crap delivery times and none of the promotions / coupons on Ozbargain ever work.
Menulog is the only decent site I've used.
I boycott countries that don't respect people's freedom in general.
Before it becomes another Covid-19 discussion, I am talking about countries where the basic human rights are not respected, where people can be arrested for being gay, or showing their face, or for having political views.
I try to avoid countries in red and yellow on this list:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_freedom_indices (List by country)
It's unfortunate as there are many amazing places with lovely people on the list.
That includes many airlines, which have been very hard and extremely expensive to boycott. As human rights are a big issue for me, I can pay more to avoid these airlines but sometimes it's just impossible. Even before covid, it was very hard to find a reasonable flight to Europe without Etihad, Emirates, Qatar, Singapore, or China. I try, but it's complicated. Then, I try to choose the safest option.
I avoid "Made in China" stuff sometimes but I wouldn't say it's a boycott as, again, it's almost impossible, or extremely expensive even when possible. I used to ignore that in the past, but now I try to be aware when making a decision, if I have options.
I avoid Harvey Norman and Kogan but my "boycott policy" against stores is not applied if a particular item is significantly cheaper. I do pay more buying from other stores, but there is a limit.
Dubai: completely built on slave labour.
Barilla after their homophobic CEOs comments.
Tiger just because, well, have you ever flown Tiger?
Dominos because of food poisoning.
Amazon and Kogan
Apple, due to too expensive.
+1 here for Woke companies
I would also like to know who the Limo company is that took the Fed Ex pilots from the airport to Sydney with an unvaccinated maskless driver - as I would like to avoid them like the plague they allegedly contributed to spreading……………….
eBay.
I am surprise there is not more people listing eBay.
Regardless whether you are a seller or buyer it is a lose, lose situation.
eBay, Harvey Norman and News Corp is my only 3.
Where do you get your bargains?
I never encounter a bargain in eBay that I could not find elsewhere. Or those items in eBay do not appeal to me.
But to answer your question directly, I get my bargain from Amazon or whatever website retail is offering.
@beefmaster: I had a feeling you will say Amazon, I am exactly the opposite I get bargain from eBay and never bought Amazon yet, may be the 10 echo dot soon. What did you get from Amazon that was a bargain?
@htc: Maybe have a look at past Amazon deal and see whether their offer appeals to you.
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/search/node/Amazon%20type%3Aozb…
I would not call my purchase bargain but just the typical discount e.g. 20% off Lego, 50% off in laundry powder and other household supplies, etc.
Amazon AU discount is price matching major retailers. So if BigW, Myers, chemist warehouse and coles have special then Amazon will match it immediately. They probably have some AI that monitor competitors prices and drop at a blink of an eye.
Free shipping but have to be prime memberships.
Special (expensive) items are cheaper in Amazon UK and US. E.g. Wera tool can be $100 to $200 cheaper. Free overseas postage if over $50 with prime membership.
Very generous return policy. But over do it then you risk getting warning or account close.
I do notice Computer and Camera item is cheaper in eBay shop sellers. But I don't buy much computer or camera items anymore so eBay don't have much to offer me. Also I don't like dealing with small shops in eBay. So no lost to me
News Corp companies - ie. Fox Sports, The Daily Telegraph, The Australian, Sky News etc. - just an evil corporation.
Apple - they developed a cult following based on products that aren't as good as some of their competitors.
Harvey Norman - over priced, owned by a very greedy prick.
Vodaphone - terrible customer service.
Myers - overpriced poor quality items.
David Jones - very overpriced poor quality items.
Liberal National Party - since Howard have implemented policies that have increased inequality. Botched management of covid.
Liberal National Party - since Howard have implemented policies that have increased inequality.
That would be Hawke/Keating governments who laid the foundations for neoliberalism in Australia. Howard and the coalition government extended on it.
Under Armor… Can't stand that stupid little symbol.
Oh, ok ://
I try to not use Coles. I worked in the IT support section for them many many years ago and I've never been treated so wildly terribly in a job before.
They thrashed the staff for work, treated them poorly, it was ridiculous.
They called my agency when I was 60 seconds late and no, that's not an exaggeration. I'll never forget working for them, total scum.
(A shame too, I quite liked the tech I was learning)
Which year was this?
Their website is clunky shit
When I think of a website with a horrible UX, it's the first one that I think of. Even worse on mobile too.
A lot of retail companies had the best year they've ever had and pocketed job jeekeeper. Unfortunately for Harvey's, they made the news.
I think you'd be genuinely shocked by your boycott list if you stuck to your guns with job keeper profiting
1, Any company that is too woke and trying to lecture me - Gillette, Nike, Ben & Jerry’s…
2, Harvey Norman - for imposing tax on imported goods and their dodgy sales practices
So has halil23 posted 10 links and gone on about how everyone should boycott EviL MiCro$oFt yet? lol
Gillette. I will not be mascushamed.
Murdoch media. The only exception I make is Kayo. If there were alternatives for the sport I like to watch, I would use them.
I boycott any brand at RRP, but when they are heavily discounted and advertised by OzB member here, I upvote and buy it.
That's not a boycott then.
None.
Harvey Norman - You know why and I will never buy a product from this company.
HP - Shit customer service. Products fail
Foxtel - Because Foxtel
ANZ - Shit customer service. Moved 3 home loans in last 2 years.
Harvey norman because greedy
Youfoodz because racist
Dicksmith because its not actually dicksmith, just kogan in disguise
Ford because cheap and rubbish products compared to similar priced vehicles.
Safeway petrol because dont trust quality
Hugo boss made uniforms for the nazi party, if that bothers you. Note: made, not designed.
same suplier for all unleaded
Gillette. They had a woman design some anti-male ads, ending up with a $350,000,000 drop in revenue.
https://georgi-georgiev.medium.com/350-mln-in-6-months-the-c…
It comes off condescending and preachy, among other things, sure. Anti-male is a bit of a stretch.
like others Kogan and Hardly Normal. Add in Zippay and Afterpay etc (though yes I was also guilty of taking the quick bargains they used to get people in, though not stupid enough to continue to support these scummy high interest rate companies that prey on the financially weak and push prices up for everyone). Can add in any Charity that cold calls me to the list too.