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Businesses or products you refuse to use

Dio

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I was reading a reply in one of the threads here. From it I learned one of our members refused to eat halal certified products. I'd imagine this is because they dislike the halal slaughter process for meats and dont want to support it. Reading that comment inspired me to make this thread. It got me wondering if there are any products or businesses any other fellow forum dwellers refuse to use and support? Businesses due to disliking their practices or having a bad experience with them, and products because you dislike their method of manufacture or because you find their production damaging to the planet? We as consumers vote with our wallets what kind of products we want. Buying into unethical or poor quality products will only make the problem worse so it is good to see people taking a stand.




I'd just like to remind you that all Deus threads are ethically produced and the rupees I gain from them go towards noble causes.
 
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Dio

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First thing that springs to mind being on a game related forum is the amiibo scam.

They are a DLC worth often less than a dollar and sold for 12 because they are attached to a tacky plastic toy. They often only provide content that should be included in games anyway and to get the full benefit you need to buy multiple games (possibly ones you don't even want) this is because one amiibo might offer a small bonus but in a few different games. I find this business practice totally deplorable and I refuse to buy or use amiibo.
 
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MW7

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I won't eat meat, but I don't boycott any particular business. I do show favoritism towards more vegetarian friendly businesses. If someone wants me to eat at Chick-Fil-A, I'll go with them and eat french fries and a shake for instance. However, for birthdays I give gift cards to people to food places where they are less likely to order meat like a pizza place or Panera.

I'm not aware of any business that I would totally avoid. I don't think any business or person can be completely removed from all conceivable unethical behavior no matter how hard they try though.
 
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pyjamas5189

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I second Apple. I had an iPhone back in the day and it's one of the worst phones I have ever had! I think it's ridiculous how much their stuff cost and after 3 months a new product is released making yours now out of date.
 

Castle

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Any company who pulls products or ads for political reasons, and anyone who advertises on CNN.

Anything produced by Electronic "Arts"

Chipotle because they were scamming customers and got people sick, some of whom died.
General Motors because they're crooks and murderers.
 

Dio

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Any company who pulls products or ads for political reasons, and anyone who advertises on CNN.

Usually companies that do this I don't buy from anyway. But it really annoys me when they pull ads because a couple of pussies were offended by it. It is always a small number that try to ruin it for everyone but the company involved doesnt usually NEED to pander to these few individuals but they do it anyway. And that just causes me to lose my respect for them.
 

Link Floyd

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Apple, everything they make is so proprietary and expensive. A mac with the same specs as a pc is usually several hundred dollars more expensive. Not a huge fan of them.
I second Apple. I had an iPhone back in the day and it's one of the worst phones I have ever had! I think it's ridiculous how much their stuff cost and after 3 months a new product is released making yours now out of date.

Third. I hate those thieves.
 
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From it I learned one of our members refused to eat halal certified products.
That's me. I said that and I am not ashamed to admit it. I refuse to knowly eat them. Sometimes it's tough when there is no, not halal certified alternative. But I do the best I can under the circumstances.

There's more than just the cruel aminal slaughter processes. Any food product can be halal certified, not just meat. The producer pays a fee to be halal certified which is often passed down to the customer. Much of the funds raised through this halal certification process does fund terrorism internationally. Also the halal certification boards (there are many of them) are pushing for all food to be halal certified so we consumers will have no choice but eat halal certified or go without. Baby food in Australia already faces this issue in Australia. All packaged baby food in Australia is halal certified. To avoid this, you have to make your own.

Also we had to fight to get halal certified products to even show their certification logos on the packaging. They didn't want to show it, so we could not spot which foods are halal certified. However a victory was achieved and passed the senate. Soon it will be an offence avoid putting a halal certification logo on halal certified food products.

Kosher food differs from this in one very important way. The kosher boards do not push everyone to eat kosher. They are ok if you don't eat kosher. They respect both sides. Also the funds generated from this do not fund terrorism or other nasty things.

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I also try to avoid using anything Google for the obvious reasons of I don't feel safe using their services. Will the data about me that Google track when we use their apps and services be sold for profit? Is there search engine payment process (to decide what appears at the top of seaches) fair? Is how google track tata fair and legal? Many questions and the answers to them and others are not always in favour of google. To this end, I do not trust google at all with my data so I avoid using their products and services as much as possible.

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Apple, everything they make is so proprietary and expensive. A mac with the same specs as a pc is usually several hundred dollars more expensive. Not a huge fan of them.

I am not criticising your choice. I am ok with people who hate Apple. I would just like to point out that for equivelant (over the life of the puoducts) specs, Non Apple PCs and Apple Macs are for the most part roughly equal. Sure at times one or the other costs more, but it's not that common.

The proprietary issue for the most part is a thing of the past. Things like FireWire ports are dead. Anyone can use Thunderbolt. I think the biggest proprietary port still in existance from Apple is Lightning. Apple really do need to licence out Lightning though so everyone can use it. As long as the cables are all properly certified so less people are shocked by cheap knock off cables.

I actually don't like Tim Cook. He is abusing his position as CEO to ram democrat polity down his Apple employee throats. The other big fish at Apple are fine. Tim Cook is the toxic one there that needs to go. Tim needs to learn that lobbying as Tim Cook on his own time is fine, but lobbying as Apple CEO is wrong. He should be putting Apple first, not his own political agendas.

Do I like Apple? Only partially. Parts of Apple are terrible, but parts are alright.
 
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athenian200

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I refuse to use Apple at all, and I'm wary of Google (though I am not technically boycotting them, I am quick to support alternatives to their services). That's why I have a Windows Phone... despite the issues, it's still more popular and better supported than any other alternative to iOS and Android I know of (not counting Android forks).

I don't buy anything made by Sony these days because I had a terrible experience with their customer support where a laptop I needed to have repaired under warranty took over a month for them to get back to me. Worse, whatever they did somehow caused a Windows 7 Ultimate upgrade I purchased to no longer work, and I was stuck with Home Premium again.

Google, Apple, and Sony are really the only companies I try to avoid, but that's more than enough to give you some severe headaches. I tolerate Google in some cases, but I'm not giving any ground on the other two.

Here are the biggest inconveniences created by avoiding each company:

Google:
  • There are no good alternatives to YouTube (unless you just use it to listen to music).
  • Many websites use Google to verify that you're a human, and if you have Google blocked, you can't do it.
  • Android is developed by Google and relies on Google Services.
  • Many websites embed Google Maps.
  • Many people rely on Google Drive to share files.
Apple:
  • iOS is the only major alternative to Android.
Sony:
  • PlayStation has a lot of exclusives that you can't get on any other platform.
Google actually freaks me out the most, because avoiding them can make a good portion of the Internet unusable due to so many websites relying on them for security. Apple and Sony mostly just piss me off, while Google bothers me on a more intellectual level because they have far too much power.
 
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YIGAhim

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Not really.

I haven't eaten McDonald's in like 8 years (I don't eat there on purpose). Does that count?
 

Dio

~ It's me, Dio!~
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I refuse to use Apple at all, and I'm wary of Google (though I will use YouTube). That's why I have a Windows Phone... despite the issues, it's still more popular and better supported than any other alternative to iOS and Android I know of (not counting Android forks).

I don't buy anything made by Sony these days because I had a terrible experience with their customer support where a laptop I needed to have repaired under warranty took over a month for them to get back to me. Worse, whatever they did somehow caused a Windows 7 Ultimate upgrade I purchased to no longer work, and I was stuck with Home Premium again.

Google, Apple, and Sony are really the only companies I try to avoid, but that's more than enough to give you some severe headaches.

I am also a Windows Phone user. I love using it but the app selection is not great unfortunately and many companies do not make apps for Windows.

Also I am developing a dislike of google. They are not doing good in the free speech department right now. Firing an employee for saying that men are better at certain roles than women. And also there is the demonetisation of many conservative and anti SJW channels on YouTube going on. There really needs to be a big fuss kicked up about this.
 

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