As corrupt as some companies seem, there are plenty out there that were just fine. Well, they were fine until things started going south and people realized it was time to jump ship. Here, these people share which companies have lost their business and what went wrong.
#1 Reach Around Fee
Ticketmaster. 0.4 seconds after tickets go on sale, they’re sold out for all but cosmically afar seats. Yet, their subsidiary Stubhub has them for 400% more but you need to pay an oxygen fee, electricity fee, left-turning fee, reach around fee before the fee to disclose fees. There are at least 50 shows that I’ve declined to go to when I see that loathsome logo. I’m never ever going to pay them a dime… there’s probably a fee for that too.
#2 Machine’s Down
Bank of America. Their ATM was down so I had to go in and deposit my check. I paid all of my bills and had pretty much no money (this was during college). They hit me with a $10 service fee, which overdrew my account, then charged me a $35 overdraft fee. So, $45 I didn’t have because their machine was down. The person I talked to on the phone was a complete jerk and I decided to get rid of my account right then and there. He then gave me an attitude about canceling.
#3 Accidental Downgrade
Movistar. I’ll never forget the time when they downgraded my phone "by accident.” A little while later, they were unable to undo the downgrade because "they can't replace a phone by another model." If that wasn’t bad enough, they then kept me waiting for two months until I said "nope" and just bought another phone.
#4 All Those Headphones
I bought a pair of earphones from Skullcandy for five bucks because they were on sale. I ordered them online and waited. Next thing you know, I was receiving multiple earphones for the next couple of days because the apostrophe in my last name caused a glitch in their system. I think I received more than 20 pairs.
They called me about it so I could either send all but one pair back or they’d charge me for everything. I said no problem, just send me a prepaid shipping label and I’ll drop it off. The rep said they couldn’t do that because returns had to be paid by the customer. I told them they made the mistake and not me, so I wasn’t doing anything until they sent a shipping label. The rep said she’d see what they could do.
Next thing you know, I was charged for all those earphones. I was furious, called them and called my bank. After many connections somebody finally saw through the nonsense and processed my refund. They also told me to keep the earphones and not to worry about it. I kept the earphones for two months in a box before I decided to sell all of them for $10 apiece.
#5 Do It Yourself
Netgear. I bought one of their top-end routers and when you needed to update firmware, their automatic process corrupts on download ridiculously often, thus completely bricking it. Rather than fixing it or offering to replace it, they say, "Oh, you should have done it manually because that happens a lot." What kind of response is that? Ridiculous.
#6 Declining Quality
Victoria's Secret. In my 20's, everything I owned was from Victoria’s Secret. Over time, though, I realized the quality was declining and the prices were just getting absurd. I would have reactions to whatever they treated the fabric with and that was the last straw for. I stopped buying from them and have switched over to a better place.
#7 Claims Agent
Progressive. A lawnmower hit my parked car during work last year and it was terrible dealing with Progressive. The claims agent I got stopped communicating with me after a certain point and I ended up having to hound the lawnmowing company's owner to pay for my car's repairs. It was honestly completely insane.
#8 Customer Service
Expedia. God help you if they ever make a mistake with your booking. Their entire customer "service" infrastructure is designed to stonewall and frustrate you until you give up. But what bothers me even more is that they’re like that even when the problem is clearly their fault. They’re pretty terrible, honestly.
#9 Good Times
Wells Fargo. Our first mortgage was through them. After a couple of years, I got a call on the second of the month telling me my mortgage was due. I told them I had until the 15th. They told me that was a grace period and their investors preferred I pay on the first. I told them I would make sure I never paid it before the 15th ever again and their investors could eat it. We paid the mortgage at 4:30 in the afternoon on the 15th (or closest prior weekday) for the next five years at the local branch, which was a half-mile from the house. Good times!
#10 Refusing to Budge
Sprint. Recovering from surgery, sedated in a hospital, over eight years ago, I had a pre-smartphone and no data plan. I accidentally pushed some sort of “internet” button that literally brought up Sprint's home page. When the $450 bill arrived, they refused to budge. I was within the 45-day “cancel for full refund” stage. This was a two-year contract for my family of six.
I returned the phones and cancelled the agreement, but they refused to waive the internet charge. After talking on the phone with an escalation call center for over four hours, I agreed to pay but vowed they would never see another penny from me. One of a very small number of companies with a lifetime blacklist.
I've paid my replacement carrier nearly $20,000 in the meantime. If Sprint ever merges with my carrier (they've tried a few times now), I will leave. If I go to a prepaid network, I will research to make sure whatever I use is not a rented Sprint network. Not one penny. I tell this story to anyone that will listen.
#11 Getting Worse
My dad has a pair of Levi's that are 35 years old or something and they're still in fantastic shape. The Levi's I bought a year ago didn't fit right even though the other pair (exactly the same size) fit just right. They both had tears or holes in major failure points like the crotch or thighs, which obviously wasn’t good.
The pockets are so thin that they'd break if you had a heavy set of keys or anything even remotely sharp in there. All of this happened in a three-month span and I was literally just a college student who liked to occasionally help around the house and clean. I’m not even a hard labor kind of guy like they try and market the pants to.
#12 Frustrating Commercials
Cable TV. I’m sorry, but commercials are just too frustrating to pay $120 a month for. Paying for cable used to mean you didn't get all the commercials from the open airwaves, then they just started fooling around even more. Soon, online content will be overwhelmed with ads too and we’ll all have to go back to reading books.
#13 Nothing Has Changed
I canceled my account with DoorDash. The tipping model they had was skipping the drivers and going straight to the company. They instituted a new policy but drivers are reporting that nothing has changed. They also had a pretty significant data breach on May 4, 2019 and didn't disclose until September 26, 2019.
#14 Not Good Enough
Super Dry. One time, my friend and I were once at a snowboarding festival and they were giving out free stuff like snow goggles, etc., but their reps wouldn't give anything to us because we "didn't fit the look.” I know I'm not entitled to anything. It wasn't about getting free stuff, it was the quite clear message of "you're not good enough.”
#15 Save 50 Cents
I will never buy Campbell's Chunky soup ever again. When that brand started, I was hooked. I loved everything they made. They had this one that had small little burger patties in it and it was incredibly delicious. I easily ate at least one can a week and it was my go-to lunch as an unattached young adult male.
Then they changed the recipe. Their meat turned to crud and every soup had a layer of grease on it. it was disgusting. I stopped buying their product and sent them an email about how they lost a lifelong customer. In their response back to me, they apologized and gave me a gift to make up for it: a coupon to save 50 cents on a can of Campbell's soup.
#16 It Says “Sectional”
Wayfair. I was looking for a sectional and found one at a good price. The product page was a sectional, when I added it to my basket it was a sectional and when I paid for it my invoice said sectional. My confirmation email also said it was a sectional. When I went to track the package, it magically turned into an ottoman.
I called them and they said that they have to hold onto my money until the product was sent back to them. I understand that policy, however, they were the ones that messed up. They requested that I take a day off of work to accept the package, so there's more money gone. They also didn't honor the sectional price as the sale was over when I found out about the issue. That was the only time I ordered anything from them.
#17 Corrupted Keys
For me, it would most definitely have to be Adobe. I never liked their subscription model and then when administering licenses, the keys themselves end up being corrupted. At that point, you then have to go through a tedious process to have them all corrected again. The submodels on popular software always suck.
#18 Every Service Appointment
The last time I went to Jiffy Lube, I went to do my emissions and registration. In the state I live in, they have the license plate stickers, so it's one-stop and more convenient than the DMV. Except, they went through the whole process, charged me for the service, then told me they had been out of the plate stickers for a week and a half. I would need to go somewhere else for that. So, I went to their nearest competitor that day and every service appointment since.
#19 Call Back Later
Directv is getting close. I like having Directv and especially liked how low my bill was for the last year. I got lucky and I know this. Well, the time came where this ran out and I called to negotiate more deals. For months now, I have been told to call back in a couple of weeks to see if anything else exists. The last three calls ended with the representative telling me my bill was going to be a certain price moving forward. However, I am on bill number three since then, with the price hardly changing. I used to rave about their loyalty department. But it’s been slipping lately.
#20 Nobody Can Do Anything
I use Bank of America and have auto-pay set up online since I only have a couple of subscriptions on a credit card with them at this point. A few months ago, I got a notification that my account was two months overdue for payment. Turns out they updated something and it disabled auto-pay without telling me.
A quick check showed my credit score dropped 140 points from it. I went ballistic on some girl on the phone who constantly told me, "You missed a payment, nobody can do anything". Eventually, I got her to put me through to a supervisor. But she told me, "It won’t matter, it's not like he’s going to say anything different.” Well, it turns out he did. Steve was actually really cooperative and managed to get it reversed within a month. So good on Steve, but that company sucks.
#21 Minimum Cleanliness
Airbnb. I stayed at a place and found fleas within 20 minutes of arriving. I told the owner of the house and he told us in writing that he was going to give us a refund. We returned the keys to him and he called later, saying he was no longer going to give us a refund. Having already gotten a hotel and not wanting to go back to a potentially angry person in their home, we went to support. Support sided with the owner of the house despite the written refund offer.
I provided a timeline of events, Google Maps data, a photo of a flea on my sock and later several photos of flea bites (they said that they could not determine that the fleas came from that house). I also provided screenshots of the refund offer. There was even a group of people that stayed two days after us that left a review saying they also found pests in the house.
The house owner then cancelled every booking after that. Even with all of that evidence, they still sided with the owner. I paid $450 for keys to a place for an hour or less. It’s now, in my mind, an unreliable company and I'll pay extra for a hotel just for peace of mind knowing it will at least meet minimum cleanliness.
#22 The Good Old Days
I remember when Kentucky Fried Chicken was by far the best fast-food joint out there. Immediately after the Colonel passed away, it went to absolute poop. The actual Colonel, not the new one every month. Crispy and extra-crispy. Awesome mashed potatoes. Great chicken and biscuits. Those were the good old days.
#23 Oops, We’re Closed
BP. I wasn’t planning on ever going there after the big oil spill a while back, but one night, I had no choice. I was driving and there were no gas stations for miles. My car told me I had zero miles worth of gas left when I rolled up to a BP. It was something like 7:58 and they closed at 8:00. I pulled up, got out to pump my gas and the attendant came running out, saying he was just about to shut the pumps down and I had to leave.
I said there were still a few minutes left and I had literally no gas. He was so rude to me and told me that he was closing and I’d have to find somewhere else. I basically started crying that I wouldn’t be able to even start my car and he hasn’t even closed it yet. I asked if he could please just let me pump my gas. He looked at the clock said, “Oops, it’s 8:01. I gotta close.” He then turned around and walked away. He locked up, turned off the lights and left as I sat in a pitch-black parking lot, calling AAA to come put gas in my car because the man refused to help me. I’ll never return.
#24 Out of Area
Uber Eats. I ordered from a restaurant pretty close to where I live and paid for the meal. An hour later, I was told it wouldn’t be delivered because it was out of their area of reach. Nothing indicated to me beforehand that they couldn’t deliver here and they said my money wouldn’t be given back to me because the food was already made. I emailed Uber multiple times, only to be answered with pre-made messages from bots. Honestly, they’re a garbage company.
#25 Unacceptable to Me
Allstate Insurance. I live in a forested area in the southwest US and had my insurance through Allstate. They sent someone out to take pictures of my home, then sent me a letter saying I needed to make changes and to reach out to my agent. So I did and the agent told me that I had too much brush near my home. I asked if they could define brush and they said no.
I asked if they could use the pictures they took and said that was unacceptable, and they said no again. They sent me a letter that I didn't fully understand, thinking they wanted a 100-foot clearing around my home, which was unacceptable to me. They wouldn't clarify what they wanted and just told me to fix it to their satisfaction or they wouldn't renew the policy.
I’m no longer an Allstate customer. I never made a claim on my homeowner’s insurance, I had one claim on my wife's car when the wind blew the door too far open. But other than that, no claims, 15 years of premiums for the house, three cars and a motorcycle, plus life insurance. It all went away because they couldn't define what they needed.
#26 More Money, Please
I had Sprint for years with no problems. I had an unlimited everything plan including unlimited roaming. One day, my phone stopped working. I called them and they canceled my plan for roaming too much. Funnily enough, they couldn't seem to explain to me how you could roam too much on an unlimited roaming plan.
They offered to start me on a new, more expensive plan with charged roaming. So let me get this straight. Your network sucks, so I have to roam. You sold me an unlimited roaming plan and then canceled it. Now you want more money. How about you suck and so does your 84 dollars I still owe for the next bill. I'm switching carriers.
#27 Most Expensive Brand
Harley Davidson. They went from a blue-collar American brand to the most expensive brand on the market. They appeal to an entirely different crowd and ride on their heritage, making entirely inferior products to the metric brands. Guys, if you ride bikes, vote with your dollars, HD isn’t going to get better if you buy their stuff, no matter the price. The best thing that can happen to that brand would be to force them to become competitive again.
#28 Designed to Make You Quit
Facebook for sure. I'm trying to avoid anything Google-related recently. I ran into an incident where someone was using my card fraudulently on one of their Google Play services and I received zero help. I spent days working with their customer service trying to get it resolved. Eventually, I got an email back from their fraud department saying that they couldn't help me get a refund based on their policies.
I looked into their polices and I was entitled to a refund under their own policies. So, I called them again and they fed me more BS about how it was impossible for them to prove I am the person I say I am, even with all of my personal information. They didn't explain any of this in the email they sent. They protected the person using my card . I got it fixed through my bank in 10 minutes. I felt stupid for even wasting my time with their customer service that’s designed to make you give up on your inquiry.
#29 Independent Contractors
WWE. I’m still shocked that they get away with treating the wrestlers as independent contractors. They can’t take dates in other companies and work exclusively for WWE. They don’t have health insurance. They have to pay for their own travel. They’re on the road for 90% if the year. But McMahon keeps making money and people are still watching.
#30 Free Formula
Nestle. They have programs where they give free formula to new mothers in poor countries. The mothers use the formula and their breast milk dries up, once the free formula is gone, they’re forced to buy more or their baby will starve. Clean water is scarce, so many babies pass away from water-borne diseases. Mothers with no money thin the formula so much, babies pass away from starvation. This has been going on for decades and is still their practice today.
#31 Selling Extras
EA and Activision mostly. If you put micro-transactions, pay-to-play, or pay-to-win in your AAA game ($60 USD brand new), they’re way more expensive. I will instantly avoid future purchases from them. I still try to support their subsidiaries (Bioware, Maxis, etc) but if even those games have it, then there is a 90% chance that I won't get it unless they truly are just selling extras and it doesn't impact the core game.
#32 First Place I Boycotted
Starbucks. I was your typical Starbucks-loving white girl. Then I went on a trip to Nicaragua and Guatemala and we met a farmer who lost everything because the supplier for Starbucks kept lowering their wages and buying the coffee for less and less. I can’t go into much detail because I don’t remember too well, but I do remember how heartbreaking it was to hear. Starbucks treats coffee farmers in the Global South like absolute garbage. Of your seven dollar coffee, almost nothing goes to farmers. I also no longer go to any non-fairtrade coffee places, but Starbucks was the first I boycotted.
#33 The Same Oil
Long John Silvers. I went there with my family about 20 years ago and we ordered a combination of chicken and fish. We tried each other's orders and couldn't tell what was fish and what was chicken because they use the same oil to fry everything in. The real fun came the next day when I realized their food also doubled as a laxative.
#34 Fake Bills
Bank of America literally handed me a fake $100 and when I asked them to replace it with a real one they called the cops on me for trying to pass a fake bill. A fake bill they literally just handed me ! The cops reviewed the footage and informed the teller and manager that they were at fault. The bank manager refused to acknowledge their mistake or apologize, so I closed my account. They had the nerve to try and "retain" me afterwards!
#35 Where’s Your Documentation?
Progressive cancelled my insurance despite me paying on time for several months because I recently graduated and didn’t have a current class schedule. I also didn’t have six months of paychecks prior to receiving their cancellation notice. At the time, I also had no record of currently paying rent or utilities because I paid those to my parents under the table. No other company that I have asked for quotes has cared about the documentation of any of those as long as I allowed a background check and paid my bill. They're such a garbage company.
#36 So Many Bookings
We had so many bookings with Expedia that weren’t “actually” booked and you only know once you’re there! One time, I pushed them and they did an upgrade for messing up, but seriously, I’d much rather have my vacations go smoothly than get an upgrade. We actually lost a couple of hours every time it happened (easily three of four times) and won’t use Expedia anymore.
#37 Annoying and Dishonest
I went to a Sprint store to cancel my family plan. My husband ported his number but I didn’t as I wanted a new number on Verizon. I got a bill the next month because they didn’t cancel my phone plan. When I called and complained, they said I had no proof that I went and asked for it to be cancelled in the store.
I talked to so many people and eventually someone accepted the fact that I hadn’t used one minute of talk or data in the past month. They also saw that my husband’s line was canceled and took it as an acceptable answer. They still made me pay $25 and said they couldn’t retroactively cancel my line but could make it “inactive” or something stupid that cost the fee. They’re so annoying and dishonest.
#38 To the Curb
My husband ordered a couch from Wayfair. It arrived and was half the size it said in the online description. We decided to try to make it work, so we sat on it for a while and determined this would not work. I’m nearly six feet tall and my husband is over that. The couch was narrow and short, so we decided to try putting it in one of the kids’ rooms.
As he was moving it, a black widow crawled out. It wasn’t from our house because we live in an area where it’s too cold for them. My husband called Wayfair and they said to just throw the couch out on the curb and they would refund the money. He even questioned the person a few times to make sure he heard right. I guess a lot of their stuff gets tossed to the curb.
#39 Amazing at Scamming
I went to Wells Fargo to get a checking account and left with a credit card I have no memory of agreeing to. That company is amazing at scamming people. I'm surprised that their rates were competitive, though. I went to them to find out what my rates would be for a car loan and they were higher than everyone else.
#40 Oil Change
I stopped going to Jiffy Lube after I got a coupon in the mail for a $20 oil change. I took my car in and they told me that it needed full synthetic, which the coupon wasn't good for. So, it was going to be $70 instead. I told them to forget it and I would go somewhere else. They told me I had to do oil change there because they had already drained the oil out of my car.
#41 Being Bought Out
Tim Hortons. It’s so gross now. Stale donuts, nasty coffee and stupid menu add changes every couple of months. I’m not kidding, they literally have a hot dog breakfast sandwich. They need to go back to the menu from 15 years ago and start making things in-house again. They jumped on the "beyond meat" burger trend a couple of months ago, but why would you buy a burger at Tim Hortons of all places when you could go to a burger place to get one fresh?
They jumped on a veggie meat trend but blatantly ignored people asking for dairy-free options on social media. Or they tell them to ask for it at their local location, which goes nowhere. Of course, they try to blame millennials, but I think every generation is sick of the terrible quality now. Basically, being bought out ruined them.
#42 Nobody Was Happy
I gave up on Facebook about four years ago. I got on it to stay in touch with my buddies and distant family. I loved the memes, videos and discussion. Then I woke up one day to find that all of that had been replaced with political BS, videos of political BS, and frantic posts about everything. Nobody was happy about anything. It took a toll on me. I finally cut it out. Twitter was next and I finally left Instagram out of boredom.
#43 Family Dining Experience
McDonald’s, totally. I remember vividly how great McDonald’s used to be as a family dining experience back in the ‘70s. They had a simple, tasty menu that appealed to both kids and adults and the restaurant experience itself was dynamic and well-themed. I even worked at one in high school in the ‘80s, and I consider that experience the solid foundation of my professional work ethic as an adult.
Now McDonald’s is just another low-quality corporate "everything-to-everyone, nothing-to-nobody" chain with a massive menu of themeless mediocrity. It’s kind of sad to see. For the cost of their food, I could easily go to any local family-owned restaurant and get a much better version as a sit-down experience.
#44 Psychopathic Cruelty
Fairlife Farms. I'm not a bleeding heart, I'm a meat-eating, beer-drinking, tobacco-chewing redneck, but after watching the footage captured at their dairy farms… it made me sick. There is no cause for what they do. Dairy farming can be a cruelty-free business, but these ranch hands delighted in the psychopathic cruelty they enjoyed dealing out.
#45 Profitable Customer
AAA. I was a premium member for years. I went to renew my membership and the AAA website blocked me. So, I called the number to find out what the problem was and the customer service representative said I wasn’t a profitable customer. I asked how that could be because I never used all my premium benefits in a single year. The rep didn’t have an answer. I tweeted out my experience and AAA asked me to DM my contact info. After I sent the info, they never contacted me or responded to any message I sent them. I was never a problem customer.
#46 Buggy Mess
Bethesda. They've been slowly cranking up the nonsense since Skyrim came out and Fallout 76 has been a constant display of how little they actually don’t care about their customers going forward. They could announce a free cake with Elder Scrolls 6 and I still wouldn't buy it. It'd probably just be a buggy mess like everything else.
#47 Make it Better
Fitbit. I had my Alta HR for nearly three years, wore it every day, enjoyed seeing my sleep stats and logging my exercise. Then they redesigned their app to "make it better" and turned it into useless trash. It’s full of "helpful" tip overlays, takes forever to sync, sleep tracking rarely works and now they assign some kind of arbitrary "sleep score" that doesn't correlate to anything. It’s just a bad app user interface. To top it all off, Google just bought them. I tossed it in the trash and I'll never buy another one.
#48 Just Wait Longer
Samsung. I bought a $1,200 washing machine, brand spanking new. It had defects as soon as we turned it on, from horrible squealing sounds to not filling up with water and over filling and not draining. The repair guy said it was normal… Normal?! We called the place we bought it from and they said they would call Samsung and have it replaced. It's been almost two months now and Samsung has yet to deliver the new washing machine. Every call we make to follow up with them is, "Oh, the trucking company doesn’t have your model yet. Just wait longer.”
#49 No Regrets
Amazon. After reading about the way they treat their warehouse employees, we cancelled our Prime account. No regrets. We cancelled Audible, too. As much as possible, we avoid anything associated with Amazon. There's plenty of additional information that's come out since that confirms it was the right decision. Alexa? You have to be out of your mind to let that in your house.
#50 Worse and Worse
Netflix used to be like a great public library. They had a little of everything and it was always there if you wanted to experience it again. Foreign movies, low budget horror in spades, recent blockbusters, entire runs of old TV shows. Then they started pulling stuff left and right, so movies I wanted to rewatch were gone. Then the push to making their own content, most of which I have no interest in. And the interface just got worse and worse. Plus, everything is done because of an algorithm (seemingly).
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