I refuse to do any more business with the local credit union because I went in once to close my account, on the day before I moved out of town. “I’d like to close my account and get my money,” I said. I had maybe $17 that I wanted (and needed!) before I went back to college. “Okay, there’s a 10-day waiting period before we’ll mail you the check,” said the woman. But I needed gas money that day! “Why can’t I just close the account and take my money now?” I asked, and she explained that it was so that I didn’t write checks today and then withdraw all the money before they had a chance to clear. I argued a bit because I had been using them for years for no problem, and because all I had in there was less than $20- but to no avail. Arghhh! “Fine,” I said, at loose ends, “I don’t want to close my account. I want to leave it open. I’d just like to make a withdraw.” Then the woman NARROWED HER EYES at me, as if I was personally trying to bilk her out of something, and hissed, “Sorry, you already told me you want to close your account, you can’t change your mind!” I was SO MAD. I stormed out and haven’t been back.
I also refuse to do anything with Commerce Bank, or those coin-counting machines, because I once went in and asked for some loose coin rolls. “We don’t use coin rolls, we use that machine,” I was told, and pointed to a coinstar-esque machine. I asked if it charged a fee, or took a percentage? Nope. So great! I went home, counted all my change- I had about $50 worth- and brought it to the bank. Dumped it in, slowly. Looked at the receipt- it said $38! I went up to the counter with the slip and told the woman I’d counted my change ahead of time and the machine miscounted and gave me ~$12 less. “We trust the machine,” she told me. I spoke to the manager, and same story. I was STEAMED. We trust the machine? Haven’t these people ever had their computer crash, or seen Space Odyssey 2001? And how many people don’t count their change beforehand and use the machine and lose their money to the bank?
My boyfriend refuses to buy products that have obnoxious commercials. “What’s this commercial for?” he yells at the television, “I’ll never buy it again!” I wish I kept a list… by this point, he’s nixed every major brand of everything in circulation
As with Tamerlane, Pasand was the first Indian restaurant I patronized regularly. Their food was (and probably still is) delicious. Too bad I can’t go there anymore.
A common retail scam is for the employee to ring up part of a cash transaction, then to pocket the cash. If he’s enough of a douchebag to pull that kind of a stunt, it wouldn’t surprise me if he were enough of a douchebag to call the cops, report you as a drive-off to cover his own ass, then skim the cash from the register. His nefarious plan was foiled when the cop counted out the register and found the money, then when you complained to the corporate office, they had reason to look at the tape.
I’d be amazed if the Ass. Man. were still employed there.
They have legendary Mexican food…in a city wherein it’s difficult, if not almost impossible, to become legendary for something you can find on every corner of the city.
My ex-boyfriend worked there for two weeks. He really needed the job, and he made lots of money at it.
But he quit because he couldn’t stomach their health/food-safety standards. There wasn’t even a hand-washing sink in the whole kitchen; the dishwasher water was so cold that the “clean” plates came out covered in cold water…which was stagnant until a waiter or cook needed the plate. At which time it was dried off by The Towel. That one towel that also picked off all the food remnants left on the plates by the same inefficient dishwasher. (FYI, I’ve worked in restaurants and bars since I was 17, and a good commercial dishwasher has the plates coming out so hot that the water evaporates within seconds. You can’t even touch them.)
He was so grossed out that he never actually tried any of the food.
People tell me the food is great. I don’t doubt them. That place is always in the top 3 of any “BEST MEXICAN FOOD” surveys in San Antonio.
I forgot Circuit City, but I’m hours away from one anyway. (The same goes for Wal-Mart, the distance only makes it easier. But I still wouldn’t shop at one if it was right next door!) Though even if I were right down the street I still wouldn’t go there after that mass firing/re-hiring.
A year or so back Blundstone , iconic Australian boot makers, announced that they were moving production from Tasmania to India. I suppose it wasn’t unexpected, everything gets made somewhere else now. We were probably lucky they held out as long as they did. It still wounded my nationalistic sentiments though, I was a big fan of their elastic sided boots and knowing they were made locally was icing on the cake. There was some general consternation in the media here about it. Others thought it didn’t matter, globalisation was a good thing, yadda, yadda…
Wisely or not, I decided to draw a line in the sand and boycott Blundstone boots. This was easier to do at the time as I’d not long bought a new pair. I sent them an e-mail expressing my disappointment and vowing not to buy their products again.
The funny part is, I’ve since all but worn out my last pair of boots, which has softened my resolve somewhat. I really like a particular design of theirs. Weasely old me started looking around for a new pair, country of origin be hanged. The various sales people I’ve talked to seem to be agreed that since taking production off shore, Blundstone have become erratic in providing stock and filling orders. I’ve been unable to buy a pair because no one around here is carrying my style and size and I’m leery of ordering them in.
Can’t you go to small-claims court or something for situations like this? A fridge and a laptop hardly are small-ticket items and may very well be worth getting a lawyer (if you don’t want to be a fool of a client and represent yourself of course).
The one time in the last 20 years that I bought gas from Exxon (ughh doesn’t that name just completely and totally suck?) I was on a road trip, running low on gas, and the only station I saw in like 20 miles was one of theirs. I pumped in just enough to get me to the nearest exit/town and haven’t bought from them since.
I also boycott the companies who have stupid commercials, even if semantically speaking it isn’t a boycott.
Winn Dixie, but under RickJay’s rules, it’s not a boycott. I haven’t found a store yet that wasn’t grungy. When I first moved to Orlando(ish), I did some grocery shopping at Winn Dixie and asked if I could write the check for over the amount. The cashier said yes. So, I wrote it for $20 over and she gave me $19.50. I asked her why it was short, and she said there was a fee. Nowhere on the register or check-out late did it say there was a fee, and she didn’t disclose it to me when I asked. Yes, it was only 50 cents, but it was the principle of the thing, Publix doesn’t charge a fee for writing a check over the amount, and I wasn’t too happy with WD stores anyway, so I haven’t been back.
Is Eckerd’s still around? I think they might have been bought out…but I went in early one morning years ago to fill Ivylad’s pain prescription. There were three clerks, and they decided to stop helping me and help one of them figure out how to buy gum from the ATM at the register so the guy could get some money out. I’m standing there, fuming, while they’re laughing and teasing each other. The store is deserted, Ivylad has been in severe pain since the previous night, so I just let loose that I would appreciate it if someone would stop messing around with the ATM and fill my husband’s prescription. One of them muttered something about the guy buying a pack of gum was also a customer, but I just glared at them and they filled the prescription in record time.
Ha, ha. (For anyone who doesn’t know, ALL Chick-Fil-A branches are closed on Sundays.)
I SHOULD boycott Chick-Fil-A. A good friend of mine reports that his friend once interviewed there for an assistant manager position. During the interview, they asked him (verbally so he couldn’t prove it in court if he so tried) if he took Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. I guess they don’t want any heathens frying the patties.
Unfortunately, Chick-Fil-A is one of the very few good lunch options I have, but this thread has me reconsidering my position.
Oh, it’s definitely illegal. But he decided a) not to take the job (I don’t know if he was offered it anyway) and b) not to pursue a case (because of the difficulty in proving his case). This guy is LDS and could have just said “yes” but was offended on the principle of the thing.
That’s fascinating. Personally, I don’t think I could be pissed at a company for having the guts to place their beliefs (Christian in this case) ahead of the profit motive. Even if they are fundy Christians, at least they’re not hypocrites.
This is only like the second time I’ve ever heard of Chick-Fil-A, the first being in Ben Folds’ song The Army. I wonder now if he really ever worked there and, if so, did they ask him “the question”? It’s all academic to me, there’s no Chick-Fil-A in Australia, so far as I can tell.
I haven’t been to a Circuit City since this, either. Which is funny since I work for one of the other retail companies that tend to pop up in these kinds of threads as being all sorts of nasty to their employees… but while that happens on a store-by-store basis in my chain because of individual store-manager greed, I was completely shocked at the stupidity of a corporate decision to gut the entire Circuit City chain of their most knowledgable and most productive salespersons. (Was anyone really surprised when, one fiscal quarter later, Circuit City perplexedly reported to shareholders that same store sales had plummeted?)
Wal-Mart. Above and beyond their well-known business practices, I actually have been in them a couple times, though it wasn’t my idea. Decided to look at the jeans; I needed a pair.
HOLY WHATEVER. These did not come from any jeanmaker I’ve ever encountered. No matter what the label says. Then I started paying more attention…the entire store, both times, in wildly disparate locations, were loaded to the gunwales with the shoddiest crap. Heaven can’t help you if you eat whatever it is they’re calling “food”. I wouldn’t take any of that shit if it was free.
I’m usually not the boycotting type- I tend to think that whatever minuscule difference my business may make to a large company like Wal-Mart or Circuit City is likely amplified at a local level, and that I may be contributing to screwing some unwitting, hard working guy out of his job.
That being said, I don’t buy gas at Citgo because I don’t like Hugo Chavez, and don’t want to line his pockets any more than I have to.
(hint to other posters: not going somewhere because you don’t like the advertising or because you think their products are sub-standard, or because you had a run-in with a butthole employee isn’t a boycott! Look the word up- boycotting is a sort of protest, and those examples are just the usual sort of not going somewhere because you don’t like it.)
. Hey I admit to not having the best taste in television shows.