Having loyal, returning customers is a godsend because you ensure business (and hopefully even profitability) in the future. However, corporations that completely ignore their target audience’s wants and needs, don’t care about their own reputation, and reduce the quality of their products and services can push people away. The result? Partial boycotts which eat into profit.
Inspired by u/silent_pm, some dissatisfied consumers took to a thread on AskReddit to air their grievances. Below, we’ve collected their thoughts about the brands that have lost their loyalty, as well as the reasons why they’re ditching them for their competitors. Scroll down to check them out.
Bored Panda got in touch with u/silent_pm, who sparked the interesting discussion, and they were kind enough to share their thoughts about brand loyalty and unmet customer expectations. You'll find their thoughts below.
#1
United Way (charity).
Coworker gets cancer and we set up a big jar in the cafeteria for donations to help her with treatments. United Way comes in and tells us that they have an "exclusive contract" with our company (large, international company) to be the sole recipient of any charitable donations on the property and demanded that we remove the solicitation jar and cease any fundraising for coworker's cancer treatment.
They had an annual "drive" where department heads competed to have the most donations and ongoing monthly contributions, but the next year the number of participants in the company dropped to almost nothing. Good.

Image credits: Javaman1960
#2
Apple
I'll swim in my android bubble thank you very much.

Image credits: Cactilove
#3
Apple. I used to buy their stuff because it was built to last. Now it’s all about planned obsolescence.

Image credits: stos313
#4
Pyrex. They became trusted because their cookware was borosilicate glass which withstands temperature change super well, but now they switched to soda lime glass and rode their good reputation out with higher profit margins from cheap materials.

Image credits: SlabGizor120
#5
Black+Decker
When they started, they made good tools, and continued for many years. They they went broke and sold the name to a mega-corp that slapped the name on their low-end, junk tool line
Brands don't mean anything. Product quality is all that matters.

Image credits: MpVpRb
#6
A lot of news publications have unfortunately opted to go the click-driven route instead of doing quality investigative reporting. I used to read a lot of the long-standing sources like Forbes, Wall Street Journal, CNN, and New York Times to get straightforward presentations of world events. However, I've had to abandon all of them over the last 10 years as they've all gone way downhill in quality, and depend way too much on reporting off cherry picked social media posts and Tweets from unverified nobodies.

Image credits: anon
#7
Breyers "Ice cream"
They've cheaped out production so much most of their products can't legally be called ice cream, check and they're labeled as Frozen Dairy Dessert. They used to be the good brand, a fresh tub of mint chocolate chip is how little me knew it was payday.

Image credits: Umbrella_merc
#8
Benefit Cosmetics after their ‘you don’t need to be clever, you’re pretty!’ campaign.

Image credits: CertainFurball
#9
Wells Fargo. I paid my moms car payment to help her out ONCE. And they set my account as the main account. Wouldn’t be a big deal if they overcharged my account ONE TIME and fixed it. No. They did it four times. Each month my mom would call and have them reimburse my overdraft fee and delete my account from their records. They said they would and what do you know, next month I’d have $400 or an overdraft fee removed from my account.
The last time my mom literally cussed and screamed at them until they fixed it. She threatened a lawsuit and everything before they finally did what we needed. Next time she needs help with her bills she’s getting cash. And if Wells Fargo is doing the loan, I’d rather take it somewhere else. As long as I can avoid using them, I will.

Image credits: HalfDrowBard
#10
Burlington Coat Factory. It used to have nothing but coats, but now it has transformed itself into a second-hand store for all clothing items, furniture, and household items. It's like a Goodwill for things that the Mall couldn't sell.

Image credits: Jiggly_Love
#11
Salvation Army and Autism Speaks
SA doesn’t help any of the woman they take in, and are just horrible people. AS doesn’t help autistics, they’re more of a hate group towards them. Idk if those count.

Image credits: stardirection-
#12
Nestle. They're making a huge profit off of Canadian fresh water and paying next to nothing in taxes.

Image credits: DiarrheaKing021
#13
Star Wars under Disney.

Image credits: Tipperdair
#14
Any company that makes a political statement to appear 'woke' but is actually just whoring for publicity and boosting their bottom line.
The problem is there are so many doing this now its hard to keep track.....

Image credits: Blackpowder90
#15
DevaCurl.
I have curly hair that's also very fine, and I'm really picky about the products I use—I can't use anything that will dry it out or weigh it down. A stylist friend of mine recommended DC to me back in 2012, and I loved it immediately. I went all-in, and for a while DC products were all I was using on my hair.
Apparently a couple years ago they were bought my another company, and the formula for a lot of their products changed. I didn't realize this. Meanwhile, my hair was starting to get really thin. It's normal for me to lose a little bit of hair in the shower, but it was getting really excessive. I figured it was just because I was getting older and my body/hormones were changing. I didn't event think that it could have anything to do with my beloved hair products.
Then I joined a group for curly-haired folk and learned that a lot of DevaCurl users were having the same issues with hair loss. Countless before/after photos convinced me that I wasn't just losing my hair due to bad genetic luck. I got rid of all my DC products and, after some research, started a new product regimen. Slowly but surely, my hair is starting to recover. I feel so betrayed, though. And despite hundreds of customers complaining to the company, they have yet to acknowledge or address the problem.

Image credits: Salsa__Stark
#16
Nars. Lost their cruelty free status just so they can sell in China.

Image credits: pusasabaso
#17
Blizzard.
They chose money in China over basic human rights.

Image credits: anon
#18
Sony.
My PS3 account got hacked and someone bought $400 in credits. I contacted Sony and they aknowledged I was hacked, returned my account to me, but refused to give me back my money.
If that weren't enough, I recently got an update on my PS3 that somehow made it unable to work at all.

Image credits: anon
#19
Not a brand but ... the United States Postal Service. I was waiting for delivery of a $100+ package. They tried to deliver it to my office at 8:00, but the office opens closer to 9:00, so they left a note. I went to the post office and asked for it, but they didn't have it because ... they gave it to someone else. So where's my package? Well we don't care, we "delivered it". Yes, but you didn't deliver it TO ME, THE RECIPIENT. The post master then went and accused me of lying.
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Image credits: ClownfishSoup