“Not paying $5 for brown water”: 17 customers share the exact moment they swore off a business for good

For many people, making the conscious decision to never patronize a certain store or service ever again isn’t a decision made lightly. It’s something that occurs after a major decline in service, an egregious slight, a conflict in morals, or something otherwise rather serious. And there’s almost always a story to go along with it.

1. Low-quality coffee

“For me it was a local coffee shop. They started watering down their espresso shots to save money. The difference was immediate and the quality just plummeted. I gave them a couple of chances but I wasn’t going to pay $5 for brown water.” —u/RichAside2021

2. Streaming ensh*ttification

“Netflix and Amazon Prime when they added commercials. I’m not paying to see your commercials.” —u/Klotzster

3. Billing errors

“Medical office messed up my billing for 6 out of 12 months. I called them on it and they gave me attitude. Told my provider I was done, give me a referral so I can go somewhere that I don’t have to constantly confirm the billing is correct and get attitude when it’s not.” —u/Ethel_Marie

4. Not-so family-friendly

“A dim sum restaurant didn’t let me feed my 2 yo formula as it was ‘outside food.’ We were 5 adults plus my daughter so we ordered enough food for 5 adults but my daughter was hungry so I prepped and bottle and was feeding her when a waiter told me to stop.

I didn’t believe him at first and asked to see a manager but the manager came over and confirmed that baby formula was considered ‘outside food.’” —u/davidicon168

5. Takeout tips

“Tip screen starts at 20% takeout register.” —u/No_Sleep_69

6. Big box takeover

“I was a crafty kid who grew up in a rural area. When Walmart came to town, they put my local fabric store out of business. It’s been more than 20 years since I’ve given the Walton family a cent.” —u/Sea-Finance506

7. Ungrateful delivery driver

“A local pizza store delivered a pizza to my home. I paid and tipped the driver who held up the tip and said “that’s it?” and walked off. The tip was 15-20%. Never ordered from them again.” —u/RCoaster42

8. Misogyny!

“Went to buy some lumber (40s woman). The pressure treated 2x4s were in the lot, so I told the cashier I wanted 6 of the 10′. She continually asked what “he” wants. When I told her they were for me, for deck repair, she laid down heavier, insisting I needed to double check with who Iam buying them for.

Finally I lost my patience with the back and forth and snapped that me and my vagina want 6 pieces of pressure treated 10′ f**king 2x4s and she could either ring me up or I was f**king stealing them. Haven’t been back. F**k that.” —u/Emotional-Cat-5396

9. Questionable charges

“Budget Rental Car. POS car broke down. Called budget, they set up towing, and off it went. I got a $400 charge for tire damage (I assume from the towing company, if that was even legit.) They reversed it but I never have gone back. Don’t trust them now at all.” —u/Ok-Stress-3570

10. Pet peeves

“I dropped my pet off at day care at petsmart and went to pick her up later that day and they wouldn’t give her to me. I was the one that filled out the paperwork that morning and I was the one that dropped her off.

But my husband’s name was on the account? So he had to pick her up? Get out of here. We called the cops and they were forced to give me my dog obviously. Won’t shop there obviously.” —u/Amdin3d

11. Unreasonable accusations

“So way way back in another age I went into a CompUSA and got stopped going in, accused of shoplifting, and they demanded to search my bag… On the way in. So I told them to f**k off and never bought anything there again.” —u/cyrand

12. Bad boss

“It was my favorite pizza place, one of the only NY style pizza shops in the area. Sat inside for a slice one day and overheard the owner speaking down to his employees.

In fact, he was so loud and it was in the open, the whole place heard him going in on these high schools kids, for requesting scheduled time off work. Friendly banter is one thing, this was not that. I have a low tolerance for disrespect and couldn’t go back.” —u/No_Nebula9211

13. Irritating automation

“The grocery store I used to frequent put up security cameras above each self checkout line and that thing triggers “Putting unscanned item in bag” feature so god damn much I was tired of being treated like a thief so I left and haven’t been back since.” —u/McLovett325

14. Environmental woes

“I was a commercial fisherman in Alaska. Exxon Valdez.” —u/Key-Branch2892

15. Crappy customer service

“F**king Uber eats- ordered a McDonald’s as a group order, like £80 worth of food, only about a quarter of it arrived. When I complained they gave me a refund of £4. Everyone was hungry and we were out about £60, it was such sh*t customer service.” —u/[deleted]

16. Discount fake out

“It was a franchised corporate sandwich shop, an early adopter of “toasted”… They offered a discount for building residents and I ordered a sandwich. The proprietor berated me that I should not get a discount because I ordered ONLY a sandwich and they don’t make any money on them.

I responded, ‘do or don’t but don’t give me a hard time about it. It was your idea.’ I went one more time and ordered the combo special and was refused the discount because it was ‘already discounted by corporate.’ Everyone I knew in the building heard the story.” —u/Wrathchilde

17. Sketchy gym subscription

“Anytime Fitness. I paused my membership while out of the country for a month. When I came back they told me I requested it too late (2 weeks before the payment). And they suddenly insisted my payment the month before didn’t go through even though I paid that one in cash.

I tried to cancel right then and they said they will cancel after I pay for the 2 months. I did just to get out of the contract, filled out the cancellation and had it confirmed through email.

Next month they bombard me with payment reminders and call me multiple times. I left a one star review describing all this, suddenly they are apologetic and say they canceled it now and to please remove my review. I left the review up lol.” u/More_Example6153