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Lenovo (look up "SuperFish")
Apple
Sony
Intel ("TrustZone" hardware rootkit, sexist misandric gender policies)
Microsoft (gamepads, consoles, tablets, etc...)
Apple: Because of the walled-garden iOS, and I am not into Macs either.

Gillette: Sorry, I think your blades are way overpriced. Sure you have five or is it already six razor blades side by side, but the cheapo no-name razor twin-blades work just fine.

Philips: They are now on my shitlist because the rather expensive soundbar I bought from them for my TV is now breaking up apparently, conveniently after the warranty period is void. I thought Philips is dependable, isn't it like Europeon like from the Netherlands? Of course I can't prove it, but this feels like planned obsolescence to me.

The LED TV I bought from Philips at the same time... it is still working, but ever since receiving an OTA firmware update like 1½ or 2 years ago, it has worked less satisfactorily. Sometimes it feels like a flaky Windows PC: quite often it is very slow to respond to remote controller commands (pausing for awhile, and then suddenly running several actions in a fast succession, those commands I gave with the remote controller like 5 seconds earlier), and sometimes it even seems to crash completely (shuts down) if I try some more advanced actions or press too many buttons on the remote controller.

Using it feels sometimes like using a Windows 95 PC, walking on empty egg shells, never knowing when it will crack. And the sad thing is that I didn't remember such issues wit the older firmware, which I can't find anywhere anymore. Naturally Philips hasn't provided newer firmwares to fix any of those issues either, this is apparently an obsolete model now that they don't support anymore with fixes etc.

I feel I will try some other manufacturer next. LG is somehow feeling positive, maybe that is mainly because I have good experience with one of their Android phones.
Post edited March 04, 2016 by timppu
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timppu: Apple: Because of the walled-garden iOS, and I am not into Macs either.

Gillette: Sorry, I think your blades are way overpriced. Sure you have five or is it already six razor blades side by side, but the cheapo no-name razor twin-blades work just fine.

Philips: They are now on my shitlist because the rather expensive soundbar I bought from them for my TV is now breaking up apparently, conveniently after the warranty period is void. I thought Philips is dependable, isn't it like Europeon like from the Netherlands? Of course I can't prove it, but this feels like planned obsolescence to me.

The LED TV I bought from Philips at the same time... it is still working, but ever since receiving an OTA firmware update like 1½ or 2 years ago, it has worked less satisfactorily. Sometimes it feels like a flaky Windows PC: quite often it is very slow to respond to remote controller commands (pausing for awhile, and then suddenly running several actions in a fast succession, those commands I gave with the remote controller like 5 seconds earlier), and sometimes it even seems to crash completely (shuts down) if I try some more advanced actions or press too many buttons on the remote controller.

Using it feels sometimes like using a Windows 95 PC, walking on empty egg shells, never knowing when it will crack. And the sad thing is that I didn't remember such issues when the older firmware, which I can't find anywhere anymore. Naturally Philips hasn't provided newer firmwares to fix any of those issues either, this is apparently an obsolete model now that they don't support anymore with fixes etc.

I feel I will try some other manufacturer next. LG is somehow feeling positive, maybe that is mainly because I have good experience with one of their Android phones.
Can't you just factory reset the tv and not update it?
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omega64: Can't you just factory reset the tv and not update it?
I... don't believe that flashes the old firmware back, does it? It probably merely resets all options to default values, with whatever firmware version you have there.
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omega64: Can't you just factory reset the tv and not update it?
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timppu: I... don't believe that flashes the old firmware back, does it? It probably merely resets all options to default values, with whatever firmware version you have there.
I don't know really, it might not be entirely the firmware though. I'd say resetting it is worth a try considering just how badly it functions.
Post edited March 04, 2016 by omega64
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omega64: I don't know really, it might not be entirely the firmware though. I'd say resetting it is worth a try considering just how badly it functions.
I'm pretty sure I have already tried that too, but maybe I'll try again.

Then again, usually the TV works ok (enough), but sometimes it just feels like it is a PC with too slow CPU or too little RAM, running in molasses, unresponsive and all.

And yeah the remote controller has fresh batteries. :)

Of course I have no idea if TVs and soundbars from other manfufacturers work any better, maybe these are common issues in these price levels. I recall being miffed at Samsung with my old 32" CRT TV I had a long time ago, mainly many of the non-optimal design choices (like its inability to give a correct aspect ration with 4:3 if using the RGB SCART for the best picture quality), oh and its internal speakers stopped working too (so I used external speakers instead).

So if I e.g. end up buying that one cheapo 99€ LG soundbar, maybe one year from now I will be bitching about it.
Post edited March 04, 2016 by timppu
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tinyE: Black & Decker
Why? My saw is 20 this year and still works. I plan to throw her an anniversary party.
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chadjenofsky: Avoided AMD for a long time due to an experience with a Celeron chip...
I think we got post of the week or even month there =P
I blockade:

Asrock - dem DOA-s mang
Apple - locked in POS (no, not Point-Of-Sale, the other acronym :))
NVIDIA - except some Quadros, nope
Hynix - NO
Sony - VAIO drivers still make my head hurt
Lenovo - everything except thinkpads is shit
Dell - everything except Latitudes is shit, yes Alienware goes under Dell aswell
HP - i won't even start
Philips - get your shit together with the software part guys, i can go and pee and the menu will move by 2 presses of the button on your TV-s
Samsung - Apple juniors, shitty support except for new flagship models of their items
AMD - everything unless FX-series, Opterons or GPU-s
Razer - too many DOA-s
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tinyE: Black & Decker
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Starmaker: Why? My saw is 20 this year and still works. I plan to throw her an anniversary party.
Then you're lucky.
In our workshop Black & Decker has been completely banned for good reasons.
It's like cheapo Chinese stuff but much more expensive and sometimes even less reliable.
All we had from them broke down way too soon.
Post edited March 04, 2016 by Klumpen0815
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Starmaker: Why? My saw is 20 this year and still works. I plan to throw her an anniversary party.
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Klumpen0815: Then you're lucky.
In our workshop Black & Decker has been completely banned for good reasons.
It's like cheapo Chinese stuff but much more expensive and sometimes even less reliable.
All we had from them broke down way too soon.
Perhaps their tools used to be good? I always knew B&D as an expensive but reliable brand growing up.
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timppu: Philips: They are now on my shitlist because the rather expensive soundbar I bought from them for my TV is now breaking up apparently, conveniently after the warranty period is void. I thought Philips is dependable, isn't it like Europeon like from the Netherlands? Of course I can't prove it, but this feels like planned obsolescence to me.

The LED TV I bought from Philips at the same time... it is still working, but ever since receiving an OTA firmware update like 1½ or 2 years ago, it has worked less satisfactorily. Sometimes it feels like a flaky Windows PC: quite often it is very slow to respond to remote controller commands (pausing for awhile, and then suddenly running several actions in a fast succession, those commands I gave with the remote controller like 5 seconds earlier), and sometimes it even seems to crash completely (shuts down) if I try some more advanced actions or press too many buttons on the remote controller.

Using it feels sometimes like using a Windows 95 PC, walking on empty egg shells, never knowing when it will crack. And the sad thing is that I didn't remember such issues wit the older firmware, which I can't find anywhere anymore. Naturally Philips hasn't provided newer firmwares to fix any of those issues either, this is apparently an obsolete model now that they don't support anymore with fixes etc.

I feel I will try some other manufacturer next. LG is somehow feeling positive, maybe that is mainly because I have good experience with one of their Android phones.
They're Dutch, named after the family who created the firm.
I don't know their LED TV or other flatscreen TVs, but I still have an old TV from them that's 15 years old. The display is still as good as it was the day I bought it. Recently on the text pages letters don't appear right away. Based upon experiences with another tv, that probably means it will die on me in about 2 years.

Companies/brands I don't support:
Apple, Alienware and others which sell (seriously) overpriced products
Valve as I refuse to use Steam

Others I don't support:
Norton, McAfee, Avast and AVG due to bad experiences with their crappy software.
Nuon, a Dutch supplier of energy to households and companies. They're overpriced and lack service. Their last offer to me last year was 50% higher than my current supplier and 40% higher than my previous contract with Nuon less than 2 years prior to their offer. They even called it a low price ...
Charity organizations with expensive management.
Post edited March 04, 2016 by HertogJan
Microsoft for being a predatory and manipulating company, tirelessly pushing for more closed software and hardware standards. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Epic-OpEd-Windows-UWP
Apple for its overpriced and very service unfriendly products.
Sony for the OtherOS fiasco and the following lawsuits and harassment of their customers who were trying to open their own legally bought hardware.
Valve for their drm and substitution based client.

Edit,
Link added
Post edited March 04, 2016 by Solei
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tinyE: Black & Decker
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Starmaker: Why? My saw is 20 this year and still works. I plan to throw her an anniversary party.
Okay this was a joke. :P

B&D was the 1st Hardware company that came to mind. XD
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Klumpen0815: Then you're lucky.
In our workshop Black & Decker has been completely banned for good reasons.
It's like cheapo Chinese stuff but much more expensive and sometimes even less reliable.
All we had from them broke down way too soon.
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Matewis: Perhaps their tools used to be good? I always knew B&D as an expensive but reliable brand growing up.
Imho they never were that good and invested more into marketing than quality to make people believe it's high quality stuff and this plan obviously worked.
Post edited March 04, 2016 by Klumpen0815