What grudges do you hold against tech/software companies and why?

[Anomnomnomaly]

Does anyone else have a grudge against a company related to tech/gaming that nothing could ever convince you to reconsider?  I'm not just talking about 'never buying an EA game because they're evil' kind of thing... But a company that has directly caused you a problem that you struggle to forget and/or forgive.

 

I've got a couple... the first is nVidia. I've been PC gaming for long enough to have witnessed the first wave of 3D graphics cards and my first card was a 3DFX Voodoo II... sadly I never got to SLI a pair of them... But boy were they great.  I then had an nVidia something or other from around 98 and as soon as 3DFX released the Voodoo 3 I grabbed one of them, and when they released the VooDoo 5 5500... I had one of them too.... sadly that was also the time of their demise and nVidia swooped in and bought up all of their IP... along with the promise of supporting Voodoo cards and customers... They lied... they hung everyone out to dry and never lifted a finger. All they wanted was the SLI patents.  So I never really forgave them and it's one of the reasons I kinda heavily lean towards AMD  GPU's... But I do own a couple of nVidia Shield TV boxes (2017 & 2019 models) and my tablet is the rather nice Shield K1... So I am being worn down a little... now if only they'd get of their high horse and actually price stuff competitively... I might consider a GPU at some point, but chances of that are slim.

 

The next one is more recent... 2019.. and it's Ubisoft this time.  I tried to buy the last Assassin's Creed game during a sale and for some unknown reason the version I bought wasn't the one I wanted (it was missing all the DLC)... I reached out to them and asked for them to adjust the sale and that I'd pay the difference. I even accepted that it's possibly my error and I clicked the wrong verion and wasn't paying enough attention at the checkout... We've all done it.  They ignored me for weeks... I'd never actually played the game, all I'd done was launch it for less than 2 mins as I immediately saw stuff was missing. It was uninstalled immediately.  When they eventually respond it's to basically say 'tough shit' you've played the game... I wasn't happy and told them so, pointed out that we have decent consumer laws in the UK and what they were doing wasn't acceptable... again they ignore it for weeks and then respond with the same canned statement telling me 'tough shit'.   This is why I pay via paypal... so I open a dispute and they ignore that too... paypal refunds me my money.  I update my complaint with them and ask them to remove the game from me because I have my refund. This is where they get a little shitty with me... the response is kinda pathetic and threatening with the suggestion that they will ban my entire account for daring to enforce my consumer rights. What ever drone I'm talking to hasn't a clue about those consumer rights/laws in the UK. They still don;t remove the game so a few weeks later, I update the compliant once more and say thank you for letting me keep the game after all... a few days later.. it's removed.

 

I think no more of it... and about 6 months later, the game is on sale once more... this time even cheaper and with all the DLC. So I buy it... except it's not added to my games list... So I raise a ticket for it and am basically ignored for weeks again. It gets passed around and each time they fail to understand the issue... I've paid for it, you've taken my money... you've failed to give me the game... As the days/weeks go on, I start to get annoyed as they're doing bugger all to resolve it... So I escalate it to a complaint... it's ignored... so I send a letter to the CEO of Ubisoft UK and get one back promising to look into it, but all they do is pass it some useless drone in CS who weeks later responds with the same crap they parroted before. So back to paypal, get my money back.. Ubisoft have failed to resolve anything yet again and are nothing short of obnoxious arseholes in my book... As a result I will never spend another penny with them again.

 

I have played the AC game though... and it's not actually worth it, so I count myself lucky I didn't waste my money... the levelling system is so stupid, you can't go back to an area you struggled with after levelling up a little more because all of the enemies auto level up to the same as you... making the act of increasing weapons/armour utterly pointless... It's like a grind that grinds for grindings sake. Even when the eventually reacted to the player backlash, they just added an option to set the auto levelling to be a couple lower than before... worthless still.

 

So if nVidia is anything to go buy... it's gonna be 15 or more years before I ever consider buying anything from them... legitimately... not that I'd ever suggest anyone actually do anything like that of course... it's wrong... so, very, very wrong. 

 

 

Also... f*ck EA... they are evil. 

[BrinkGG]

11 minutes ago, Anomnomnomaly said:

-snip-

Also... f*ck EA... they are evil. 

Still mad at a list of companies for a lot of things, but I don't hold grudges really. 

Microsoft: Windows 10 exists

Ubiquiti: rPi based controller can't do AP sign-in pages, or a lot of other features that work on the Windows, Mac and Linux versions of the controller software. (it's LITERALLY THE DEBIAN BUILD, COME ON) 

Ubisoft: Fix siege plz

Bluehole: I lost too much time in PUBG trying to be a high level comp player, then they abandoned the Pro scene. 

Dell: Why must your OEM boards only run one generation of CPUs, even if the chipset supports two or more? 

etc etc. 

[Anomnomnomaly]

7 minutes ago, BrinkGG said:

Still mad at a list of companies for a lot of things, but I don't hold grudges really. 

Microsoft: Windows 10 exists

Ubiquiti: rPi based controller can't do AP sign-in pages, or a lot of other features that work on the Windows, Mac and Linux versions of the controller software. (it's LITERALLY THE DEBIAN BUILD, COME ON) 

Ubisoft: Fix siege plz

Bluehole: I lost too much time in PUBG trying to be a high level comp player, then they abandoned the Pro scene. 

Dell: Why must your OEM boards only run one generation of CPUs, even if the chipset supports two or more? 

etc etc. 

I was one of the Windows 7 holdouts... only got 10 12 months ago when I built my new system. Didn't pay full price for it off course, just bought a license for 20... I wanted Pro not the crappy version you can still get for free.  I've locked it down as best I can to get rid of the crap, blocked telemetry and the MS store, removed cortana and added windows classic shell to revert the start menu to something more palatable. 

 

Also added back the windows 7 games.

 

My media server is still on W7 Pro too, which is EOL next week... But I'm kinda leaning towards 'fuck it' on the upgrade side as it's literally a mediaserver, I don't use it for gaming, browsing or anything else really... even though it's got 16GB ram and an RX580 installed... it's still on the AMD FX platform with a budget ASUS M5 board and an FX8350.

 

I keep meaning to get myself a Pi and mess around with it... but I've kinda let my IT skills wane over the years, so I'm way behind the curve in some areas now... I never learned HTML5 after all those years learning 4... and leaving the industry for 6yrs to help care for my late father. So coming back into it.. I've ended up in more consulting/management type roles than actual hands on like I used to.

[Anomnomnomaly]

2 minutes ago, Caroline said:

NZXT: they exist only because of the braindead fanboys who keep recommending their junk cases and other overpriced gimmicks

I've never understood that... I've seen some of their cases and they really don't do anything for me... BNut then I am one of those who still likes to have an optical drive installed (I still watch blurays from time to time and like to burn discs for the car still (my car has bluetooth but only for phone, no music streaming.. it's an older model)

[Car712]

I hold grudges against a few tech companies, most notable HP, Cooler Master, and Gigabyte.

 

HP - Awful laptop, only lasted for a year, CS doesn't understand English correctly (although the CEO email support was amazing, gotta gives props to them, very nice person I dealt with), eventually got a full refund from HP after they managed to break my laptop MORE each time I sent it in (4 times!!)

 

Gigabyte - B450 Aorus M, BIOS updates break/remove features, automatic fan control is AWFUL.

 

Cooler Master - The awful Masterbox lite 5 RGB with basically NO airflow and with fans that sounded like a dying whale on the lowest setting (same deal with their ML120L RGB AIO fan), I originally thought that buying another "better quality" Cooler Master fan to replace the stock AIO one would solve the issue, BIG MISTAKE, same whale noises, had to return it, I eventually got a EK fan, which was amazing and quiet! The front fans (still stock) are still awful though, definitely need a new case...

Think I'm exaggerating? I'm not: https://www.reddit.com/r/coolermaster/comments/a2815u/masterbox_5_lite_shiiiit_airflow/

 

[Arika]

I'll preface this with my Tech Mantra: "Judge the product not the company" so while i may hold a grudge against the company, doens't mean i wont buy a product if it's good

 

AMD because of their FX line, yes i know Ryzen are better, but i had nothing but problems with my previous AMD processors.

 

Apple: to many issues to list

 

EA: microtransaction hell

 

Linux: because of the smug users it produces

[Kisai]

Let's see:

 

Electronic Arts (EA) - Written them off after Mass Effect 3 (2012.) I saw where the games were going with microtransactions and the only EA game I played after that was the Simpsons tapped out game (which I spent money on exactly once and then stopped playing when I got a new device.)

 

See I love Origin and Maxis games, and EA utterly destroyed both and then pissed on the graves by releasing garbage using the IP the companies acquired. This is basically what happens to companies acquired by EA, they're strip-mined of their IP, and then handed to people who don't care about the property to produce rubbish. Like what the hell was Simcity (2013)?

 

There's other things that make me both sick and annoyed about EA. EA has a studio in my city, they basically want you to test games for them, for free. Like that's the entire incentive.

 

EA's entire "live services" thing is basically horrible rubbish, where the games are engineered to maximize the amount of money people will part with. I want nothing to do with games that have any microtransaction/lootbox mechanics. These things are turning every game into slot machines, and it's painful to look at when they put more effort into the gambling than the fun part of the game.

 

While EA is on top for basically being Evil and Greedy, Oracle and Cisco deserve some shame too.

 

Oracle? See Java lawsuits. Oracle bought sun and then promptly pissed away all the customer goodwill Sun had. MySQL and OpenOffice languishing are just the tip of the Oracle doesn't care about providing a good product iceberg. At least Sun had a good reason to invest in Java. I'm not sure why anyone would develop anything in Java anymore. Java could have been in literately everything, and almost was, but the looming threat of Oracle potentially ruining you because it wants to meant that Java was basically no longer a viable platform and as we've seen, Java has pretty much gone extinct from desktops, laptops, and phones.

 

Cisco, while I'm less willing to call them Evil as Oracle, Cisco has jumped into the "renting the software on the hardware" game, and no good will come of this. I've always had something of a dislike for Cisco, but at least the hardware works. Most of the time. Self-destructing hardware after 24 months, nice job.

 

My grudge against MSI is mostly in the line of "hardware catching fire is a bad business decision", EVGA apparently has made the same hardware engineering mistakes. And these are recent mistakes, like nVidia GTX 900 and 1000 parts.

 

I used to hold a grudge on AMD due to the K6, but this has largely gone the wayside since the ATI acquisition. 

[Mira Yurizaki]

I can't afford to spend energy holding grudges against tech companies.

 

Because I'd find problems with most of them and be stuck in the stone age.

[PlayStation 2]

Honestly, I'm starting to grow a grudge against AMD simply because of the fanboys. Sincerely, someone who's owned quite a bit of AMD shit in the past decade.

[Anomnomnomaly]

1 hour ago, Car712 said:

Gigabyte - B450 Aorus M, BIOS updates break/remove features, automatic fan control is AWFUL.

 

I've got the Aorus B450 Pro with the dual bios that keeps falling over to the back for no reason what so ever... and it cannot run the Corsair Vengeance 3200mhz ram at 3200mhz at all. I have to run it at 3000mhz and of course everytime the bios falls over it resets everything back to defaults. It will probably be the last gigabyte board I ever buy for a long time.

[Anomnomnomaly]

1 hour ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

I can't afford to spend energy holding grudges against tech companies.

 

Because I'd find problems with most of them and be stuck in the stone age.

 

I don't think it's the little things that bother people. Nothing is perfect and people are surprisingly willing to compromise... But companies that intentionally shit on their customers, who flout local consumer laws and have the attitude... so what, tough shit, we've got your money so fuck off. Those are the ones that deserve to have bad things happen to their stock price... because that's all the care about.

 

If ubisoft had taken the issue seriously, and attempted to resolve it... I'd have been happy (at least until I actually played the game and found out the major issues)... instead they've lost a customer and in it's place created a person who will bad mouth them any time their name is mentioned... and will probably actively seek ways to acquire their products without directly giving them any money.

[atxcyclist]

No grudges, but I'm thoroughly disappointed in Bethesda for the abomination that is Fallout 76. I play the game, I am a Fallout fanboy so I must play it, but it's awful compared to the other Fallout games I've played. How Elder Scrolls Online can essentially be flawless but 76 can be so bad, is baffling.

 

EDIT: Forgot to mention WD, I've never had any other brand of drive fail ever (except after a lot of use, and even then it was rare), but after WD stopped doing their long/lifetime warranty back in 2001 or whenever, they became garbage. Maybe their server/enterprise stuff is fine, but their common stuff is crap IMO.

[Anomnomnomaly]

29 minutes ago, atxcyclist said:

No grudges, but I'm thoroughly disappointed in Bethesda for the abomination that is Fallout 76. I play the game, I am a Fallout fanboy so I must play it, but it's awful compared to the other Fallout games I've played. How Elder Scrolls Online can essentially be flawless but 76 can be so bad, is baffling.

 

EDIT: Forgot to mention WD, I've never had any other brand of drive fail ever (except after a lot of use, and even then it was rare), but after WD stopped doing their long/lifetime warranty back in 2001 or whenever, they became garbage. Maybe their server/enterprise stuff is fine, but their common stuff is crap IMO.

 

I've owned so many drives over the years that no brand is free from failure for me... except Samsung... 2x 1.5TB drives I bought way back in 2010 are still in use to this day and installed in my mum's system. They've only ever been used for video storage on my mediaserver, and are now doing the same on hers... But 10yrs is pretty damn good.  I think there's a 2TB WD that's gotta be at least 7 or 8yrs old too, and I've got a 500GB Hitachi on my desk right now that's about the same (it was in an external enclosure and was recently swapped for a 1TB I had going spare)

[SpikeSpiegel]

ASUS:  They accuse me of shipping them a motherboard that was damage during shipping.  And got mad with them for forcing me to pay $90 bucks just to repair it the CPU socket.  While the RMA was for a burnt PCIe x1 slot and a faulty USB port.  Also the boards aren't great.

 

Gigabyte:  Their rebates take forever to get back.  I filed it back in April, 2018 and got the rebate on a per-paid credit card/gift card like 4 months later.  And it going to be expired within 2 weeks after I got it.  But it was $25 bucks.  No issues with free money from a rebate.

 

Microsoft:  Windows 10...What else.

 

 

[Letgomyleghoe]

2 hours ago, Caroline said:

NZXT: they exist only because of the braindead fanboys who keep recommending their junk cases and other overpriced gimmicks

there h700i has good airflow but is extremely overpriced, there is corsair and lian li options with better io and whatnot for half the price.

[Letgomyleghoe]

9 minutes ago, CalintzJerevinan said:

Microsoft:  Windows 10...What else.

and it being extremely overpriced, im gonna run ubuntu on my next build go cold turkey and completely abandon windows

[SpikeSpiegel]

NZXT:  They refuse to accept RMA because the NZXT Gamma Case was faulty when I bought my gaming desktop from IBuyPowerPC/Walmart.com.  They couldn't fix the front panel audio jack because iBuyPowerPC bought a warehouse full of the Gamma Cases.  And they quit making them when I bought my system.

 

IBuyPowerPC:  They refused to accept the RMA for the faulty NZXT Gamma Case with their case badge and I showed them the invoice from Walmart.com and nothing happened.  So my front panel audio is just distorted and unusable.

 

APC by Schneider Electric

 

The UPS/Battery Backup model the APC Back-UPS BE850M2.  Got some bad reviews after I bought it.  Amazon drop the price sold them cheap.  However the unit only lasted 1 year and 6 months.  Then my RMA was accepted due to a over-voltage issue that set off the alert and was unable to discharge the battery.  Then the RMA replacement came in with a broken battery door and it was replaced when I called them.  I wouldn't recommend any APC products.  I've been hearing that APC by Schneider Electric products have been going down hill lately.

[NineEyeRon]

All companies other than EA can be forgiven.

 

EA will never be forgiven in my mind.

[Flying Sausages]

Grudge against every tech companies

 

1) Bad customer service

 

2) Bad rma

 

 

[vong]

MSI. Never buying one of their motherboards again. I used a Z87 GD65 from MSI and that caused me endless issues. Couldn't even keep my system crashing from stock cpu speeds and had done multiple windows reinstalls. Switched to Asus and zero problems.

 

AMD. I had their R9 290's and whilst they performed great I found some games were just downright awful and some would even crash simply because it was an AMD card. Changed to Nvidia and will most likely never look back.

[Reytime]

Microsoft/The Coalition. They ruined the Gears of War franchise for me. I was a huge fan of the original trilogy. While 4 was acceptable, 5 left a very sour taste in my mouth.

[dizmo]

I only have two.

1. Sony
   I had a high end (like $300) discman when I was young. It became defective, 2 days before the warranty expired. They said they wouldn't honor it, as it wouldn't arrive at the repair center before the warranty was up. After much complaining by my parents, they took it, and sent a replacement. Replacement died 2 days outside of the warranty. I've never purchased another Sony product since, and I don't see that changing.
2. MSI
   Went through 5 X370 motherboards. Multiple issues of different kinds, through 3 different SKUs. Currently have a Z270 motherboard that's Ethernet port is failing. Father has had multiple issues with MSI boards over the years as well. I will never buy or recommend another MSI motherboard again.

[MadAnt250]

The tech inside modern automobiles failing that cost big bucks to fix(cough)replace, for example: The heater buttons will not work and the "correct repair" is to replace the whole climate control board/module which is $1200 and needs to be flashed, and what the stealership does not like is that the problem was fixed by fixing a bad solder joint. Times were better when it was just replacing a $20 switch or a $5 nob.

 

And oh yea, Microsoft Edge on Xbox, freezes, crashes and glitches sometimes where your courser gets stuck and the way to fix it is by exiting. 

[Mira Yurizaki]

3 hours ago, Anomnomnomaly said:

But companies that intentionally shit on their customers, who flout local consumer laws and have the attitude... so what, tough shit, we've got your money so fuck off. Those are the ones that deserve to have bad things happen to their stock price... because that's all the care about.

I hold any publicly traded company with the same amount of skepticism, regardless of how much of a pleasant face they're putting up.

[Shammikit]

The only thing that comes to my mind is HTC mobile devices. Back in the day when they were running Windows mobile OS I used to love them. My dad had one and its the coolest phone I remember. I remember thinking to myself I should get an HTC phone too someday. 10 years later I did, my first phone HTC 820G+. Was very excited when I bought it and after a couple of months of use, realized how crap it was. it was bad in performance and it never got any feature updates.Sometime not even security patches. HTC for some stupid reason makes several versions of the same phone for the same price. They make one set which has got their Sense UI (this is the range that gets updates). The other range has a fake UI that had been made by HTC themselves to look like the Sense UI that never gets any updates (my phone was one of them). IDK who wants a phone that doesnt get any updates and why it had to be in the same price bracket as another one of their own phones that does get updates. Newer HTC devices dont get updates too and their  features are not competitive with what other brands offer.

 

HTC has a bad habit of not sending updates to their flagship models too and sometimes when they do the mess up phones features with updates and decide not to fix them by moving on to new devices. The example that comes to my mind is that pink issue bug that happens to their camera after updates in the M series phone (M8 i think). When it happens is when u update ur phone and try to open ur camera everything is pink. As i heard there was no fix to this by HTC. maybe they screwed up the camera's hardware.

 

Theres a local HTC group here and everyone is like, their current HTC mobile is the last HTC they will ever buy. This will be my last one too.