Which companies are dead to you?

[asingardenof]

14 hours ago, Shaggy said:

So-called “Craft” beer in unsatisfyingly tiny cans; massively, massively overpriced.  Just why?

Smaller production batches = less economy of scale = smaller cans and higher prices.

[asingardenof]

20 minutes ago, ricksterphil said:

Been wracking my brains trying to think of a company/brand I dislike and then I remembered Ryan Air.

 

In a remote French airport I put my bag on the scales and was told it was overweight and the extra charge was 90 euros. Can I have my bag back to take some stuff out please, says I ? No, came the reply, it's already been checked in. 😡😡😡

 

Can't say I've never used Ryan Air since, but avoid them if at all possible.

Is there anyone who doesn't believe Ryanair is just a massive cash grab? Michael O'Leary is pretty damned mercenary.

[Rich]

13 minutes ago, ricksterphil said:

Been wracking my brains trying to think of a company/brand I dislike and then I remembered Ryan Air.

 

In a remote French airport I put my bag on the scales and was told it was overweight and the extra charge was 90 euros. Can I have my bag back to take some stuff out please, says I ? No, came the reply, it's already been checked in. 😡😡😡

 

Can't say I've never used Ryan Air since, but avoid them if at all possible.

 

I flew with Ryanair once (emphasis on 'once'). It was a pretty crap experience all round, massive lateness notwithstanding... however, the lateness had a silver lining. It was late enough and a long enough flight to trigger the maximum EU261 compensation amounts... the flights had been so cheap that the compensation actually paid for both the late outward flight and the return one, and the car hire and part of the accommodation costs. It was almost a free holiday. 

[ricksterphil]

25 minutes ago, Rich said:

 

I flew with Ryanair once (emphasis on 'once'). It was a pretty crap experience all round, massive lateness notwithstanding... however, the lateness had a silver lining. It was late enough and a long enough flight to trigger the maximum EU261 compensation amounts... the flights had been so cheap that the compensation actually paid for both the late outward flight and the return one, and the car hire and part of the accommodation costs. It was almost a free holiday. 

 

Michael O'Leary is still raging about the cost of that one 😂

[asingardenof]

When I lived in Dublin I used to have to fly to my company's Liverpool and Manchester offices fairly regularly. It was hilarious to see all the Ryanair cabin crew more or less running up and down the aisle trying to sell stuff in the brief window between takeoff and landing.

[TimR]

1 hour ago, Lfalex v1.1 said:

 

If ever proof were needed,  then here it is.

 

Mondeléz own both Cadbury and the Kraft/Jacobs/Suchard brands;

 

Hence the Toblerone debacle in which they put greater spaces between the triangles. May sound trivial,  but such was the uproar that they relented and went back to the old Toblerone form factor. 

 

I'm led to believe that all the manufactured food we are sold is produced by 5 worldwide companies.

 

Tbh - It would be better to boycott all of them and eat non manufactured food. 

[meterman]

Danelectro. Totally Danelectro.

 

I have a late 1990s DC59 reissue that I bought years ago to replace a shockingly badly built Gibson 335. 
 

 

It was brilliant and quickly became my #1 to play but eventually things on it started to give up. First, the switch, then each of the stack knob volume / tone controls. It had been my main recording and touring guitar for almost two decades but had now gone totally silent.

 

I emailed Danelectro twice to ask if they sold replacement parts or if they could recommend a company that did parts that would fit the DC59. If you’ve ever seen under the pickguard on these things, it’s a rat’s nest nightmare of weird wiring and pots that are seemingly impossible to source. They didn’t reply to either email.

 

So me and a local repair guy contacted Danelectro on social media to see if they could help. Not only did they not reply, they actually blocked us for asking. Tossers.
 

We contacted all the aftermarket parts companies we could think of but nobody had like-for-like replacements, not even close. So I had my mate strip out all the stack knob pots and freaky wiring and he put simpler Fender-style volume and tone pots in there and a simpler 3-way switch. It’s still great to play, but doesn’t sound the same, so it’s been replaced by a ‘62 Telecaster and a Guild Starfire.

 

On social media, Danelectro are very quick to repost people’s pictures of their Danelectro guitars and go on about #ownthetone and all that stuff but their customer service is so poor I’d never buy anything of theirs again. 💩

 

Btw, the black Mustang bass in the picture is probably the one bass I should have kept. Probably never own another quite like it now.

 

[Rich]

53 minutes ago, ricksterphil said:

 

Michael O'Leary is still raging about the cost of that one 😂

Oh I do hope so. Anything that pisses him off is fine in my book.

[Rich]

5 minutes ago, meterman said:

Danelectro. Totally Danelectro.

 

...

 

On social media, Danelectro are very quick to repost people’s pictures of their Danelectro guitars and go on about #ownthetone and all that stuff but their customer service is so poor I’d never buy anything of theirs again. 💩

 

That's not poor customer service.

 

That is way, waaaay beyond the merely poor.

 

[Newfoundfreedom]

1 hour ago, asingardenof said:

Is there anyone who doesn't believe Ryanair is just a massive cash grab? Michael O'Leary is pretty damned mercenary.

 

Very true. But love them or loathe them, along with easyJet I've never found a cheaper way to travel, and probably wouldn't be living here in Bulgaria if it weren't for the many cheap trips I've taken with them. 

[msb]

I’ve been a Dano user since the reissues appeared in the late 90’s. There was minor support when they first came out but that had vanished by the time they first moved production to China , and the old stock quickly disappeared. 
I went looking for a replacement wooden bridge , because they sound better than the adjustable ones. Eventually I found a Jerry Jones bridge from a fellow aficionado on TB.

Love their basses , but the Evets company that owns the name sucks.  

[prowla]

4 hours ago, Marky L said:

Shrinkflation as they call it. It's very noticeable in a wide and varied selection of food products.

Yep - totally hacks me off; it's like they're looking you straight in the eyes whilst they're ripping you off!

I've taken to shopping at Costco, where things are BIG!

It may or may not be cheaper, but try finding that size in the supermarkets.

(I haven't bought a tin of those, BTW.)

[prowla]

1 hour ago, Lfalex v1.1 said:

 

If ever proof were needed,  then here it is.

 

Mondeléz own both Cadbury and the Kraft/Jacobs/Suchard brands;

 

Hence the Toblerone debacle in which they put greater spaces between the triangles. May sound trivial,  but such was the uproar that they relented and went back to the old Toblerone form factor. 

It was equivalent to something like a 50% price increase (ie. you would need to by one and a half bars to get the same amount).

I've never bought a Toblerone since; I didn't know they'd reverted the change.

[asingardenof]

44 minutes ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

 

Very true. But love them or loathe them, along with easyJet I've never found a cheaper way to travel, and probably wouldn't be living here in Bulgaria if it weren't for the many cheap trips I've taken with them. 

From experience easyJet are a much nicer prospect to deal with than Ryanair though.

[Greg Edwards69]

I was going to mention RyanAir, but unfortunately for me, they are a necessary evil for visiting relatives aboard. So as much as I want them to be dead to me, they are still alive... for the time being.

[Ashborygirl]

Gibson, their QC hit rock bottom 20+ years ago & it's been downhill from there.  The fact you now get a QC checklist signing off things that have clearly never been checked really takes the piss.  

 

Oh & their dedication to buying out promissing companies to kill them off.  Trace Elliott, Steinberger, Tobias, Epiphone, Kramer & now Mesa Boogie.  All either disappeared or now just trade names for budget gear.

[neepheid]

1 minute ago, Ashborygirl said:

Gibson, their QC hit rock bottom 20+ years ago & it's been downhill from there.  The fact you now get a QC checklist signing off things that have clearly never been checked really takes the piss.  

 

Oh & their dedication to buying out promissing companies to kill them off.  Trace Elliott, Steinberger, Tobias, Epiphone, Kramer & now Mesa Boogie.  All either disappeared or now just trade names for budget gear.

 

I take exception to Epiphone being categorised as being simply a trade name for budget gear.  I'd hardly call a Jack Casady Signature "budget", and right now they're making better T-birds than Gibson have managed to since the 60s.

Furthermore, Gibson bought Epiphone in 1957, so they're taking an awfully long time to kill them off...

[Rich]

22 minutes ago, Ashborygirl said:

Oh & their dedication to buying out promissing companies to kill them off.  Trace Elliott, Steinberger, Tobias, Epiphone, Kramer & now Mesa Boogie.  All either disappeared or now just trade names for budget gear.

 

Trace Elliott (sic) is budget gear..?

[Lfalex v1.1]

3 hours ago, TimR said:

 

I'm led to believe that all the manufactured food we are sold is produced by 5 worldwide companies.

 

Tbh - It would be better to boycott all of them and eat non manufactured food. 

 

[Thinks]

 

Modelēz

PepsiCo

Unilever

Mars / Masterfoods

Nestlé

Danone

General Mills

 

That'll probably cover most of the contents of your cupboard..

 

[Ashborygirl]

54 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

I take exception to Epiphone being categorised as being simply a trade name for budget gear.  I'd hardly call a Jack Casady Signature "budget", and right now they're making better T-birds than Gibson have managed to since the 60s.

Furthermore, Gibson bought Epiphone in 1957, so they're taking an awfully long time to kill them off...

USA Epiphones were out of production for nearly 50 years.  In that time the name was used exclusively on cheaper Japanese & Korean made instruments.  Hardly progress from their pre-Gibson heyday.

[Dad3353]

10 minutes ago, Ashborygirl said:

USA Epiphones were out of production for nearly 50 years.  In that time the name was used exclusively on cheaper Japanese & Korean made instruments.  Hardly progress from their pre-Gibson heyday.

 

'Made in the USA' and 'Made in Japan' or Korea have long ceased to be any guarantee of quality. 

[Ashborygirl]

40 minutes ago, Rich said:

 

Trace Elliott (sic) is budget gear..?

Compared to what it was, yes.  Unless you think closing down UK production in favour of far-eastern production was to improve the quality, rather than cut costs?

[Ashborygirl]

3 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

 

'Made in the USA' and 'Made in Japan' or Korea have long ceased to be any guarantee of quality. 

But what about 54 years ago?  I doubt Gibson shifted the name to Japan to improve quality.

[MrCrane]

1 hour ago, Ashborygirl said:

Gibson, their QC hit rock bottom 20+ years ago & it's been downhill from there. 

[Bernard Wooley]Can you actually go downhill from rock bottom? [/Bernard Wooley]
🙂

Edited February 28 by MrCrane

[Rich]

2 minutes ago, Ashborygirl said:

Compared to what it was, yes.  Unless you think closing down UK production in favour of far-eastern production was to improve the quality, rather than cut costs?

So what do you mean by 'budget gear'? Do you mean cheaper to produce, or cheaper to buy?