My personal boycotts

I'm a pain-in-the-ass, vindictive consumer. If your company pisses me off, I remember it, and I don't do business with you anymore.

Here are some companies that are on my shit list:

• Barnes & Noble. Back during my university days, they tried to sell me a visibly used textbook at the new price because the book didn't have a used sticker. I showed them the bent corners, the smudged cover.... their response was, "No sticker!" I haven't walked in a Barnes & Noble since.
• D-Link. I've deployed 3 Linksys routers in the past year, and they've all ended up being unstable. So when I moved into my new apartment, I thought I'd give D-Link a shot. I bought their DGL-4300 router. Within a month, the router didn't work anymore, i.e. it thought an Ethernet cable was plugged into the WAN port even when there wasn't. Called technical support, spent 40 minutes confirming the thing was fried, and then when I tried to get an RMA number, their automated system said my case number didn't exist. First and last D-Link product I ever owned.
• Apple. Sold me a Pismo PowerBook whose FireWire port lasted for exactly one plugging-in. Sold me a Power Mac G5 whose logic board lasted one year and two weeks, then refused to pick up the repair tab. Sold me a MacBook Pro with a noticeable CPU whine, a scorching heat problem, and other strange intermittent glitches. Apple, you're not supposed to make your most loyal customers feel like suckers.