14 Times Companies Backtracked After Customer Backlash

Carly Tennes Published 03/04/2024 in ftw

Though large corporations may do their damndest to get us on board with things like buying 10 different streaming subscriptions or spending $35 dollars for a burger to be delivered to our doorsteps, not all pricing initiatives end in a “fine, I guess” from customers.

Just last week, Wendy’s was forced to clarify their recently unveiled plans for a “dynamic pricing” model, explaining (or more likely, CYA-ing) that contrary to the memes of buying, selling, and trading Baconators, they were not going to increase the price of their burgers to reflect market the business of their restaurants.

“To clarify, Wendy’s will not implement surge pricing, which is the practice of raising prices when demand is highest,” a spokesperson for the fast food chain told NBC News, noting that they “didn’t use” the term surge pricing … even though “dynamic pricing” basically means the same thing.

But Wendy’s is far from alone in having to walk back their latest money grab. From fixing Sonic’s design to OnlyFans' decision to keep their platform porn friendly, here are 15 times companies walked back their plans in light of backlash.

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1. Microsoft
“Microsoft Xbox One was supposed to be always online and removed it after fan backlash.” — u/Silverblade3
2.
3. Taco Bell
“Taco Bell discontinued stocking potatoes and the people rioted.” — u/forwardaboveallelse
4.
5. Bank of America
“I remember when Bank of America wanted to roll out a $5 charge for using a debit card. People got pissed. Like really pissed, and were leaving the bank. To the point where they were like never mind.” —Mockturtle22
6.
7.
8. Fine Brothers
“When the Fine Brothers announced they were going to trademark the term "react" in relation to YouTube videos.” — europorn
9. Denver, Colorado
“When the Covid lockdowns started hitting, the city of Denver announced that all liquor stores and marijuana dispensaries would be shuttered for the duration. Hordes of people scrambled to these shops and formed huge lines to stock up. Two hours later, the city announced that NO, those shops would not be forced to close, that they were deemed essential services.” — u/The_Ombudsman
10. Maker’s Mark
“At one point when bourbon exploded in popularity (largely due to growth in the SE Asian market), Maker's Mark was faced with not having enough product to meet projected demand, since it takes quite a while to produce. They announced they were going to slightly lower the alcohol percentage of their flagship product to ‘stretch’ the supply. This idea went over like a lead balloon and was crushed almost immediately.” —u/mickipedic
11. OnlyFans
“OnlyFans said they were gonna ban "sexually explicit content" and that had to be one of the stupidest things I ever seen and they reversed that decision pretty damn quick as was expected” – u/WalkingMyBeer.
12.
13.
14. Sun Chips
“When sunchips realeased their new eco-friendly bag. That thing was sooo fucking loud anytime it crinkled. They had to change the bags back very quickly from the backlash haha.” — u/perrin515.
15. Apple
“In 2014, Apple automatically added U2's new Songs of Innocence album to the libraries of every iTunes customer for free -- more than 500 million customers. If you had an auto-downloads enabled on your iTunes, the album was automatically downloaded to your devices. People hated this. As a result, Apple created a webpage dedicated to deleting the album from people's accounts.” —u/MaterialPace8831
16. Playboy
“In March, 2016, Playboy magazine stopped having nude pictures. Subscriptions fell 23% and it was actually through the efforts of Cooper Hefner, Hugh's son, that brought those back, saving the magazine from a likely-fatal wrong turn. (It may have been a publicity stunt. We will never know).” — u/milescowperthwaite
17. BMW
“BMW had plans to charge a monthly subscription fee for heated seats and adaptive cruise control. When you would order the car you could opt to pay for those to be installed or not not. But they would installed them anyway and then you could pay a monthly fee afterwards if you changed your mind.” — u/lolzbolz42
18. Cadbury
“Cadbury announced they were going to change their formula to include palm oil in their chocolate manufacturing process, and there was a huge uproar. Lots of people boycotted them or threatened to boycott them if palm oil was used as it's incredibly environmentally damaging. Cadbury's walked it back shortly after and never mentioned switching the formula again.” — u/TheSnowBunny
19. Blizzard
“Like 13 years ago, Blizzard announced that people posting on their forums were going to use their real names instead of their usernames. The backfire was immense.” — u/LightsJusticeZ
20.
21.
22. San Francisco 49ers
“The San Francisco 49ers tried to introduce a new logo in the early 90’s and it was honestly pretty ugly and bad. A ‘what were you trying to accomplish?’ decision and this was in the years when they were winning like every other Super Bowl so people had grown attached to the look the team had worn to great success. Pre internet so the fans flooded the team with letters and calls and picket lines outside the office and the team said ‘fine we won’t use the new logo.’” u/Navyblazers2000

1. Microsoft
“Microsoft Xbox One was supposed to be always online and removed it after fan backlash.” — u/Silverblade3
2.
3. Taco Bell
“Taco Bell discontinued stocking potatoes and the people rioted.” — u/forwardaboveallelse
4.
5. Bank of America
“I remember when Bank of America wanted to roll out a $5 charge for using a debit card. People got pissed. Like really pissed, and were leaving the bank. To the point where they were like never mind.” —Mockturtle22
6.
7.
8. Fine Brothers
“When the Fine Brothers announced they were going to trademark the term "react" in relation to YouTube videos.” — europorn
9. Denver, Colorado
“When the Covid lockdowns started hitting, the city of Denver announced that all liquor stores and marijuana dispensaries would be shuttered for the duration. Hordes of people scrambled to these shops and formed huge lines to stock up. Two hours later, the city announced that NO, those shops would not be forced to close, that they were deemed essential services.” — u/The_Ombudsman
10. Maker’s Mark
“At one point when bourbon exploded in popularity (largely due to growth in the SE Asian market), Maker's Mark was faced with not having enough product to meet projected demand, since it takes quite a while to produce. They announced they were going to slightly lower the alcohol percentage of their flagship product to ‘stretch’ the supply. This idea went over like a lead balloon and was crushed almost immediately.” —u/mickipedic
11. OnlyFans
“OnlyFans said they were gonna ban "sexually explicit content" and that had to be one of the stupidest things I ever seen and they reversed that decision pretty damn quick as was expected” – u/WalkingMyBeer.
12.
13.
14. Sun Chips
“When sunchips realeased their new eco-friendly bag. That thing was sooo fucking loud anytime it crinkled. They had to change the bags back very quickly from the backlash haha.” — u/perrin515.
15. Apple
“In 2014, Apple automatically added U2's new Songs of Innocence album to the libraries of every iTunes customer for free -- more than 500 million customers. If you had an auto-downloads enabled on your iTunes, the album was automatically downloaded to your devices. People hated this. As a result, Apple created a webpage dedicated to deleting the album from people's accounts.” —u/MaterialPace8831
16. Playboy
“In March, 2016, Playboy magazine stopped having nude pictures. Subscriptions fell 23% and it was actually through the efforts of Cooper Hefner, Hugh's son, that brought those back, saving the magazine from a likely-fatal wrong turn. (It may have been a publicity stunt. We will never know).” — u/milescowperthwaite
17. BMW
“BMW had plans to charge a monthly subscription fee for heated seats and adaptive cruise control. When you would order the car you could opt to pay for those to be installed or not not. But they would installed them anyway and then you could pay a monthly fee afterwards if you changed your mind.” — u/lolzbolz42
18. Cadbury
“Cadbury announced they were going to change their formula to include palm oil in their chocolate manufacturing process, and there was a huge uproar. Lots of people boycotted them or threatened to boycott them if palm oil was used as it's incredibly environmentally damaging. Cadbury's walked it back shortly after and never mentioned switching the formula again.” — u/TheSnowBunny
19. Blizzard
“Like 13 years ago, Blizzard announced that people posting on their forums were going to use their real names instead of their usernames. The backfire was immense.” — u/LightsJusticeZ
20.
21.
22. San Francisco 49ers
“The San Francisco 49ers tried to introduce a new logo in the early 90’s and it was honestly pretty ugly and bad. A ‘what were you trying to accomplish?’ decision and this was in the years when they were winning like every other Super Bowl so people had grown attached to the look the team had worn to great success. Pre internet so the fans flooded the team with letters and calls and picket lines outside the office and the team said ‘fine we won’t use the new logo.’” u/Navyblazers2000