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People Reveal Which Brands and Stores They've Vowed To 'Never Again' Return To

People Reveal Which Brands and Stores They've Vowed To 'Never Again' Return To
OpenClipart-Vectors/Pixabay

Most businesses are, well... In the business of making their customers happy. People are much more likely to come back if they have a good experience, after all.



Not all businesses seem to understand this key concept, though, and many put customer satisfaction at a much lower priority level.

Wherher by having horrible customer service, policies designed to cheat people out of money, or terribly unsanitary premises, there are plenty of businesses that seem to do everything they can to drive customers away.

Reddit user u/radbrad7 asked:

"What is your 'never again' brand, store, restaurant, or company?"

*Content warning: mention of human trafficking, death of an animal*

20.

Cox cable/internet.

Called to cancel my account after I got legally separated from my ex-wife. She was able to cancel the cancellation (her name was on the account as well -- EDIT: I was the primary account holder. She was added for billing only when I was on deployments.) and use that account for like 8 years. I moved to England for a while, then to New Mexico, and eventually back to Oklahoma (where she still lived).

When I tried to activate new service, they told me I had a previous account with an unpaid balance of like $700. Granted, it was the ex-wife that really f***ed me over on that one, but the fact that they allowed her to "un-cancel" a service I asked to have canceled blew my mind.

-deuteranopia

19.

A hospital in my area. My brother and his wife just recently had a baby there. My first nephew and their first child. He was born two weeks premature by scheduled c-section, but you couldn't tell since he was more than 9 pounds when he came out. If he went full term he could have been more than 11 pounds.

Anyways, he arrives and everything is going well, his blood sugar was a little low, but the doctors claimed it got better. A day later and he begins twitching every once in a while. My sister in law asks the pediatrician and the nurse why and they said that it was fine. The day after that and the twitching increased and he began doing it every other minute. My brother and his wife panic and ask the doctor but the doctor checks his blood quickly and says nothing is wrong but if they're still worried about it they should wait to go to the pediatrician on Monday (3 days later).

As soon as they leave the hospital despite the baby still twitching they turn around and ask for the doctor to please look one more time. He refuses and tells them that they can't look anymore because they are discharged from the hospital.

Refusing to believe that their baby was okay, my brother and his wife took him to a different hospital's emergency room. The doctor there took one look at the baby's blood and immediately prepared a bottle of formula for him. His blood sugar was 36. If you aren't familiar with blood sugar then just know that sugar that low can be deadly. My sister in law's milk hasn't come in yet, she didn't know that, and the pediatrician at the first hospital only gave the baby 2 ounces of formula in 2 days. He baby was very close to going into shock. If they took the doctors advice and waited until Monday that baby would have been dead before reaching home.

-VanessaLifts

18.

There is a "burger" joint here, relatively new (less than 5 years) that some people swear by. It's a weird kind of burger though, a kind of spicy gravy style burger. But not like your gran's gravy, it's rather...tangy? Vinegary? Whatever. It was odd.

So I tried it on my lunch break (recommended by a coworker), and thought...meh, I don't get the hype, but it's not terrible.

Then I went back to work, and shortly thereafter all hell broke loose.

I had the most volatile, violent, unsolicited and certainly nonconsensual colon cleanse of my life. I was so obviously tore up that not even my manager made a stink about me essentially doing zero work for the next 4 hours of the work day.

To this day when I pass by that place I say "Never again." My wife thinks I'm making a stupid Dad joke I won't give up on (she's aware of what it did to me), but for me it's more of a solemn prayer.

-Relleck_ENI

17.

Neiman Marcus. I went there to buy a Prada bag for my mother. She had a knock off she loved, so I figured she'd appreciate the real thing.

I wear t-shirts to work, but this day it was at least a fancy one. It didn't matter. The sales lady told me "It's very expensive," rolled her eyes and walked away.

So, I went next door to the actual Prada store and bought one.

I don't need to be judged by an angry middle aged woman working retail, thank you very much.

-mailslot

16.

Turbo Tax. Did my return, got a notice that my e-file needed to be corrected, logged back in to fix it and my return wasn't there anymore. 6 hours on the phone with 3 tiers of tech support, each one trying exactly the same thing. Finally they were just trying random things, so I tried random things in parallel, managed to get to my return with the invoice number from paying for the service WITHOUT logging in. Tried to get them to understand that this was a Very Bad Thing that they should report to someone... and they told me they had no access to anyone technical and no way to submit bugs.

This from the company that lobbied to make it illegal for the government to offer tax filing service.

-LordBunwich

15.

Lularoe. I only bought stuff to help out a friend that was trying to make ends meet. Luckily she quit after about a year. Bought 3 pairs of leggings over the course of the year and none of them made it the year without holes. $25 each. Never again.

Also, I felt gross buying from an MLM, but like I said, just supporting a friend.

-seeyousoonbaboon

14.

Frontier internet. They're one of the crappiest ISP's I've ever had, I will never go back, no matter how cheap it is.

-imnotsteven7

I have Frontier.

I stopped paying them like 3 years ago, and they continue to give me service.

They are so disorganized that they have no idea.

-kinerz13

13.

I bought an engine from AutoZone for a vehicle I owned. They had a vendor build the engine, and it was supposed to ship to my house. I waited three weeks for it to arrive, but it never did. I contacted their store, was told that it hadn't shipped yet and was coming via FedEx freight. I kept up with the tracking # but couldn't get anywhere with it. I kept calling back every couple of days to see what was going on, and no one could figure it out. I finally managed to find out that it had shipped via another company (RL freight), and had been delivered to somewhere else. It was like pulling teeth to get a refund on an engine I never received. It took another two weeks to get the refund.

I won't buy a soda from AutoZone now.

-WaulsTexLegion

12.

Lyft. They recently charged me a damage fee for damages I could not have plausibly caused. I sent statements explaining how it couldn't have been me. They sent back a standardized statement and didn't give me any additional information. There is no phone line to talk to a representative. I sent them multiple follow up emails, which they never responded to.

Now I have to write a statement for my credit card company to dispute the charge.

-WorthyJefe

11.

Comcast. A door-to-door salesman straight up lied to my dad, saying they had a four-DVR setup that would cost less than what we were paying AT&T. When the installation guy got there, he said that no, they didn't have a four-DVR setup, he was told to give us the standard two-DVR setup. Which was absolutely not something that would work in a house with six people with wildly different tastes in TV shows.

So my dad tells him never mind, we're sticking with AT&T then, but because the Comcast guy had already installed our new cable box, he couldn't take it back with him, so we had to mail it back to Comcast ourselves.

The kicker is, five years later Comcast tried to bill my parents for the cable box, saying we never sent it back. My parents insisted they did, and Comcast wanted the UPS receipt, which obviously we no longer had because it was five years ago and we hadn't heard anything from them before this. So my parents refused to pay, Comcast sent a collections company after us, and when my parents explained the situation to the collection company, they were like "those f***ers, we'll take care of this." That was, thankfully, the end of it.

-Shawnarris

10.

I run the front desk at a hotel and Expedia are an absolute nightmare. They also straight up lie to the guests and to the hotels constantly. Truly one of the most shady companies I've ever dealt with.

They purposely try and deceive people who don't know any better into thinking that they are dealing with the hotel directly. They create adds in such a way that when people google the hotel's phone number, a number to Expedia comes up, and if the customer asks if the are speaking directly with the hotel front desk they will say yes.

There have been countless times where guests have called to cancel their reservation that was booked through Expedia. I inform them that they will have to contact Expedia directly, since they pre-paid through them, but that it will be no issue because the hotel does not charge a penalty fee for cancellation. An expedia representative will call the hotel with the guest on hold and ask about getting it cancelled. I tell them it's no problem. They ask if we will be charging a penalty fee, and I tell them no. All is right and good, right? NOPE.

I then get a call back from the guest who is upset, saying that the Expedia representative told them they could not be refunded because of the fee charged by the hotels cancellation policy. Taking the guests money and blaming it on the hotel, and keeping all of the profit. This has happened countless times.

I once had a guest while at the front desk call about cancelling 3 days out of a multiple day reservation, as she had to leave earlier than expected. They pulled the same bullsh*t with her, not knowing that she was at the front desk.

After me telling the representative that the cancellation is fine and we will not be charging any penalties, they get back on the phone with her and blatantly lie.

I asked her to hand her phone to me and that was quite a surprise for the representative. Who said that "there must have been a misunderstanding".

-LoveInsider

9.

We bought a flea medicine to use on our cat and she became lethargic and didn't eat anything. We took her to the vet and they told us that they have been trying to get that medicine off the shelves because of how it affects animals. I was in a theater watching Despicable Me when my cat finally passed away. It sucked knowing that my cat is dead because of some money-hungry brand who doesn't care about the safety of the animals it gives its products to.

-destroy_the_child

Pyrethrins are toxic to cats. I nearly killed my cat with Hartz ear mite solution fifteen years ago, and it's still on the market. Why Hartz hasn't been sued out of existence I will never understand.

-lynxminx

8.

If I see something is being shipped by OnTrac, I'll cancel. The three times they were the delivery company from Amazon, they lost one package completely and tried to say it wasn't their fault. The second package was also deemed lost but then showed up on my door step something like six weeks later. The third time it sat on "shipping label created" for a week and I just contacted Amazon and canceled the package. You don't find a lot of positive reviews out there and any positive ones you do find seem like they were written by the company via a fake account.

-apocalypticradish

Every package I've ever had stolen was shipped via OnTrac. They claimed it was delivered and I never find it. One time I looked with MINUTES of it's supposed delivery. Yeah, sure maybe the residents of my apartment complex are shady but UPS, FEDEX, and USPS never seem to have this issue

-nodig

OnTrac regularly marks my packages as delivered without coming anywhere near my house. I always have to call and complain, and they have to come back the next day. I've had them pretend to find the package in my front yard, after I watched them leave the car with it.

-bakageta

7.

Jiffy Lube.

Those idiots told me my car has no filter! I'm pretty sure they just didn't want to take it out. They also said my car takes a "special European oil" and charged a lot extra for it. It's not a special oil at all. It's an uncommon oil but a gallon of it costs the same as typical oil. I'm going to stick with the dealership to get oil changed because it's cheaper and they know what they're doing.

EDIT : I forgot to add the ending to this story! Not long after I got my oil changed, Jiffy Lube sent me a text message with a link asking to leave a review of their service on Google. So I obliged and left the most brutally honest one star review you'd ever read! The next day, the manager called me and left a voicemail. She was VERY adamant that Jiffy Lube had to charge a high price for my oil because it "only can run on special European oil". In regards to the air filter, she offered an investigation to look at video footage to see if the technicians looked for the air filter. I know they didn't, because I would've seen them take it out! It's inside the engine cover, which they never took off.

-Chronogos

I seriously don't know how Jiffy Lube is still in business. I hear nothing but bad things about them. In my own experience, you never get the advertised special; there's always something about your car that makes it need more oil or more expensive oil or whatever. I guess we're both just lucky that they remembered to put the drain plug back in.

-Grave_Girl

6.

FTD. For Mother's Day one year, I ordered flowers through them for both of my grandmothers and my mom. I ordered cards, a teddy bear, all of it, right? So my mom sends me a thank you and a picture of what she got. I notice there's no cards, no bear, and it's not the bouquet I ordered for her. I called the company, they gave me a refund, whatever. My mom got flowers and I got a refund--it worked out.

I call grandma #1 to wish her a happy mother's day--she got her flowers, but no card or bear. I contact FTD AGAIN. Refund, again. I call grandma #2. I thought "there's no way in hell they'll screw this up again."Yeah, they screwed it up again. At least grandma 2 got her teddy bear, but no card. She didn't even know the flowers were from me. I was so angry with FTD by that point that I didn't even both calling them again. They've lost my business for life.

-FreddieGregg

Companies like FTD or 1800 flowers are just intermediaries. They will feed your order to the cheapest shop near you. Cut out the middle man and go find a decent local florist instead. Costs less and you'll get better flowers.

-youfailedthiscity

5.

Wayfair. Purchased a $1000 sectional couch that was delivered with damaged upholstery. They refused to let me return it and instead offered me 10% off my next purchase. Yeah..... Never using that discount code.

-KingfOfClikClak

Refused to let you return it? F**k that, dispute the charge

-unaotradeschable

This is my job, disputing these charges. Had a customer call me a few weeks back, had gotten damaged merchandise from Wayfair, company offered her a store credit. Said if she wanted a refund shed have to disassemble it and ship it back. She was disabled, and that's why she paid them to deliver and set up in the first place! I called Wayfair with her, and got them to agree to come out and take the damn thing back. So many businesses will jerk the customer around until the bank calls and suddenly then its "oh of course we can fix that right away!".

Left the claim open just in case they didnt follow through, but yeah. Point being, if you dont get it, if it arrives damaged, if it's not what you ordered, if its branded stuff that turns out counterfeit, etc - these are all things we can fight. The biggest thing we ask is that you've at least tried to fix it with the business first. If you've done that, and gotten nowhere, we can fight it.

-lonely_nipple

4.

JDMRacingMotors... Gave me a damaged motor and claimed a compression test was the only way to test the engine and said it passed. Barely held on in one cylinder. To make matters worse, if you put coolant in where it ought to go, it would come out of the oil pan. Made a few calls and had email exchanges with their "mechanics" and was informed coolant and oil touch regularly and that is how it cools the oil. Wrong on so many levels. Never got my money back either so I ended up using the good parts from the exterior to rebuild my old engine.

-pitifuljester

3.

Macy's. Got a credit card through them to buy a suit. My parents offered to pay the card off as a birthday present. Cue months of them calling me 5+ times a day, asking where the payment, that had already been made, was. Harassing me to make more and larger payments. When it was finally payed off, they then tacked on a "completed payment fee" and never sent a bill, so the whole damn thing started all over. I was genuinely about to file a lawsuit over harassment or something.

It was unbelievable, because I would tell one person the payment was made, and then get 4 more calls the same day asking the same thing. Then rinse and repeat tomorrow.

-Thromok

2.

Spirit airlines. Never again. F**k them. Flight from Vegas got canceled. They don't even bother trying to put you on another flight, not only that you have to pay extra for the next flight available. I told them they can go f--- themselves and I want a refund, the customer service person told me he can refund me spirit credit, that's when I lost it. After enough bitching, he gave me my money back to my credit card and I bought a flight on delta.

After my experience I made it a point to go on several review sites and made a PSA to never fly spirit again. This was one of many incidents I have had to deal with them, this one just broke me because I was flying back from Vegas, I can only handle Vegas for 2 nights, after that I want the f**k outta there, having to stay there another night was not something I wanted to do. Also it was not weather related as they told me, No other flights into detroit that day were cancelled, I checked, I even told that to the customer service agent, he shrugged it off.

-Realdoctorman123

1.

When I canceled my AT&T internet (Hooray for local fiber-to-the-premises!) I prepared myself due to all the horror stories I read on reddit. When I sent my equipment back, I video'd myself packing it up, took pictures of everything, even documented the post office transaction. When I canceled my service, I did it through online chat, so I could have transcripts. (The online service people were wonderful, and I have no beef with them at all. In fact, I always gave them the highest ratings in the surveys afterward.)

Well, of course they said they never got the equipment back.

It took me SIX months of constant back-and-forth, going to collections, and just every manner of bad service imaginable. One day, I spent what felt like hours on the phone and finally got transferred to a woman in Nashville named Deborah, to whom I poured out my story. Well, Deborah wasn't going to let bad sh!T go down on her watch, so she went through every computer system she could access until she figured out what went wrong, and then she fixed it for me.

tl;dr I hate AT&T, but I love Deborah.

-sirdigbykittencaesar

What business will you never patronize again because they are just that bad?

People Reveal The Weirdest Thing About Themselves

Reddit user Isitjustmedownhere asked: 'Give an example; how weird are you really?'

Let's get one thing straight: no one is normal. We're all weird in our own ways, and that is actually normal.

Of course, that doesn't mean we don't all have that one strange trait or quirk that outweighs all the other weirdness we possess.

For me, it's the fact that I'm almost 30 years old, and I still have an imaginary friend. Her name is Sarah, she has red hair and green eyes, and I strongly believe that, since I lived in India when I created her and there were no actual people with red hair around, she was based on Daphne Blake from Scooby-Doo.

I also didn't know the name Sarah when I created her, so that came later. I know she's not really there, hence the term 'imaginary friend,' but she's kind of always been around. We all have conversations in our heads; mine are with Sarah. She keeps me on task and efficient.

My mom thinks I'm crazy that I still have an imaginary friend, and writing about her like this makes me think I may actually be crazy, but I don't mind. As I said, we're all weird, and we all have that one trait that outweighs all the other weirdness.

Redditors know this all too well and are eager to share their weird traits.

It all started when Redditor Isitjustmedownhere asked:

"Give an example; how weird are you really?"

Monsters Under My Bed

"My bed doesn't touch any wall."

"Edit: I guess i should clarify im not rich."

– Practical_Eye_3600

"Gosh the monsters can get you from any angle then."

– bikergirlr7

"At first I thought this was a flex on how big your bedroom is, but then I realized you're just a psycho 😁"

– zenOFiniquity8

Can You See Why?

"I bought one of those super-powerful fans to dry a basement carpet. Afterwards, I realized that it can point straight up and that it would be amazing to use on myself post-shower. Now I squeegee my body with my hands, step out of the shower and get blasted by a wide jet of room-temp air. I barely use my towel at all. Wife thinks I'm weird."

– KingBooRadley

Remember

"In 1990 when I was 8 years old and bored on a field trip, I saw a black Oldsmobile Cutlass driving down the street on a hot day to where you could see that mirage like distortion from the heat on the road. I took a “snapshot” by blinking my eyes and told myself “I wonder how long I can remember this image” ….well."

– AquamarineCheetah

"Even before smartphones, I always take "snapshots" by blinking my eyes hoping I'll remember every detail so I can draw it when I get home. Unfortunately, I may have taken so much snapshots that I can no longer remember every detail I want to draw."

"Makes me think my "memory is full.""

– Reasonable-Pirate902

Same, Same

"I have eaten the same lunch every day for the past 4 years and I'm not bored yet."

– OhhGoood

"How f**king big was this lunch when you started?"

– notmyrealnam3

Not Sure Who Was Weirder

"Had a line cook that worked for us for 6 months never said much. My sous chef once told him with no context, "Baw wit da baw daw bang daw bang diggy diggy." The guy smiled, left, and never came back."

– Frostygrunt

Imagination

"I pace around my house for hours listening to music imagining that I have done all the things I simply lack the brain capacity to do, or in some really bizarre scenarios, I can really get immersed in these imaginations sometimes I don't know if this is some form of schizophrenia or what."

– RandomSharinganUser

"I do the same exact thing, sometimes for hours. When I was young it would be a ridiculous amount of time and many years later it’s sort of trickled off into almost nothing (almost). It’s weird but I just thought it’s how my brain processes sh*t."

– Kolkeia

If Only

"Even as an adult I still think that if you are in a car that goes over a cliff; and right as you are about to hit the ground if you jump up you can avoid the damage and will land safely. I know I'm wrong. You shut up. I'm not crying."

– ShotCompetition2593

Pet Food

"As a kid I would snack on my dog's Milkbones."

– drummerskillit

"Haha, I have a clear memory of myself doing this as well. I was around 3 y/o. Needless to say no one was supervising me."

– Isitjustmedownhere

"When I was younger, one of my responsibilities was to feed the pet fish every day. Instead, I would hide under the futon in the spare bedroom and eat the fish food."

– -GateKeep-

My Favorite Subject

"I'm autistic and have always had a thing for insects. My neurotypical best friend and I used to hang out at this local bar to talk to girls, back in the late 90s. One time he claimed that my tendency to circle conversations back to insects was hurting my game. The next time we went to that bar (with a few other friends), he turned and said sternly "No talking about bugs. Or space, or statistics or other bullsh*t but mainly no bugs." I felt like he was losing his mind over nothing."

"It was summer, the bar had its windows open. Our group hit it off with a group of young ladies, We were all chatting and having a good time. I was talking to one of these girls, my buddy was behind her facing away from me talking to a few other people."

"A cloudless sulphur flies in and lands on little thing that holds coasters."

"Cue Jordan Peele sweating gif."

"The girl notices my tension, and asks if I am looking at the leaf. "Actually, that's a lepidoptera called..." I looked at the back of my friend's head, he wasn't looking, "I mean a butterfly..." I poked it and it spread its wings the girl says "oh that's a BUG?!" and I still remember my friend turning around slowly to look at me with chastisement. The ONE thing he told me not to do."

"I was 21, and was completely not aware that I already had a rep for being an oddball. It got worse from there."

– Phormicidae

*Teeth Chatter*

"I bite ice cream sometimes."

RedditbOiiiiiiiiii

"That's how I am with popsicles. My wife shudders every single time."

monobarreller

Never Speak Of This

"I put ice in my milk."

– GTFOakaFOD

"You should keep that kind of thing to yourself. Even when asked."

– We-R-Doomed

"There's some disturbing sh*t in this thread, but this one takes the cake."

– RatonaMuffin

More Than Super Hearing

"I can hear the television while it's on mute."

– Tira13e

"What does it say to you, child?"

– Mama_Skip

Yikes!

"I put mustard on my omelettes."

– Deleted User

"Oh."

– NotCrustOr-filling

Evened Up

"Whenever I say a word and feel like I used a half of my mouth more than the other half, I have to even it out by saying the word again using the other half of my mouth more. If I don't do it correctly, that can go on forever until I feel it's ok."

"I do it silently so I don't creep people out."

– LesPaltaX

"That sounds like a symptom of OCD (I have it myself). Some people with OCD feel like certain actions have to be balanced (like counting or making sure physical movements are even). You should find a therapist who specializes in OCD, because they can help you."

– MoonlightKayla

I totally have the same need for things to be balanced! Guess I'm weird and a little OCD!

Close up face of a woman in bed, staring into the camera
Photo by Jen Theodore

Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.

Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?

But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.

It would be so great to be sure there is something else.

But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.

Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:

"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"

Sensations

Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy

"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."

PeachesnPain

Recovery

"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."

"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."

"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."

good_golly99

Take Me Back

"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."

"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."

rayrayrayray

Free

The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy

"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."

TooReDTooHigh

This is why I hate surgery.

You just never know.

Shocked

Giphy

"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."

Admirable_Buyer6528

The SOB

"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."

"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”

1-cupcake-at-a-time

Colors

"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"

Hannah_LL7

"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"

huntokarrr

The Fog

"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."

"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."

Fluffy-Hotel-5184

Through the Walls

"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."

"She's quite alive and well today."

Hot-Refrigerator6583

Well let's all be happy to be alive.

It seems to be all we have.

Man's waist line
Santhosh Vaithiyanathan/Unsplash

Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.

The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.

Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.

Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:

"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"

Redditors didn't see these coming.

Shiver Me Timbers

"I’m always cold now!"

– Telrom_1

"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."

– r7ndom

"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."

– mr_remy

Drawing Concern

"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."

– dee-fondy

"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"

"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."

– LizardofDeath

Unleashing Insults

"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”

"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."

– alanamablamaspama

Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight

"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."

– KeltarCentauri

"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."

– KatMagic1977

"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."

– Jaew96

These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.

Shopping

"I can buy clothes in any store I want."

– WaySavvyD

"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."

– ganache98012

No More Symptoms

"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."

– colleennicole93

Expanding Capabilities

"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."

– Ramblonius

People Change Their Tune

"How much nicer people are to you."

"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"

– LiZZygsu

"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"

"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"

– awholedamngarden

It's gonna take some getting used to.

Bones Everywhere

"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."

– Princess-Pancake-97

"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."

– bekastrange

Knee Pillow

"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."

– snic2030

"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."

– Strongbad23

More Mobility

"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."

"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."

– dma1965

People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.

But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.

That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.