Consumer Reports

[exploder3211]

I sent Consumer Reports a long lengthy email about there appliance testing and how i felt they where not testing the machines correctly or even testing the more basic machines. As i told them you can not compare an top load HE efficany washer to a standard top load unit. So on and so forth. They responded to my email and where very sorry to loose the support of a long time subcriber (have subscried scince i was 6!).. They also said that they had several complaints and would be looking to do a second test of more standard top loaders later on.. The rest was a bunch of ass kissing and such, but i thought it was nice they responded

 

[bleacho]

thanks for sending in a letter

fantastic!!! its exactly how i felt. I felt we are simply gipped with that magazine. I am so glad you took the time to send in your concerns.. of course they'll tell you they will look into it.. do they really care? i feel nothing will change...i applaud you.

 

[oxydolfan1]

My subscription ended February.

I really would like to have seen the most recent washer article, but I haven't really gone out of my way to pick it up.

I'm particularly disappointed in the last few vacuum reviews they've done.

 

[maytagbear]

I let my public library

subscribe, and if I really want the issue, I get it from the newsstand.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[rp2813]

Sploder, the situation you described along with CR's charging already paying subscribers to access articles on line was enough to let my subscription lapse. I don't miss them much as their testing has become so laughable and their articles have long ago stopped being about how to get the best value from a given item they're testing.

 

[laundryshark]

Alternatives to Consumer Reports?

I apologize in advance if this was already mentioned somewhere on another thread. Are there any trustworthy and accurate alternative publications to Consumer Reports? Many Thanks.--Laundry Shark

 

[maytagbear]

That's the heck of it, Laundry Shark....

To my mind, there aren't many good alternatives to Consumer Reports.

For foods and kitchen equipment, I like Cooks Illustrated (their TV show is "America's Test Kitchen.) They, too, have a no outside advertising policy.

For me, not accepting outside advertising is a crucial thing. Nor does Consumers Union accept product samples.

I know this, not just from what they say, but from knowing a nice CU stafferman for a short while. (Interpret that as you will, you're probably correct.) His partner was doing some summer academic work here at KSU, and he came out to Ohio once in a while.

"Consumer's Digest" accepts outside advertising, and may accept manufacturer's samples. I have not read it in a long time, but don't trust it anyway.

The sites like Epinions, Gardenweb, and the like, I look at sceptically.

So, to me, Consumer Reports is the best of a dismal lot.

I miss the old days, when CR was CR, and actually gave a damm about things real people bought, and bought regularly, like foods, and light bulbs, and a real dishwasher detergent test....

I also miss the photos, and the Roy Doty line drawings.
I can, theoretically, understand the reasoning behind the columns of circles, but oh, how I miss the paragraph summaries.

If any of you have access to an academic or other big library, take a few hours sometime, and read the bound back issues there... Maybe your birth year, or the year your parents married, your high school graduation year....To me, this is endless fun.

To see the changes in test projects chosen, and how the tests themselves change is fascinating. The first VCR tests were in 1978.......

(Can any of you tell that I used to love Consumer Reports?)

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[exploder3211]

I am purchasing many issues on line of them starting as far back as they go until 2000. I have quite a few of the 1980's and 1990s already and am working on the 1970's.

 

[pulsator]

When exactly did CR go down the tubes?

 

[maytagbear]

In my opinion, and just my opinion,

around 2000, when the Executive Director changed from Rhoda Karpatkin to James Guest.

Since then, there's been less health reporting, less economic reporting in the magazine itself, and more emphasis (to me,) on high cost electronic gadgets.

Yes, they do have to think about newsstand sales and what the "average" person with disposable income wants to know, but they used to actually care about real people trying to make do on less than 150,000 a year!

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[laundryshark]

In Other Words...

Consumer Reports has degenerated to being the lesser of two or more evils?--Laundry Shark

 

[maytagbear]

I would not put it exactly that way,

as much as it has seen better days.

When Consumers Union (the parent of CR) was formed in the 1930s, things were very different, and there were almost no consumer protection laws in force. The 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act was a big help, but beyond that, the buying public did not have much help at all. Foods might be technically safer, but weights were commonly mis-stated, as were quality claims. And so on!

Underwriter's Laboratories (1911?) just tests for safety, not further quality. I don't mean that as a slam, UL has saved many many lives, just that they only do so much.

In fact, at varying times during CU's first twenty or so years, circa 1936-1956, there were times when they were accused of being Communist, instead of just being truthful.

For years, CU has called for health care FINANCE reform, for truth-in-lending, for clearer contracts....they have done articles on recognising quality in a nursing home, and so on, though not lately.

They have been in the vanguard of ecological journalism through the years.

CR was, perhaps a bit slow to test condoms, but they have, several times since the 1980s, and I have always thought they did a fair, unblinking job of it.
They have talked about male-male condom use.

One of my favourite features, among many, were the record (remember them?) reviews by Martin Bookspan. He covered the classical recordings, and some jazz. These reviews ran from the mid 60s to the early mid 70s.

I have hope that CU and Consumer Reports can become more vital, more relevant, and less concerned all the time with trivia, but maybe not in the next three issues.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[MikeS]

There's Still A Place For CR

Yes, I totally agree with the comments about Consumer Reports being less detailed and more inclined toward expensive gizmos and gadgets (the old CR would NEVER have tested the top-of-the-line Mercedes and BMW's or other high-line appliances). But as far as "fair and balanced" reporting on products, CR is just about the only game in town. There WAS the original non-profit testing organization, Consumer's Research, but it has long since sold its testing operations and became essentially a right-wing consumer guide with Rush Limbaugh-like positions on various issues--no tests, no recommendations. Don't know if they're still publishing.
One suggestion: Now that CR has a companion magazine called "Smart Shopper," why not let SS become the abreviated version of the tests, and bring CR back to its more detailed days?

 

[whirlcool]

That was a good idea, go to the library and look at the old 1960's 1970's editions of CR. That's when they used to test items that your average everyday type of consumer would buy.

The last edition I bought was April, 2007 and it was priced at $5.99! No way in hell is that magazine worth that much now, with it's short reviews.

I wonder how much their mail subscriptions have dropped over the past few years. I have heard many, many people talk about how CR has gone downhill in the past few years.

And as far as that "other" magazine Consumer Review, I think it's just a place for paid advertising. I wouldn't doubt it if the more an advertiser pays for its adveertising, the higher their products would be rated.

 

[maytagbear]

Well, the April issue of CR

is a very special case, for April is the Annual Car issue, and has been for years. It is a double issue, or an issue and a half.....

The other 11 issues are the usual 3.95(?) price, except of course, for the Annual Buying Guide, the paperback book.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[rp2813]

Between their Cliff's Notes type of reporting now and the fact that paying subscribers cannot access CR on line without paying for yet another redundant subscription, that was enough for me to cancel and never look back. I followed their advice nearly 10 years ago and bought the top rated Amana washer and quickly regretted my decision. So for me, their credibility was in question for quite a while. I also got tired of turning the page in hopes of finding the detailed report and instead only finding a new article starting. They have opted to replace a page's worth of reporting with a blur of fine print footnotes at the bottom of their ratings graphs and leave it up to the reader to put them into context and make sense of it all. CR/CU has definitely lost its way.