Is Consumer Reports really completely unbiased?

Nothing is completely unbiased, but I trust consumer reports. And I like the bloopers on the last page.

I’d say they’re about as unbiased as you are going to find. Unless someone discovers secret kickbacks, but they have a good business model based on being unbiased, anything they might do that would damage that reputation would effectively put them out of business, so I don’t see a few kickbacks being worth the risk. Plus there’s no evidence of such a thing.

What causes your husband to think that they’re not? (I’m curious, not accusing him of anything!)

And I agree with Snarp, the possible damage to their reputation would be huge if they were to be found biased towards a particular brand.

My cousin works for Consumer Reports. He’s a chef, and tests kitchen equipment for them. Sometimes his hands are in photos in the magazine, and we always know it’s him because he’s so hairy. :)

Anyway, he’s talked many times about products and equipment he’s tested. I’ve never had the impression that he’s been instructed to look more favorably on one item than another, but I suppose that isn’t something he’d talk about if it were true. I have seen things he’s reviewed lead to drama. There was a disposable cutting board he tested and thought was terrible. The company that made the cutting boards (they weren’t really boards, but more like a tough paper mat) tried to sue Consumer Reports. I don’t think anything came of it, but I remember him saying that the whole point of what he did was to accurately test and report on products and that if they could be sued for it they had no way of doing their jobs in a way the consumers could trust. I don’t think the lawsuit came to anything, but knowing he wasn’t influenced by the reactions such companies at least made me trust his assessment of things. Plus, he’s able to get us really amazing deals on things Consumer Reports has tested. They offer these things for sale to employees and their families at fantastic prices. We got a loaded Jeep Liberty from them for a steal!

I wonder if someone who is not involved in the testing strips off all the labels before testing. You would want to do that to eliminate an unconscious bias on the part of the test if it were a scientific experiment. This would be almost impossible with cars, or with very recognizable consumer products, but it seems like for say, a blender, they should strip off labels before testing. There’s probably some unconscious bias there, but it’s mostly unavoidable, and hopefully not too influential.

They also normally purchase the items they test at regular retail outlets so that they have the same experience as the consumer instead of relying upon items sent to them by the various companies.

They have successfully defended themselves against many many lawsuits brought by many irate companies. Obviously their reviews have the ability to affect the bottom line.

It would cost them more than their reputation if kickbacks could be proven as the lawsuits would be flying left and right.

It just makes no sense at all to them to compromise themselves. The cost would be far too high.

I have never regretted following their recommendations yet.

I don’t think there are any still in operation, but years ago they maintained several auto diagnostic facilities. For just $50 and an hour of your time, you got an incredibly detailed computer analysis and mechanics evaluation of every single problem with the car. How I wish they were still in operation. Incredible. Saved me countless bucks over the years.

I personally believe it is impossible for any one person to be truly unbiased, we all have our own particular things that we like, or dislike, but, their business model is the best out there (aside from double blind testing, etc.) to protect against an individual’s bias. They certainly protect against sponsor bias, as well as anyone could expect.

Consumer Reports anonymously buys off-the-shelf products, puts them through extensive tests, and publishes the results. I don’t think you can find that anywhere else, except for single-subject magazines.

Pick up almost any other magazine, and the typical reviews will be lists of specifications and simple observations which probably take an hour to write, with the product sitting on the writer’s desk.

I do not think anything is completely unbiased, but Consumer Reports is as close as you are going to get. They absolutely refuse to accept any paybacks from any of the companies they test. They dislike having their test results published (though I think a few do anyway). They try to be as fair and as impartial as they can be, which in this day and age is a rarity. Any bias that comes into it comes from the person doing the testing and writing the report—that cannot be helped. But it is obvious that they go farther than anyone can to give you the honest information on the product.

In what ways does Consumer Reports make money?

Their information is not free. You have to subscribe to the magazine or website for access to their reviews. Subscribing to the website costs about $25 for the year, or you can pay a monthly fee of about $6. It’s a little less if you also subscribe to the printed magazine.

I don’t know if they have other avenues for income, but I’ll ask my cousin next time I see him.

I have often wondered about that myself.

However, are they not classified ad a non-profit and able to benefit from endowments similar to PBS?

I seem to vaguely recall reading something along those lines but am too hazy about the precise details to hazard a definitive statement about it.

In what ways does Consumer Reports make money?
90% of revenues are paper and online subscriptions and other sales

Yes, they are a non-profit.

For details, their annual reports, financial statements and tax returns are online:
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/aboutus/annualreport/index.htm

When my 10-year-old Maytag dishwasher stopped running this year I grabbed my handy “Consumer Reports 2010 Buying Guide” and looked for a new one.

I bought their recommended “Best Buy,” the Kenmore Elite dishwasher and had Sears install it.

By the end of the week I was perplexed. The glasses and cups on the top rack came out dirtier than they went in. They were covered with a whitish film and several of them had grit stuck inside (they didn’t have grit going in).

I thought perhaps it was just something in the new hose, so I let it go. Although I hadn’t said anything to anyone, my housekeeper complained, “This dishwasher doesn’t get glasses clean.”

I went to the Sear.com website and was shocked to see that this dishwasher had a 48% “thumbs down” rating from actual owners. How could that be?

I found a YouTube video specifically on how to clean debris out of a valve in the bottom of the Kenmore Elite dishwasher of this exact model. I bought a 6-sided Torx screwdriver, unscrewed 4 screws and removed 3 parts. Sure enough I found a little pebble about the size of a split pea. This took about a half hour.

The next load washed fine and I thought all was well. But on the next load it was back to making glasses dirtier. I just don’t have time to take apart and clean out this dishwasher every week.

I went back to the Sears site and looked at all of the comments. A lot of people have this problem. Then I Googled “kenmore elite dishwasher +”top rack” I was shocked. There are pages of complaints about this specific dishwasher.

I no longer trust Consumer Reports.

I had the same experience as Coffeehound with Consumer Reports. We had to buy new appliances when we moved 5 years ago. I checked Consumer Reports for the stove, fridge and dishwasher recommended models before purchasing. Based partly on their reviews, we bought all of these at Sears. Along with the extended warranty.

So far, the dishwasher has been replaced once. We are on our third range replacement, and this one doesn’t work either. Getting these replacements has been a nightmare. The products have ruined hundreds of dollars of food, not to mention hours of wasted time. At this point we can’t even have holiday dinners at our house because we never know what Sears appliance will be working. All of the appliances have been from different manufacturers—GE, Maytag, Kenmore, etc. All I can think is that Sears is buying “seconds” or products that are being discontinued because there are problems.

I will trust Consumer Reports again when they review Sears and their horrid products and service honestly. I have been told that the average life of a major appliance is now 5 to 7 years. That is simply not acceptable! Consumer Reports could do a great deal of good by taking appliance manufacturers to task. At this point I’m not sure if ANY appliance available to us in the U.S. is worth buying.

My problem with CR is that most often the models reviewed are out dated (no longer available) by the time the review is published and the replacement models have different features than the reviewed model. Also, in checking customer reviews on sales websites I find that most often the real world reviews are much lower than the CR reviews. I just bought the highest CR rated Dishwasher and it failed on the second wash. A little research revealed that this top rated model has a very high failure rate.

It also seems CR has a bias toward Kenmore appliances which takes a little digging to find the real manufacturer.