5 ms·
Consumer reports kind of went down hill too. It was the solution though, I remember people paid good money for sun service.
by Notanothertoo 5y ago
Consumer reports kind of went down hill too. It was the solution though, I remember people paid good money for sun service.
- silisili 5y agoYeah...they were good even after the internet became big...for a while, but the last few years have been so far downhill I don't even look to them anymore.
- cortesoft 5y agoIt was hard to compete with free online reviews.
- willis936 5y agoReplace "free" with "valueless" and the prospect of competition looks brighter.
- cortesoft 5y agoDoes it? It doesn't matter if we know the reviews aren't as good, people still don't seem willing to pay for good reviews. Many companies have tried, but I haven't heard of any success stories yet.
- willis936 5y agoPlenty of people are. CR is still in business. However, there is an issue with the quality of CR dropping in recent years. Why pay for a service that is getting worse?
- jdeibele 5y agoI think a big part of the problem is that manufacturers and big stores do a thing where Best Buy gets model XAB234b, Costco gets model XAB234c, and Home Depot gets model XAB234h. They're almost identical in specs and features. This mattress has 2" of foam while one has 1.5" and another 2.5". Or one dishwasher has the controls on the top while the others have it on the front but one has a latch with a bar handle and one has a latch without a bar handle. They're all "different" so they can't be price-compared and the models don't match exactly the model that Consumer Reports reviews.
- lotsofpulp 5y agoThe price discrimination has really upped its game. I find that you really have to look at a vendor / brand’s trajectory for clues on how likely you are to being ripped off. If a brand is in financial trouble, or just got bought, then buyer beware because the costs are going to be cut and one easy way to increase profits today is reduce quality and increase price. If a vendor is having trouble, then same thing there where they might slack off on vetting their stock and whatnot. What I see frequently happening is the market diverges into a high quality, high priced option, and then a veritable mess of quality:price ratio options where the typical person has to rely on the quality being proportional to the price as long as the vendor is reputable and has good management (ie not in financial distress or being bled).