Do you think Consumer Reports is really unbiased?
February 3rd, 2011 | by admin |I like consumer reports magazine but sometimes I think they may be biased.
When I buy stuff on Amazon.com and look up the ratings, it usually don’t match up with Consumer Reports opinion.
I figure people’s opinion about the products they own is the best, as long as there are lot of people’s opinions for that product. ( At least 50 )
There is a difference ion how people rate a product on Amazon and how Consumer Reports rates products. When a person rates a product on Amazon, they are providing their opinion about that one product. When CR reports, they set up a series of scales pertaining to functions that product should have and then they rate that product against similar products. So, a person on Amzon might like a specific function of something they bought and give it a high rating, which is fine. But that person probably doesn’t have access to competing products where that specific function might be better – a good example would be a laptop. Weight is important since you carry a laptop around. So you have a 3 pound laptop and you buy a new, 2 pound laptop from Amazon. Wow, you say, this is so much lighter, I love it and you rate that laptop high because of weight – and the weight is probably fine. But CR takes that laptop and 10 others and finds out that those 2 pounds put that laptop tight in the middle of a bunch of similar 1.5 pound and 3 pound laptops, so now, you can make a choice. Of course, CR doesn’t give that 2 pound laptop that high rating on weight that the Amazon customer did since there are some lighter ones out there that the Amazon customer hasn’t tried.
That is why I go with CR over individual people’s ratings (even with 50 people rating) unless I also spend the time reading reviews of competing products and comparing the tech specs (in which case, in the above example, I would know that even though John Smith said the weight was great, I would know there were lighter laptops out there).
2 Responses to “Do you think Consumer Reports is really unbiased?”
By rkbtoo on Feb 3, 2011 | Reply
CR is pretty fair they dont accept any money from the makers of the products they test and none of the people that test have any connections to any outside companies
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By Steve D on Feb 3, 2011 | Reply
There is a difference ion how people rate a product on Amazon and how Consumer Reports rates products. When a person rates a product on Amazon, they are providing their opinion about that one product. When CR reports, they set up a series of scales pertaining to functions that product should have and then they rate that product against similar products. So, a person on Amzon might like a specific function of something they bought and give it a high rating, which is fine. But that person probably doesn’t have access to competing products where that specific function might be better – a good example would be a laptop. Weight is important since you carry a laptop around. So you have a 3 pound laptop and you buy a new, 2 pound laptop from Amazon. Wow, you say, this is so much lighter, I love it and you rate that laptop high because of weight – and the weight is probably fine. But CR takes that laptop and 10 others and finds out that those 2 pounds put that laptop tight in the middle of a bunch of similar 1.5 pound and 3 pound laptops, so now, you can make a choice. Of course, CR doesn’t give that 2 pound laptop that high rating on weight that the Amazon customer did since there are some lighter ones out there that the Amazon customer hasn’t tried.
That is why I go with CR over individual people’s ratings (even with 50 people rating) unless I also spend the time reading reviews of competing products and comparing the tech specs (in which case, in the above example, I would know that even though John Smith said the weight was great, I would know there were lighter laptops out there).
References :