Consumer Reports

Call me old fashioned, but I expect the print edition of Consumer Reports to show pages of test results for pots, pans, tires, washers, driers, et.al. There's been a trend for some time now, to shorten the product reviews and direct readers to the web site for more in- depth recommendations and ratings, while more articles which are better suited for some other type of publication. Case in point: The January 2021 edition: 2 pages of ratings and recommendations for 3 products each, in 6 different categories. On the top right of the second page it directs readers to CR.org for more comprehensive reports/ratings on all the products listed, not just 3 each. Meanwhile, in the same edition there's a 10 page piece on why diabetes and Covid-19 is so dangerous. Important? Of course, but that's not why I subscribe. And just to add insult to injury, that article is immediately followed by a little gem entitled, "Learning to celebrate blackness with photography." Seriously?

I've been a subscriber, that they call a member, for about 50 years and I have found them to be a reliable source of information and advice on a wide variety of products and services. The information and advice on negotiating the price of a car worked like a charm.The last time I used it and was leaving, two of the salesmen actually applauded! To assure impartiality, they accept no advertising and as a member you have the opportunity to vote for their board of directors. While one might not agree with their rating you are confident they've done their best.

They gave a number rating and then recommend every product in about the top ten even if the first is 90 and the last recommendation is 70. They then tie to every product and get money if you buy it. Sort of defeats the whole purpose of having it. If you check there rating against thousands who have bought the product then consumer reports are recommending products that are totally substandard. Cost me $4 to see all the above and cancel after one day. They couldn't make a full refund because I had it close to 20 hours that should tell you the rest of what you need to know.

Consumer Reports used to be the goto on product reviews but with free product reviews on the internet they are now a dinosaur struggling to stay alive. Tactics like raffles to win prizes just like Publisher's Clearinghouse used to do cheapens a once great product. Beware subscribing with automatic renewal for there on-line service because you will see a charge on your credit card bill and if you call to cancel they keep a month regardless of whether a month has passed or whether you used the service in that time! It's time for them to go, employees should start looking for new jobs before they get cut to save costs.

This company is a joke. They lied and lied. My family booked a trip through them for st Martin. Delta canceled my flt from tues to Monday. I called a dozen times to ask how I'd get my money back for the night I was not there. They assured me it would not be a problem. Well Shame on me will not give me my money back. So paying it forward do not use cheap tic u will lose your money. The company is a joke

I used to trust that Consumer Report (CR) was a source of unbiased testing of products. Now I know better and will not believe anything from them. Case in point, CR stated that the Kia suv was highly dependable in their first year of production. It received an extremely high rating, well over the Toyota Highlander, which has consistently EARNED a high rating. Kia recalled their suv and had numerous quality issues in the first year. Consumer Report was paid off and is not to be trusted. Garbage reporting. Beware.

This site comes out of the consumer union which is a top consumer advocacy organization. The site is intended to be an information and educational site to educate consumers as well as providing expert reviews and ratings on products and advice when it comes to buying products. Here is what the site says about itself:

"Consumer Reports (CR) is an expert, independent, nonprofit organization whose mission is to work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for all consumers and to empower consumers to protect themselves. The organization was founded in 1936 when advertising first flooded the mass media. Consumers lacked a reliable source of information they could depend on to help them distinguish hype from fact and good products from bad ones. Since then CR has filled that vacuum with a broad range of consumer information. To maintain its independence and impartiality, CR accepts no outside advertising and no free samples and employs several hundred mystery shoppers and technical experts to buy and test the products it evaluates."

The site also has good testimonials about the trust that people have in consumer reports. Here is one testimonial from one of the donors to consumer reports who makes donations to them because consumer reports in order to remain fair to all refuses advertising and thus depends on the generous donations of people.

"Consumer Reports is the only organization I truly trust to be honest with us, the consuming public, about product quality and value. I've trusted them for more than 30 years for guidance with decisions on purchases as big as an automobile and as little as a bottle of all purpose cleaner. I've been a supporter of CR for most of those years, because there is no other way I could expect them to do what they do, since they don't accept any advertising and they don't accept any freebies for testing.— Bonna Oyer, Consumers Reports Donor"

This is among the most trustworthy consumer sites out there whose experience has always been trusted. You will never go wrong with consumerreports.org because you can always have confidence in them..

I been getting their magazine over thirty years and i always look at them when i am going to make a large purchase. The last few years the quality of their reviews are not what they used to be and i can see them trying to cut corners to save some money. When they built their new testing fiscality in New York i was against it, too much overhead in the city. Now i know your sorry. Try to keep your heads above water in these trying times, Good Luck.

I was misled and lied to by Verizon wireless, They were advertising a promotional trade your phone in and receive a new phone free, My wife and I each had a phone and were paying 68.00 dollars a month. But wanted new phones so we figured we could trade our old phones in and get new phones free. So we went to a Verizon Wireless store traded our phones in and found out the monthly bill would be 196.00 dollars a month, so as I was talking to the salesman he said we could get 200.00 dollars rebate for each phone as long as we paid our bill on time and did not cancel for at least six months. We after six months my wife and I started looking for a cheaper carrier because we're both retired and on social security and on fixed incomes, So spectrum has been running a promotional program pay for one phone service and get a second one for free for one year. So I wanted to switch services and Verizon wireless tells us, we have to pay 585.00 per phone to release our phone number to spectrum so I did thinking I was done with Verizon and then they changed my bank account 400.00 more hundred dollars which makes the total 1570.00 dollars I having to pay them. Then when I contacted Verizon they said that the 585.00 dollars was a payoff for each phone and the 400.00 dollars was for rebate return that they misled us about. Or lied to us about.

Unable to access Consumer Reports site when attempting to Log In. Multiple attempts to contact Consumer Reports. NO RESPONSE from anyone. People who are supposed to help the consumer, will NOT respond to a consumers complaint. IRONY is NOT DEAD!

Consumer Reports proports to be the consumer advocate. To subscribe they include you in their continuous service, not an option. Then they absolutely hide the web site link to cancel continuous service. Once canceled, they continue to send past due notices.
The magazine used to be the go to place for product reviews. Now it is a left leaning entity long on causes and extremely short on useful product information. After many years of being a subscriber I couldn't wait for my subscription to expire. And not happy about that!

I have bought this magazine through the years since I retired I decided to take the plunge and get a subscription I sent in a discounted voucher and received a bill for twice the amount they said it was a mistake next I noticed in march's issue the donation section that they have taken very large donations from a hospital and from Ford last time I checked you can't be non biased when you take money from company's last they also give out your personal information from their mailing list rent or share this information shame on you consumers magazine unhappy customer

I was looking up treadmill reviews related to safety and when there were less than 5 stars, there was no information given about why the rating was less than 5, only a general description of the category and a list of things that it could contribute to a lower rating for any treadmill. Since there are so many reasons a machine can be unsafe, having no description renders the category meaningless. Out of curiosity, I then looked at SUV ratings and also discovered that they also no longer include detailed safety information about vehicles. If they don't care about vehicle safety, then they likely don't care about safety on the whole, so I cancelled my subscription today.

Addendum: I had also chatted with a rep on their site about the concern of no detailed safety explanation for the treadmills and he said that this was due to my not having a digital membership. I then logged onto my account and it showed I have an All Access membership - this includes digital and print. By this time, the chat had ended, but the chat rep had lied to me. I called Consumer Reports and spoke to another rep live who verified I have full digital access, and who also could not locate any additional safety information for any treadmills that received a rating of less than 5 stars. I then showed him a page that was related to car safety and the absence of detailed info listed. I ultimately told him I wanted to cancel my membership and he said, "Fine," apparently disinterested in my concerns about the absence of detailed safety information. Had I been in his role, I would have offered to pass along this concern to someone higher up.

I have found recommended products are often no longer manufactured, and the latest products are seldom reviewed rapidly enough. And as a particular example, Consumers Reports discusses the advantages of "mild hybrid" cars (cars like Audis, BMWs, Mercedes with both 12V and 48V batteries, but not full hybrids that can electrically drive the wheels). But Consumer Reports fails to point out the significant cost of replacing these two batteries (even the 12V battery). Warranty coverage of the 48V battery is 3-4 years and replacement runs $3K-$4K. A significant cost of ownership.

Consumer Reports was before the Entire Tesla FSD $#*!-show a good reviewer, but after what they did with Tesla FSD Beta - I am not sure what the ties with Ford - influenced anything, but CR is CLEARLY ANTI-TESLA and did not read up on FSD BETA and are also showing millions on how to possibly use the system the wrong way. Tesla FSD is in BETA=It is getting improved all the time now with billions of miles CONSTANTLY improving and is ALREADY - looking at the data 700% safer than a HUMAN WITH NO TESLA FSD during billions of miles. Consumer Reports are for sure NOT unbiased and serves their own purposes. Again, with ties to Ford Motor company... That has their own ADAS (Advanced Driver Assist" solution... IMO, CONSUMER REPORTS SUCKS.

I have subscribed a few times to Consumer Reports over the years. If I am traveling for work extensively then I usually discontinue the subscription as I don't have time to read back issues when they pile up. Great information is provided in the magazine.

I have retired and am now traveling and not at a location long enough to get and enjoy the magazine. I let the subscription expire and then the threating letters started. I have sent two or three letters to please stop my subscription but I keep getting letters they have renewed my subscription and are demanding payment. I finally called today since mail requests do not work and asked to have the subscription stopped and to remove my from any of their mailing lists. The person was polite and understanding and said the would stop the subscription and remove me from promotion mailing list. I pray this is over. It is unfortunate but it will be the last time I deal with Consumer Reports. When did their subscription department become so aggressive?

Never again will I endure an attitudinal employee from CR again to help with member support. They can't even write in fundamental English

I grew up with Consumer Reports - my parents researched through CR before making major purchases. I, too, consulted CR through adulthood and was able to make some great purchases after reading thorough reviews and meticulous charts. (Case in point: my washer and dryer were both CR "Best Buys: are 12 years old, still going strong, and I've only had to make one service call in all that time.)
My husband and I pored over the magazine's car buying guide each time we needed a new car, we've researched everything from appliances and sunscreens and foods - it was a solid, thorough source.

Fast forward to now, twenty years into our marriage, and we found ourselves with a massive, unplanned home renovation after a water leak wreaked havoc on our kitchen, dining room, and living room. We hadn't looked at CR for a couple of years, but didn't hesitate to purchase the online subscription. We were SO confused when looking up kitchen appliances - there were absolutely NO in-depth reviews! Worse, the rating system makes absolutely NO sense at all. Some appliances that were recommended had terrible user reviews, and some low-rated appliances had rave reviews from users. Worse, many low-rated appliances had no flaws listed in the CR breakdown. There is no helpful explanation for the ratings appliances are given and there is no meticulous checklist of tests performed and side-by-side comparison of various models.

Confused, I searched online and found that CR changed its format a few years ago because they feared people found their time-tested approach to be "confusing". They made a serious error. Instead of giving any real, helpful, solid information, CR merely gives a general overview and seemingly arbitrary rating to reviewed items. It is so dumbed down that it is useless. Shame on CR for underestimating their readers and insulting their intelligence.

We will never subscribe again and will warn others to stay away.