Consumer Reports Magazine - Just How Reliable is the Magazine That Rates the Quality and Reliability of Others
Posted on: Tuesday, 19 December 2006, 09:00 CST
TORONTO, Dec. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Over 7 million North American families subscribe to and rely on Consumer Reports Magazine to help them when they purchase big ticket items such as televisions, tires, cars, ... the list goes on. But how reliable is this professed consumer watchdog?
When Internet and Television broadcaster Naked News wanted to purchase an LCD television, we turned to the recent December issue. There, we spotted the 32-inch Samsung (model LN-53241D). At $1400, it had "very good" ratings in all "picture quality" areas, and was scored just shy of "very good" overall, at 62 points out of 100. It sounded like a pretty good deal.
We were very surprised then, when we happened to pick up the November issue of Consumer Reports and there the exact same model barely made it out of the "fair" scoring, with only 46 overall points.
Same price, same model. Very different ratings, just one month apart.
Upon checking more closely, Naked News found that several models' ratings had changed between November and December. Some changes were relatively small, like this Sharp Aquos (LC-37D9OU) whose DVD picture quality rating was dropped from "excellent" to "very good".
Other changes were much more substantial, like Samsung's 40-inch LN-S4092D. That one jumped from a 39-point overall rating to a 63. A difference of 24 points. It went from mostly "fair" or "good" ratings to "very good" almost across the board.
In all we found 7 televisions that had their ratings change in a one month span. So, what happened between November and December? That's what we wanted to find out. And that's exactly what we asked Consumer Reports.
Their reply was that The December score is the correct one. Nothing more.
Consumers' Union, the company behind Consumer Reports, is a 160 million dollar a year business selling the consumer "product assessment and ratings". But how expert are these self-professed "experts"? And how reliable are the ratings they publish? That's a question that just got a little harder to answer.
Something to bear in mind next time you have a big purchase decision to make.
About Naked News
Naked NewsTV! is currently available on Indemand, Dish Network, TVN, and other North American broadcasters. Naked News (http://www.nakednews.com/) launched internationally in 1999, quickly becoming a world media phenomenon on the Internet, then Television and recently Mobile. It is the most successful crossover from the Internet to television in history. In its totally unique and irreverent manner, Naked News provides upbeat news, entertainment and fun segments to more than 172 nations daily on the Internet, Television and in hotel rooms around the world, presented by a dozen beautiful and naked broadcasters.
Naked News
CONTACT: and media request contact: David Warga, Exec. Producer, NakedNews, Telephone Canada (416) 414-4041, Email: dwarga@nakednews.com,http://www.nakednews.com/, http://www.nakednewsdailymale.com/
Source: PRNewswire
Related Articles
- MicroStrategy Recognized in Consumer Goods Technology 2009 Readers' Choice Survey
- Total Retail Sales of Consumer Goods in China Rises 18.8% in November, an Industrial Info News Alert
- PECO Will Lower Its Natural Gas Rate By Almost Four Percent on December 1
- BrandIntel Introduces BrandIntel Advance(TM) Television Landscape Reports
- View the Results of the Latest ChangeWave Research Consumer Electronics & Home Entertainment Report
- Cyber Tracker Featured in Television News Reports on Teen Driving
- Red Wine Found to Be Also Good Against Flu: Report
- Intel Looks to Consumer Goods (Folo) New Place for Google and Yahoo: TV Screen
- Continental Airlines Reports December 2005 Operational Performance
- AberdeenGroup Highlights Logility Consumer Goods Customer in New 'Best Practices in Transportation Management' Report
 |
 |
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds