Is Consumer Reports paid off?

Consumer Reports is not paid off. They buy the things they test anonymously in regular stores for cash (so they can't be given specially prepared models to test.) They get their money from subscriptions and donations. Consumer Reports is not owned by a magazine publisher. It is put out by Consumers Union, which is a stand-alone not-for-profit organization.

Sears is not just a store, but a manufactuer or at least product packager with its brands like Craftsman and Kenmore. For years before the "Brand Central" campaign, they used to only sell brands they owned. Consumer Reports contacts manufacturers before testing because they want to know which models the brands intend to continue making, and in what order the various model numbers of a similar item belong. They're not paid to give Sears brands 2-4 spots on a top 10 list, they see that Sears is 20-40% of the total market and decide to ask Sears for what models they'd like to have tested. The goal of the magazine is not to find the "best" product but the "CR Best Buy"... the one that delivers the most value per dollar spent on the product. Rarely that's the top of the line because it's the most expensive. They don't accept money from manufacturers... they get all their funds from subscriptions to the magazine, other report-based products, and an annual appeal for donations from individuals.

I don't think Consumer Reports is "paid off" but I don't always agree with them. I use the information they put forth as educational but not as gospel. The models they test are often not available everywhere. I tend to look at the number of units from a particular manufacturer and how well overall those models placed. If a company has several units that have received good ratings, chances are the rest of their product line is pretty good too. Be wary of the manufacturer who only has one good model and the rest of their models didn't test well. Features that the tested liked or didn't like might be subject to personal preferences too. One area I always seem to disagree with Consumer Reports on is vacuums. They seem to love Hoover and Eureka and the vacuums I had from those manufacturers were absolutely miserable. Weigh personal experiences in you decision. We've had Craftsman mowers and were not that happy with them. Our favorite over the years (and it's still running great) has been Husqvarna. Yeah, they are expensive but the quality is there to begin with. We had a Yard Man made by MTD that was horrible, it fell apart shortly after we bought it (front axle assembly was defective) and we played hell getting the dealer to stand behind it from day one.

Sounds mighty unlikely. Consumer Report's niche is giving out unbiased analysis. They don't accept any ads, nor do they even accept free sample products for testing. It would wreck their whole reputation if this were true. There are plenty of other magazines that take ads from companies, or are not too cleverly hiddenly run by companies (think of most of the car magazines). If this were true you'd see a few Gm and Ford cars on the recommended lists.

Consumer Reports tests and rates thousand of products from thousands of companies. Out of all the companies she is the only person to disclose this information to a close friend or lover. If this was the case, thousands of people would be knowledgable of this and one of them would have disclosed this fact to get their 15 minutes of fame. Consumer Reports would have been out of business many years ago. Consumer Reports does not allow companies to provide the products they test. Every product they test is purchased RETAIL, just like you and I purchase. By purchasing a Retail they can give an honest evaluation of the product. Consumer Reports is a valued and trusted organization and would do nothing like this to ruin their reputation and trust factor. Consumer Reports has been responsible for companies having to spend millions of dollars to improve their products, or have caused companies to go out of business due to bad rating. By doing business they way they do, they prevent successful lawsuits because their rating and reports are true.

My father used to repair TVs for a living. Often times, one TV manufacturer will make TVs and put another company's logo on them (i.e. company A hires company B to make their TVs for them). He was curious as to why two TVs that were, in fact, the same TV, coming out of the same factory, etc. were in Consumer Reports - one listed in the top 10, one listed as being in the 10 worst. He asked someone with the company that manufactures the TVs about this. This is what they told him (mind you, this is "hear-say"). They said that your rating in Consumer Reports is directly proportional to the amount of advertising that you buy. My dad said, "but Consumer Reports doesn't accept any advertising", and they don't. However, they are owned by a company that prints various different magazines. Your rating in consumer reports is proportional to the advertising dollars you spend on their other magazines. When you read about how that one editor went on a crusade against the Suzuki Samurai (because he bought one, was showing off with it, and rolled it over), trying to make it out to be a roll over hazard, when in fact, it was just as safe as any other vehicle in its class, it makes you wonder how unbiased Consumer Reports really is. If an editor can influence the results for their own personal beef, then why not for personal gain? I consider Consumer Reports to be dubious, at best.

There are research and there are research. In this case, it is matching what Sears buy against what their customer base considers to be the best. But if your demographic does not fit the typical Sears buyer, then it might not quite fit your needs. What Sears carry may not be what Best Buy carry. And as consumer, you might pick a bargain instead of the best quality product. So take it with a big pinch of salt, because you still need to choose well. Caveat Emptor - buyers beware! At the end of the day, I would prefer to rely on product reviews by reputable consumer research and trend spotting firms like GFK. But I would also choose to read reviews by magazines. In this case, a lawn mower - I will check with Gardening magazines and so on. You need to switch and adopt information sources according to the product categories.

and part of this is that information from consumer reports has been demonstrated to be accurate time and time again, down to their recommendation that (in the mid 80s) that a late 70s used Jeep Wagoneer could be expected to need a transmission overhaul around 35,000 miles. (my dad bought ours at 36,000 and it had had a transmission rebuild at 35,000) mind you, consumer reports has a section of lab generated statistics, and a section of testers' opinions, and a section of repair shop statistics, and there are ways that manufacturers can influence those. Most prominent is to simply not provide samples of particular equipment for testing. This may be what was going on in the lawnmower story. since it was a low-profit mower, they didn't feel like promoting it, so they gave only the high-profit mowers to Consumer Reports for review. Another factor, is that when you build a product, and compare it to others on the market, you can have a pretty good idea of how it is going to be ranked in comparison with the competition. From that, you can engineer the product to land where you want it in the rankings.