Does anyone still subscribe to Consumer Reports?

Parent Cafe
1

Our renewal notice has come (well, technically, our fourth renewal notice since they start sending them out to you months before your subscription is going to expire) and I’m debating whether to renew or not this year. We are 30+ year subscribers.

First reason… we’re really trying to simplify (or downsize as others might call it) and eliminate anything unnecessary in our lives, even the rarely-used periodicals we get mailed to us. I usually keep about the past two years worth of the magazine upstairs in a closet, ‘just in case’. That ‘just in case’ has never happened in probably five years.

Two, with the immediacy of information technology these days, it’s easy to find the kind of information that, years ago, only CR would offer. So if we had a purchase coming up where we wanted to turn to CR, we can find it in many other ways now - such as TripAdvisor, Yelp, Amazon, etc. There are some solid review-providing sites out there that I feel safe with their review features and contributors. You have to know how to read them, though, and I feel I get better and better at it.

Three, it seems like the last couple of times I wanted to use CR recommendations for a purchase, their reviews were for products that were no longer available, or newer, updated products were now available, which hadn’t been reviewed. So I question the timeliness of their articles now.

Four, I just don’t take the time to sit down and read their articles anymore - we are trying to get rid of stuff, not accumulate more stuff. I realize they also review services, but we tend to use other review services that are more local to where we live.

Five, if I really feel the need to read an article in one, I can go to my local library and do so.

So does anyone still get CR? And do you use it?

2

I stopped (after 25 some years) when they changed the layout format of their articles. I found it too busy and cluttered and thought it did not provide as much information as it used to. Haven’t missed it. Glad I never bought that lifetime membership.

3

I also stopped our subscription several years ago. I dislike having to pay extra for online information. I read it monthly in our public library now. Also- I, too dislike the format changes. This year they only review some of the products without bothering to inform us of pros and cons of too many that miss their short list. In addition, by the time the written edition comes out some products have already been replaced by newer editions. There are much better resources for electronics reviews. btw- take a lot of online reviews with a grain of salt- owners do not do the testing and most do not rate products.

It was good to read about things when we renovated our house- I looked at the current and previous year’s data.

Use the library copy!

4

I guess I also got a little irritated when they started offering an online subscription, but charged you extra for it, even if you were already a hard-copy subscriber. Why should I pay extra for information I’m already getting via a hard copy? If I’m not mistaken, there’s no extra information included in the online format.

5

LOL… cross-posted with wis75.

6

I have the online version, but to be honest, I generally don’t get much out of it. I often find their reviews don’t tell me what I want to know, and what they rate as best buys when I get them often disappoint me. I have gotten some benefit out of their forums, where readers talk about their experiences, found out about speed queen that way, and i absolutely love it, so that was worth it. More importantly, when I am looking for information about something I am thinking of buying, I often find they don’t really give detailed information (for example, for a furnace mounted humidifier for my house, their information was bubkus).

7

Sometimes I subscribe, sometimes not. I like supporting their research, and aside from CC, am not around people talking about practical matters all that much, so value the information. You can find a zillion opinions on line, but Consumer Reports has tried and true evaluation methodologies. For car buying alone, it is worth a great deal.

On the other hand, I am not that big a consumer, and I feel like the last person who should be subscribing to something of this nature.

As with all periodicals, if you value their place in your life, subscribe. Many have disappeared, and many are struggling. I appreciate good journalism, not just online opinions, and we need to support it economically.

8

I subscribed for a few years, a while back. Since then, I used the Library, and now can access it from home. I do fine that it has less current and comprehensive information than it used to. It is good to have independent reviews, and hope they can continue to do them with fewer subscriptions and some of the online sites that provide reviews.

9

I agree with this and we have always been faithful readers when it comes to car buying, but H just bought a new car a year ago, and I’m due in the next year or two (and am pretty sure I’m going with the same car again, if not the smaller model), and then it will be another ten years before we look at cars again probably. We could go use the copy at the library for that one time.

And yes, I do appreciate their methodology, but we just aren’t into making the kinds of purchases anymore that they tend to rate.

There is a possibility we might be moving in the next year; if so, and if we need to buy some new appliances or anything, I could see valuing reading what they have to say, but it wouldn’t be the only source of my research. If anything, we’ll be downsizing, so we will be getting rid of some of our major purchases… snow blower, lawn mower, yard maintenance equipment, etc.

As far as this whole simplifying goes… we have also been long-time subscribers to Reader’s Digest - it used to be my bathtub reading material. But now that I have a Kindle, I read whatever book I’m reading, and not the Reader’s Digest. So I’m canceling that next year. I don’t think there’s a magazine we get anymore that we read… AARP, Costco, etc. It’s just junk.

Now for the catalogs… I’ll keep them coming. :wink:

10

I subscribed to their online service recently as we needed to buy some appliances. It hasn’t been very useful. Many of their top rated items have very few reviews and often those reviews are poor. I find the actual user reviews to be more useful than whatever CU is using as its criteria.

I found out about speed queen on this site, and my lovely washer got a terrible rating from CU even though CU users had overwhelmingly loved it.

That’s another beef I have - the user ratings are hidden unless or until you choose an item to compare, and you can only compare 4 at time. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could organize things according to positive user reviews? Well, you can on Home Depot and lowes’ web sites. And on many others.

11

No but I read them free if I have to, especially before I have to pay for a big ticket items.

12

I use the app Next Issue, which is $10 a month, and get Consumer Reports along with about 140 other magazines on my iPad. I’ve discontinued a bunch of magazines so the Next Issue yearly fee is almost paid for just through that.

13

I generally go to the library to check it out if I’m going to buy a big ticket item, otherwise read whatever is available online. The problem I have with CR and many other reports is that they are limited (by nature) to a very specific model which may not be available in our area (or no longer available since the report was written). The other models by the same manufacturer may get much lesser ratings, so you can’t even generalize by maker. The reports I can read about the exact models and makes I am planning to buy tend to be what I am most interested in, especially if I’m going to spend 4 or more figures on an item.

I can’t remember if we ever paid for a subscription to CR–may have gotten it free for expiring airline miles but otherwise am trying to declutter not add more stuff to our home.

14

I lost my enthusiasm for Consumer Reports after buying several “top-rated” items, and being very disappointed. I find online user reviews to be much more accurate.

15

I guess I have had mixed results. My family had subscriptions (and copies of the back issues) going back to at least 1969. We switched to the online version about 8 years ago.

For me, the trick is to read the review with an eye on what is important to you. Check out the rating methodology and adjust the scale for your own desires. For example, if the noise of a washing machine is not a big deal to you, the ratings in order will not always pan out. You have to read the reviews for details.

For me, it is more about the reliability of a product. I don’t care about the aesthetics of a product nearly as much as I do about whether I will need to buy another too soon. Individual reviewers are skewed. They tend to review products shortly after buying them. Very little usefulness in terms of reliability. The user ‘scores’ are useless online as well. Some people will rate 1 or 0 stars for what is really a minor issue and others will give 5 stars even though they are unhappy with something. You also tend to get skewed info due to a lack of understanding…many times people will down-rate a product because they had problems with the seller, not necessarily the product. So, just like the CR reviews themselves, you really need to read the details to make an informed decision.

16

I still get it. Usually find a relatively inexpensive renewal option.

17

We still get it both hard copy and online.

18

Current renewal is $12-15. Probably can find for less

19

Oops that was a different renewal. I see it on line (quick look, might be others better) for $24.36 for 13 issues http://www.magazinepricesearch.com/detail/consumerreports.html?terms=consumer%20reports

20

We still subscribe. It’s one of three magazines we get. I agree about paying attention to their methodology for rating the products as much as their results - that will give me ideas on what to focus on when we’re buying something. For those of you that like to read magazines on an e-reader, many libraries now have subscriptions to Zinio and you can read magazines for free through your library. Our library has a link on the homepage that describes how to do that. Consumer reports is not one of the freebies (surprise!).