How decaffeinated is your decaf exactly? That’s what Consumer Reports aimed to uncover when they sent their shoppers to sample 36 cups of decaffeinated coffee from 6 locations of Burger King, Dunkin’ Donuts, McDonald’s, Seattle’s Best Coffee, 7-Eleven and Starbuck’s near their headquarters in Yonkers, NY. See the results, inside…
consumer reports
Five Sites That Will Help You Recession-Proof Your Life
By 6.16.08
Although we are not technically in a recession, it’s starting to feel like one. As gas prices and unemployment continue to rise, we’ve rounded up a collection of useful advice for the current period of economic austerity.
Hospitals To Patients: "How About You Put That Liposuction On Your Credit Card?"
By 6.13.08
A Consumer Reports study finds that medical professionals are pushing high-interest lines of credit and financing options on patients. Credit agencies are even partnering with hospitals to offer branded credit cards so patients can finance elective cosmetic surgeries like liposuction and hair removal.
How To Protect Your AC
By 6.10.08
There’s nothing like a bunch of schmutz to make your air conditioner run less efficiently, and cost you more in electricity, repairs, and requiring a new one faster. Here’s a few reminder tips from Consumer Reports about proper care and maintenance of your AC to keep it “cool runnings.”
Sixteen Sweet Fuel-Sipping Cars
By 6.6.08
To help you fight the battle against high gasoline prices, Consumer Reports has put together a list of the 16 best used fuel-sipping cars. The list only contains cars under 10 years old and the criteria is based on fuel economy and reliability. It does not take into account driver comfort or fancy options. Check out CNN’s full article for more detailed information on each car. The list, inside…
8 Rules For Smart Borrowing
By 6.4.08
Even people who are financially well off can be at risk of slipping into debt, especially in a staggering economy. There are plenty of doctors, lawyers and stock brokers who are currently on debt-management plans, according to David Jones, president of the Association of Independent Consumer Credit Counseling Agencies. Some of the warning signs of excess debt include: relying on home-equity credit lines or credit cards for everyday purchases, making only minimum payments on extended lines of credit and taking cash advances from one source of credit to pay another. To help save you from a downward-spiral into debt, Consumer Reports has put together a handy list of rules for smart borrowing. Here’s one of our favorites…
7 Tips On Using Credit Card Rewards Programs And Avoiding Rip Offs
By 6.3.08
Whether it’s because of frequent flier miles that are impossible to redeem, overly complicated terms and conditions or reward credit cards with high APR’s, credit card reward programs are usually a rip off, according to CNN Money. Consumer Reports says that about 85% of American households participate in at least one rewards program which encourage consumers to spend more money but often turn out to be more trouble than they’re worth. To help you wade through the confusion, Consumer Reports has assembled 7 tips to help you make postive use of credit card reward programs. The list, inside…
More Children Are Drowning In Pools And Spas, Says The CPSC
By 5.22.08
Here’s some bleak news, more children are drowning in pools and spas lately, says the CPSC. The increase in deaths is probably due to a increase in the number of pools and spas in the U.S., but Consumer Reports warns that some pools are more dangerous than others.
Costco Is A Great Place For Cheap Drugs
By 5.12.08
Consumer Reports bought bought Plavix, Levoxyl, Detrol, and Alendronate at a whole bunch of different pharmacies, and Costco came out the cheapest overall. Here’s how the 13 places they tested rang up:
Same Store, Same Product, Different Prices
By 5.9.08
This is the same product sold at different prices. In one case, Dr. Leonards catalog sells the “Barber Magic” hair trimmer for humans is $12.99. But if you want to use it on a dog, it’s only $7.99. Freakonomics tells us this is an example of “price discrimination.” I’m just glad there’s now a less expensive option for getting out my burs, mats, and tangles.
Ric Romero Reports: Battle Of The Dishwashing Detergents
By 3.29.08
Consumer Reports cut through the greasy claims of competing dishwasher detergents to find out which one is best suited for Ric Romero’s “dirty dish-duty.” The winner? Much like the Special Olympics, everyone won. Each detergent works fine if you scrub long enough. Efficiency comes with a price, and Dawn direct foam was the costliest and speediest of the twelve brands tested, followed closely by Ajax Lemon Dish Liquid.
How To Haggle
By 3.24.08
The pricetag is no longer the final word, stores are playing “let’s make a deal,” and haggling is in. Consumer Reports Todd Marks tells The Today Show the secrets to haggling success:Be open and friendly in your discussion with the salesperson, ask for them to “work with you” on the priceBe…
Inside The Consumer Reports Testing Facility
By 3.19.08
Ever wonder how Consumer Reports figures out which products to recommend? For one, it takes mad science, like this echo-free room that sits on a different foundation from the rest of the building. I was up at the Consumer Reports HQ yesterday for a planning meeting related to a blogger’s conference they’re planning for June, and they were nice enough to give me a quick tour of their testing facilities. I snapped some 33 pictures with my cellphone camera. Check them out in the interactive photo essay gallery, inside…
Consumer Reports Calls You A "Pushover" For Buying The Extended Warranty Sales Pitch
By 3.17.08
Not surprisingly, the car dealers who sell the extended warranties disagree. A spokesman for the National Automobile Dealers Association likened the warranties to insurance for which, of course, policy holders as a group pay more than they get back to protect against the rare problem that is ruinously expensive.
Extended Car Warranties Are A Ripoff
By 3.4.08
Most consumers spend more on extended warranties than they get back in repair savings, according to a Consumer Reports reader survey. On average, buyers paid $1000 and got $700 back in the amount of money they saved in repair costs.”Extended warranties sell costly ‘peace of mind’ for repair nightmares that probably won’t occur,” said Rik Paul, automotive editor, Consumer Reports. “Sellers know what tends to break, and in most cases consumers are betting against the house.” The only one with a peace of mind is the dealer as he tallies up his profits. Consumer Reports instead recommends putting the money you would have spent on an extended warranty into a money market or mutual fund to insure against the unlikely event of big repair costs from parts failure.
Consumer Reports Top Auto Picks 2008
By 2.29.08
Here are the cars Consumer Reports says are standouts in 2008 for “performance, versatility, reliability, and safety.”
The Secret Lives Of Consumer Reports Secret Shoppers
By 2.27.08
Stacking pints of ice cream on the floor of the supermarket is bound to make the stocker mad. You can’t tell him that you’re a Consumer Reports secret shopper and that you just need to make sure you get nine pints that came from the same production line on the same date. So Jon goes into his “Rain Man” routine, and starts chanting, “Count the vanilla, count the vanilla, gotta count the vanilla,” and the eventually the stocker goes away. Such are the exciting times and lives of the 94 brave men and women who go undercover as everyday consumers to buy the products that get taken back to the Consumer Reports testing facilities, often concocting cover stories to explain, for instance, why they’re buying five different kinds of washing machines at once. WIRED has the story.
AT&T Reps Don't Know Own ETF Policy
By 2.8.08
8 out of 12 AT&T customer service reps don’t know their company’s own early Early Termination Fee (ETF) policy. Consumers Union, publishers of Consumer Reports, called up AT&T to inquire about the policy and got several different answers. Some said that the ETF was halved after the first year of contract, while others said it went down each month. In fact, while AT&T has talked about switching to a pro-rated ETF, they haven’t yet. Whether you cancel service 1 month into or one month before the end of contract, it will cost you $175. Consumers Union called the other major cellphone providers too, and they gave out the right information. Couple this news and the story yesterday about reps giving out wrong information about upgrading to a new iPhone locking you into a new two-year contract, and it plum looks like AT&T has a serious front-line rep training problem.
