B&H Rated #1

The latest issue of Consumer Reports has B&H ranked #1 in the on-line stores category. This is not surprising.

What is surprising is that Abe's of Maine is ranked at #9.

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The full list:

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1 - B&H<br>

2 - Crutchfield.com<br>

3 - Amacon.com<br>

4 - Costco.com<br>

5 - BuyDig.com<br>

6 - Newegg.com<br>

7 - Sony.com<br>

8 - JR.com<br>

9 - Abe's of Maine<br>

10 - TigerDirect.com<br>

11 - CircuitCity.com<br>

12 - Buy.com<br>

13 - Dell.com<br>

14 - BestBuy.com<br>

Surprising that Abe's is so low or so high?

High.

Interesting that Adorama is not mentioned at all!

Doesn't Abe's of Maine actually pay people to write positive reviews and such? I remember learning that somewhere, but can't find reference to it now.

consumer reports has some wierdnesses.

way back when american cars were downrated when they could out last european cars by 2:1

this was way Before toyoda and datsun,.

 

they rated the yashica pentamatic higher than the miranda d.

even tho yashica abandoned that lens mount and , I believe, NEVER

made another lens to fit the orphan bayonet mount.

 

modern commented unfavorabily on the consumers reports lens testing,.

I think it was something like "aim it out the window"

Yes, indeed, I don't know why Adorama is not in the list. Abe's of Maine in that top list must be a trick of Halloween, LOL.

<i>"Doesn't Abe's of Maine actually pay people to write positive reviews and such? I remember learning that

somewhere, but can't find reference to it now."</i>

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I'm sure you can find those references in here: <a

href="http://www.photo.net/neighbor/view-one-about?id=2&about=Abe%27s+of+Maine">Abe's of Maine</a>.

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<i>"consumer reports has some wierdnesses. "</i>

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The ranking was based on subscriber feedback, not their own testing. If Abe's is/was paying for positive reviews

it could explain their ranking.

The Abe's thing is insane, shouldn't be on there. Adorama being left off is retarded. Newegg and JR should be higher. Crutchfield and Sony should be lower, even if only based on selection.

Shoudn't that be Amazon not Amacon?

Year ago was a vendor called "Honest Abe", is this now "Abe's on Main" ?

 

If so, what happened to the "honest" ?

Dick, I appreciate your posting this for us non-Consumer Reports users but I am curious......

 

What is the context of this? You say B&H was rated #1 but in WHAT category? Was this a reader survey for photo products or online electronics sales outlets or something else?

 

I agree about the missing Adorama. While I am not a big shopper there, they are nevertheless an outstanding operation, at least in the photo area.

<i>"Shoudn't that be Amazon not Amacon?"</i>

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Yep, and I personally am unranked in the category of 'Typing Skills'. ;-)

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<i>"Dick, I appreciate your posting this for us non-Consumer Reports users but I am curious......

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What is the context of this? You say B&H was rated #1 but in WHAT category? Was this a reader survey for photo

products or online electronics sales outlets or something else?"<p></i>

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Then context was a ranking, based <b>exclusively</b> on voluntary reader feedback, in various categories. This

specific category was "Electronics Stores", with separate rankings for 'on-line' and 'walk-in' retailers.

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(I've been a subscriber for many years now and participate in each survey they send out. I don't remember this

specific one so I suspect that not every subscriber gets the same survey.)

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The rankings were a subset of an article about buying consumer electronics and included, as mentioned earlier,

separate rankings for on-line and walk-in stores. The following is their published "Guide to Ratings" from the

article. (I assume the

numbers apply to the 'on-line' and 'walk-in' combined.)

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<i>"Based on 38,975 purchases of TVs, digital cameras, camcorders, DVD players and recorders, PDAs, and audio

equipment by more than 23,000 Consumer Reports readers, January 2007 to June 2008. Results may not reflect the

U.S. population.

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Reader score reflects overall satisfaction with the shopping experience and isn't limited to the factors in

survey results. Differences of less than 5 points are not meaningful. Survey results scores typically reflect

the percentage of respondents who rated the retailer as excellent or very good..........."<p></i>

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For what it's worth the B&H reader score was 94 and Abe's was 90 - so I guess there is not a meaningful

difference between them. ;-\

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Even more surprising is that Abe's was rated as a 'recommended' vendor based on "standouts for selection" and

"matches the highest-rated Web sites on the quality of the products it sells".

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The 5 categories in the survey are: Price, Selection, Product Quality, Customer Service and Shopping Ease.

(Notice there are no rankings for 'Bait and Switch', 'Inflated Shipping Charges', etc.) Based on that it's kind

of easy to see how they could sneak up in the rankings if they've successfully duped their customers into

thinking they really did get a good deal, something that wouldn't be very hard with a novice purchaser.

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The B&H rankings for Customer Service and Shopping Ease was 'better than average' while Abe's was 'average' in

both those categories.

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As to Adorama not being included in the final tally that could just be a matter of not having sufficient

respondents to make it statistically meaningful.

When has anyone observed Consumer Reports (or most newspapers) to report accurately on a subject in which you have a personal expertise. It is not so much the investigation, but the way in which CR ranks its findings. Price and "value" (an highly subjective attribute) are rated highly. I'm surprised Abe's wasn't first in the list.

Actually I give a great deal of weight to the product testing that C.R. performs. Their methodology is objective

and disclosed in the reporting. My experience with the product testing and rating closely matches my experience

with the same products.

 

The retailer rankings were a result of reader feedback, which by nature is subjective.

 

That said I pretty much ignore the testing and reporting done by ANY publication that accepts advertising as

their primary source of income (as in Pop Photo and Imaging).

Three or four years ago, they rated the Kodak digital the best camera, too. That was right before Kodak pulled it because it was such a dog.

 

Conni

When I buy a TV I look to consumer reports. They are often useful on used car reliability surveys. And they seem

to hit the mark on hotels and motels to avoid. They are not infallible. And they don't suck either. I don't

follow camera recommendations being a maverick on that. I can understand the top scoring of B and H and

Crutchfield and Amazon. Crutchfield is not as good on price as the other two. Nor as good on price as J and R. J

and R has become my favorite on one to one customer relations lately which counts a lot with me. Polls are polls

after all and CUs form is a long very detailed one to fill out. So they didn't always get my

participation,frankly. So it goes.

Why 14? I have a feeling that there are a number of companies that if rated, would not fall below 14 on this list.

Why 14? I have a feeling that there are a number of sellers that if rated, would not fall below 14 on this list.

<i>"Why 14?"</i>

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Don't know but I would suspect it has to do with number of responses. There are 27 retailers listed in the

'walk-in' category.

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In looking at the demographics of the ratings it appears that different criteria are important to customers when

it comes to on-line purchases versus in-store purchases.

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Of the top 9 on-line retailers in the survey all were rated as 'better than average' or 'much better than

average' in one of or both the categories 'Price' and 'Selection'. The top 3 also scored high in the other 3

categories - 'Product Quality', 'Customer Service', and 'Shopping Ease'.

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In the walk-in group the emphasis seems to be more towards the 'Customer Service' and 'Shopping Ease' where 7 of

the top 9 scored 'better' or 'much better' in those categories even though on average they scored 'below average'

in price and selection..

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Not surprising to me that on-line shoppers are primarily interested in price and selection whereas in-store

shoppers are tend to me more sensitive to the shopping experience.

<i>"whereas in-store shoppers are tend to me more sensitive..."</i>

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That should read "whereas in-store shoppers tend to be more sensitive...".

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(See why I'm unranked in 'Typing Skills'....)

Oh my heck, are you saying that CR put out a call for 'readers' to vote for their favorite on-line stores, presumably

anonymously over the internet? Now <i>that</i> sounds like a great way to get reliable data . . .

How did they do their sampling? They didn't ask me for my opinion....

 

Who did they ask, how did they ask them and what did they ask? Without knowing the methodology of testing, you can't put much faith in the conclusions. For example if they allowed anyone to vote by email, then the results could be rigged. If they polled their own subscribers, then it would be more difficult, but the sampling would be selective.

B&H is great.

 

I can order on Sunday, it's at my door Wednesday.

<i>"Oh my heck, are you saying that CR put out a call for 'readers' to vote for their favorite on-line stores,

presumably anonymously over the internet? Now that sounds like a great way to get reliable data . . ."</i>

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Nope, not on-line. Once or twice a year I get a survey in the mail to fill out and return.

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<i>"How did they do their sampling? They didn't ask me for my opinion....

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Who did they ask, how did they ask them and what did they ask? Without knowing the methodology of testing, you

can't put much faith in the conclusions. For example if they allowed anyone to vote by email, then the results

could be rigged. If they polled their own subscribers, then it would be more difficult, but the sampling would be

selective."</i>

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My assumption is they are surveying their entire subscriber base. I know I've been getting the surveys in the

mail for

years now. I assumed that they were sent to all subscribers but can't say I remember seeing anything that would

confirm

that.