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A Penny Spent Here Is A Penny Saved, Too
Date of Review: Jan 31, 2000
By far the money you spend on a subscription to this magazine will, someday, save you money down the road. The people who work for this magazine are doing a great service to the American public, and you should be taking advantage of it.
First, this magazine has NO ADS. They do no advertising except for their own products. Aside from this monthly magazine, they also have a kids version called Zillions, a health magazine, plus other items such as reports on specific cars, books that they publish, and even more useful stuff. By taking no adds they have no biases. All their funds come from subscriptions, sales, and personal donations.
They test all types of products, from cars to strollers to stain removers and more. They send their people out to stores to buy off the shelves, just as we do, and test the products. They grade the item and give you the results. They explain what they did to the item and why (like washing a sweater according to manufacturers directions to test for pilling, shrinkage, bleeding, and durability). And then you can make an informed decision on what to buy. And they also give you information like repair history, so you know if a particular manufacturer has a consistent problem with a product.
The great thing is they take out a lot of guesswork. It's easier to read up on an item and choose than make a guess at the store and have to return something, or worse, be stuck with it.
Another thing that I like is that you get a survey once per year (if you're a subscriber, which I highly recommend) so you can express your opinion on your purchased items. How much did you pay, how often has it been fixed, how good do you rate it. This is what makes up the data on the repair histories, so you're actually contributing to the magazine content. Also, with the subscription you get the yearly buying guide, which is a book that summarizes a variety of items that have been reviewed, so you have one resource to look at when you're ready to buy.
But it's not just things that are reviewed, services are reviewed as well. Cable tv, cellular phones, insurance companies, to name just a few. And you get information on legislation that affect consumers, like should there be notification that a food item was genetically altered? And you get safety notification, like product recalls. It's just amazing! You really must pick up an issue and see for yourself. I think it's totally worth the subscription.
