On 01/05/2017 13:14, ARW wrote:
On 01/05/2017 11:54, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
ARW wrote:
On 30/04/2017 16:18, alan_m wrote:
On 30/04/2017 13:05, dennis@home wrote:



Blame customers.
GEC and Hitachi TVs used to come off the same production line in
wales,
the only thing different was the badge.
GEC couldn't sell them and they sold their share of the plant and then
it got closed down.

I remember that 3 decades ago when a 2 models of a VHS video recorder
came off the same production line and were identical apart from the
case
cosmetics the badge. Which? tested them both and gave one with the JCV
badge a best buy recommendation and slated the other as rubbish.


Which? should change it's name to Witch?

Depends. It's quite possible two samples of basically the same model
performed differently. You'd need to read the article to know how they
tested them. And if they were doing proper lab tests (as they once did)
they'd have known the guts were the same.

The reaction here seems to blame Which. When it's possible the blame lies
with the maker for poor quality control.

Which bashing has always been a popular sport. I haven't subscribed for
ages, but when I did usually found their best buy just fine for what I
wanted. Too many treat it like some specialist review mag when it
comes to
hobby things like cameras etc. I always regarded it as a way of finding a
best buy for something that didn't matter that much to me. Just
wanting it
to perform and last well. When it comes down to cameras, Hi-Fi, cars,
etc,
many will want more than that.


They do make some mistakes, or cut corners, or don't know what they're
doing on occasion. Their site hosts comments on reviews, and shows
things up.

I was looking at electric toothbrushes the other day (I get online
access through work) and the comments suggest that their review got many
things wrong - objective stuff like battery life for example. Could be
sample variation but I didn't get that impression. And Which? staff do
comment on comments - it's usually 'we'll bear that in mind next time',
but at least they do seem to take a passing interest.

I asked them about some loudspeaker tests a while back - they carried
out blind, but not double blind.

All of that said, if time is taken to read the reviews and comments,
I've always found their reports get me in the ballpark of something decent.


So the lab testing is based on a sample of one and the customer reviews
are based on Which readers that can be bothered to make a report (and
you can bet that they are boring complaining ****s with nothing better
to do in their life).


Erm, I agree I think - their methods aren't that rigorous by what would
be considered a decent scientific test (replicable etc).


--
Cheers, Rob