Buyer Beware BBB Rates Cpap.com with an F

[chunkyfrog]

I actually quit subscribing to Consumer Reports because they have links to sales sites.
If that's not advertising--it is pretty close; they USED to be impartial.

[The Latinist]

I actually quit subscribing to Consumer Reports because they have links to sales sites. If that's not advertising--it is pretty close; they USED to be impartial.

Are they not completely funded by memberships any more? That's too bad.

[chunkyfrog]

Just an observation; but the site gives me bad vibes lately.
They also appear to be only testing high volume con$umer products.

[ALF]

Having only bought a few parts from cpap.com, I have no personal basis for evaluating their business one way or the other (other than the fact that they have fast shipping!). I also don't know whether or not the original poster's complaints are legitimate. I DO know that in this day and age, the BBB is an anachronism, when you can get plenty of info about companies from various online sources. I haven't cared about the BBB rating of a company in at least a decade, and I don't think anyone else should either.

[bloodgain]

Just an observation; but the site gives me bad vibes lately.
They also appear to be only testing high volume con$umer products.

Are you talking about the Price & Shop feature? I don't find it very intrusive -- I hardly even notice it. I haven't noticed any other ads, but that doesn't mean they aren't there. They are part of Consumers Union, which is a recognized non-profit, so you can get their financial reports (link below). I skimmed the latest one and didn't see anything that raised an eyebrow, nor any mention of advertising revenue:
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/abou ... /index.htm

I do agree that I wish they would include a wider range of products, especially in some categories. I assume they are focusing mostly on what they can find at department stores, which they assume is the most popular with consumers. I think that leaves out a lot of choices, when many of us are shopping online now.

[OhHelpMe]

chunkyfrog wrote:

They also appear to be only testing high volume con$umer products.

What else would you expect them to test?

BTW, Any time I buy a product of significant cost or importance, I find the manufacturer and/or the dealer to be the first and most important source of information. Here you can find the product details and an explanation of all the features. You can see the claims they make. You can see what they claim about the competitors' products.

I recently made a $1500 purchase of an item that was important to me and expected to own it and use it for a long time. I studied the information on four manufacturer's websites and visited dealers for all four and listened intently to what the dealer had to say.

I also found some reviews on forums by users and took this into consideration.

I have to say the information provided by the manufacturers and dealers was more important than the reviews by users. Users tend to be too biased, see things only from their point of view and are afflicted with pride in their purchase decision.

The item is seven months old now, has a lot of use on it and I am very happy with the purchase. It works for me and YMMV.

[Goofproof]

I buy a lot of things from Newegg, I always check reviews on a product before I buy. That said, even with reviews, you must take into consideration, many of the reviewers don't have the ability to put sand in a rat hole,

More people tend to report more bad results than taking time to report the good. Many post praises without taking the time to use the product giving it a chance to show its worth. Products should work correctly out of the box, and do so for the warranty period and beyond. DOA, is a big red flag, as is worked for a month and died, but then again DOA sometimes it the result of the"Moron Factor" of the user.

We here that have been around this forum a lot and have dealt personally with the site owners company, do have loyality to them. I have seen them go much farther than fair, trying to make customers happy. When in business, problems arise, mostly from customers inability to read and comprehend, sometimes from mistakes by employees, we all are human, and flawed. The solution is to try to make things right. I feel cpap dot com, does better than most at this, no company can satisfy everyone, there people out in the real world that can't be satisfied at any cost. Jim