[ltp] Reliability

[Jeffrey L. Taylor]

Quoting John Jason Jordan <johnxj@comcast.net>:
> On Fri, 11 Dec 2009 23:08:32 -0600
> "Jeffrey L. Taylor" <jeff@abluz.dyndns.org> dijo:
> 
> >I am looking at replacing my T41, it is starting to show wear and occassional
> >disk errors on backup.  The June 2009 Consumer Reports placed Lenovo near the
> >top for reliability.  The December 2009 issue puts them at the bottom.  Has
> >Lenovo's reliability slipped that badly?
> >
> >It occurs to me that IBM essentially had no consumer grade laptops.  Are the
> >business grade laptops as reliable as even, but the newly introduced consumer
> >grade laptops dragging the average down?
> 
> I'm not a member of Consumer Reports, so I can't look at the actual reviews.
> But I would go back and look at exactly which models each review covered. I bet
> they were different models. And yes, there have been newer consumer grade
> models that are not as well made as the business models.
>

All models for a brand are lumped together.  The data comes from their
readers, number of repairs per thousand.  It is not the opinion of the
reviews, but the experiences of their readers (that reply to the surveys). As
a reader, I have filled out the surveys for all our recently bought
appliances, computers, cars, etc.
 
> I should add that one of the reasons I am not a member of consumer reports
> is that I think their views are very biased. I place a lot more faith in
> customer reviews on places like Amazon than an editorial opinion article
> whose purpose is to gain readership and revenue.

I guess I trust an organization who purpose is to provide a service to its
paying customers and whose data runs to thousands of samples more than a site
open to any disgruntled flamer.

YMMV,
  Jeffrey