Community driven brand ranking website? Ranking consumer friendliness

[Keltyx98]

Since every week we see more bad things from big brands, may it be anti-repair things, privacy violation, replace components during production, etc. Why not make a website/database where people can list all the bad things a brand has done? (with a good source, ofc). Good things would also be listed.

For me, when shopping things that are all basically the same, the brand becomes an important factor: "Do they actually care about customers?" "Are they using slave labour?" "Has a sister company done something bad?".

A ranking/list would help a lot to choose.

I don't know if I can get my idea through. 

It can be just a list, a wikipedia-like website or a website that looks like a shopping platform but when you filter by "Vacuum Cleaners", only the brands with their profile show up.

[Senzelian]

You're not the first to have this idea on this forum and the answer is always the same:
No one gives a shit. Neither the brands nor the customers.

 

 

On top of that I think it's a bad idea to involve the brand too much into the buying decision. I mean some things are obvious red flags, but a lot of complaints and issues that people have with a certain brand are either made up or completly exaggerated. There's rarely an objective opionion that actually matters.

 

 

Edit:
Keep in mind that we live in a world where everyone (literally everyone) is well aware of child labor and yet the products of it are regularly at the top of the sales charts. We just don't give a shit.

[Middcore]

15 minutes ago, Keltyx98 said:

Why not make a website/database where people can list all the bad things a brand has done?

What is the utility of a website listing every brand in existence? 

 

15 minutes ago, Keltyx98 said:

For me, when shopping things that are all basically the same, the brand becomes an important factor: "Do they actually care about customers?" 

The answer is always no. 

[Eigenvektor]

43 minutes ago, Keltyx98 said:

Why not make a website/database where people can list all the bad things a brand has done?

And who gets to vet these claims to ensure they are true, and not e.g. abused by competitors?

[Keltyx98]

11 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

And who gets to vet these claims to ensure they are true, and not e.g. abused by competitors?

My providing a valid source. Similar to wikipedia (of course, wikipedia is not perfect)

[dilpickle]

Once you start eliminating companies that have done "bad things" (whatever than means) you'll be left with no one.

[WildDagwood]

Said it in a similar thread:

 

Don't buy into hype trains, and don't buy anything from any brand, until you've seen an independent review.

 

All brands have done something shady or had consumer push back at one point or another, and they all keep bouncing around from being good, to acceptable, to bad.

 

In the end, maintaining something like this would be impossible, and full of holes. Especially with how much things can differ with products from the same company.

[LogicalDrm]

11 hours ago, Keltyx98 said:

My providing a valid source. Similar to wikipedia (of course, wikipedia is not perfect)

This is the biggest issue. Similar to what I wrote in thread asking LMG to verify more thoroughly their supply chains. Where do you get sources? What makes them valid? Even independent reporters only focus on big brands when breaking these stories as the resources of doing anything in some of the original manufacturing countries are scarce and expensive. Corruption, lack of regulations, profit over all, those are some reasons why reporting of quality of supply chain will never be perfect.

 

On top of that, there's the "internet never forgets" -issue. While some might not think it as issue, there's some massive hypocrisy related to it. If any brand at any point of their existence does something shady or bad, they can never redeem themselves. Unless they are some of the more glorified companies. Corsair, Asus, Valve for example. They can do nothing wrong. Even when they do something wrong, they apology and couple of years later no one cares. Whereas some others, EA, Razer, Kingston, make one mistake (EA many, but I refer here mainly for their customer support) and are attacked for next 50 years because of it even if the issue was minor and since been redeemed.

 

If something like this would work, it would require actual staff that would be truly neutral. Only evaluate based on mistakes made, redeemed actions and time since last incident. Giving all brands same treatment. And it will never happen as its expensive. Only way it would happen is if companies would see it as only option to operate. 

[WildDagwood]

5 hours ago, LogicalDrm said:

This is the biggest issue. Similar to what I wrote in thread asking LMG to verify more thoroughly their supply chains. Where do you get sources? What makes them valid? Even independent reporters only focus on big brands when breaking these stories as the resources of doing anything in some of the original manufacturing countries are scarce and expensive. Corruption, lack of regulations, profit over all, those are some reasons why reporting of quality of supply chain will never be perfect.

 

On top of that, there's the "internet never forgets" -issue. While some might not think it as issue, there's some massive hypocrisy related to it. If any brand at any point of their existence does something shady or bad, they can never redeem themselves. Unless they are some of the more glorified companies. Corsair, Asus, Valve for example. They can do nothing wrong. Even when they do something wrong, they apology and couple of years later no one cares. Whereas some others, EA, Razer, Kingston, make one mistake (EA many, but I refer here mainly for their customer support) and are attacked for next 50 years because of it even if the issue was minor and since been redeemed.

 

If something like this would work, it would require actual staff that would be truly neutral. Only evaluate based on mistakes made, redeemed actions and time since last incident. Giving all brands same treatment. And it will never happen as its expensive. Only way it would happen is if companies would see it as only option to operate. 

There's also the issue of how quality of support can vary in different regions. That poses some issue in itself.

[Stahlmann]

On 3/14/2023 at 10:59 PM, dilpickle said:

Once you start eliminating companies that have done "bad things" (whatever than means) you'll be left with no one.

100% This.

 

And you cannot offload moral decisions to someone else. Everyone has their own moral compass and certain lines we're not willing to cross. You can boycott brands if they're not morally acceptable to you, just don't make that decision for someone else. That exactly what lead to the biggest unnecessary hate and harassment problem i've ever witnessed on the internet, which was the recent drama around Hogwarts Legacy.

 

As a side note: There are only 2 companies/brands i know that i never had a bad experience with. Noctua and Beyerdynamic. So if i'd go by that all i could buy with a good concience are Headphones and Fans...

[Kopaka]

Closest that exist is something like https://www.trustpilot.com/