Your letters to Consumer Reports

In this report: Overview

Your letters

Last reviewed: August 2010

This article appeared in
August 2010 Consumer Reports Magazine.

Security software

As a follow-up to your June 2010 review of security software, note that many consumers don't have to choose between low-cost and high-quality programs. Their Internet service provider may offer a downloadable subscription to one of the major products at no cost; it's already included in the cost of their service and typically covers multiple computers in the same home or business.

Phil Hoffman
East Haddam, CT

A few gripes

As a longtime subscriber, I have relied on Consumer Reports to make many purchasing decisions. But in the past few years my confidence in your information has eroded. Some vehicles labeled as "Recommended" in the Annual Auto Issue are not really recommended in the text below the headline. And the annual Buying Guide doesn't always reflect the latest information. For example, the 2008 Buying Guide recommends the Toyota Camry V6, a car that CR said it "no longer recommended" in the December 2007 issue. How about noting that the information is current as of a certain date, and that readers should go to your magazine or website for updates?

Burton M. Taylor
Rockville, MD

We recommend vehicles that have met minimum thresholds in our road tests and reliability surveys and in government or insurance-industry crash tests if tested. They're designated with a . Additional text offers detail (good and bad), but it isn't meant to undercut a recommendation. As for our Buying Guide, you raise an interesting idea that we will consider.

Bogus beauty cream

Unilever, owner of the Dove beauty care brand, would like readers to know that it does not make or sell the Dove Whitening Peeling Cream product depicted on the Selling It page of the June 2010 issue. The product is either fake or counterfeit.

Stacie Bright
Senior Communications Marketing Manager, Unilever
Englewood Cliffs, NJ