When I buy computer parts or a phone or anything that beeps I do tons of research, ask Rachel. And I'm keeping with my modus operandi. But this time instead of researching the most cost effective products, I'm researching companies with the best treatment of others. The result is that I found something great, something bad, and a whole bunch of meh.
Great: It turns out that one of my favorite companies rates highly on the global stage and I can safely buy all of their products.
Bad: My other favorite company rates poorly and I've bought tons of their products over the last 15 years.
Meh: It's really hard to get good information on these tech manufacturers. Different sites rate the same company at different ends of the spectrum while most research organizations don't have full data on their working conditions and pay. And sometimes, you are just trying to pick out the least bad company. That doesn't feel good.
So after about four hours of searching for information, here's some sites I found for research:
- www.corporatecritic.org & www.ethicalconsumer.org
- This one has the best rating system of all but is not free. I signed up for a four week trial.
- www.gooshing.co.uk
- This one is neat, but they are missing data on some key areas like working conditions/fair wage, etc. They can, however, tell you if the company deals in armaments or supports an evil dictator. Yay.
- www.crocodyl.org
- This one has a lot of research on non tech companies, so it will be good in the future for me.
- www.business-humanrights.org
- This one doesn't do ratings but gives articles about the companies. You can learn a lot here and I recommend it for researching companies where you think you will buy a lot
Your modus operandi sounds a whole lot like Cameron's... I can't tell you how often I catch him scouring tech bargains and then googling the products to read reviews. But, I guess that's what geeks do when they geek out. This is great info... bookmarking it for the day that I a) have extra money and b) have so much extra money that I feel inclined to buy tech gear with it and c) don't spend said extra money on jewelry, clothes, boots and makeup before I get the chance to spend it on tech gear.
ReplyDeleteThe great thing about those sites is that they research all industries, not just tech. And they tell you which huge company owns your favorite "little" company so you can see that too.
ReplyDeleteJonathan, are those sites listed in order of most helpful? Also, would you be willing to share which companies you found to rate well and poorly?
ReplyDeleteThey might be in order of most useful, although the crocodyl and business-humanrights.org are a tossup.
ReplyDeleteSo I was looking at computer parts and I'd be happy to share although I didn't expect many people to be interested.
Seagate (hard drives) rated very highly in compiled ratings and news articles.
Asustek (motherboards, video cards etc) rated poorly. I have bought tons of their products over the years but now I'm switching to Gigabyte, which rated much better than Asustek.