Washtenaw Community College

Better Business Bureau
The Bureau aims to serve as an unbiased organization upholding fair, honest business behavior. It provides free objective advice, business reliability reports, and educational information.

Consumer Information Center
The website for the Federal Citizen Information Center provides pamphlets or books for free or little cost on a wide variety of consumer issues. Much of the information can be viewed online or sent to the user. Topics include cars, computers, employment, housing, travel, and much more.

Consumer Protection
The consumer education website of the Federal Trade Commission includes text or audio files on a variety of topics including credit, identity theft, scholarship and employment services, telephone services, and travel. They are especially good in the area of how to avoid scams. Complaints can be filed online to the FTC.

ConsumerSearch.com
This very useful site summarizes consumer reviews on products to help consumers' research purchase decisions. ConsumerSearch separates advertising content from editorial content in order to remain unbiased. Over 800 product categories are covered including computers, wireless plans, and fitness equipment and the site is searchable. Print and internet reviews are rated according to the source, author, credibility of the site, etc. The "full story" and "fast answer" features tie all of the reviews together and make recommendations based at different price levels.

Consumer World
This gateway site was founded by Edward Dvorsky, a national consumer advocate. It contains a wide range of news, tips and shopping bargains. Users can compare prices, read product reviews and articles, visit online customer services departments, and search for coupons for all kinds of purchases such as travel, electronics, leisure, etc. Includes a search engine. Links to some sites that require registering or subscribing.

Craigslist
Connects buyers and sellers who share a zipcode, to facilitate sales of used items that are difficult to ship---or that most people would want to try out before buying (furniture, appliances)---an option not available on eBay. Also lists personal ads, discussion forums, services, housing and jobs for the local area.

Edmunds.com
Provides information and pricing on new and used cars. Searchable by make and model. Covers all aspects pf the car purchase process: buying, selling, leasing, maintenance, warranty, finance, insurance, safety and maintenance costs.

Kelly Blue Book
Provides pricing on New and Used cars. Searchable by make, model and year.

Money: Best Places to Live
This site profiles America's 300 largest metro areas. The site's search engine allows one to search by city name or by a combination of factors, including: weather, economy, housing, education, crime, transportation, leisure, arts and culture.

The Princeton Review College Rankings
Lists 357 colleges ranked by students as the best. Lists are organized into categories such as academics, politics, parties, quality of life, administration, demographics, extracurricular and social.

Safeshopping.org
The American Bar Association created and maintains this through and detailed guide to shopping safely online. There is information for buyers and sellers on issues such as security, privacy, payment, product, delivery, and complaints. Has a list of ten tips to consider when making online purchases.

Shopping.com
Combines two web resources: Dealtime, a shopping search engine and Epinions, a consumer review and ratings database. The site claims to "deliver the world's ultimate shopping experience, where people use the power of information to make the best shopping decisions." Users first find the right product from millions of items, compare prices and quality using reviews and ratings, and may buy the product from one of the online stores.

Test Freaks
This site collects product information and reviews from over 60 countries.

U.S. PIRG
The Federation of State Public Interest Research Groups is an advocate for the public interest in health care, economic and democratic reforms, etc.