Amazon and Chummie - Is this Relationship Bad or Troublesome for the Consumer and Amazon's Customer?

Ever since we started this blog on June 4, 2013 it quickly became very apparent that Theos Medical Systems with their Chummie bed wetting alarm product(s) lacked credibility or conscience with respect to their ethics and behavior. There are already about fifty articles about Theos and Chummie in this blog, and none of them are complimentary. About the beginning of October, 2014, even Amazon, which was two of the legs of Theos's three-legged stool, dismissed Theos Medical Systems from being a vendor on Amazon.com because of their continuing and severe violations of Amazon.com's policies and standards for ethical seller behavior. Now let us take a look at what appears to have happened since Theos was banned by Amazon. 

1.            Amazon has banned Theos Medical Systems ("Theos") from being a seller on Amazon.com because of severe violations by Theos of Amazon's policies and standards for ethical behavior by a seller. This is a very serious action that Amazon has taken after reviewing and verifying substantial evidence about Theos's bad behavior. This ban went into effect about October 1, 2014.

2.            Amazon was, at that time, selling a Chummie bedwetting alarm. We have pointed out in numerous blogs how Theos had manipulated his reviews and results on Amazon for this product, so as to artificially enhance the "success" of this product on Amazon. These include the disappearance of numerous poor reviews (1 star and 2 stars) and the substantial use of shills to provide phony 5-stars reviews. Theos also used highly unethical (and possibly illegal) off-Amazon schemes to get fake reviews placed on Amazon, whether to tout Theos's products on Amazon or to debase the ratings of competitors' products on Amazon. We must assume that all of these appeared very attractive to Amazon (the result that Theos desired) and Amazon decided to adopt Theos's product for sale by Amazon. Some of these matters that occurred on Amazon cannot be rationally or ethically explained away by us. 

3.            We assume that some or all of these unethical activities contributed to Amazon's throwing Theos off Amazon.com. It is also credible for us to assume that if Theos has been banished by Amazon, Amazon would not turn around and embrace Theos because he was wearing a mask on his face. In other words, there is a significant question as to whether Amazon should do business with a confirmed violator of ethics, or anyone fronting for this violator. Amazon continues to sell the Chummie alarm, and it is reasonable to assume that it comes directly, or almost directly, from Theos who is the manufacturer. Whoever may technically supply the products to Amazon, Theos gets most of Amazon's bucks. Furthermore, if Theos's unconscionable abuse of Amazon's Vine Review system and other manipulations of Amazon's reviews contributed to Amazon's banishing Theos from Amazon.com, we cannot comprehend how or why Theos is allowed to keep these reviews and a corresponding highly exaggerated rating in Amazon's reviews. This keeps Theos's products in a vaunted position in the Amazon reviews for bedwetting alarms, effectively aiding and abetting a seller who Amazon has banished. It also diminishes the honesty and value of Amazon's Review System to the consumer and Amazon's customers, who may be gullible to the exaggerated ratings in the reviews.

4.            More of the same continues at Amazon. This week (December 22, 2014) we noticed that Amazon had adopted and was selling the Chummie Elite, a product that Theos makes and sells, and was previously selling on Amazon in their own name. After Theos was banned from Amazon, this product has been sold on Amazon by "onlybestdeals." Would anyone care to speculate on the relationship that may exist between "onlybestdeals" and Theos?

5.            Theos (or Theos's proxy) has been promoting and manipulating the Chummie Elite on Amazon in much the same way that it promoted and manipulated the original Chummie. Theos's antics on the internet (and on Amazon.com) have been unethical and conducted with so much "chutspah" and apparent immunity that Theos has developed quite a following. The blog

https://sites.google.com/site/fraudonamazonreviews/

examines Theos's behavior on Amazon after August 1, 2014 and the abundant use of shills. There is a substantial focus on the Chummie Elite at

https://sites.google.com/site/fraudonamazonreviews/analysis-of-amazon-5-stars-reviews-for-chummie-elite-starting-august-1-2014

which amply illustrates Theos's methods of first using shills, and when they were adequately exposed, using Amazon Vine Reviewers very abundantly to get a very generous number of high stars ratings.

 

Theos is like a kid who keeps testing the limits of what he can get away with till he gets smacked. And he tests the limits again till he gets smacked again. This is a non-ending process with Theos, and the powers that are responsible for monitoring and smacking down such parties must remain alert to this penchant and habit so that it does not become excessive or exploitative.

6.            In this period after August 1, 2014 through the date of this posting, the Chummie Elite has a total of 152 Verified Reviews, of which 119 (78%) are Amazon Vine Reviews with take-it-for-granted generally very high stars, and only 33 genuine Verified Purchasers, with 17 positive and 16 negative using Amazon's system. Using only the Verified Purchasers, who have a true opinion of the Chummie Elite which they have spent their money on and used, using Amazon's rating system would give the Chummie Elite an average of 3.1, a far smaller number than is showing on Amazon. These number come from the statistics posted on the fraudonamazonreviews site mentioned above in 5.

7.            We are taking the liberty of copying from fraudonamazonreviews more current statistics:

8.            Can Amazon not notice how Theos is running up his Chummie Elite ratings on Amazon.com? Are the decision-makers at Amazon impervious to facts? Are the executives and legal department at Amazon aware of what is happening and have consciously and knowingly approved of this? Or is this something that is being perpetrated by someone at Amazon who may have a special relationship with Theos, and may be flying under Amazon's radar? We find this matter of Theos "providing" Amazon's customers with what we consider to be undeserved ratings of the Chummie Elite in Amazon's Reviews to be very disturbing.

Theos's abominable behavior is well known, and even Amazon has smacked Theos. But there are many valid questions about Amazon's continuing behavior towards Theos/Chummie that merit close examination and substantial explanations, both within Amazon and outside Amazon. To our non-legal eye this matter between Amazon and Theos/Chummie seems to be rigged, and not in the best interests of Amazon's customers or stockholders if 
1.   The credibility of Amazon's much-vaunted Review System is blemished and credibility suffers.
2.   Theos and/or its Chummie product(s), relative to their competition on Amazon.com, are uniquely allowed to use or abuse Amazon's resources to develop or maintain an unfair advantage relative to their competitors on Amazon.com's Reviews System, who are not allowed such use of Amazon's resources.
3.   Is Amazon going to allow Theos/Chummie to keep the high-valued reviews that we have demonstrated comes from his unabashedly exploiting Amazon's flawed review system? Or will Amazon respect all competitors evenly and strip away these reviews which only Theos could obtain and did so to an unconscionable degree?

We sincerely hope that Amazon will examine these matters very carefully and address them adequately.

Note: This blog entry is continued and updated on our entry on this blog dated February 3, 2015, and can be reached at
Amazon and Chummie - Is this Relationship Bad or Troublesome for the Consumer and Amazon's Customer? Update.