1. Having examined Theos Medical Systems ("Theos") and their Chummie product(s) on this blog since June, 2013, we have long believed that there is substantial evidence about Theos's unethical. and possibly illegal conduct. Theos has over-hyped its products with false and unsubstantiated claims, been extremely unethical, and again possibly illegal, in its behavior towards competitors that it fears, and done "whatever it takes" to ingratiate itself with Amazon so that Theos products would be "Sold by Amazon." Subsequently, after significant exposure from this blog and others, in late September, 2014, Amazon realized that Theos was abusing Amazon's code of ethics for sellers, and banished Theos from being a seller on Amazon. However, Amazon continued to "sell" some Theos products directly, and also allowed the sales on Amazon.com of all Theos products through "front" organizations such as "onlybestdeals."
2. As part of Amazon's concessions to sellers whose products were "Sold by Amazon," Amazon.com provided privileged assistance to compose and lay out the display on Amazon for such products. The Amazon page display for these products goes well beyond what is allowed to the typical seller on Amazon.com, both in the size of the allowed page, its graphics and other content, and its formatting, all presumably with the intent that such a special presentation would create more sales than a standard display page, and that Amazon would also benefit from these "superlative" sales. Unfortunately for Amazon, Theos's products are sliding downwards at what appears to be a faster and faster rate, as consumers and potential buyers become more aware of how much the Chummie products have been over-hyped and over-priced. We have often suggested that Theos's greatest interest is in transferring the assets of "poor parents" to themselves with sales of their over-hyped and over-priced products, thus helping to make their "customers" into "poor parents." Theos's excessive abuse of the normally accepted "code of ethical conduct" for an American business, as opposed to what may happen in some corrupt third-world country, and banishment by Amazon may have accelerated their downward slide.
3. Consider the current rankings on Amazon.com of Theos's two bedwetting alarm products - the Chummie Premium and the Chummie Elite. Their current performance on Amazon can be identified by the "Amazon Best Sellers Rank" in "Health and Personal Care," a rank that Amazon determines as per current sales. The numbers reproduced below were obtained from Amazon.com at 3 p.m. Pacific Time on April 8, 2015.
Chummie Premium: TC300B (Blue) Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,722 in Health & Personal Care
TC300P (Pink) Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #66,704 in Health & Personal Care
Average Rank: #41,713
Chummie Elite: TCE25G (Green) Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #65,784 in Health & Personal Care
TCE25B (Blue) Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #127,301 in Health & Personal Care
TCE25O (Orange) Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #147,616 in Health & Personal Care
TCE25P (Pink) Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #107,013 in Health & Personal Care
Average Rank: #111,929
These are very low and poor ranks, whether you consider the best in the group, or the average. It would be appropriate to point out that before August, 2014, when Theos's abuses began to to be confirmed at Amazon.com, the Chummie Premium usually had a rank below 5,000 and the second position on the "bedwetting alarm" Amazon.com page. Although, based on our knowledge and observations, we do not believe that Amazon did appropriate due diligence in deciding to "sell" the Chummie alarms, we can certainly understand why the good ranking and all of the hype that Theos generated may have allowed some Theos well-wisher at Amazon to accept the Chummie products to be "sold" directly by Amazon. Till recently, the Chummie Elite was also being "sold" directly by Amazon. Then they stopped "selling" it. Then they started again. The Chummie Elite, in our minds, is a very poor value for any buyer, and we are unable to understand why Amazon is even playing with this item (see the above performance statistics from Amazon.com). We wonder how long it will take Amazon to realize that they should stop "selling" the Chummie Premium and Elite with their poor acceptance by the public and the negative exposure that accompanies them.. And all the special privileges extended by Amazon to Chummie do not appear to be halting this disfavor. Three cups of hype and baloney are not better accepted than two cups.
4. We have always suggested that the manufacturer/seller should provide complete and correct product information to all prospective customers. Theos makes many unsubstantiated claims, and also intentionally avoids providing straightforward technical information even when asked for it. We are referring to the Chummie Elite page on Amazon.com, where Chummie was asked a question on December 14, 2014, and received a response from another person (not Chummie) on January 11, 2015.
Q: Hi. Can you provide measured loudness in dB at 8 inches from ear. Then we know exactly how loud this alarm can be. Thanks.
A: I noticed that this question has been sitting here for 1 month. A very valid and relevant question which even the seller cannot answer? This not speak well about matters.
Theos/Chummie still has not responded and provided an answer to a fairly standard question which allows a valid comparison between the loudness levels of different alarms. This suggests that Theos really may not care about what information consumers are requesting, or may find it too embarrassing to substantiate its possibly exaggerated claims of "loud alert tones" and "wakes up the deepest sleepers."
5. We have adequately addressed the issue of Chummie's failures on Amazon for the moment. Now we return to Chummie's illicit performance on Amazon and its relative performance on eBay. As has been pointed out in
Chummie Fraud on Amazon Reviews :
and excerpted here below (Please click the last link just above if you cannot view the following chart properly):
We shall now update these real eBay sales statistics on this blog entry and leave the former entries as they are.
6. Which brings us back to the troubling relationship between Amazon and Theos/Chummie.
Amazon's customers are rejecting Theos/Chummie's hype about his bedwetting alarms. The Chummie Elite has very poor ratings on Amazon as well as eBay. On eBay, where an exact count of sales is provided, Chummie Elite's poor sales compared to DryBuddyEZ and WetStop3 are very apparent at the bottom of the above table. Chummie Elite's sales on Amazon are equally poor, in spite of Theos/Chummie giving away well over 150 units to Vine reviewers who usually give superlative ratings, artificially raising the Amazon reviews average. The actual Amazon Verified Purchaser numbers and opinions certainly demonstrate a poor opinion of the Chummie Elite, commensurate with the Chummie Elite's poor performance on eBay.
How long is Amazon going to support and "carry" and directly sell these poor selling and inferior Chummie products? Is this millstone really in Amazon's best interests, as opposed to Theos/Chummie's? A very detailed and impartial technical comparison of all Wired bedwetting alarms can be found at
http://bed-wettingalarms.com/Wired_Alarms.html or
http://urinealarms.com/Wired_Alarm_Chart.html
Also look at the Wireless alarms comparison at
http://bed-wettingalarms.com/Wireless_Alarms.html or
http://urinealarms.com/Wireless_Alarm_Chart.html
and see how these wireless alarms are also a much superior alternative to Chummie's high priced and poor value wired alarm offerings.
7. Obviously, Theos is feeling the heat of poor performance on an inferior over-hyped and over-priced product, as we are seeing a proliferation of maliciously abusive and defamatory blogs being generated by fictitious "authors." The style, content, and absurd (crazy?) rants, repeated time and again, and directed towards Theos's well proclaimed "competitive adversaries" (our quotes) makes it very likely that these senseless blogs and entries originate at Theos/Chummie. We have addressed some of these milder claims in prior blog entries.
8. Can Amazon not notice how Theos has run up his Chummie-related ratings on Amazon.com with no remorse for the excesses that Amazon let him get away with, and still has these poor item languishing in the ratings doldrums? Can they not see how the popularity of his well over-hyped and incredibly falsely praised Chummie Premium (original) has fallen from favor, now that Theos's hands are somewhat tied with respect to the fake reviews and purchases as well as excessive hype? This Chummie alarm has very noticeably slipped from second place in Amazon's "bedwetting alarm" ratings and may soon fall to sixth place, and possibly much further. 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. Amazon and their Legal Department dismissed Theos as a seller on Amazon for, amongst other matters, his using numerous fake reviews to boost his Chummie products "ratings" on Amazon. And Amazon still allows Theos/Chummie to keep these illicitly obtained "reviews" and maintain an artificially hyped-up ratings value, thereby feeding Amazon's customers with false data, seemingly with Amazon's blessings? This appears to be continuing and unfathomable behavior on the part of Amazon, and difficult to ethically justify in our opinion.
9. Theos's poor credibility and abominable behavior is well known, and even Amazon has smacked Theos. Was Theos's removal as a seller on Amazon.com accompanied with a wink and a nod? 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
a. The credibility of Amazon's much-vaunted Review System is blemished and credibility suffers.
b. 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.
c. 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.
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