Fallacies on Amazon Reviews - Hyping by Dry-Knight and Lil' Jumbl (and Teqin, and Dr. Madre, and so on) – Update

This post is an update on the earlier posts

Fallacies on Amazon Reviews - Hyping by Dry-Knight and Lil' Jumbl dated June 14, 2015 ,

Abusingand Misinterpreting Amazon Reviews: The Case Against Chummie, Dry-Knight andLil' Jumbl dated June 26, 2016 , and

Amazon Reviews - Chummie, Dry-Knight and Lil' Jumbl continue to Deceive Amazon Customers dated September 13, 2015 .

These blogs provide substantial details about how Chummie, Dry-Knight and Lil’ Tumble were misleading Amazon customers who read Amazon Reviews thinking that they are getting unbiased reviews (regardless of what the reviewer or the seller may claim).

In this blog we are focusing on the product made by a Chinese manufacturer who is selling this product to anyone who wants to buy them throughout the world. Obviously, this manufacturer has little, if any, concern about their “customers,” the probably naive persons who think that this product will give them adequate entry into a small market with rather entrenched players. The last person to attempt to “entrench” himself was Saket Bhatia of Theos Medical Systems with his Chummie products, who used a superlative number of unethical methods, which, among other things, led a U.S. Federal Judge to issue an Order/Consent Decree against Theos/Chummie/Bhatia to remedy their activities. Even more on this matter in the future,

Meanwhile for the unimaginative and probably ill-prepared sellers and buyers of this “armband” alarm, what we have is:

1.    A poor product (in our opinion). Look at our opinions as expressed on this blog site in earlier blog entries, some of which are reference above.

2.    A poor product in the opinion of very many Amazon customers who have actually purchased this product on Amazon and spent their own money on it, and consequently provided poor reviews on Amazon.

3.    Limitless competing sellers with access to and selling the same product not only on Amazon but on other selling sites such as eBay as well.

4.    Many of these sellers have extremely limited (if any) knowledge of enuresis (bedwetting) matters and an almost non-existent ability to provide any legitimate support – other than to make blanket statements such as (in our words) “if you do not like this product for any reason, get your money back from Amazon or get a new replacement of the same product.” Of course, Amazon will take back the product and refund the money even without such redundant statements about refunds from the seller, and why would any sane buyer want to repeat their mistake?

5.    Many of these sellers on Amazon may not even be U.S. based. The first seller of this product took a lot (months) of questions, which we would call “heckling,” before establishing an address of record in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The second does not list any address or telephone number and may be in China, for all that we know! The third, and newest seller of this same alarm on Amazon, has stated that they were originally shipping their products from China and are therefore probably China based. No American address or telephone number are provided for the second or third seller referenced here.

6.    With no convenient or “immediate” way to contact the seller, even during normal U.S. business hours, the buyer can expect poor, if any, genuine technical support for the product or matters relating to bedwetting and enuresis. Many users with questions prefer to have a dialogue over the phone, and this is not possible with these China-based sellers who are unwilling to provide a free U.S.-based phone number and provide support during normal U.S. business hours which is very inconvenient as China is on the other side of the world. So “punting” and/or “Return to Amazon” are probably the only viable support the user can expect.

7.    With a poor product and poor sellers apparently trying to make a quick buck, don’t expect much in the way of warranty or technical support. The first seller, BGS Sales, has disappeared from Amazon. The other two, Lil’ Tumbl and Teqin appear to be selling a variety of do-dads, of which this alarm is now one. How long anything may exist or be available for the buyer is very questionable.

The seller “BGS Sales” has disappeared from Amazon for several weeks.

The seller “Lil’ Tumbl” has been attempting to buy his way onto Amazon Reviews ratings much like Chummie did over a period of years. Looking at the statistics that are presented in

Amazon Reviews - Chummie, Dry-Knight and Lil' Jumbl continue to Deceive Amazon Customers

as of October 9, 2015, of the 24 Amazon Reviews:

11 are confirmed paid reviews, and 3 suspect paid reviews.

Of the balance of 10 Verified reviews where the buyer has purchased the product with his/her own money:

7 dislike the product, and 3 like the product. This is a VERY POOR rating by actual paying and truly verified buyers

Which brings us to a newer seller of this poor product, “Teqin,” which has been displaying this product for sale on Amazon for one or two weeks. Now for more shenanigans by Teqin:

1.    When the product was first placed for sale on Amazon, it was indicated that there were 105 Amazon Reviews for this product, almost all of which were 5-stars and a few were 4-stars. No other possibilities! Only 1 5-stars review was visible, by “Tyra Megginness.”

2.    We noticed a question to the seller about why a claim was made for 105 reviews, and only one was visible. To which there was a response from the seller that “Sorry, the technician is working on this issue. The reviews are expected to visible later.”

3.    Almost at the same time, the 105 reviews dropped to 2 or 3.

4.    Tyra Meginness’s 5-stars review was still present, but this review is for some other product that Teqin sells on Amazon. Not this poor alarm. Someone else has also noticed this and commented on it on Amazon. What has Teqin done about removing this fake and inappropriate review as of this instance? Nothing! This inappropriate review still stands as a “testament” for the alarm sold by Teqin to get 5-stars!

5.    An actual review was placed by a Verified buyer for this product. The buyer “Nick Morrison” gives the product a 1-star. Very much dislikes it. So we have one valid 1-star review.

6.    There are now 5 reviews listed (as of 10/9/15):

One is an invalid and inappropriate 5-stars.

One is a 5-star received as a gift.
Two are verified 1-star but have no other reviews.

One is non-existent ???

So what sort of games is Teqin playing on Amazon, and can this seller be trusted based on the current evidence? Can Amazon be trusted to make certain that sellers are not playing games with Amazon Reviews, something that Theos/Chummie/Bhatia did abundantly and Amazon has yet to follow a U.S. Federal Judge's order (through Theos/Chummie/Bhatia) to do so.

And now we have the same alarm (manufactured by MODO) being sold under the name of Dr. Madre, where the only difference appears to be the name and a much higher price. No reviews as yet (Smart?!). And tomorrow we shall have this alarm being sold by Tom, then Dick, then Harry, and whoever else thinks that this device by MODO is their personal path to richness. The only party that appears to be making money on this is MODO who is willing to sell it to anyone with some money.

The present evidence suggests a poor product being marketed by quick-buck sellers, primarily from China, who are unlikely to support or possibly even carry this product for long. Again we suggest:

Buyer Beware!

Which brings us to our old gripe against the manufacturer and sellers of this product in the U.S. By U.S. law and FDA regulations, an Enuresis and Bed Wetting Alarm is a Class II medical device and MUST be registered with the FDA. This process is simple, essentially involving the filling out of a form and paying the FDA an annual registration fee. All registered parties and products are listed on the FDA site

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfrl/rl.cfm

and entering KPN for the Product Code. Neither the manufacturer (SHENZHEN MODO TECHNOLOGY CO.,LTD.) nor any of the sellers of this product are listed. The regulation stipulates that an unregistered alarm CAN NOT be shipped to a U.S. customer from within the U.S. So a seller shipping it directly from China is compliant with the law. A seller using Amazon fulfillment and shipping is violating the law. In fact, as we understand it, Amazon is violating this regulation by shipping these unregistered products from its U.S. locations to U.S. customers. But Amazon observing all legalities with respect to its own behavior is only something we can place on a bucket wish list …

Does a buyer really feel comfortable about a manufacturer and/or seller who is unable to pay the FDA’s registration fee, and/or has no qualms about flaunting and disobeying U.S. laws and regulations? So we again appeal to the morality, ethics and even patriotism of U.S. buyers to NOT buy this product if it is fulfilled by Amazon or shipped from a U.S. source.

Again, BUYER BEWARE!