Fake Amazon Reviews - Dr. Madre, Teqin and Lil' Jumbl Bedwetting and Enuresis Alarms

Update November 27, 2015: Before you read further, we want to mention a substantial update on Dr. Madre expanding its fake Amazon reviews by many times. This is addressed in a more recent post at

Dr. Madre Fake Amazon Reviews – Greed Apparently Overwhelms Morals and Scruples with 81% of the Reviews being obviously FAKE!

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We read with considerable delight the recent news that Amazon was suing about 1,000 persons who had advertised that they could place fake Amazon Reviews and were offering this unethical service to Sellers who may be sufficiently unethical and incorrigible enough to pay them for these services. The Seller gets his/her (his) 5-stars reviews on Amazon.com, a corresponding boost in his Amazon rank and, possibly, a corresponding boost from sales to gullible and oblivious Buyers who may lack the ability to identify and discount fake reviews, and possibly punish these fraudulent Sellers for their ethical abuses by not buying these products. This abuse of Amazon Reviews by unethical Sellers is something that we have been pointing at for a long time, and strongly suggesting that Amazon needs to be taking strong action in the matter. Amazon is, at last, taking some appropriate action by going after these unethical review providers.

Amazon’s suing these unethical persons who advertised their offering of fake Amazon reviews on Fivver is only the tip of the iceberg. We strongly suspect that there are other services (like Fivver) or other media including more local “rags” in places such as “Silicon Valley” where many sellers may be located, where the fake reviews provider may consider it to be worth his while to advertise his services. Many such providers may also convey their services to unethical Buyers by having more “direct” connections to Sellers that are well known to be using such services. A reader only needs to look at this blog to identify at least one Seller in this small industry that may fall into this category. Yes, we are referring to Theos Medical Systems, the Seller of Chummie, and its owner Saket Bhatia (Theos/Chummie/Bhatia). We shall address ourselves to them a little later.

First, we need to point at the Sellers of a particular bedwetting alarm, where there are a horde of Sellers attracted to this bedwetting alarm, which an incongruous manufacturer in China has no qualms about supplying this alarm to. Oversupply, lack of suitable local support in the U.S., and illegal shipping within the U.S. in violation of U.S. rules and regulations, does not prevent desperate parties without suitable qualms to try and exploit the U.S. market. We have been pointing out these Amazon Sellers as well, and intend to elaborate on our focus about how they are abusing Amazon reviews through fake reviews and hyping of their products. We have been pointing out the illicit behavior of Theos/Chummie/Bhatia, for more than two years. To other unethical and illicit Sellers, Theos/Chummie/Bhatia may have a model worth following. Among other acts, Theos/Chummie/Bhatia has used the services of fake reviewers extensively. Have no doubts that we shall address them further in such matters. Meanwhile, desperate sellers with a poor product, unable to get sales through legitimate means, are resorting to using fake Amazon Reviews.

How do we identify fake reviews? Without complete records and information relating to the review and the “Customer” who posts such reviews, we cannot be 100% certain that a review may be false or fake. So we apply some simple tests. A reviewer who only has a single review for the product and no other reviews, is immediately suspect. Even if it is a “Verified Purchase.” We believe that many Sellers will spend more money, effectively paying the reviewer to purchase the product. That not only allows the Buyer to appear more credible, but it also allows the Buyer to get more money by returning the product to Amazon (get a refund) if he has not been directly compensated for his purchase by the Seller. For the Seller, this purchase increases his product sales on Amazon, helping his rank on Amazon.com. We also consider “recent” reviews which are easy to fake. So would a reviewer with reviews going back two years be considered illicit? Yes, if he has no reviews for significant time and then suddenly shows a spurt of reviews (including the suspect review) all clustered at or around the time when the suspect review has been posted. Essentially, we have to try and put on the mind-set of these unethical persons (both the Seller and Buyer involved in the fake review). So, usually, we can only point at a fake review as being highly suspect, unless we have definitive proof that a review is fake (which has been true of a substantial number of Theos/Chummie/Bhatia reviews). We also recognize that when a fake review is posted on Amazon, there is a possibility that it may have been posted by some party other than the Seller. It may also penalize an honest poor opinion by a true customer, as these people often do not post anything on Amazon reviews unless they think very poorly of a product and want to express their opinion. However we do include such reviews in our list of fake reviews. We also recognize that for some Sellers (Theos/Chummie/Bhatia, for example) investing in a longer-time approach and paying months in advance for such shenanigans, may be worthwhile for their angst and dread of factual competition. Again, the prime intent is to make it relatively difficult for a fake reviewer and an unethical seller to post a review on Amazon. But this entire set of approaches would be moot if Amazon would seriously crack down on deceitful Sellers.

So we shall list the suspect Sellers and also list the suspect fake reviews. We are sequencing them by their rank on Amazon when we are writing this article. These Sellers all sell the alarm made by Shenzen Modo Technologies, which is currently being sold in the U.S. by many sellers, some being on Amazon.com with shipping from Amazon.

Seller: Dr. Madre 

The latest seller on this crowded scene is Dr. Madre. A latecomer on Amazon.com, Dr. Madre is attempting to make a quick start by getting four (4) paid reviews immediately. Here is a seller who recognizes that being successful on Amazon will not be easy without deceit, and is willing to indulge in it without much delay. All current reviews are on our Fake Review list.

Fake Reviews:   100% of current reviews are fake.

Silas P
Amazon Customer
Katherine H
RC

Seller: Teqin:   100% of current reviews are fake.

Not only do all of Teqin’s reviews appear to be fake, but one (Tyra Meginness) is for a different product. How or why Teqin got it inserted as a review for the alarm is a good question for Teqin and Amazon to address. The five newest reviews by Mark Patrick, Mary S Joseph, J Ronals, Ronald L James and Dawbarn Chris all cover the same two products. This Seller must have a very poor opinion of Amazon customers or reviews readers to be treating everyone so stupidly.

Fake Reviews:   100% of current reviews appear to be fake.
Mark Patrick
Mary S Joseph
J Ronald
Ronald L James
Dawbarn Chris
Arju
Kevin E. Mathews
Jeniperkim
Denise Sadler
John Carter
Nick Morrison
Tyra Meginness

Seller: Lil’ Jumbl:

Here we have the oldest seller of the three. Only “BGS Sales,” a seller who preceded Lil’ Jumbl, is an “older” seller of this item. BGS initiated “giving away” a large quantity of free samples to Amazon reviewers, almost insuring receiving a 5-stars review. We refer to these as “freebie reviews.” BGS sales did not see much long-term benefit to giving away as many units as they did, because BGS Sales has been absent from Amazon for many weeks. Lil’ Jumble has given away 9 units so far, getting 9 freebie 5-stars. That is 35% of their total reviews. As things stand at the moment, including other newer sellers of the same item and related price declines, we doubt that Lil’ Jumble will get much long term benefit from these freebie give-aways.

For readers who want to know why we think so poorly of this Modo Technologies alarm, please look at our entry

Abusing and Misinterpreting Amazon Reviews: The Case Against Chummie, Dry-Knight and Lil' Jumble.

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!

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

We have frequently complained about Amazon Reviews purchased by unethical sellers. Theos Medical Systems, the maker and seller of Chummie products, and its owner Saket Bhatia (Theos/Chummie/Bhatia) have blatantly indulged in buying reviews to boost their ratings on Amazon Reviews. Many have been for cash, and many for "donations" of the product to recipient "Reviewers." A Federal Judge has already ordered Theos/Chummie/Bhatia to stop this purchasing reviews for cash, and to have many such reviews removed from Chummie's Amazon Reviews. The Judges Order and our comments about it can be found at

Grand Deceit by Theos Medical Systems and Chummie – A Judge's Order! (Part 1)
Grand Deceit by Theos Medical Systems and Chummie – A Judge's Order! (Part 2)
Theos Medical Systems and Chummie’s Grand Deceit – Amazon and Costco’s Dilemma!

We have still to see this happen, and shall write much more about this later. 

We have also pointed out in substantial detail how these same sellers run up their Amazon ratings by donating a substantial number of products to persons who then almost invariably write very positive reviews about the products generously given to them. This has been expressed in considerable detail in

Fallacies on Amazon Reviews - Hyping by Dry-Knight and Lil' Jumbl  and 
Abusing and Misinterpreting Amazon Reviews: The Case Against Chummie, Dry-Knight and Lil' Jumble.

So we shall examine the performance of these three sellers of bedwetting alarms by first removing the Amazon Reviews false bias by looking at Chummie's performance on eBay:

We then look at the extreme bias that Dry-Knight and especially Lil' Jumbl have on Amazon through their abundant give-aways of product to buy good reviews:


It does not surprise us that even with all of these purchased "good" reviews, there are sufficient "bad" reviews by earnest customers who have actually spent their money purchasing these items on Amazon, so that their Amazon results are still poor (in our opinion).

Look at the detailed comparison table in

Abusing and Misinterpreting Amazon Reviews: The Case Against Chummie, Dry-Knight and Lil' Jumble.

to truly understand how poor the Chummie, Dry-Knight and Lil'Jumbl bedwetting alarms are, in features and price, when compared to a sample of substantially superior alarms.

We point out the above in the hope that you, the customer, though your intelligent actions, can stop the abuse of Amazon Reviews, and simultaneously stop being mis-led by Amazon Reviews.