Theos Medical Systems and Chummie Continue their Deceit and Trickery.

We noticed Theos and Chummie are being tricky again. They fussed and fumed earlier this December when their favorite adversary, DryBuddy (self-professed by Theos/Chummie) had on their eBay posting for DryBuddyEZ the following warranty:

Warranty:

The DryBuddyEZ alarm box comes with a one year limited warranty. The sensor has a 90 days limited warranty. Batteries and physical breakage and damage are not covered by the warranty.

Customer must contact DryBuddy Service at 912-352-8854 providing details of the problem and providing customer's telephone number and email address. DryBuddy Service will discuss matter with customer. If the item needs to be returned for testing. repair, or replacement, a Return Authorization (RA #) will be emailed to customer's email address. Customer is responsible for shipping the defective device to the address on the RA email and related shipping costs. Instructions for shipping will be provided in the email.

NOTE: DryBuddy only warrants and supports the DryBuddyEZ and other DryBuddy items sold directly by Enuresis Solutions, LLC (DryBuddy) and authorized resellers. This is the only legitimate offer for DryBuddyEZ on this site. Any other offer for the DryBuddyEZ on this site will not be warranted or supported by DryBuddy.

Theos and Chummie were bellicose (they usually are) that there was no warranty or support offered! As often stated by us before, Theos/Chummie's cognitive abilities are quite limited. Whatever facts may be presented to them are only interpreted and absorbed in a manner that suits them, even if their interpretation is blatantly false. It is quite clear to us that DryBuddy has a one year/90 days limited warranty for their product. What Chummie dislikes is the last part, starting with NOTE: which says that any other listing of the DryBuddyEZ on eBay is illegitimate and that sale will not be warranted or supported by DryBuddy. The reason for Theos/Chummie's bellicose behavior is now very apparent, as the DryBuddyEZ is now being offered for 2 dollars less by a seller with unknown address. Interestingly, this seller by the name of "savingsforyou" has the following identity as stated by eBay:

User ID Effective Date End Date savingsforyou Oct-04-09 Present sumansbhatia Sep-16-08 Oct-04-09

Note that before changing his ID, the owner of this User ID shares the same last name as the owner of Theos Medical Systems, not a common name in the U.S., and certainly not if it relates to bedwetting alarms. It is therefore extremely likely that "savingsforyou" is closely associated with Theos/Chummie.

One may well ask what may be the logic or rational behind this behavior by Theos/Chummy? Of course, this assumes that you can credit them with even a modicum of logic and ethics! We can only assume that Mr. Bhatia is attempting to convince eBay viewers that he can supply DryBuddyEZ for a lower price than DryBuddy. Even though, if he provides a legitimate DryBuddyEZ product, he would be effectively purchasing it from DryBuddy at a higher price and selling it on eBay at a lower price and the cost of eBay's commissions, etc. Not very sensible in our opinion, but then we have completely given up on Theos/Chummie being sensible. And we seriously doubt that their effort to be mischievous is doing anything for them except making them look foolish.  Our attitude towards Theos/Chummie's continuing foolishness is that they should sell a thousand DryBuddyEZs for even less. DryBuddy would probably enjoy selling them to Theos for $29.99 each.

Weird people do weird things!

Now let us examine the eBay listing for the DryBuddyEZ by "savingsforyou" and see how they leave out significant relevant issues that DryBuddy shows on their listing and which they believe would be negative for their Chummie alarm. Following is a list of omissions by "savingsforyou"  (we are copying the omitted items from DryBuddy's legitimate listing, and making them bold):

Hold-Tight StainlessSteel Clip:	616E Connector won't fall out.
Attach to Shirt with Clip.:	Attach to Shirt with Safety-Pins.
Hold-Tight SS Clip:	Dual attachments to Shirt. Hold-Tight Clip
UPC:  661799400930

The newly developed Hold-Tight sensor is a stainless steel clip which is easy to attach, detach and clean. It grips about 50% tighter than the most-used clip.

Don't waste your money and time on tape, pads, supplies or much higher prices.

Another Affordable Innovation from DryBuddy.

DryBuddy^TM , both the name and the stylized logo, is a trademarked property of Enuresis Solutions, LLC.

Shipping:

Free shipping by First Class U.S. Mail (USPS) to domestic (U.S.) addresses only. Optional Priority Mail service available to domestic (U.S.) addresses.

Warranty: 

The DryBuddyEZ alarm box comes with a one year limited warranty. The sensor has a 90 days limited warranty. Batteries and physical breakage and damage are not covered by the warranty.

 

Customer must contact DryBuddy Service at 912-352-8854 providing details of the problem and providing customer's telephone number and email address. DryBuddy Service will discuss matter with customer. If the item needs to be returned for testing. repair, or replacement, a Return Authorization (RA #) will be emailed to customer's email address. Customer is responsible for shipping the defective device to the address on the RA email and related shipping costs. Instructions for shipping will be provided in the email. 

NOTE: DryBuddy only warrants and supports the DryBuddyEZ and other DryBuddy items sold directly by Enuresis Solutions, LLC (DryBuddy) and authorized resellers. This is the only legitimate offer for DryBuddyEZ on this site. Any other offer for the DryBuddyEZ on this site will not be warranted or supported by DryBuddy.

Notice how Theos/Chummie have selectively omitted all aspects of the official DryBuddyEZ listing that illustrate why it is superior to their Chummie device, or tend to diminish the impact of their phony eBay listing (the NOTE: above). Also, in line with their limited abilities and their usual disregard of any rules and ethics, they have copied DryBuddyEZ's eBay listing, which is in flagrant violation of eBay's listing rules.

It may interest the reader to know that Theos has tried this same foolish trickery with the Dry-Me and Malem Ultimate alarms in earlier months. Ultimately, as with DryBuddyEZ, they end up selling one or two to themselves or their cronies so that they never have to actually buy or ship the product or have to pay eBay any commission.

This is a truly sorry state of affairs, that Theos/Chummie spend so much of their time and effort on trickery and deceit. It may also be indicative of the sorry state of their legitimate business. We also note that all of our recent blog entries in over four months have been exclusively about Theos Medical Systems and their continuing buffoonery. We credit every other manufacturer of bed wetting alarms for not blatantly bringing themselves to our attention as Theos  consistently does.

Theos Medical Systems and Chummie. Nowhere to go but Down!

To quote Charles Colton (1780-1832): "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

Theos Medical Systems (Chummie) is so prone to imitating our work on this blog site and elsewhere, that we are genuinely amazed that persons with a very apparent lack of general knowledge, ethics, and the English language (should we throw in lack of education and maturity as well?) should attempt such a difficult (for them) task. They have attempted to imitate our analysis of their business condition, and apply it to Enuresis Solutions (the maker of the DryBuddy bed wetting alarms) without an adequate understanding of what they are doing. The result is a hodge-podge of what they generally excel at - hype, abuse, disinformation, gross exaggerations in their favor, and a continuing display of ignorance. They are apparently incapable of any original thoughts, unless it involves significant trickery and deceit. Unfortunately for them (and us, the beleaguered reader) their public statements of this nature have to be endured, in many instances with substantial bemusement.

As to why they keep attacking Enuresis Solutions (DryBuddy) we can only surmise that it is because the DryBuddyEZ continues to scare them more than any other alarm, as it is obviously a much superior product at less than one third the price of Chummie. This is an obviously losing proposition for Chummie. It should also be very obvious to any reader who simply looks at this blog (http://bedwettingalarmsdeceitcatcher.blogspot.com ) and elsewhere, that Theos Medical Systems is, by far, the most deceitful seller of bed wetting alarms. They also make substantial attempts to apply their deceit and warped thoughts to competitors, primarily Enuresis Solutions (DryBuddy), but others as well as can be read in this blog. We have an obligation to our readers to point out these substantial aberrations and outpourings of rage and choler from these miscreants who have no respect for ethics or even U.S. laws. We think that it is a reasonable assumption that more than one U.S. Federal Agency involved in regulation and law enforcement is aware of their character and trickery (deceit) and has Theos on their radar.

We could say much more about the juvenile behavior of Theos Medical Systems, but shall refrain from doing so for the moment. We should point out that Theos Medical Systems is currently a one-trick pony, with their well-hyped Chummie. They forget that Enuresis Solutions, apart from their Chummie-singeing DryBuddyEZ, also has a premier wireless bed wetting alarm, DryBuddy, which has been marketed for over five years, with improvements over time. DryBuddy is a wireless bed wetting alarm which the reader can find (together with the DryBuddyEZ, Chummie, and many other alarms) at https://sites.google.com/site/comparebedwettingalarms .

Interestingly, Theos Medical Systems has been attacking most competitors from the time they entered the market in 2011. There is a consensus among bed wetting alarm manufacturers that the industry was "gentlemanly" until Theos came along and started to fling dirt in all directions. We have frequently pointed out that this approach, together with unfettered hype, distortions, and disinformation underlies much of Theos's approach towards selling their relatively poor Chummie (again see https://sites.google.com/site/comparebedwettingalarms for more details). In the bedwetting alarms community, Theos is considered to be somewhat akin to North Korea in the world community. Irrational, incredible, wacky, tricky, unreliable, and operating outside the generally accepted principles of ethics and law, may be some polite words to describe their continuing aberrant behavior. How long they can continue their unprofessional activities and practices, fool the public with their disinformation, and make their absurd statements remains to be seen.

Chummie & Theos Medical Systems - Deceit and Falseness Defeats Chummie!

It is time to revisit our blog dated October 4, 2013 which examines the likely actual levels of Chummie sales, and how absurdly hyper-inflated their sales claims are. At that time we provided analysis for our conclusion of likely sales of approximately 1,200 units per year.

We now look at eBay's actual sales numbers for Chummie in October - both their regular version which they offer on eBay for $99.99, and a cheapened version with No Returns, No Exchanges, and No Warranty for $80.00. eBay actually states these numbers. We also have reason to believe that their extremely poor sales have caused Chummie to actually sell some of their product to themselves, just to make their sales look higher. Such duplicity has never bothered Theos and Chummie. As we have pointed out that eBay sales are a factor in indicating Chummie sales, we expect Chummie to significantly increase their sales of Chummie to themselves to further bloat this sales number. We shall certainly take Chummie's customarily aberrant behavior in such matters into consideration. And as you read further, please keep in mind that this is the company that claimed to have already sold more than 100,000 units before it even had a live web site!

We now estimate that they actually sold about twelve (12) units of Chummie IN TOTAL on eBay during October. This number, if continued, indicates a significant downward shift in Chummie sales on eBay. We have no reason to believe that eBay is unique, relative to other selling sites such as Amazon, and even Chummie's own selling site.

We are estimating that Theos is now selling Chummie at an annual rate of about nine hundred (900) units. This is a reduction by one-fourth of the sales estimate just one month ago.

With such low sales, Chummie's continuing existence and viability become debatable. And with its possible demise, what about all of the customers left in possession of a product that cannot be warranted or supported? Trying to dump its poor Chummie product on eBay with no returns, exchanges or warranties certainly indicates substantial stress at Chummie.

This high stress level becomes even more apparent if one examines Chummie's behavior on Amazon and relating to Amazon. Chummie (or Theos) are placing substantially larger numbers of fake reviews touting Chummie. We estimate that about one-half of the 5-star reviews posted for Chummie on Amazon during October are fake. This number of fakes may be an understatement. Theos, and it's supposed partners in these severely unethical activities, lack the capacity to do much more than be absurdly gushing and repetitive in their regurgitation of Chummie's advertising. So, for the few people who may be reading Chummie's reviews on Amazon and believing them, you might as well be listening to Chummie standing on its soap box and yelling and screaming about itself. Except that now it is frustration about its being uncovered, and anticipated failure that are its motivating sources.

Theos has also substantially increased its level of being abusive and vitriolic towards competitors, particularly the new and very popular DryBuddyEZ, which is eating Chummie's lunch. And deservedly so, in our opinion. We estimate that DryBuddyEZ is selling at better than five (5) times the rate for Chummie in October. And this is a product that is only two or three months old. Detailed comparisons of these and other wired bedwetting alarm products can be found at comparebedwettingalarms/wired-alarms .

All of these are just more nails in Theos's coffin. And their reputation for being fakers is only increasing with their ever more frantic behavior.

Chummie - Theos Bedwetting Alarm Deceit Dumps Chummie on Public with NO RETURNS, NO EXCHANGES, NO WARRANTY !!!

This has been copied from the original blog at the request of that blog's owner.

Chummie - Theos Bedwetting Alarm Deceit Dumps Chummie on Public with NO RETURNS, NO EXCHANGES, NO WARRANTY !!!

The Following is copied from eBay on October 7, 2013 for the Chummie TC300 by Theos Medical.
Please pay attention to the really important stuff with a YELLOW BACKGROUND below.

Item condition:

New 
Color:

- Select -BluePink

Pink

Quantity:

1 available / 11 sold

Price:

US $80.00 

Free shipping

New customers get $10 back on 1st purchase Subject to credit approval. See terms

No additional import charges at delivery!

This item will be shipped through the Global Shipping Program and includes international tracking. Learn more

Shipping:

FREE Standard Shipping | See details

Item location:

Santa Clara, California, United States

Ships to:

Worldwide

Import charges:

(amount confirmed at checkout) To be provided at checkout  

This amount includes applicable customs duties, taxes, brokerage and other fees. This amount is subject to change until you make payment. For additional information, see the Global Shipping Program terms and conditions

Delivery:

On or before Fri. Oct. 11 to 31322  Estimated by eBay FAST 'N FREE  

Items showing "eBay FAST 'N FREE" have an estimated delivery time of 4 business days or less. eBay FAST 'N FREE is our proprietary method of estimating delivery times based on the buyer's proximity to the item location, the shipping service selected, the seller's shipping history, and other factors. Delivery times may vary, especially during peak periods.

Payments:

, Bill Me Later  | See payment details

Returns:No returns or exchanges, but item is covered by eBay Buyer Protection - opens in a new window or tab.

Guarantee:

Get the item you ordered or get your money back. Guaranteed.   This Means No Warranty!!! READ THIS ABOVE EMPHASIZED STUFF! Chummie is selling its TC300 (Blue) Alarm on eBay with NO RETURNS! NO EXCHANGES!! NO WARRANTY!!!   Sneaky? Unethical? Deceitful? All of them! They should have said AS IS! Theos (Chummie) is NOT willing to stand behind their product! The truth about this JUNK has caught up with them! O.K. So why does Chummie NOT write down any warranty? Let's figure them out. They're really quite simple-minded, once you understand their lack of ethics, and have been exposed to enough of their sneakiness. They want to get rid of their junk. Not providing a warranty means no headaches for the next year (we assume a year, since that was what they were doing). If you contact them, they may tell you "One year's warranty." But if they truly mean it, why not put it down in writing? Because if it is not in writing, and something goes wrong, say, six months from now, their simple response will be "Where does it say that there is one year's warranty?" And if you suggest that they told you that over the phone, they may suggest that you are nuts. Or even crooked. If it is in writing, then they can't weasel away as easily. So if you really are nuts, then you may even think of buying their junk without a written warranty. And just maybe, after reading this, they may actually put on eBay in writing that they offer "One year's warranty." And then, out of shear stubbornness, and/or to show their manliness, they may not! Why would any sane and rational person buy JUNK from a manufacturer who has no faith in his own product and dumps it on an unsuspecting Public with NO RETURNS, EXCHANGES or WARRANTIES !!! Even on eBay (as on Amazon) Theos sells their Chummie stuff to themselves to make it look like innocent people are buying this.   Real people are not so stupid!  Real people do not want to waste so much money! Look at Compare Bedwetting Alarms to find Better alarms at Lower prices. Look at Bedwetting Alarms Deceit Catcher to learn why Chummy is going down the tubes!

Chummie & Theos Medical Systems – Analysis and Deceit in Advertising.

Thanks to some information we obtained recently from the internet, we have to re-evaluate our estimates on Theos Medical Systems’ Chummie bedwetting alarm and their degree of deceit.

Quick Summary:

In our opinion there is a 95% probability that Chummie’s North American sales are between 500 and 1,500 units per year. We would associate a 99% probability that their current annual sales in North America are between 400 and 2,500 units. Our expectation would be about 1,200 units per year.

The key is Chummie’s success, or the lack of it, on eBay. eBay is without question the second largest and most important site for selling products such as Chummie, after Amazon. Chummie has been sold on eBay since July 30, 2011, which is about when they entered the U.S. and North American market. Since that time, eBay reports that 107 units of Chummie have sold as of October 4, 2013.

We obviously have to make some estimates of eBay’s share of the market relative to Amazon, and tertiary sites such as Rakuten, Sears, Wayfair, etc. which are also used by Chummie to offer their wares to the public.

Amazon:

 

We would estimate that Chummie’s sales on Amazon could be as much as 5 times greater than on eBay. The primary reason for giving Amazon this large edge over eBay is that Chummie has been stuffing positive reviews on Amazon, something that they cannot do successfully on eBay. We note that many reviews on Amazon come from sources with very limited exposure to Amazon, and there are almost no Amazon “REAL NAME” reviewers, particularly for positive reviews. We also believe that a very substantial number of reviews probably originate directly with Chummie (its principals, relatives, employees, etc.) with several “Amazon Verified Purchase” being Chummie or its friends purchasing the product from Amazon, and Chummie taking the hit for Amazon’s fee with the expectation that these “Verified Purchase” reviews would provide more credibility. That is what one would expect, but with the likely abuse of this by Chummie, we cannot place much credibility on these reviews.

We also pay attention to when, and under what circumstances, reviews occur on the Chummie page on Amazon, and the content of such reviews. We notice that whenever Chummie receives a negative review, a rash of positive reviews promptly appear. Many completely toe Chummie’s line, even when it is irrational or just plain stupid in our minds for a person to be behaving or claiming what is often read. Many reviews are “testimonials” to buy more items from Chummie, although this defeats Chummie’s avowed purpose of reducing the cost to the customer. Also, to get around obvious defects in Chummie, such as the sensor not staying on the briefs, many customers come up with alternatives including using duct tape and putting on a second set of briefs to help the sensor to remain in place.

Here is a recent review in its entirety:

“My child moves around alot when he sleeps and the alarm gets triggered for any little thing. The batteries die extremely quick. It works but a good portion of the time it goes off randomly even at the slightest movement. The alrm itself is pretty uncomfortable for my son since its bulky and he sleeps stomach down but anything to help him stop wetting the bed and being self concious.”

This got an understandable comment of “Why are you still using It?” Our guess for the obvious answer would be “I have wasted over $100 on this, because of all the false advertising that I read. I cannot just throw away this money. With my experience I would never have purchased it.”

Everything is looking even phonier than when we did our analysis in July on Chummie’s Amazon Reviews. For phony Chummie positive reviews on Amazon, we now place a 90% confidence level at between 25% and 50% of positive Chummie reviews being fakes placed by Chummie, with an expectation of about 35% to 40% fake positive reviews. Chummie has also been extremely aggressive in having negative reviews removed from Amazon, for many of which we do not understand why it happened. As an example, please see Amazon-Chummie .  

In essence, Chummie’s credibility for its reviews on Amazon is being revised negatively for Chummie. From a “stars” perspective, if Chummie was not fiddling substantially with its Amazon reviews, we doubt if Chummie would get more than 3-stars.

Other Selling Sites:

These sites include Best Buy, Sears, Wayfair, Rakuten, etc. that advertise the Chummie product. It is interesting to note that the first and most prominent site (particularly in Chummie’s advertising and claims), Best Buy, now stipulates “We’re sorry, this item is no longer available.” Best Buy was Chummie’s claim to selling in a major retail store on two continents. Best Buy has obviously dropped Chummie as not being a suitable product for them to carry. Chummie, however, has not dropped Best Buy from its site and advertising. But then Chummie has never displayed a sufficient level of truth or honesty in its advertising to be given even reasonable credit.

If Best Buy considered Chummie to be a dud, how long will these tertiary sites keep Chummie? Maybe forever, as they are simply listing sites that get a commission from Chummie if anything is sold. They do not have to stand behind or support or give refunds for any poor product sold on their site, which apparently became a severe burden for Best Buy. But sales through these channels should be very low.

Chummie’s Web Site:

Chummie can expect some sales from its own store. However, please note that Chummie does not subscribe to any paid advertising (for example, Google Adwords) and is not on the first two pages of a Google search for “bedwetting alarm” which may be the most commonly used phrase for an organic search. Consequently, sales on its site would be less than it might be with paid advertising and better organic ranking.

Negative Press:

Chummie has many reviews relating to them on the internet. Some are positive, but it is our opinion that almost all (and probably all) are either written and placed by Chummie or placed by parties who receive some form of compensation from Chummie. See chummie-very-strong-deceit-on-internet  for more details.

Furthermore, on unbiased comprehensive comparison sites which present detailed raw data about all of the alarms sold in the U.S. Chummie compares very poorly with several competing devices, both for features and price. See comparebedwettingalarms/wired-alarms as an example.

Foreign Sales:

Although Chummie claims to sell its product in other countries, we have no reason to believe that they may be more successful in these countries compared to North America. We also believe that the North American market is by far the largest market in the word. We shall ignore Chummie’s sales abroad and focus on North American sales.

Conclusion:

In our opinion there is a 95% probability that Chummie’s North American sales are between 500 and 1,700 units per year. We would associate a 99% probability that their current annual sales in North America are between 400 and 2,500 units. Our expectation would be about 1,200 units per year.

The probability of Chummie having sold over 100,000 units two years ago, or have over 100,000 satisfied  families today (according to Chummie’s advertising) tends to zero. In other words, we think it extremely safe to state that these sales numbers of Chummie are ridiculously improbable and fictitious.

Looking at this blog, it is apparent that there are severe problems with Theos Medical Systems and their Chummie product, and the manner in which they conduct their business. These apparent problems only get worse with time and more exposure to their behavior. With the low apparent volume of their sales and the unethical manner in which they promote their sales, their sustainability as a viable business becomes more and more questionable.