Chummie: Very Strong Deceit – Fraud on Amazon – Getting Amazon to Remove Negative Reviews.

We have reported earlier on Chummie’s Very Strong Deceit on Internet Review Sites, particularly Amazon. We have also raised the issue elsewhere in the blog wondering how Chummie had reduced (have deleted) many of the negative ratings they had received from legitimate Amazon customers. We particularly remember one long and detailed breakdown off all of the issues which this customer was having with the Chummie alarm. We recall seeing it, then it disappeared, then it was placed back in by the customer. In recent months it has not been on Amazon. We really do not understand why Amazon should have kowtowed to Chummie and removed a very honest, accurate, relevant, non-abusive review which said that the Chummie was a 1-star product, and explained why.

[for Chummie and its chums, whose knowledge of English is sparse:
kowtow - Definition [kou-tou, -tou, koh-]
(v.) To act in a servile manner
Source: Dictionary.com            ]

 Here is the review:

 Customer Review

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful Product does not work. Buyer Beware., October 11, 2012                 [This is a 1-star review, where the star is not reproducing on this blog site-Author] Product does not work. Buyer Beware., October 11, 2012 By  ballboy 99 Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Chummie Premium Bedwetting Alarm Blue. Over 100,000 alarms sold worldwide - Better Technology for Faster Treatment (Health and Beauty) NOTE: This is the second post of this alarm review. For some reason Amazon deleted my first one. Is this seller able to get negative reviews removed?? Isn't that a conflict of interest? I bought this alarm after reading the glowing customer reviews. I don't usually leave reviews, but had to make sure parents hear an honest account of why you should NOT purchase the Chummie. Wearing the alarm box on the neck is VERY uncomfortable and the sensor is a joke. Our son wet the bed about every night and often more than once a night. He was a very sound sleeper like most children with bedwetting. We bought the Chummie and it was a big mistake. First, the clip on the alarm unit. It is designed so that the alarm unit pokes your child in the neck if they wear it like it is designed. Look at the picture of the alarm unit on the child. If you wear a top with a regular neck opening think about where the alarm is going to sit - poking your child in the neck. Would you want to sleep all night with a hard plastic box poking you in the neck. As of this writing, they don't show you the back of the alarm unit. It is a small plastic piece that you have to hook on to your child's neck opening. The clearance is really small. You really can't lift it up and open it up enough so that it is really hard to hook up at night. If the cloth of the pajamas is thick, good luck in trying to getting it to work. This is an issue. It is really uncomfortable and my son hated it. Our son is average build and the clothing he wears has standard neck openings. Most people probably end up putting the alarm in the bed which really bothers me because of the strangulation hazard that this causes. Random Electrical Problems - We experienced numerous problems with the sounding of the alarm. Some times the alarm would just go off in the middle of the night for no reason. Other times the alarm would not stop sounding unless we removed the batteries. After so many problems we found that if we removed the batteries each night before bed, then reinserted them that the alarm would usually work that night. If you are experiencing the same problem, this is probably a solution. Sensor cord - pulls out of the alarm unit frequently. The sensor that you put on the underwear is connected to the alarm unit with an electronic plug. It just pushes in and doesn't lock in place. Sometimes our son would wake up wet and we would find that the sensor plug had come undone. Why doesn't this thing lock in place. Frequent false alarms. Poorly designed. Sensor - the sensor is a big disappointment. The marketing team made it sound good, but they needed a couple of parents with kids for testing. Sure, they made a sensor but no way to secure it to underwear. So what do they do? Give you a pack of Chummie bandages to tape the sensor to underwear. Let's get real. This is the 21st century. The adhesive is so poor and the bandages are so small they don't work. Do you really want to be using band aids every night trying to make the sensor stick to your kid's underwear? What if your child wets twice a night. It's 2 am and you are in your child's room trying to get the sensor to stick on with tape?  Harsh? No, just honest feedback. We have used an alarm in the past that was much superior to this "advanced" unit. I fell for the hype. Maybe you won't. When the Chummie includes cheap band aids to make their alarm work take it as a sign! Don't waste your money Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  Was this review helpful to you?  Report abuse | Permalink Comments Track comments by e-mail Sort: Oldest first | Newest first Showing 1-2 of 2 posts in this discussion Initial post: Oct 22, 2012 1:04:00 AM PDT Theos Medical Systems, Inc. says: The reason amazon removes these reviews is because we know it is the Bedwetting Store who is posting these reviews. We have been able to link these accounts and purchases to you. You are badmouthing the Chummie when you should be promoting your alarm which has reached its "end of life". Chummie is the ONLY alarm which works. We have revolutionized the bedwetting alarm with our modern patented technology which has helped over 100,000 children globally. Parents have a choice. Buy Chummie or buy an outdated alarm. In their best interest, they make the right decision and purchase the Chummie. Reply to this post Permalink | Report abuse 2 of 7 people think this post adds to the discussion. Do you?   In reply to an earlier post on Oct 22, 2012 1:21:35 PM PDT Truly Perceptive says: Theos says that "Chummie is the ONLY alarm which works." Capitalized ONLY. Everybody would be interested in knowing how you come to this amazing conclusion! Give us some good, valid, reliable substantiation! The next two sentences are also on the exceptional exaggeration list of Theos, as there is again no substantiation. And the last sentence, is undoubtedly part of a GIANT wish list that is the the only thing visible to Theos, so that they cannot even conceive anything else! Wow! Reply to this post Permalink | Report abuse 2 of 3 people think this post adds to the discussion. Do you?

Ballboy 99, you did a great service to people who are still being hammered by Chummie’s deceit. Your review and concern about Amazon’s attitude towards it are justified, as it has disappeared again. But it is resurrected here as a service to all people who want to know about Chummie and its deceitful methods. This is a great example!

Also note Chummie/Theos’s response. It certainly ranks very high on the list of most conceited, fake and goofy responses that we have seen. Truly Perceptive says what this entire blog has being saying about Chummie. Chummie and Theos are as fake as a $3 bill!

As has been historically true, Chummie probably will not respond to this review of yours. But we can always hope that Amazon will, if it is brought to their attention. We, and other readers of this blog, would certainly like to know about this review and why it disappeared from Amazon.


Note:

Chummie(TM) has a very large number of entries about its deceit in this blog. There are so many more entries and much more serious bad activities attributable to Chummie, so that Chummie has significantly more entries than all other manufacturers combined. You can read all of the Chummie deceit entries on this blog.

Chummie has also been given a 0-stars blog of its own so that its many examples of deceit can stand out by themselves. This Chummie blog is at
http://chummiedeceitcatcher.blogspot.com/ .


Chummie: Very Strong Deceit – Fraud on Amazon – Getting Amazon to Remove Negative Reviews.

Chummie: Deceit by Perversion -- Best Buy

Chummie: Deceit by Perversion     http://www.chummie.com/buy-bedwetting-alarm-retail-store/           (August 5, 2013)

Chummie has never been shy about announcing anything that they wanted to announce. In this instance we are talking about their “Retail Partners” about whom Chummie has said a lot. They even have a special page on their web site (see above) where they display this list of “select retailers.”

Prominently listed on this page is Best Buy. We do know that Chummie was being sold at Best Buy. But for several months, if we clicked on Chummie’s “Buy Now” at their Best Buy link, on being sent to the Best Buy site, we would get the message:

We're sorry. We didn't find any matches for "chummie" in All Categories

So, to be certain about facts, we contacted Best Buy and asked about their carrying Chummie.

We were told that Best Buy terminated their relationship with Chummie and Theos Medical Systems some time ago. We did not get an exact date. But at least two months ago based on our experience with looking for Chummie on Best Buy’s site.

It appears that Best Buy decided that they no longer wanted to have any relationship with Chummie and Theos Medical Systems. Based on our ongoing analysis of Chummie, both the product and the company’s behavior, we can imagine why.

What is also obviously deceitful is that at least two months after they were dropped by Best Buy, Chummie continues to falsely brag on its web site that Best Buy is selling their device.

These deceitful facts just keep on continuing with respect to Chummie. Two or more months after their relationship with Best Buy was terminated, Chummie does not think it necessary to remove Best Buy from their list of “select retailers?”

And, of course, we have an appropriate copy of Chummie’s web page above, so we can always prove that Chummie was falsely and deceitfully advertising this item today (August 5, 2013). Let us see how long it takes Chummie to remove Best Buy from its web site. Of course, they could leave it there as a continuing reminder to people to buy Chummie from Best Buy!

And what might Chummie do if more of their “select retailers” get wise to Chummie and drop them?

Note:

Chummie(TM) has a very large number of entries about its deceit in this blog. There are so many more entries and much more serious bad activities attributable to Chummie, so that Chummie has significantly more entries than all other manufacturers combined. You can read all of the Chummie deceit entries on this blog.

Chummie has also been given a 0-stars blog of its own so that its many examples of deceit can stand out by themselves. This Chummie blog is at
http://chummiedeceitcatcher.blogspot.com/ .

Deceit by Perversion.

Deceit on the Internet: Shopping Reviews

Deceit on the Internet                                                                         (July 19, 2013)


We were intrigued by an entry (comment) by Anon on our entry for Chummie: Strong Deceit by Perversion on July 15, 2013. Anon referenced a blog http://stopdeceit.blogspot.com/titled Stop Deceit on the Internet. The author(s), using the name “Stop Deceit,” gave a decent description of deceit on the internet. Stop Deceit gave three basic sources of deceit on the internet:
1.       Manufacturer’s Web Sites,
2.       Product Blogs, and
3.       Shopping Reviews.
We would strongly recommend that readers look at http://stopdeceit.blogspot.com/ .

We have been systematically addressing deceit on manufacturers’ blog sites for bedwetting alarm manufacturers on this blog. We felt intrigued about how much deceit there may be with respect to bed wetting alarms on shopping blogs and shopping reviews. As we are following the bedwetting alarm industry, we thought we should look at bedwetting alarm related deceit in Product Blogs and Shopping Reviews


Shopping Reviews:

We chose Amazon.com for our basic analysis, as Amazon is undoubtedly the biggest shopping site (even for bedwetting alarms) and we can expect the most buyer reviews. Furthermore, Amazon does provide more information about the reviewer and the reviewer’s history at Amazon, so that we could better analyze the reviewer. To get a sufficiently large sample, we arbitrarily decided to look at “wired” alarms currently being sold on Amazon so that their reviews would be available to us. We also decided to only consider alarms where there were more than fifty reviews, so that we could have a reasonable sample size. Even there, to somewhat limit the time we might have to spend on this task, we selected four alarms which we felt might adequately cover the different styles and prices available.

Our intent was to try and get a plausible idea of the extent to which the reviews were unduly biased, and whether they were biased in favor of or against that particular alarm. In other words, we were attempting to identify the extent to which reviews might have been provided by shills or touts of the manufacturer (which would unduly favor that item) or by competitors (which would unduly bad-mouth the item). We then came up with a set of criteria to apply to each and every revue for that product on Amazon. We do want to point out that the criteria are subjective and are not necessarily perfect in their ability to identify touts or shills. But we feel that the identified reviews are much more likely to be unduly biased, and not be honest reviews by honest and actual buyers.

The following table shows the  results for the number of possibly biased reviews out of the total, and further breaks them up into positive bias (perhaps shills for the manufacturer/seller) and negative bias (perhaps shills for competitors). They are expressed as a percentage of the total identified biased reviews (rounded to the nearest whole percent):

Product A:           34%        Positive Bias       32%        Negative Bias     2%

Product B:           31%        Positive Bias       25%        Negative Bias     6%

Product C:           11%        Positive Bias         9%        Negative Bias     2%

Product D:             2%        Positive Bias         2%        Negative Bias     0%

 

We must confess that the high percentage of bias that we judged to be present for Product A came as no surprise to us. We also see that a huge proportion of those are positively biased, perhaps unduly raising the "ratings" for Product A. We must “assume” that the manufacturer is quite desperate or non-caring about using deceitful reviews so as to raise the ratings of their product. So the “ratings” that you see on Amazon for this product are possibly very biased (skewed) on the high side and wrong.

 

Product B was the newest of the four products examined, and we were somewhat surprised that the percentage of possibly fake reviews was so high. The primary difference between Product B and Product A is that B has not flooded Amazon with possibly biased positive ratings as much as Product A might have. So the proportion of positive to negative biased reviews is less for Product B than for Product A. Never-the-less, Product B also appears to be overindulging in introducing biased reviews into Amazon.

 

Product C is an established product. Although the percentage of possibly fake reviews was lower, we still considered it to be high. The ratio of positive to negative biased reviews is about the same as for Product B.

 

Product D is also an established product. Here, our surprise was that the bias was so low, as compared to the other products. Without mentioning names, we must commend the manufacturer of Product D for our not noticing much presence of shills and touts in the reviews of this product.

 

In conclusion, we must agree with Stop Deceit, that even the “best” of shopping sites, using their own criteria for weeding out fake reviews, was unable to prevent a substantial number of possibly fake reviews from being presented on Amazon.com . For Product A and Product B, we estimate that about one-third of the reviews could be fake. This is a huge fraction of the total reviews. Consequently, do not take these reviews as “the honest truth.” Take them with a grain of salt, or even a shovelful of salt.