Amazon and Chummie - Is this Relationship Bad or Troublesome for the Consumer and Amazon's Customer?

Ever since we started this blog on June 4, 2013 it quickly became very apparent that Theos Medical Systems with their Chummie bed wetting alarm product(s) lacked credibility or conscience with respect to their ethics and behavior. There are already about fifty articles about Theos and Chummie in this blog, and none of them are complimentary. About the beginning of October, 2014, even Amazon, which was two of the legs of Theos's three-legged stool, dismissed Theos Medical Systems from being a vendor on Amazon.com because of their continuing and severe violations of Amazon.com's policies and standards for ethical seller behavior. Now let us take a look at what appears to have happened since Theos was banned by Amazon. 

1.            Amazon has banned Theos Medical Systems ("Theos") from being a seller on Amazon.com because of severe violations by Theos of Amazon's policies and standards for ethical behavior by a seller. This is a very serious action that Amazon has taken after reviewing and verifying substantial evidence about Theos's bad behavior. This ban went into effect about October 1, 2014.

2.            Amazon was, at that time, selling a Chummie bedwetting alarm. We have pointed out in numerous blogs how Theos had manipulated his reviews and results on Amazon for this product, so as to artificially enhance the "success" of this product on Amazon. These include the disappearance of numerous poor reviews (1 star and 2 stars) and the substantial use of shills to provide phony 5-stars reviews. Theos also used highly unethical (and possibly illegal) off-Amazon schemes to get fake reviews placed on Amazon, whether to tout Theos's products on Amazon or to debase the ratings of competitors' products on Amazon. We must assume that all of these appeared very attractive to Amazon (the result that Theos desired) and Amazon decided to adopt Theos's product for sale by Amazon. Some of these matters that occurred on Amazon cannot be rationally or ethically explained away by us. 

3.            We assume that some or all of these unethical activities contributed to Amazon's throwing Theos off Amazon.com. It is also credible for us to assume that if Theos has been banished by Amazon, Amazon would not turn around and embrace Theos because he was wearing a mask on his face. In other words, there is a significant question as to whether Amazon should do business with a confirmed violator of ethics, or anyone fronting for this violator. Amazon continues to sell the Chummie alarm, and it is reasonable to assume that it comes directly, or almost directly, from Theos who is the manufacturer. Whoever may technically supply the products to Amazon, Theos gets most of Amazon's bucks. Furthermore, if Theos's unconscionable abuse of Amazon's Vine Review system and other manipulations of Amazon's reviews contributed to Amazon's banishing Theos from Amazon.com, we cannot comprehend how or why Theos is allowed to keep these reviews and a corresponding highly exaggerated rating in Amazon's reviews. This keeps Theos's products in a vaunted position in the Amazon reviews for bedwetting alarms, effectively aiding and abetting a seller who Amazon has banished. It also diminishes the honesty and value of Amazon's Review System to the consumer and Amazon's customers, who may be gullible to the exaggerated ratings in the reviews.

4.            More of the same continues at Amazon. This week (December 22, 2014) we noticed that Amazon had adopted and was selling the Chummie Elite, a product that Theos makes and sells, and was previously selling on Amazon in their own name. After Theos was banned from Amazon, this product has been sold on Amazon by "onlybestdeals." Would anyone care to speculate on the relationship that may exist between "onlybestdeals" and Theos?

5.            Theos (or Theos's proxy) has been promoting and manipulating the Chummie Elite on Amazon in much the same way that it promoted and manipulated the original Chummie. Theos's antics on the internet (and on Amazon.com) have been unethical and conducted with so much "chutspah" and apparent immunity that Theos has developed quite a following. The blog

https://sites.google.com/site/fraudonamazonreviews/

examines Theos's behavior on Amazon after August 1, 2014 and the abundant use of shills. There is a substantial focus on the Chummie Elite at

https://sites.google.com/site/fraudonamazonreviews/analysis-of-amazon-5-stars-reviews-for-chummie-elite-starting-august-1-2014

which amply illustrates Theos's methods of first using shills, and when they were adequately exposed, using Amazon Vine Reviewers very abundantly to get a very generous number of high stars ratings.

 

Theos is like a kid who keeps testing the limits of what he can get away with till he gets smacked. And he tests the limits again till he gets smacked again. This is a non-ending process with Theos, and the powers that are responsible for monitoring and smacking down such parties must remain alert to this penchant and habit so that it does not become excessive or exploitative.

6.            In this period after August 1, 2014 through the date of this posting, the Chummie Elite has a total of 152 Verified Reviews, of which 119 (78%) are Amazon Vine Reviews with take-it-for-granted generally very high stars, and only 33 genuine Verified Purchasers, with 17 positive and 16 negative using Amazon's system. Using only the Verified Purchasers, who have a true opinion of the Chummie Elite which they have spent their money on and used, using Amazon's rating system would give the Chummie Elite an average of 3.1, a far smaller number than is showing on Amazon. These number come from the statistics posted on the fraudonamazonreviews site mentioned above in 5.

7.            We are taking the liberty of copying from fraudonamazonreviews more current statistics:










8.            Can Amazon not notice how Theos is running up his Chummie Elite ratings on Amazon.com? 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.

Theos's abominable behavior is well known, and even Amazon has smacked Theos. But 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 
1.   The credibility of Amazon's much-vaunted Review System is blemished and credibility suffers.
2.   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.
3.   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.

Note: This blog entry is continued and updated on our entry on this blog dated February 3, 2015.

Chummie now Originates in the Tax Haven of the Netherlands Antilles!!!

Wow! This is getting much worse than we anticipated and happening much faster.

Amazon appears to have stopped Theos Medical Systems from being a seller on Amazon. So, we assume, that Amazon cannot (will not) purchase anything from Theos. But Amazon has been selling a Chummie bedwetting alarm which they had earlier purchased from Theos. This item had been declared to originate in China. Now from Amazon's listing of this alarm and its Product Details published on Amazon.com:

·  Product Dimensions: 0.5 x 2.5 x 2 inches ; 1 ounces

·  Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

·  Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.

·  Origin: Netherlands Antilles

·  ASIN: B00A8GF6BO

·  UPC: 854950002023

·  Item model number: TC300B

Please note the item flagged in yellow above. This item originated in China (as it still does on other sites). Suddenly, this item on Amazon is originating in the Netherlands Antilles. This is a well-known tax haven in the Caribbean, used by a variety of people and parties who can hide their identities and also avoid paying U.S. taxes. In other words, it can be, and often is, a haven for tax dodgers.

Would anyone care to guess who it may be that has registered in the Netherlands Antilles, may want to remain anonymous and may not want to pay U.S. taxes? We are surprised that Amazon seems to have looked the other way in this matter and appears to be complacent in buying Chummie products made by Theos Medical Systems from a mysterious source in a tax-dodgers' haven!

Which brings us back to our appeal to you, the customer, at the bottom of our last blog entry here just two days ago!

Amazon Removes Theos Medical Systems as a Seller on Amazon.com

And we shall add one more matter to our appeal to

You, the customer -- 

Are you going to ignore the abundant negative evidence about Theos Medical Systems? Ignore the evidence that was strong enough for Amazon to revoke Theos's selling privileges on Amazon.com, the most severe action that Amazon could take against a seller who is in strong violation of Amazon's policies and general ethics?

Are you going to buy inferior products at inflated prices from a seller who has been abundantly proved to be dishonorable and irresponsible in the fake promotion of his products, and aggressively and falsely attacking his competitors? This is NOT how business is conducted in America, using bullying and nefarious tactics and abundant false information!

Are you going to buy Chummie products sold by a mysterious seller in the Netherlands Antilles, a well know haven for tax dodgers? This seller may not be paying U.S. taxes.

We certainly hope that you, the customer, will strongly deny and turn down such spurious business, unless the seller becomes abundantly open and honest and revokes and removes both his false advertising and attacks on his competitors, and becomes a good citizen instead of attempting to be anonymous and possibly avoid U.S. taxes. This is the only honorable way to proceed with a nefarious and dishonorable party, to deny him the profit of his dishonest and misdirected activities. 

Amazon Removes Theos Medical Systems as a Seller on Amazon.com .

We found this web site:

http://amazon-dumps-chummie.blogspot.com/

We are taking the liberty of copying directly from it:

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Amazon Dumps Chummie & Theos Medical Systems.

 

Amazon is Fed Up of Theos Medical Systems and its Deceit and Fraud on Amazon and Elsewhere.

Products sold by Theos Medical Systems are no longer listed on Amazon.com.

Amazon appears to have removed Theos Medical Systems as a seller on Amazon.com. This is most likely because Amazon got fed up with Theos Medical Systems’ severe manipulation of Amazon Reviews and other severe ethical violations. 

Theos has been shown to severely manipulate his Chummie products favorably through the use of shills and other illegitimate means, and use similar unethical means to downgrade competitors’ products on Amazon’s Reviews. Theos has a well established reputation for being by far the most unethical bedwetting alarm seller in the United States. These transgressions have been very thoroughly documented and explained on at least two public internet sites: 

bedwettingalarmsdeceitcatcher.blogspot.com  and 

sites.google.com/site/fraudonamazonreviews  

It seems that the only Chummie products that Amazon is currently offering are the few that Amazon unfortunately decided to sell, before they became adequately aware of Theos Medical Systems’ hypocrisy. One may assume that when Amazon depletes this inventory, Amazon will have nothing further to do with Theos Medical Systems or its Chummie products. 

It is sincerely hoped that Amazon will pay attention, as Theos is perfectly capable of trying to sneak back into Amazon through name changes and other fronts, all of which would result in the same and continuing troubles for Amazon and its customers.

Please note that this blog entry was on October 4, 2014, about one-and-a-half months ago. Although we were aware of this site before today, we wanted to wait and ascertain what was stated in this site before publishing it here. Today, we can verify and declare that Theos Medical Systems is no longer a seller on Amazon.com .

Doing a Google Search for

Amazon Theos Medical Systems

the first search results are for

"Amazon At a Glance: Theos Medical Systems"

which provides "No Results" for Theos Medical Systems or their Storefront on Amazon.com .

We find it re-assuring that Amazon is paying attention to the large number of violations apparently perpetrated by Theos Medical Systems and their extensive deceit, both with regards to hyping their Chummie products and also falsely and unethically attacking their competitors. This has been the underlying philosophy of Theos from the time they came into existence in approximately the summer of 2011. Based on our knowledge of Theos Medical Systems through following them since about May, 2013, we can speculate that:

1.   Theos knew that they had inferior products that were ridiculously overpriced. See sources such as http://www.bed-wettingalarms.com/which compare essentially all of the bedwetting alarms on the U.S. market in great detail and very technically. It is very obvious to us that Chummie products are completely outclassed, both technically and with respect to price. So Theos invented (and continues to emphasize) nonsensical comparisons of alarms to other alarms that are much older, and never to newer technology at a lower price. Theos had to blow its horn very loudly in the hope that the poor unassuming customer would not see that they were being taken for a ride. Theos's entire strategy appears to have hinged upon looking very successful on Amazon, where they found numerous unethical ways to manipulate their Reviews on Amazon, adding 5-stars and removing 1-star reviews, and likely manipulating where they would appear when a potential customer looked at the reviews, so that the high-stars reviews would be at the beginning and create a strong impression.

2.   Theos attacked its competitors very strongly and unethically, inventing all sort of absurd charges and claims, Many of these are documented in this blog. Theos seems to have particularly zeroed in on DryBuddy and has numerous false and fictitious blogs and other statements about DryBuddy on the internet. We are aware that Theos likely manipulated DryBuddy's reviews on Amazon, placing numerous fake "poor" reviews for DryBuddy products so as to make them look unattractive on Amazon. It is quite obvious to us that Theos considered DryBuddy to be its greatest long-term threat, as DryBuddy was being truly innovative with its products and offering them at a very reasonable price. A major current and future threat that Theos must put down!

    Theos also attacked Malem, going so far as to get a U.S. Trademark on Malem's name for bedwetting alarms. This matter is in the Courts at present. It is not clear to us why Theos did this, except to possibly prevent Malem from selling its products in the U.S. using the Malem name which has been used for many years. Again, this appears to be deceitful and lacking ethics, and demonstrates a propensity to do what Theos thinks is best for itself with no concern for ethics or any of the better and general accepted facets of American society.

Many of these issues have been dealt with at some depth in this blog. Please read other blog entries for further information.

Which brings us to the last paragraph in our copy of the blog at the beginning:

It is sincerely hoped that Amazon will pay attention, as Theos is perfectly capable of trying to sneak back into Amazon through name changes and other fronts, all of which would result in the same and continuing troubles for Amazon and its customers.

This is already coming about. We have noticed that a new seller on Amazon, with a new name and no further identity, has started to offer certain Chummie products on Amazon. In and of itself, we have no objections to anybody offering products on Amazon, if they are acceptable to Amazon. But we do have to ask two important questions:

1.   This Chummie product being offered by the new seller continues to have associated with it all of the abundantly fake reviews that Theos had developed for this product. This has been very thoroughly examined in the blog

sites.google.com/site/fraudonamazonreviews .

Unfortunately, Amazon did not remove these fake reviews. So this fake Theos gets the unearned benefit of over 120 fake reviews which are, of course, superlative. We sincerely hope that Amazon, while cleaning up Theos's dirty works on Amazon, will remove all of these reviews.

2.   You, the customer- 

Are you going to ignore the abundant negative evidence about Theos Medical Systems? Ignore the evidence that was strong enough for Amazon to revoke Theos's selling privileges on Amazon.com, the most severe action that Amazon could take against a seller who is in strong violation of Amazon's policies and general ethics?

Are you going to buy inferior products at inflated prices from a seller who has been abundantly proved to be dishonorable and irresponsible in the fake promotion of his products, and aggressively and falsely attacking his competitors? This is NOT how business is conducted in America, using bullying and nefarious tactics and abundant false information!

We certainly hope that you, the customer, will strongly deny and turn down Theos, and prevent him from benefiting from your business, unless Theos becomes abundantly open and honest and revokes and removes both his false advertising and attacks on his competitors. This is the only honorable way to proceed with a nefarious and dishonorable party, to deny him the profit of his dishonest and misdirected activities.