Update: Before continuing, please note that almost immediately after we posted this blog entry, Therapee's price on Amazon was raised to $299.00 .
We had noticed Therapee recently on Amazon, but had little factual knowledge about it except for the "Reviews" (note the ""?) and obvious internet advertisements for the sale of the product. We must admit that we were concerned with the little we were seeing on Amazon. And really nothing significant and confirmable anywhere else (note the word "confirmable"). Our attention was drawn to the Amazon listing for Therapee when about ten of the reviewers on Amazon were asked some simple straight-forward queries about the product which, in our opinion, any honest reviewer should have answered without any hesitation, but none did. Zip. No responses. We have copied below these queries asked on Amazon:
Query 1:
"I noticed that you didn't buy this through Amazon. Where did you buy it? Was it cheaper there?"
Query 2:
"Hello. I should mention that I am posting this comment (questions) for you only because you are a reviewer of this product on Amazon.com . I am very confused by this product's page on Amazon. You, as an example, are not regarded as an Amazon Verified Purchaser. I understand that this only means that Amazon is unable to certify that you purchased this product from Amazon.
As you did not purchase this product on Amazon, would you please share with me and other readers where and when you purchased it, and what it cost you? Also, why post your review on Amazon if you did not purchase it here? By itself, your posting a review on Amazon would not puzzle me. But there are presently 67 reviews on Amazon for this product, all of them are excellent, and none are Verified Purchasers. This is very confusing. Would you please enlighten me?
I shall also post this same message on a few more recent reviewers and hope that I can get adequate answers from all of you so as to clarify what I am seeing here. Thank you."
We noticed that queries were made to some of both the "Most Helpful" and "Most Recent" reviewers. Quite a reasonable sample in terms of the queries and the reviewers to whom they were presented. And, as pointed out in Query 2, of the 67 reviews, not one was an Amazon Verified Purchaser. So we looked into this matter further, including talking anonymously to some Amazon customer support persons, and looking at the internet. The following are FACTS:
As of the time and date of this posting:
1. There are 68 Therapee "reviews" posted on Amazon.com, which is the U.S. selling site of Amazon. U.S. customers order from this site.
2. 64 are 5-stars reviews, and 4 are 4-stars reviews.
3. As may be expected from the stars given in these reviews, every review is superlative, and none are brief one-liners as are often found even with verified 5-stars reviews.
4. Almost every review is in very correct English. These review could have been written by a Marketing Professional with very good English writing skills. We must admit that we have not yet come across so many reviews for any product where the English has been so good in almost every review.
5. NONE of the 68 "reviewers" are Amazon Verified Purchasers, so the validity of these reviews is questionable. We must concede that a non-Amazon verified customer could have legitimately purchased this product elsewhere and had user experience of it. But why would 68 separate persons whose opinions of this device and system were so high-flying, not come down to earth for the brief time it might take to answer such straight-forward questions as copied above? And what is the motive for posting these 68 "opinions" on Amazon?
6. We asked some Amazon customer service persons if they had ever come across any other product on Amazon where there were approximately as many reviews, ALL of which were NOT Amazon Verified Customers, and where 64 of the total 68 reviewers (94%) gave the product a 5-stars rating, and the remaining 4 gave a four stars rating. ZERO ratings with 3, 2, or 1-star. Every Amazon representative's response was "No." We expected that answer, as these results are totally beyond our experience as well.
7. We noted that factual information about the product stated on the Amazon page for the Therapee product was MINIMAL. We have capitalized the word MINIMAL as we have not seen any bedwetting alarm with such a little factual seller-provided information, and especially one selling for $299.00 on Amazon (The highest, by far, for this class of products on Amazon).
8. Looking at the web-site for Therapee, and looking at their section on "Success Stories," the reader is directed to Amazon reviews.
9. Since the manufacturer offers so little direct information, and refers the reader to the Amazon reviews, are we to infer that these reviews have come from the manufacturer?
10. It certainly appears that the Amazon Reviews for this product are intended to also serve as information about this product. But they are vague on actual concrete information, and very high on superlative experiences. Why is the manufacturer not providing complete factual information about Therapee, where the device certainly is a bedwetting alarm?
10. It certainly appears that the Amazon Reviews for this product are intended to also serve as information about this product. But they are vague on actual concrete information, and very high on superlative experiences. Why is the manufacturer not providing complete factual information about Therapee, where the device certainly is a bedwetting alarm?
11. Looking at the internet and doing a Google search for Dr. Sagie bedwetting (we intentionally left out the word alarm or system or whatever else this item may be called so that we would find the searches likely to lead to this product by the correct Dr. Sagie), the only references were from Dr. Sagie's Therapee site or a site (such as Amazon) on which Dr. Sagie's item was being offered for sale. Any off-Amazon opinions that we found (extremely few) were often written by "Anonymous" and not substantiatable.
12. Looking at Therapee's site, there was a picture of Dr. Sagie and a younger Mr. Sagie. It is stated that Jacob Sagie has a Ph.D. and is a "PsychoTherapist," and Mr. Sagie has an MA in, we assume, one of many areas for which an Arts degree may be awarded. It is not stated that Dr. Sagie is a medical doctor and neither of the Sagies seem to be electrical engineers.
13. The claim that Therapee is "The World's # 1 Bedwetting Solution" is totally unsubstantiated, and must be ruled as extreme hyperbole. It reminds us of the frequent excessive claims of another manufacturer/seller on Amazon, who has also used such obvious exaggerations. Not at all professional!
14. Some of the general claims made for the Therapee alarm are typical unsubstantiated hype and absurd fear-mongering, which only a marketing oriented person with a poor sense of ethics would imagine and then publicly state. There is little or no basis in reality that we could identify for some of their claims or statements.
15. There was one address provided of their "International Office" located in Haifa, Israel. No other physical office or address was suggested.
16. A look at the Warranty section on the site certainly raises red flags, particularly for U.S. customers towards whom the Amazon.com page is addressed. Of great concern is the statement: "The customer is responsible for shipping and handling costs." Our concern is that no place other than in Haifa, Israel is mentioned. So the buyer would have to pay for shipping the defective item to Israel and back again. Has a buyer looked at these shipping costs, and the time involved?
We could go on. But let's summarize what we see here:
1. Slick marketing. VERY SLICK marketing. Probably highly fictional, particularly for Amazon Reviews.
2. If you live in Israel and want to avail yourself of Dr. Sagie's Therapee device and related services and don't mind the costs, try it and find out for yourself.
3. If you live in the U.S., are a true believer, have the money and time for this item, an uncontrollable compulsion to spend $299.00 as asked for by Therapee on Amazon and possibly much more if anything becomes defective, and cannot even imagine spending less money, or probably MUCH less for another alarm, then what more can we say?
I am a mom who purchased Therapee directly from Israel, not Amazon. My husband and I were at our wit's end with my 9 year old son who wet the bed nearly every single night. There have been a couple of occasions where he was dry 3-4 days in the last year but we were tired of buying night diapers that never worked and washing his sheets every single morning...and the smell...UGH! Yes, I think it is expensive, but my son no longer wets the bed. We started the program in April and last week he went on vacation, stayed at a hotel and rental house and was dry every night. He has now been dry 50 days in a row. Is it fraud? My opinion is it is not. This was the only thing that has helped my son and I cannot explain it. He can now feel confident to have a friend stay the night. Bed wetting may be normal, but when it starts affecting the psychology of the bed-wetter, it needs to be dealt with.
ReplyDeleteI am not a paid person and I don't work for Dr. Sagie. I live in Dallas, Texas.
I was wondering if your opinion has changed now. There are a lot more reviews on Amazon now, with many being verified, and most are still 5 star. I think it’s 1% & 2% only at 1-4 stars. If it is as great as I want it to be, I’m assuming that these would be mostly 5 star. I’m very skeptical as well. That’s how I found your site, and why I always sort by lowest review first. I noticed most of the low reviews were because of defects, or the product breaking. I really want this to be a good product. My son is less than thre right now, so I wouldn’t be starting him for another year+, but as a long time bed wetting sufferer into my teens, I want to be prepared. It was devistating. I’m not sure if you’re able to email me back through this comment, and I’m not going to leave my personal email, but I’d love to hear back since it seems like you did a lot of research in the beginning. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteAs I hit publish, it asked me to sign in. I forgot I had created a “blog” account for a Dodgers site. That’s where he Rick Monday name comes from. Thanks again, and hope to hear back.
Matt