Keeping the Consumer Dumb and Ignorant - Missing Performance and Physical Information for Bedwetting Alarms.

For almost two years we have been attempting to make manufacturers of bedwetting and enuresis alarms provide the public with complete and accurate information about their alarms with some success but also substantial resistance by some manufactures. Perhaps these manufactures are afraid to disclose how their product hype does not correspond with actual product characteristics. Leaving out performance measures may prevent embarrassment, but should also serve as a warning to the reader that these missing facts may relate to product deficiencies.

We therefore decided to look at the most prominent site for selling bedwetting alarms (Amazon.com) and the alarms on the first page using the search term "bedwetting alarm" and compare claims and missing information with the data on the most complete and comprehensive sites providing very detailed characteristics of these bedwetting alarms at

http://urinealarms.com/Wired_Alarm_Chart.html and  
http://www.bed-wettingalarms.com/wired-alarms-comparison-chart.html 
for Wired Bedwetting Alarms
and at

http://urinealarms.com/Wireless_Alarm_Chart.html  and
http://www.bed-wettingalarms.com/wireless-alarms-chart.html 
for Wireless Bedwetting Alarms.

Alarms not on the Amazon.com first page or not in the detailed reference site are not included.

As we are examining the absence of "hard" facts, we shall be looking at missing or "suspect" data in
Effectiveness
Weight & Size
Cost
Required Certifications and Registrations

Please note that we are only considering bedwetting alarms on Amazon.com's first page, and listing them in alphabetical order (as in the reference sites).

Chummie

Claim: Loud alarm            Fact: No measures of loudness provided

                Alarms Loudness at 4" (10 cms) from ear: Not Provided

                Alarms Loudness at 8" (20 cms) from ear: Not Provided

Sensor Cable Length: Not Provided

Weight of Alarm Box with Clip and Batteries: Not Provided

Chummie Elite

Claim: Loud sounds         Fact: No measures of loudness provided

                Alarms Loudness at 4" (10 cms) from ear: Not Provided

                Alarms Loudness at 8" (20 cms) from ear: Not Provided

Sensor Cable Length: Not Provided

Weight of Alarm Box with Clip and Batteries: Not Provided

DryBuddyEZ

Complete Data Provided 

DryBuddyFLEX Wireless System with Magnetic Sensor

Complete Data Provided 

DryEasy

Sensor Cable Length: Not Provided

Weight of Alarm Box only (with and without batteries): Not Provided or Not Clear

Required Certifications and Registrations: Not Provided 

Dry-Knight

Volume Control: Not Provided

Connector from Sensor Cable to Alarm Box: Not Provided

Required Certifications and Registrations: Not Provided 

Dry-Me

Claim: Loud sounds         Fact: No measures of loudness provided

                Alarms Loudness at 4" (10 cms) from ear: Not Provided

                Alarms Loudness at 8" (20 cms) from ear: Not Provided

Volume Control: Not Provided 

Malem Ultimate 1

No measures of loudness provided

                Alarms Loudness at 4" (10 cms) from ear: Not Provided

                Alarms Loudness at 8" (20 cms) from ear: Not Provided

Volume Control: Not Provided 

WetStop3 
Claim: Loud alarm            Fact: No measures of loudness provided

                Alarms Loudness at 4" (10 cms) from ear: Not Provided

                Alarms Loudness at 8" (20 cms) from ear: Not Provided

Volume Control: Not Provided

Connector from Sensor Cable to Alarm Box: Not Provided

Weight of Alarm Box with Clip and Batteries: Not Provided


We hope that the above will provide a guide to consumers to investigate further, and to manufacturers to provide missing information and keep consumers correctly and completely informed.

DryEasy - Illegal Sale of Product in the United States of America

In our blog entry on December 6, 2014, we found DryEasy to be involved with Very Strong Deceit by Perversion and Concealment. There were a variety of issues that we found DryEasy to be deficient about, an important one being that DryEasy was not registered with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). To repeat from our previous blog:

DryEasy and its parent company are not registered with the FDA. By U.S. law, any bedwetting alarm sold in the U.S. and shipped from a U.S. location, and its related facility, must be registered with the FDA. Any reader who wishes to check whether a bedwetting alarm and/or related facility is registered with the FDA in the U.S. can look at:

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfrl/rl.cfm
 
and enter the Product Code  KPN  which is the FDA code for "alarm, conditioned response enuresis" which is a bedwetting alarm. A complete list of all registered parties and items will be shown from the FDA database. DryEasy and its parent company are not registered and listed. Consequently any buyer of the DryEasy buying it from a U.S. shipping source (including Amazon) is aiding and abetting in the violation of U.S. laws until and unless this item is properly registered with the FDA.

We hoped that by pointing out their illegal activity, the owners of DryEasy would register with the FDA as required by U.S. laws and FDA regulations. Unfortunately, as of today, looking at the FDA Establishment Registration & Device listing web-site (see above) we do not find DryEasy to be registered. Apparently DryEasy seems to consider themselves above and beyond the reach of U.S. laws, perhaps because they are based in China. Being very familiar with these issues, there is no doubt that the sale of DryEasy in the United States and being shipped from U.S. locations is a violation of these U.S. laws and regulations. It can result in regulatory fines and other actions against the vendors and shippers of this product in the U.S. No shipper of such unregistered products is exempt from these regulations.

We are informed that the FDA directly, or the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) acting on behalf of the FDA, is looking into taking action against such violators of U.S. law.

This notice is placed on this blog to again warn the owners of DryEasy, as well as sellers and shippers of this product, that they could see actions against them by the FDA and the FBI. 

We also repeat that  any buyer of the DryEasy buying it from a U.S. shipping source (including Amazon) is aiding and abetting in the violation of U.S. laws until and unless this item is properly registered with the FDA.

DryEasy - Illegal Sale of Product in the United States of America.

DryEasy: Very Strong Deceit by Perversion and Concealment

We examined DryEasy  in our blog on this site dated June 26, 2013. Since this was some time ago, we thought that we should examine DryEasy again. About 18 months ago, we had concluded that DryEasy demonstrated

Strong Deceit by Perversion and Concealment.

So we went to their web site (www.bedwettingsolutions.com) to take a fresh look at what DryEasy had to say about itself.

We noticed that their web site had become more "flashy" and sales oriented than what we recall of their previous site. There is a fair amount of general information about bedwetting, which we are not passing judgment on in this blog. Our objective is to identify how completely and accurately the DryEasy and its manufacturer were identified, and complete information provided to the reader. As may be judged from the heading of this blog page, DryEasy failed quite miserably. We consider this failure to be even more severe than our original review from 2013, as we had pointed out to DryEasy many of the matters that we took issue with.

DryEasy took the "Easy" way out by deleting or avoiding some of the issues that we had raised. Others were ignored instead of being addressed. The only relevant information about the DryEasy alarm on their own web site was on their page with the header "Bedwetting Alarms."

Let us list our unanswered questions and our comments relating thereto:

1.            Who is the manufacturer? Who is the seller? What is their location and address? What is their telephone number?

We have a very strong aversion to parties who are marketing over the internet and not providing the buyer with adequate information about themselves. Complete information should be freely available, so that there can be greater confidence in the seller. Not knowing if the manufacturer and seller are the same or not, we are assuming that they are the same and shall refer to them as the seller.

We noticed that DryEasy was listed on Amazon.com, and telephoned Customer Service at Amazon to get the address and telephone number for the DryEasy seller. We were informed that Customer Service did not have this information and could not provide it. A possibly illegitimate seller on Amazon? This is very troubling for us, and should be very troubling to anyone considering purchasing the DryEasy anywhere. Perhaps the public, people considering purchasing the DryEasy alarm, should ask DryEasy to publish this information and make it freely available.

2.            What is the size and weight of the DryEasy alarm?

This would be of interest to any user. We promptly noticed that the sensor is 33" long (for the newer sensor) and 30" long (for the older sensor). The Product Details page did provide some additional dimensions. Amazingly, none of this information is provided on DryEasy's Amazon.com listing, which appears to be the most important U.S. listing for this seller.

We went to the site (sites, actually) that we consider to be by far the most complete for comparing bedwetting alarms: 

www.bed-wettingalarms.com

www.urinealarms.com

sites.google.com/site/comparebedwettingalarms

sites.google.com/site/urinealarms

These appear to be identical in content, and are the most comprehensive sites for comparing the complete details of all (or most) bedwetting alarms, both wired (like the DryEasy) and wireless.

This site states that the DryEasy is 2.4"x2.3"x0.63". No weight is provided of the DryEasy alarm box by itself, but with batteries it is supposed to weigh 2.1 oz. No weight is provided for either sensor. These correspond closely to what is on DryEasy's web site. Kudos to these comparative sites.

3.            We had previously complained that DryEasy had given no practical measure to its claim of "extra loud sound," which is very deceiving. We found nothing about this on DryEasy's web site, but noticed that in their Amazon.com listing they stated:

"Support max. loudness of 85 db."

Loudness is a function of the amplitude (size) of the sound waves, and dissipates (becomes smaller) over distance. The loudness statement provided is meaningless. Can this 85 dB loudness be heard if the alarm is held attached to the ear, or what distance from the ear? Avoiding stating the distance at which the 85 dB loudness can be measured is a very convenient way of possibly misleading the naive reader. If the seller has adequate technical knowledge, he/she should understand the need to provide meaningful information instead of something that is deceitful and incomplete and can be misunderstood.

4.            So let us examine DryEasy's listing on Amazon.com:

Apart from matters mentioned earlier, we note that

a.            There is no Country of Origin. Apparently the DryEasy originates nowhere, or everywhere! If so, perhaps that should be claimed.

b.            Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces. This is impossible as the alarm itself weighs more than that.

c.             Clicking on the seller DryEasy's name on Amazon.com takes us to a details page, which provides no information about DryEasy (as mentioned in 1. earlier).

d.            On this details page we note that the Shipping ETA to  a Continental U.S. Street address is 17 - 28 days. Surprise! The typical Amazon customer in the U.S. expects to receive purchased items in a few days . Does the average person buying this device on Amazon realize that it may take 3 to 4 weeks to receive it? Why does the seller not clearly state on Amazon that they are located in China (an assumption on our part) and shipping from China after the order is received. Consequently it will take several weeks for the buyer to receive the product from China. Attempting to keep this hidden unless the reader does some detective work on the Amazon site is very deceiving. 

5.            For other bedwetting alarms sold on Amazon.com, there is an "Answered Questions" section in which readers can ask about the product. We notice that this has disappeared for DryEasy, together with many other relevant facts about this device. We can only conclude that this is part of DryEasy's deception campaign on Amazon.

6.            DryEasy and its parent company are not registered with the FDA. By U.S. law, any bedwetting alarm sold in the U.S. and shipped from a U.S. location, and its related facility must be registered with the FDA. Any reader who wishes to check whether a bedwetting alarm and/or related facility is registered with the FDA in the U.S. can look at:

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfrl/rl.cfm
and enter the Product Code  KPN  which is the FDA code for "alarm, conditioned response enuresis" which is a bedwetting alarm. A complete list of all registered parties and items will be shown from the FDA database. DryEasy and its parent company are not registered and listed. Consequently any buyer of the DryEasy buying it from a U.S. shipping source (including Amazon) is aiding and abetting in the violation of U.S. laws until and unless this item is properly registered with the FDA.
 

7.            DryEasy is currently listing for $24.90 on Amazon.com (+ $4.54 shipping with typical arrival 17 to 28 days after the order is placed). We have already expressed our feelings about this deception. Now we point out that on its web site DryEasy is offered at a price of US $49.95 . There is nothing wrong in DryEasy offering it on Amazon for approximately one-half of its normal sale price. But it does make us wonder about the viability of the DryEasy seller if he is selling it in the U.S. for one-half of its normal price.

It is appropriate to raise the issue of how the buyer/user will get warranty or other support from the DryEasy seller if the seller proves to be unresponsive, as the seller has carefully hidden his exact location (full street address) and telephone number so that the seller can be verified and contacted as needed. This, too, is suggestive of the seller wishing to hide his identity from buyers so that he cannot be contacted directly. Again, very deceiving in our opinion.

We believe that DryEasy's continuing behavior in providing incomplete product information and hiding from its public is very deceiving, and strongly recommend that the public be cautious about doing business with an unknown entity. 

Very Strong Deceit by Perversion and Concealment.

DryEasy: Strong Deceit by Perversion and Concealment.

DryEasy          http://www.bedwettingsolving.com/bedwetting_alarm.html   (June 26, 2013)

 

We started by looking at the DryEasy web site. One of the things we look for first are how easy it is to contact the manufacturer (web site owner). We could not find the name of the company that is making/selling the DryEasy alarm. Although the site is copyrighted 2013 BedwettingSolving.com, this is the normal default copyright for any web site and uses the site’s name. Nor could we find a telephone number by which to contact the manufacturer. There was an address (without a name) and an email address. Not only does this make it more difficult to contact the manufacturer, but it leaves us wondering if the mysterious manufacturer is so concerned about their privacy and/or product, that they are concealing their name and also not providing ease of contact. Providing a no-name mailing address and an email address does allow the manufacturer to ignore correspondence that they do not wish to address. And, of course, can result in possible delays.This waves red warning flags in our mind about this product and manufacturer. Strong deceit by concealment.

The manufacturer suggests “As the user has to wear the alarm during sleep time, both the size and the weight of the alarm unit are the factors that should also be taken into account.” We could not find any information about the size of the DryEasy on this web site. It looks very large in the picture on the web site. Even http://urinealarms.com/Wired_Alarm_Chart.htmlwhich we look at for data that may be missing states that the size is “Not Provided.” In our minds, this is another red flag and deceit by concealment.

Several other claims on the web site include:

·         “All necessary features”. What and which features? This is like saying that this alarm is the “best.”
·         “With the use of instant clip, the setup has become very much easier and safer.” No information is provided about this instant clip.
·         “Selectable sensitivity.” What? How? Nothing is mentioned on the site.
·         “Extra loud sound.” How loud? It would be nice to provide this in dB for what the user would hear with the alarm in its normal location during use.
Deceit by perversion and concealment.

“Money back guarantee: Giving you 100% confidence and satisfaction by offering you a 30-day money back guarantee (see details).” And in the details: “To give our customers 100% confidence and satisfaction for use of our products, we offer a 30-day money back guarantee.  You can return us any unsatisfactory products that you purchased from us in the condition set out below within 30 days from the date of your purchase.” And then, the big bombshell: “The returned item must be in new, resalable condition and include all original packaging.” (the bold emphasis is ours). So to use the money back guarantee, you cannot have used the product! Don’t you dare use it to determine if the product is unsatisfactory! You will not be allowed to return it! This is like some sort of con game or scam that the unknown manufacturer is playing with unsuspecting customers. Why all of the false emphasis on the 100% money back guarantee, etc.? Why not simply state that the buyer can return the product within 30 days if the product has not been opened or used and is in new resalable condition? Strong deceit by perversion.

At this point, we are so “turned off” by this unknown DryEasy manufacturer and their web site, that we are not bothering to read any further and would advise caution to any reader. We again refer you to http://urinealarms.com/Wired_Alarm_Chart.htmlto examine and compare DryEasy with other bed wetting alarms.

Strong Deceit by Perversion and Concealment.