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.

Deceit on the Internet: Shopping Reviews -- Reducing Fake Amazon Reviews.

Fake and deceitful reviews on shopping sites is a common occurrence. Amazon.com is the largest internet shopping site, and gets a tremendous number of reviews on a tremendous number of products and services that might be sold on Amazon. Undoubtedly, many of these reviews are fake and false. Some parties may almost be in the business of promoting their product and hurting competitors' products by fake reviews posted on Amazon by themselves or their flacks (shills). We have extensively reported on one such party in this blog.

We are aware that Amazon has procedures in place to try to prevent or reduce such bogus reviews. However, there is little doubt, that a substantial number of fake reviews get by Amazon's people who examine these reviews (we shall refer to them as Examiners). We feel that much of this is because of Amazons dedication to allowing a variety of expressions and opinions to be expressed. And Amazons criteria for allowing a review on its site is loose and often subject to interpretation by its Examiners. Unfortunately, the quality of Amazon's Examiners goes all over the place, from intelligent and willing to understand the circumstances for or against a review, to people who are incapable of going beyond a very literal reading of Amazon's rules, with no other considerations allowed. These latter Examiners have a favorite phrase which is often used - "This does not violate Amazon's rules."

This blog entry is not intended to be a critique of what may be wrong with Amazon's review policies. Our objective is to reduce deceit on the internet. So let us present an opinion expressed as a comment by Helen Smith on August 4, 2013 to our blog entry "Chummie: Grand Deceit -- Fizzle and Frazzle" which we posted on this blog on August 2, 2013. Helen's comments are reproduced below:

Helen Smith   August 4, 2013 at 9:10 AM

Hi,

I am repeating a comment I posted on an earlier entry on this blog, as it is applicable anywhere a seller is trying to prevent fake reviews. My suggestion relates to fake reviews on Amazon.

What you have said in an earlier blog Chummie: Grand Deceit -- Fizzle and Frazzle is so correct. I quote

"They have been very vociferous in their proclamations, many of them based on Chummie's deceit. They have screamed at anyone who called their bluff, or pointed out their flaws, or suggested any changes in their aggressive and deceitful practices and behavior. Chummie's response was often to invent even more deceit with which to threaten persons or parties that they felt threatened by. All with the intent to continue on their road of deceit.

They are obviously after DryBuddy, which must be scaring Chummie silly with their product(s). From what I have read in your entry "Chummie: Grand Deceit -- Part 2," Chummie will be facing a major competitive problem shortly.

With Chummie's established track record of deceit and manipulating reviews on sites like Amazon, I would bet that Chummie will be flooding Amazon with fake negative reviews on any product that DryBuddy places there. Other competitors might as well.

I am an Amazon seller in a completely different area. I have also had to endure fake negative reviews from competitors. I would suggest that DryBuddy considers doing what I do.

The review must come from a buyer who is both "Amazon Verified Purchase" and also "Real Name." Using just "Amazon Verified Purchase" lets people buy an inexpensive item and provide a fake review. And for a bad-mouthing competitor like Chummie, it may be worth spending $30 to be able to lie about your product. So by itself it is not reliable. But when you add "Real Name" to it, now will have only proper reviews from people who are willing to back up their review truthfully with their name.

For people who may have purchased the item directly from you, explain that they will have to use the "Real Name" on Amazon which matches their credit card "Real Name" when they ordered from you. Else it is probably a fake review.

Using both "Amazon Verified Purchase" and also "Real Name" has worked for me. Several genuine customers have informed me that my explaining this and branding an inappropriate review as a possible fake for these reasons has been very acceptable to them. And for people who want to lie, brand them and forget them. They may bring your Amazon rank down, but there isn't much you can do about fakes and liars, unless you also want to be like Chummie and massively flood Amazon with fake positive reviews.

I hope that this helps you and every other seller and buyer on Amazon and similar sites to try and keep reviews honest. I shall post it on some of your other blogs as well, and you may post this comment as a blog entry anywhere on your deceit related sites.

I appreciate the big effort that you have put into revealing deceit in the bedwetting alarm industry. We need this in other areas as well.

Good luck, and God Bless you.

Helen's idea merits consideration. State on your Amazon placement that if a buyer wishes to offer a review on Amazon, the purchase from Amazon must be made using the buyer's "Real Name" - the name on the credit card used for the purchase at Amazon. Although it is not impossible for such a name to be false, it is very likely to be a true name. Further state that a reviewer must have a "Real Name" as well as be an "Amazon Verified Purchase" for the review to be considered valid.

If the item can be purchased directly from the seller's site, the seller should state on the site that it must be purchased using the same name as on the credit card being used on the purchase. It must then be reviewed on Amazon with the same name which Amazon would certify as being a "Real Name." The seller could verify that this is a valid purchase from his/her site, since Amazon would not have labeled it as an "Amazon Verified Purchase."

Reviews that do not meet these criteria for proof of actual and valid purchase would be branded as "FAKE."

Explain this on your site and on your Amazon placement. People who do not wish to give or use their real name can still buy from either Amazon or the Seller's site using a pseudonym. But any review on Amazon would be label FAKE. As part of this FAKE label, state why the review has been so branded, since the buyer did not follow the conditions for a purchase which would be considered to be valid for a review on Amazon. These instructions would have been posted on both Amazon's and your site.

We recognize that Helen's idea may be difficult to follow for products sold by many sellers who do not have access to all sale records. But for numerous sellers selling unique items or limited to just selling on Amazon and/or their own site, it might work.

We do not know if this would be acceptable to Amazon. And although we understand Helen's viewpoint, there is some possibility that a potential customer may take umbrage for whatever reason. But, as stated earlier, if the customer does not intend to post a review on Amazon (and most don't) then using a pseudonym is not an issue at all.

As we said earlier, this merits consideration. Your feedback is welcome. Please make your feedback productive, participative and honorable, whether you agree with the idea or not. Suggest improvements to make it more feasible. It is important to all persons, buyers, sellers and Amazon, that reviews not be fake and prejudicial.

Please remember that our objective is to reduce and try to eliminate deceit on the internet. Reducing fake and bogus reviews on Amazon would be a substantial step in that direction, an objective that only the rogues can object to - and they would not do that publicly.

Thank you.

Deceit on the Internet: Product Blogs --- Strong Deceit.

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Deceit on the Internet: Product Blogs.

Continuing with our discussion of Deceit on the Internet, as suggested and explained at http://stopdeceit.blogspot.com/2013/07/stop-deceit-on-internet.htmlwe shall look at how product blogs are used for deceit.


Product Blogs:

This is something that each interested person can do for themselves. We did a Google search by the product names for the four products that we had considered in the earlier post of "Deceit on the Internet: Shopping Reviews." We can only give you a summary and our “feelings” based on our search. We only searched for the four products, A, B, C, and D which were evaluated in our earlier comments about Shopping Reviews.

For both Product A and Product B there were a large number of listings on product blogs. It is difficult to distinguish much difference between the techniques or results for Product A versus Product B. They both seemed to be reading out of the same book, and had rather similar results. So the next few paragraphs summarizes our thoughts for both Product A and Product B.

Both manufacturers were very aggressive in trying to “place” their products with any and all parties that would offer a "good" opinion about these products on their blogs, or help in spreading “the word” in a "good" sense about these products on the internet. Almost without exception, these blogging parties were individuals or small groups of individuals. Some stated that they were writing this blog entry because they had been given this product to review and then keep. We are aware that there are some blogs whose “owners” will write whatever they are told to write and enter that into their blogs for a monetary fee or other compensation. These blogs were also represented.

Both manufacturers also compensated these blogs by offering “discount coupons” through these blogs, which the blog owner would hopefully benefit from by attracting more traffic and consequently more paid advertising of some sort or the other. Many of these blogs were obviously providing statements (or reviews) from the manufacturers, or were copying significant elements of the manufacturers’ advertising in their “reviews.” Even blogs set up with names associated with bedwetting or bedwetting alarms were essentially servicing the manufacturers, and had doubtful or no validity or credibility in our opinion. Furthermore, some blog writers were blindly taking for granted the validity of other reviews on the internet (which we have already demonstrated can be quite fictional) and using them to validate their preferences, if these reviews so suited them. This may sound absurd and is undoubtedly unethical, but there is a lot of selective adoption of possibly unreliable information, if it suits the reviewer’s objectives.

As an illustration of how a manufacturer may actually advertise to entice other bloggers and persons to promote their product, we have copied an actual example from the internet, leaving out the blog and manufacturer’s name:


Bedwetting Alarm Giveaway & Blogger Opp!

This is a FREE blogger opportunity (with paid options)

Open to US Residents Only

Sign up:  April 14, 2013 to April 28, 2013

Giveaway Dates:   May 1, 2013 to May 15, 2013

Participation Rules:

·        Participation is FREE (with paid options).

·        You agree to promote the giveaway once it goes live at least 3x per week

Pricing:

·        One free link of your choice - Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest only with announcement post

·        $5.00 fee to waive announcement post

·        The following additionallinks are $1.00 each:

o   Facebook

o   Twitter

o   Pinterest

I will be posting a reminder for this once it goes live! 

We did not find such issues for Products C and D to any significant extent.

Bearing in mind that Products A and B are relatively new compared to Products C and D, we must assume that the manufacturers of A and B were trying to make their presence known on the internet. It is unfortunate that both manufacturers had no qualms about paying (in cash or kind) to having their products touted on these blogs. These reviews and blogs are bogus and fake. Any reader of these blogs must remember that they have poor credibility and are often mouthpieces for whoever may be compensating them in any way. And more individuals are trying to make an extra buck by starting such “for hire” blogs. This is not a good trend as two sets of greedy people, the people setting up and running blogs, and the manufacturers and sellers, are only increasing deceit on the internet by fake postings on these blogs.

We should also point out that many blogs run by organizations that have developed a reputation in the heath advisory area can also be quite deceitful. The organization running the blog in its name may be unbiased and innocent, but members posting reviews, and moderators responsible for editing these reviews can be quite biased. Moderators have been know to delete entries that may question their biases and opinions, and even  make it impossible for opposing views to be registered by "closing" that thread while maintaining on the blog only the opinions that the moderator supports, and get away with it because of inadequate controls on the part of the owner organization.

In conclusion, we must agree with Stop Deceit, that many blogs run by private individuals, small groups of persons, and even normally reliable organizations without adequate controls, can have substantial fake reviews on them. If Consumer Reports reviews bedwetting alarms, you can expect unbiased reviews. But “Moms-bedwetting-alarms-reviews” (the name is fictional and not intended to criticize anyone) probably should be ignored, unless you find its reading entertaining. Caution and prudence are highly recommended before the reader accepts reviews at their face value from these blogs.