EEVblog #751 - How To Debunk A Product (The Batteriser)

[EEVblog]

Obviously, you can buy comments too. From "random users" or, better, "other bloggers" which will later promote the same product and confirm its usefulness.

That sort of astroturfing is quite common.
It's all part of the marketing campaign: paid promotional blogs, paid astroturfing comments, buying fake views and likes etc.
They see nothing wrong with this, indeed it seems to be an accepted part of the marketing playbook these days.
Heck I have even busted Batteroo creating an anonymous account on this forum so we know they do this.

Of course they will never engage with nor allow a credible independent blog like mine unless they really believed in their product and claims. Those people can't be controlled so are to be avoided at all costs.

In December though they tried to hire me as an independent tester, which would of course, if I entertained the notion, had me under contract with various clauses no doubt. That failed 

[Koen]

Curious, I had a look at Google's first page results with Belgium-French localization to see if people would be encouraged or discouraged to buy it after a quick search and stumbled upon this old quote :

“The battery manufacturers have been focusing on the chemical characteristics of the battery rather than looking at it from an electrical engineering point of view,” Roohparvar says. “I asked the ex-CTO of Energizer, ‘How come nobody thought about this?’ He said, ‘Because we’re chemical engineers, and we weren’t thinking about power management.’”

[Hensingler]

http://thirtysomethingsupermom.com/batteroo-extends-battery-life/

Took me a while to find this so in case anyone is interested the tested lights seem to be like this

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/9-SMD-LED-Pocket-Pen-Torch_60434529380.html

and this is likely a badged version

https://www.kincrome.com.au/smd-led-penlight

Taking 3 x AAA hard to see how Batteriseroo sleeves are going to improve life unless they current limiting.

[Blocco]

http://thirtysomethingsupermom.com/batteroo-extends-battery-life/

Took me a while to find this so in case anyone is interested the tested lights seem to be like this

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/9-SMD-LED-Pocket-Pen-Torch_60434529380.html

and this is likely a badged version

https://www.kincrome.com.au/smd-led-penlight

Taking 3 x AAA hard to see how Batteriseroo sleeves are going to improve life unless they current limiting.

I bought one of those exact same penlights about a year ago, it gets occasional use and is still working well on the cheap zinc-carbon cells that it was supplied with. I'm fairly sure there are no active electronics in there so her/their description of it beginning to blink seems suspicious.

I suspect the whole thing; the text, the "test" and the images was supplied by Batteroo. Do you notice how in all the positive reviews the reviewer is "excited" by the Batteroo sleeves?

[Tac Eht Xilef]

I bought one of those exact same penlights about a year ago, it gets occasional use and is still working well on the cheap zinc-carbon cells that it was supplied with. I'm fairly sure there are no active electronics in there so her/their description of it beginning to blink seems suspicious.

I've got one somewhere that's almost exactly the same except without the magnet. Mine at least does have an undocumented blinking mode triggered by random button-pressing. It's totally inconsistent - sometimes you need to hold the button down for a few seconds when turning on, other times it starts if you half-press the button while it's on - so I assumed it was either a bug or half-implemented feature in the LED driver chip.

[Sonny_Jim]

Apologies if I have missed it, but has anyone done a debunk of this page yet?
https://www.batteroo.com/blog/popular-battery-operated-toys.html

In a nutshell, they 'scoured different message boards and blogs to see what sorts of toys everyone was buying'.  They picked the following toys:

Fisher-Price® Think & Learn Code-a-pillar™
The Go! Go! Smart Wheels® Train Station Playset by VTech®
Hatchimals
DreamWorks Trolls Hug Time Poppy
Star Wars Bladebuilders Jedi Master Lightsaber

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that these devices probably already have decent battery management already.

[EEVblog]

Apologies if I have missed it, but has anyone done a debunk of this page yet?
https://www.batteroo.com/blog/popular-battery-operated-toys.html

What a nice handy test for us to test! 

[samgab]

In December though they tried to hire me as an independent tester, which would of course, if I entertained the notion, had me under contract with various clauses no doubt. That failed 

It would have been interesting if you had strung them along up to the point where they actually provided you with the "contract" so we could see exactly what sort of terms they would have imposed on you. At which point of course you would refuse to sign their contract and eschew all further contact with them. But I'm curious to see the fine print they would have imposed. Definitely something that they'd hope would have seen you in court if you spoke your mind honestly, which was likely their end game in your case.

[Kean]

Apologies if I have missed it, but has anyone done a debunk of this page yet?
https://www.batteroo.com/blog/popular-battery-operated-toys.html

What a nice handy test for us to test! 

Weird that they would post that list and no test results.
Maybe once they've actually done some tests, they will then conveniently forget to post them, and just leave the original post there so that people who don't read critically will just think it implies the Batteroo Boost actually helped.

There is also another blog post from that same day which talks about a rather ridiculous setup with a toy train for simulating GPS testing while moving around the backyard.
Even more amusing is that in the blog post is this sentence:

The ingenuity and creativity of the team at Batteroo is a testament to the ____ of the Batteroo itself!

I am reasonably sure that the blank word was supposed to be filled in before publishing.  Any suggestions? 

[EEVblog]

It would have been interesting if you had strung them along up to the point where they actually provided you with the "contract" so we could see exactly what sort of terms they would have imposed on you.

That thought did cross my mind 
But ultimately that would be a dick move, like buying dislikes, or publicly and knowingly slandering someone by saying they are paid by a battery company.

[Kean]

But ultimately that would be a dick move, like buying dislikes, or publicly and knowingly slandering someone by saying they are paid by a battery company.

I see what you did there 

[Sonny_Jim]

The ingenuity and creativity of the team at Batteroo is a testament to the ____ of the Batteroo itself!

Uselessness?

knowingly slandering someone

Slander is spoken, libel is written.  But considering it was an interview I'm not sure which way round this should be.

[EEVblog]

Slander is spoken, libel is written.  But considering it was an interview I'm not sure which way round this should be.

Bob said it to the reporter on the phone who then wrote it.
In any case they have been legally one and the same in Australia since 2005.

[EEVblog]

There is also another blog post from that same day which talks about a rather ridiculous setup with a toy train for simulating GPS testing while moving around the backyard.
Even more amusing is that in the blog post is this sentence:

The ingenuity and creativity of the team at Batteroo is a testament to the ____ of the Batteroo itself!

I am reasonably sure that the blank word was supposed to be filled in before publishing.  Any suggestions? 

Wankery?

[Luminax]

The ingenuity and creativity of the team at Batteroo is a testament to the ____ of the Batteroo itself!

Batteroosery?

[amyk]

Obviously, you can buy comments too. From "random users" or, better, "other bloggers" which will later promote the same product and confirm its usefulness.

On the hypothesis that those mouths will say whatever the highest bidder wants them to... I suppose if anyone really wants to and has the $$, they could have a bit of fun with making anti-Batteroo posts show up on those exact same sites.

It somewhat reminds me of this: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/rigol-hack-video-on-the-rigol-site!/

[drussell]

On the hypothesis that those mouths will say whatever the highest bidder wants them to... I suppose if anyone really wants to and has the $$, they could have a bit of fun with making anti-Batteroo posts show up on those exact same sites.

Anything even remotely critical or negative in any way will just be deleted...

[Sonny_Jim]

Speaking of deletions, did ol' Bob just do another round of deletions from the IGG page, as I see the last comment was from 27 days ago?

EDIT: 
Why am I bothering to read the T&Cs on Batteroos website?  I must be bored, although I find it amusing the amount of typos in there, this part really takes the cake:

Batteroo further grants the User a limited, nonexclusive and revocable right to create a hyperlink to the Batteroo.com Site so long as the link does not portray Batteroo, its subsidiaries, and affiliates, or their respective products or services in a false, misleading, derogatory, or otherwise offensive matter.

 

[dr_frost_dk]

before deletion the last comment was 14/15 days ago

[SL4P]

"does not portray Batteroo, its subsidiaries, and affiliates, or their respective products or services in a false, misleading, derogatory, or otherwise offensive matter."

I can't see any possible way to fall short of this clause!

[McBryce]

"does not portray Batteroo, its subsidiaries, and affiliates, or their respective products or services in a false, misleading, derogatory, or otherwise offensive matter."

I can't see any possible way to fall short of this clause!

They don't want the users getting involved in what they consider their sole responsibility.

McBryce.

[Hensingler]

Batteroo refund polcy page came up as recently changed in a search. Anyone have watches set to know if/how it changed?

No refunds. While we are happy to give new replacements for defective products, we do not give refunds.

No returns because Batteroo doesn’t fit in a specific device: Battery compartments vary in size, And we do not accept returns Just because that there wasn’t enough room for the Batteroo Boost to fit inside a specific device. Don’t worry, for every compartment where the Batteroo Boost does not fit, there will be  others where it will fit fine. Please see our best practices guide at https://www.batteroo.com/blog/batteroo-boost-best-practices.html for more guidance on inserting the Batteroo boost.

No returns in cases where Batteroo Boost Doesn’t benefit a specific device:  We designed Batteroo so that you could get the most benefit from the widest range of devices. However,  we don’t guarantee that all of your devices will benefit from Batteroo boost. We do not accept returns just because Batteroo doesn’t benefit your particular device.

Doesn't fit - NO REFUND, doesn't work - NO REFUND. Not exactly generous is it.

[FrankBuss]

Doesn't fit - NO REFUND, doesn't work - NO REFUND. Not exactly generous is it.

This is hilarious and says everything you need to know about the product Compare this to good products, like http://littlebits.cc "HAPPINESS GUARANTEED  no-questions-asked returns" and everything you can buy at Amazon etc. Once I bought a headset from Amazon, the reviews were good, but the microphone was too quiet. Just a click for printing the no-postage-fees-return-sticker, bring it to the post office, full refund after some days. Of course, you can't do this if your product is crap, as the Batteroo sleeve is.

[StillTrying]

There's no need for debunking the batterisers, just publicising their own returns policy will do.

[daveake]

Doesn't fit - NO REFUND, doesn't work - NO REFUND. Not exactly generous is it.

This is hilarious and says everything you need to know about the product Compare this to good products, like http://littlebits.cc "HAPPINESS GUARANTEED  no-questions-asked returns" and everything you can buy at Amazon etc. Once I bought a headset from Amazon, the reviews were good, but the microphone was too quiet. Just a click for printing the no-postage-fees-return-sticker, bring it to the post office, full refund after some days. Of course, you can't do this if your product is crap, as the Batteroo sleeve is.

Oh yeah, their "Guarantee", which is basically that it's "safe to use under normal usage".  That's it, and it's followed by "Improper use of Batteroo can cause battery shortage, fire or injury".  And they've already had customers/investors complain about the things melting their devices.  I'm only surprised they haven't been sued yet (or have they?)

Dave