Mar 19, 2008, 08:52 AM
staticoff bad mouthing.
I note with great interest that not only have you spent a great deal of time on your own website attempting to, for want of a better term, bad mouth static off, but you have started to visit other blog sites etc where Staticoff is mentioned to post anti-staticoff comments. I find this rather destructive on your part and somewhat rather cowardly and childish, especially considering you have not tried the product. I would hope that from now on, you find some other way to handle what appears to be too much free time on your hands - maybe you could invent and patent some product.
Thank you.
It would appear that Shalom Wertsberger's brief moment of clarity in his revised Youtube post was in fact an aberration. While his tone is far more muted than in past messages, he's still hostile and condescending.
I can't help but wonder why he's so interested in my Blog and what I had to say about his product. If he'd simply ignored my Youtube comment, or posted an articulate and hostility free technical response, that would have been the end of it. He still hasn't realized that this isn't about StaticOff, but about his disproportionately emotional response.
I'm not going to try StaticOff for two reasons:
1. I don't need it. I get a static shock at home about two to three times a year. Some of the rooms in my home have pull chains on the lights as opposed to light switches, meaning there's no convenient location in those rooms to install StaticOff. I'm not going to buy a few dozen $10.00 light switch plates and get in the habit of touching them when I enter a room to avoid a mild annoyance.
2. Trying the product would require I buy it and I have no interest in giving money to someone who is arrogant, hostile and condescending towards me because I made a critical comment.
My favorite line from his message is, "maybe you could invent and patent some product."
Perhaps he missed the fact that I consider his invention to be a silly, frivolous waste of time and money. I can painlessly discharge static electricity by tapping my wedding band to a grounded surface. My favorite watch has a metal band. Tapping THAT against a grounded surface will painlessly discharge any built up static.
I will admit while Shalom Wertsberger's product may be silly, he does have a decent marketing machine. The commercials are of typical "late night infomercial" quality and they manage to be amusing without being painfully annoying. The video contest he's running is another clever bit of marketing. For $500 and a little time, he'll get a lot of free advertising. Then there's the placebo effect that will work to his advantage. A lot of people will get in the habit of touching the StaticOff and just assume it worked if they don't get zapped, even if they didn't have enough of a charge to shock them anyway.
No, I have every reason to think Shalom Wertsberger will make plenty of money off StaticOff, even if it's a useless, pointless product. Just look at your local "As Seen on TV" store if you need proof that people will spend good money of junk they don't really need.
I'd really like Mr. Wertsberger to calm down. He has an advertising budget while I have a little time and a blog with a PageRank of 1. A few wiseass remarks on the Internet won't hurt his business, but his hostility and aggression will.
I also suggest that if he wants to advertise online he should develop a thicker skin. The Internet can be harsh and if he continues to react with this much anger to his critics he'll have a heart attack before the year is out.
10 comments:
meh, add fuel to the fire and this is what you are gonna get! :D
remember the andrew incident? if u give him more stuff to work with....eh. in the end, hes not worth wasting energy with.
I have some doubts about the identity of the Youtube user who was sending me hostile, angry replies. From what I've read, the StaticOff's inventor is a successful patent attorney. The Youtube messages I received were poorly written, hostile and condescending. I like to think such an inarticulate, toxic person would do a poor job working with inventors when filing patents.
The whole exchange feels more like a competitor trying to make StaticOff's inventor look like an idiot than a real inventor trying to defend his product.
If I have in fact been dealing with StaticOff's inventor, then I'd be interested in the turnover rate at his businesses. If he treats his staff the way he treats strangers, then he either has a collection of broken, spineless employees, a very high turnover rate or both.
well it is the intertubes. (haha) anyone can be anyone they wanna be. just sign up for an account.
but I think sometimes its too much trouble being evil. making like 10 different accounts, managing them, and then remember who you are....i'd be terrible @ being evil.
its supposed to snow alot tomorrow so we'll see how the day pans out. fun!
Mr. Miller,
Firstly I am glad to have a real name to respond to.
At issue here is a simple case of form versus substance: you are complaining about my angry tone, which may have offended you, but you refuse to deal with FACTS or provide any basis for your assertions of them. You still do not recognize or admit that by publicly airing your baseless and inaccurate statements, you caused harm both to me and to my product.
You are within your rights to express your opinion that the StaticOff Zapper Stopper a ‘silly frivolous waste of time and money’. However stating that it does not prevent static shock, and that it merely a metal plate, is a clear misstatement of facts, which originally may have been ignorance at first, but now are clear lies. When you make your statements and support them by misstatement of facts, you actually present me as a crook selling something that does not perform the function I claim it does. I admit that implying I am a crook angers me, but it angers me more when the person doing the accusing does so without fact.
Even if all you said about my aggressiveness and anger management is true, I submit it is better to be an angry person with integrity than a calm person without.
You stated: “He still hasn't realized that this isn't about StaticOff, but about his disproportionately emotional response.” May I ask who placed you as the judge of what ‘this’ is? For me, it is about a direct and personal insult to my invention, my product, and myself. And what exactly makes something ‘disproportionate’? If I spread rumors that you are a ‘child molester’, would the issue be your protest, or the facts? Do I have the right to judge your response, whatever it may be, as disproportionate?
The internet is an open forum, but integrity is important in every forum. I provided you the benefit of doubt and called upon you privately to show intellectual integrity and withdraw or correct your statement yourself. Instead, your blog relates to my ‘aggression’ but not to your lack of such integrity. In my mind, THIS is the issue. Not StaticOff, not my ‘condescending attitude’, not my ‘anger management’ nor the fact that you have a pagerank #1 or #100. The problem is you making baseless statements, a statement that implies that I am dishonest, and then, instead of correcting it and apologizing, going out attacking me and a product you admittedly have no knowledge or understanding of.
You further stated “My favorite line from his message is, "maybe you could invent and patent some product." Perhaps he missed the fact that I consider his invention to be a silly, frivolous waste of time and money.”
No. I really did ‘get’ your opinion about the product, but my comment does not relate to it. I ask DID or Have you ever invented ANYTHING, and shared it with the world? Did you contribute to the human knowledge repository? This is what inventors do, you know. They increase the collection of human solutions to people’s problems. Some are good inventions and some are not so good. Some are usable by all, and some are usable by only a few. But they all increase the human knowledge repository. What did you do to increase that knowledge? If you would, it may increase your understanding of what inventions and patents are. And if you do, you may understand why we are proud of our inventions, and why we refuse to be called crooks regarding them.
You question if I have the facts on my side. Have you been able to produce a single factual error about my product? You will not. I do care about my integrity.
You also asked how do I respond to a customer return. Honestly, I can just assume, but I don’t really know. You see, we have sold many StaticOff units, through stores, tradeshows, kiosks, mail order, and the Web. We got several praise letters. However, I am pretty proud to say that to-date WE HAVE NOT RECEIVED A SINGLE RETURN REQUEST. Does this indicate something about the product and its usefulness? I believe so.
Also besides StaticOff you mocked other inventions I was involved in. That means that you placed your opinion on matters you likely understand little in, over those of many learned patent examiners who examined StaticOff and other inventions, the Underwriter Laboratories (UL) testers that tested StaticOff, and several other respected professionals in their field. Doesn’t this give you pause? You know, one of those ‘maybe, just MAYBE, I am not the smartest person in the world’ moments?
Finally, I must give you credit where it is due.
You stated “A properly humidified home will drastically reduce opportunities for static shocks.” From all the statements you made regarding StaticOff, this one stands out as actually being accurate.
Shalom Wertsberger
P.S.:
You stated: “everything-network looks like a textbook example of a link farm, offering little to nothing beyond pages of links.” As for the three sites named ‘everything network’ sites – you are right that they all look the same. However this is a site that is controlled by the “the TriKids Squad”. And no, I do not pay them, nor are they my family members. While there was no way for you to know it, those three impressive 12 year old kids are producing an animation video for the competition. I salute them for their effort to create their site, show their opinion, and provide content about things they care about.
Matthew Miller works for Shalom Wertsberger and I can prove it.
I saw an ad for StaticOff on Youtube and googled it. The WORST think I found was a couple of assholes bickering about if Shalom Wertsberger is rude. ONE youtube crack from a guy who didn't even own one thought it was silly but everything else I saw said it worked.
Did you notice the ADD FOR STATICOFF on this Blog? WFT? If Matthew Miller really thinks it's a terrible product why would he advertise it on his site? I thnk this is just a ploy to prevent any REAL criticism. People will come here, see the WORST think anyone has to say is about the inventor's personality and buy one anyway. If people cared about how a manufacturer acted most corporations would go out of business. No one cares if Shalom Wertsberger is an asshole, they just care if the thing works. This blog makes it sound like it does.
Come clean Miller. Admit you work for Shalom Wertsberger. Admit this is just manufactured drama to boost interst in StaticOff. Admit you plan to build up a long fake battle and then post it all over the Internet to generate buz.
man, how do you create the drama on here? I get zero drama thank goodness for that! :)
I am NOT an employee of Shalom Wertsberger.
do you have your blog info on youtube? this might be how they choose to find you. I dont have anything up on mine. nada. zero zippo zilch.easier that way. and less tracking...
the fact that they choose to chase you down for this speaks volumes...
I doubt he tracked me down via Youtube as I don't think I linked to my blog from my Youtube account.
I noticed that whenever I posted a fresh entry about StaticOff, my Blog floated into the top 10 search results for the term "Staticoff". I suspect Shalom Wertsberger or one of his employees just checks a few search terms daily and stumbled across my Blog that way.
i wonder if i am on google for blogger? odd. .....
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