Wow, that behavior is utterly shocking and abhorrent. And I don't mean the company, but the behavior of everyone in that thread that is supporting the OP. Let's just take a deep giant breath and actually read everything before going on a crazed village burning:
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Here is what the original review was: I edited my review to be more "fair", but I originally said that a lot of other reviews were faked (which they are, but I can't prove it). I also said that it's a rebranded router from another company (which is also true).
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
It's unfortunate that so many people have been taken in with this product, but I'm here to warn you: A lot of these reviews are fake. Just search Google for this company, Medialink, and you'll find almost no history and no reviews from legitimate websites. In fact, if you are wondering why this product looks IDENTICAL to another $20 router sold at Amazon by a company called Tenda, that's because it is the SAME router, just rebranded and with a different color. In fact, the FCC filings for MediaLink confirms that it is the same product. Look here: http://www.amazon.com/Tenda-W268R-150Mbps-Wireless-N-Broadband/dp/B004MODQOC Save yourself the money and go with an established router brand, like Asus, TP-Link, Linksys or Cisco.
Furthermore, how likely is it that a router from a company that doesn't actually make their own products suddenly jump to the top of Amazon with 73% 5-star perfect rating? It's very likely that they are paying for reviews. It's unethical, but think about it: They only sell these routers on Amazon, so the whole success of their company depends on Amazon reviews.
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Now go ahead and read the letter[2] from the Medialink lawyers. Go ahead, I'll give you a few minutes. Done? Okay, good.
This is what the lawyer letter is about. He was threatened with legal action for a libelous statement saying that
1. the reviews were faked and bought by the company.
2. the product is a rip-off of another company's product
3. Additionally, he recommends another product over theirs, suggesting that that is the original. (This is why they think that he's trying to sabotage their review and put forth another competitor.)
Everything that the letter says seems to be exactly what you would expect that a company trying to protect their reputation would do.
Now let's go back:
I edited my review to be more "fair", but I originally said that a lot of other reviews were faked (which they are, but I can't prove it). I also said that it's a rebranded router from another company (which is also true).
He literally tells us that he can't prove it, but still contends that what he wrote is a valid fact. This is what the company was originally disputing. They're not disputing his review because they don't like it. You are entitled to your opinion and that is valid. What they are disputing is his claim that they're a bad company because of the aforementioned reasons. That he presented as fact. With no sources. That my friends, is called libel.
This argument would not hold up in any part of a responsible, intelligent society. It would not hold in court. Hell, it wouldn't even pass a high school debate, so why are all of you so quick to jump to one side? C'mon Reddit, you can be better than this. It's a serious allegation by the OP and the company responded in what would be the most logical thing to do: ask the OP to take it down because A) it really is libel and not opinion. B) There shouldn't be a B). What would you do if someone stated something untrue about your business and is specifically telling others to go to another one, while somehow becoming the most highly rated review, without any substance to it?
In all likelihood, most of the reviews are high because the average consumer can get this relatively cheap router up and going without too much fuss. And because of the already high reviews from others that are looking for something cheap that just works, it just snowballs from there from people buying it. It's listed as one of the best selling routers on Amazon — the ratings are high and the price is right. When the average consumer sees that the next best routers (some metric based on the rating and quantity of the total reviews) are around $90, they're probably going to pick the cheaper one. After it, it has stellar reviews. And it's not just on Amazon, but on Smallnetbuilder [3], taking 6th on their chart, and concluding that it's not a bad choice for a N300 router (there's a price premium that you pay that they make up for in customer support). Did Medialink buy them off too?
Just search Google for this company, Medialink, and you'll find almost no history and no reviews from legitimate websites. In fact, if you are wondering why this product looks IDENTICAL to another $20 router sold at Amazon by a company called Tenda, that's because it is the SAME router, just rebranded and with a different color.
And this is where I'm going to call out the OP: Where does it show that the FCC filings for it are identical? Oh wait, there's no source. You can post a negative opinion, that is acceptable. You can't, however, say that they (Medialink) blatantly ripped off a product and state it as fact, especially without providing a source for it. I would personally count the reviews on Amazon (that have verified as purchased) as valid reviews, especially if they have nearly 2500 reviews with an average 4/5 rating. They couldn't have bought them ALL out could they? (Edit: I looked into this later on)
And before you guys start getting on my case about how you can get relatively decent routers for $50 now -- that may not have been the case before. You know, when their first version of the medialink router (150 Mbps) first launched in 2010, four years ago.
In my opinion, this product is directly comparable to the Tenda router linked by the OP (and not what the OP wrote the review on, which was the 300 Mbps version that launched in 2012). Amazon shows that the Tenda has terrible, terrible reviews though. Might be identical hardware, but apparently there are other factors to consider, such as customer support.
And if you look at the older comments, it used to be $40 for the Medialink (there is a review indicating that at one point it dropped to $30 even). That is how you build a brand. By offering a good product at a low price to get customers to try it and then they tell their friends and so on. It appears that they increased their price to $50 (supply and demand). The OP thinks that that brand came out of nowhere, when that is not the case. It looks like they built up a good reputation with their 150 Mbps version, then came out with the 300 Mbps version and through brand loyalty, people continued to buy that brand's newer version. (In my opinion, they shouldn't be the same price since that'll confuse the average consumer, but hey, it's a business and that's not relevant to this discussion.)
I honestly think that the OP made an incorrect assumption and just spoke their mind with little regards to research put into it. And now that they have a legal letter on their hands, he's freaking out about it and posting it to Reddit. And Reddit is by droves, crapping on a product unfairly by giving tons of 1-star reviews with no basis of actual truth. What the hell guys? We'll probably come back to this in a week and realize just how badly things were screwed up.
I don't want to disrupt the circle-jerk, but let's look at the original review:
ORIGINAL REVIEW: It's unfortunate that so many people have been taken in with this product, but I'm here to warn you: A lot of these reviews are fake. Just search Google for this company, Medialink, and you'll find almost no history and no reviews from legitimate websites. In fact, if you are wondering why this product looks IDENTICAL to another $20 router sold at Amazon by a company called Tenda, that's because it is the SAME router, just rebranded and with a different color. In fact, the FCC filings for MediaLink confirms that it is the same product. Look here: http://www.amazon.com/Tenda-W268R-150Mbps-Wireless-N-Broadband/dp/B004MODQOC Save yourself the money and go with an established router brand, like Asus, TP-Link, Linksys or Cisco. Furthermore, how likely is it that a router from a company that doesn't actually make their own products suddenly jump to the top of Amazon with 73% 5-star perfect rating? It's very likely that they are paying for reviews. It's unethical, but think about it: They only sell these routers on Amazon, so the whole success of their company depends on Amazon reviews.
The one factual statement in there is that the router is a rebranded version of the Tenda router. The rest of the review is an accusation that the company has bought fake reviews. If he doesn't have any evidence to back that up, it's libel, and he can be sued. You generally are not permitted to go around making things up about someone in a way that damages them monetarily.
Now, if they have been buying reviews, then we can all grab the pitchforks. But otherwise, they are perfectly within their rights to threaten to sue.