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exFamily.org > chatboards > genX > archives > post #6952

Amazon update.

Posted by Sam Ajemian on January 11, 2003 at 14:14:46

This are the main points of my communication with Amazon concerning Cherub Wings.

The following is my first e-mail to Amazon:
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Friedbert Liegel from Germany wrote a very positive review on Amazon about Cherub Wings praising it up and down, and gave it the highest rating. According to a former member, Liegel is a member of the Family cult. “Friedbert Liegel, the dude from Germany who posted all the comments for the Cherub Wings is a FM Family member. His Family name is David Newheart. (One who knows, movingon.org, 11/29/02.) FM stands for Fellow Members, the group’s peripheral, more independent, second-class citizens. A former member wrote the following review on Amazon about
Cherub Wings: “This video is produced by the Children of God (a.k.a. The Family of Love) cult. They have a history of sexually abusing children and condoning child-adult sex ‘as long as it is done in Love’. This video is part of their new effort to white-wash their past. Be forewarned. Do a Google search on ‘The Children of God’ and on ‘The Family of Love’ before purchasing and decide for yourself.” (Nahchey aka Lamont, movingon.org, 11/26/02). He encourages everyone to post on Amazon.
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Amazon did not get the point (and I should had made it clearer) that the issue was not if the post from Newheart should be taken down or not. What I was trying to say is that Cherub Wings should not be sold by Amazon because of its association with the cult. We kept posting past each other until things got clarified at the end. Here is part of Amazon’s first reply to me:
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“We understand your concern, but the review doesn't fall outside of our guidelines. In order to help customers make informed buying decisions, we are interested in cultivating a diversity of opinion in our reviews. Part and parcel of that is allowing our customers to air their honest thoughts about items. Bret Pederson.”
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First of all if this guy from Germany is a Family member its not like he is a customer. The Family sells these videos, so why would he buy it from Amazon. Also is not exactly a thing about diversity of opinion because he is parroting the Family propaganda to make people buy the video. (He is not free to be critical and say what he really thinks if he thinks otherwise.)
He is acting more like a salesman, than a expresser of an unbiased opinion. In Greece they call these guys “krahtis.” There is someone in an open marker selling God knows what and his mother, and brother and five of his best friends are pretending to be customers and buying the product (with money he earlier give them, to be returned later of course) to motivate the others who are looking at the products to buy. There is no sale, it’s all fake, its deception and illegal.
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My second e-mail said in part: “Thank you for your response….My question is, I did not find the second message posted, the one from the former member explaining that Cherub Wings is a product made by the
Children of God cult aka The Family. Thanking you for taking the time to respond. Sam Ajemian”
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I got this reply, some of it a repeat of the earlier one: “As my colleague, Bret, stated, the review by Friedbert Liegel is within our guidelines and will remain posted. The reviewer's affiliation is not relevant.
Regarding the other review, for privacy reasons we can discuss
details of a withheld review only with the actual reviewer.
Bert G.”
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My answer was: “Thank you for your response. That is what I wanted to know and I now know from your response that the other review (from the former member) was not posted. He said in his post that this product is created by the Children of God cult aka the Family. It is information that I think is important for people to know. It may hurt sales but from the moral point of view I think consumers should know where they spend their money. I am sorry if my original post to you was a little complicated and I missed telling you a little more about why we are concerned.The Children of God cult aka the Family has been known for their practices of sex of adults with children, prostitution, and more recently they got a new doctrine telling them to masturbate to Jesus Christ, 14 year old male teens and up are encouraged to imagine they have vaginas and to imagine that Jesus Christ penetrates them with His penis. You can read more about it on my web site countercog.excult.org (I have written two newsletters on the subject).
You invited me to post my review which I will. But are you going to also not post it like you did with the other former member? Sam Ajemian
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Hello,
Thank you for writing back to Amazon.com.As my colleague mentioned in our previous correspondence, we would certainly invite you to submit a new review for this item. However,for us to consider posting the review to our website, the review must be within our posted customer review guidelines.
Please take a look at our review guidelines for more information:
http://www.amazon.com/o/tg/browse/-/508094/')
Thank you for your interest in Amazon.com.
Best regards,
Mitch S.
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MY ANSWER:
I read the Review guidelines. Thank you for sending them to me.
Because I feel very much like the former cult member on these issues, would you give me some kind of an
idea of what it is that you object to? I found
couple things that may possibly apply: "Your comments should focus on the
product" and the rule that posters shoud refrain from "Comments focusing
solely on the actors, directors, authors, or artists." You see, we are not
saying that there is anything wrong with the content of the product. What we are saying is that the public has the right to know that these products they are
buying for their children are produced by pedophiles who have abused
thousands of children. How many of your customers would still buy these product if they knew? Respectfully, Dr. Sam Ajemian
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LAST E-MAIL FROM AMAZON.
Thank you for writing back to Amazon.com with your concern.
As our review guidelines indicate, your review must focus on the
content of the item being reviewed. Comments which focus on the
personal lives of those involved with the video are not within our
guidelines and cannot be posted to our web site. I apologize if this
causes you any frustration.
Again, if you wish to submit a review of the contents of the video, we would be happy to consider it for posting on our web site.
Thank you for your interest in Amazon.com.
Best regards,Tammy Naslund