Check out this blog entry:
Some tech blogs picked it up like here on engadget
Belkingate - as new evidence turns up, the company keeps mum - Engadget
The first one is the best story, though…
We all probably suspect fake reviews exist, but a company like Belkin? And they do it like this?
I’m guess the intention was to increase sales on amazon, as the reviews do tend to influnce, its a shame really.
Belkin is a shady company. Their network appliances are Chinese plastic junk, but they charge premium prices for them. This is the same company who had their routers hijacking a random connection every 8 hours to send users to one of their ad sites.
I’d agree the built quality isn’t that great but I’ve had no problems with their routers. Mine is actually much more stable than my previous router (Netgear), plus I was able to gain 4mb when connecting to the internet, by reducing the SNR.
Wasn’t aware of the stories you have mentioned, google search suggests there quite old, which obviously doesn’t mean anything (being old), its still the same company. (found the “every 8 hours” story)
Being in the UK I probably can’t complain much about the price, were all used to it. In the end it doesn’t leave a good impression, no matter who you are really.