The Keeper-Moon Cup Thing

I'm not going to go into the whole details here, as this site has a detailed rundown of it all

http://liadan.bravehost.com/keeperethics.html

But in short, there are now 2 silicone menstrual cups called a "Mooncup".  One (the original, made in 2000) is made in the UK and is called "Mooncup".  The second cup (2006) brought out by The Keeper Inc, is made in America and goes by the names "Mooncup" and "Moon Cup" (depending on which website you visit).

Some consumers who have been shopping for the UK Mooncup have commented on how confusing it is, particularly on ebay, to know which cup is which.  With a couple of people I have seen, reporting they bought the USA cup believing it was the UK one (some being EXTREMELY unhappy about this)

Of course not only is this confusing and annoying to the customer who buys a product that was not what they thought it was (Particularly if they were purchasing the UK cup because of a reason such as it's Vegan seal of approval).  But a simple fact is that each US Moon Cup that is sold to someone who thought they were buying the UK Mooncup, is one less UK Mooncup sold.  Which could be said to be detrimental to the UK Mooncup's business because it is taking business off them.

Now part of this confusion of not making the product's manufacturer clear is as a result of the ebay sellers or websites not being specific enough about this new cup (which of course has nothing to do with the company who made the cups), and the fact that the Keeper's websites took a couple of months to actually put any information up about their new cups (which is odd, you'd think they would jump at the chance to advertise their new product).  But part of the blame has to go to The Keeper Inc.  who chose to bring out a cup with the same name as one already on the market. Had the product been given a different name, then none of this confusing situation would have happened.

Because the UK Mooncup were the first to market and sell a product using the name "Mooncup", I personally find it unethical for another company to bring out an almost identical product with the same name.  Not only because it is infair on the company who already had that product, but also because the consumers are now in a situation where they have to check to make sure who makes the particular cup they are looking to buy - which inconveniences the consumers.

It is also interesting and strange considering they had this product in development for many years, they did not update their website to include the product until a couple of months after other websites/ebay sellers were selling it, and that during that time it was not listed, their customer service staff did not seem to know of its existance.  Then for them to continue to provide apparently poorly photocopied instructions with the word "Keeper" crossed out and "Moon Cup USA" hand written on it.... even after it had been for sale for several months.

So All of this is the reason that The Keeper inc. is blacklisted from this website, and will continue to be until I am satisfied that they have done something positive to rectify this situation.... which they haven't as yet - so probably won't.

Which means that while I will continue to keep all links and info available on their products, I wish to make it clear I personally do not like the way they went about this and do not endorse them as a company.

Again, if you want more details on this, then look at this website (the only one I know of that discusses this), which goes into much more detail, and also gives suggestions of what to do if you've bought the "wrong" cup, and a petition to sign:

http://liadan.bravehost.com/keeperethics.html