I admit that as of this comment I have not read the Gizmodo letter. However, I find it hard to believe, given Belkin’s former reputation as a solidly reliable product, that they would have a need to pad their reviews in the manner described unless things have changed drastically over the years. In all honesty, even now every Belkin product I’ve owned has performed better than the products I replaced with them.

With that in mind, if we assume that the letter writer on Gizmodo truly was a former Belkin employee, then I believe that person is a disgruntled employee that didn’t like getting laid off, or may even be the person guilty of doing the padding in the first place.

Companies live and die on their reputations. If a brand has a reputation for making poor products, sales are going to be minimal. Compaq, and a few other brands were clear examples of this. If a company has a reputation for a superior product, then sales will be good and customer satisfaction ratings will be high; as exemplified by Apple. This doesn’t mean things can’t change. Over the decades you can see where brands that were once considered unimpeachable are now questionable as to whether they should even remain in business. Belkin may fall under this last possibility. I–for one–don’t think so.