Red Carpet Box

[VegasLover75]

Originally Posted by mrsmakeup4ever /img/forum/go_quote.gif

No you are not asking to much i seen about 3 or 4 other people go theres so im sure you should have got yours as well. But if it was me i would prob track it myself as well just to make sure it sent out

I have been tracking it myself.  If it was sent priority that is 2 - 3 days, it's been 5 days so it should have been here or at least scanned somewhere along the way.  She just emailed me & told me she would be calling usps monday herself after I posted on here.

 

[adore]

I'm actually excited to join this one. I've been corresponding with the owner and she seems like a doll. If anybody has betseys or big buddahs they don't want, please pm me. I'm interested in big chunky sunglasses. /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> 

 

[glamourdolleyes]

I got the big Buddha glasses. My mom was looking a what I got (not knowing anything about this box) ans she opened up the earrings and was shocked at the $79 price tag. I got some plastic flower earrings that are cheaper than dirt, a stila lip glaze pencil, polish and an Avon liner.

 

[lunadust]

This is a different site than I had originally found the earrings but this one has a price listed to purchase them.

http://www.cheapwholesalejewelry.com/shop/qvc-quality-earrings-gift-boxed-retail-79.99-each

You can get red boxed earrings marked 79.99 for only 3-4 bucks. I'm sure they are really from QVC. Right?

 

[Caryatid]

Maybe that's why they're so-called "QVC Style"...

 

[bluelion]

I just saw a recent post where she said (paraphrased) that she'd agree that the earrings aren't worth $80 after opening them. That concerns me as a potential consumer even more. Why wouldn't you take the time to check the products that are supposedly carefully chosen to be in the boxes? It's great if she's filing a dispute with these wholesalers, but it's an error that wouldn't have happened in the first place if she'd checked the merchandise to start.

Just wanted to add that I'm glad she seems to be taking accountability now, and I hope she is trying to rectify things with disappointed customers and hopefully doing everything in her power to improve her business if she intends to keep on going.

 

[lunadust]

Originally Posted by bluelion /img/forum/go_quote.gif

I just saw a recent post where she said (paraphrased) that she'd agree that the earrings aren't worth $80 after opening them. That concerns me as a potential consumer even more. Why wouldn't you take the time to check the products that are supposedly carefully chosen to be in the boxes? It's great if she's filing a dispute with these wholesalers, but it's an error that wouldn't have happened in the first place if she'd checked the merchandise to start.

Just wanted to add that I'm glad she seems to be taking accountability now, and I hope she is trying to rectify things with disappointed customers and hopefully doing everything in her power to improve her business if she intends to keep on going.

I don't think she's even buying from wholesalers. I don't even count that website with the earrings as a real legitimate wholesaler since it has cheap counterfeit merch on it too. 

 

[bluelion]

Originally Posted by lunadust /img/forum/go_quote.gif

I don't think she's even buying from wholesalers. I don't even count that website with the earrings as a real legitimate wholesaler since it has cheap counterfeit merch on it too. 

You're right. And ebay's hardly a reliable source either, if that's where she got the sunglasses from.

 

[lunadust]

Originally Posted by bluelion /img/forum/go_quote.gif


You're right. And ebay's hardly a reliable source either, if that's where she got the sunglasses from.

Now I should throw in I don't know for sure that site is selling fake stuff but I doubt Dolce and Gabbana are letting their glasses be sold for 5 bucks through a wholesaler...

 

[zadidoll]

Originally Posted by bluelion /img/forum/go_quote.gif

Just wanted to add that I'm glad she seems to be taking accountability now, and I hope she is trying to rectify things with disappointed customers and hopefully doing everything in her power to improve her business if she intends to keep on going.

I don't see her taking accountability since she's been making legal threats to me on my Facebook page via the messages system. She thinks that I and BBelleza are the same person and sent me message after message with legal threats. Personally, I don't back down from legal threats and to me when legal threats are made it makes me think she has something to hide. One thing is for sure those of you who thought this subscription service maybe a scam maybe correct. I know I wouldn't do business with her and save my $25 for a legitimate company such as Birchbox, Ipsy, Beauty Army or even Sample Society. Since this is the third or fourth start up company that's an "at-home" type business that's come across as a scam or turned out to be a scam, well it makes me NOT to want to subscribe to ANY new company that comes along. I think for myself that I'll stick with companies that have reputable companies backing them or who have a good business plan in place.

 

[bluelion]

Eep, had a brain fart and forgot about her stupid threats. Yeah, that's shady. I guess statistically these things don't end well, and I agree, it seems a lot safer to go with a more established company for now. At least with them, there's a better chance of getting problems fix. I didn't see anything wrong with Bbelleza's review, nor anything wrong with the discussion taking place here.

I already know I'm not going to be a customer, but I still feel bad for people who were less than thrilled with their packages.

 

[zadidoll]

I feel bad for them as well. Nothing worse than feeling ripped off.

 

[bluepearl]

As someone who started a business 18 years ago (that's still going strong!), I can tell you that those seemingly-trite sayings such as, "the customer is always right" exist for a reason: they are completely vital to heed. With her attitude, she is absolutely never ever going to succeed. I can also guarantee you that she's not getting legal advice; in fact, she probably has never even spoken to a lawyer at all. She won't be around very long. BTW, can't MakeupTalk automatically detect the sock puppets that are obviously all now signing up to flock to her (own) defense?

 

[zadidoll]

Not automatically. I have to manually check accounts.

 

[zadidoll]

So since she decided to threaten me with legal nonsense I decided to check out her actual website since I hadn't done that yet. I read on her site that she uses SSL encryption however the add-on I use which detects if a site does use it or not shows that her site does NOT have any type of encryption.

​

Just to show it's her site I screencapped her About on Facebook.

​

So poking around her site I see one of the pictures she has on it has a watermark on it that says Colourbox which is a royalty-free website. Why use a free image with a watermark if you're in business to sell products? I've used royalty-free images myself but it's really tacky to use ones with watermarks on it when you're a business. Reading their FAQs page I don't think she has a license from them to use their images which is why the image she has on her site has the watermark. IF she had a license to download and use the image then there is no watermark on it.

​

From Colourbox.
How can I use the material? As long as you have an active license, you can use the stock material worldwide for any purpose you like, with these exceptions: selling or giving material to others (unless they are used as part of creative or editorial work you make for them) and on products for resale, including giving others the material either separately or as part of products, such as postcards, calendars, posters, wallpaper, artwork, screen savers, templates, and other items.
I see a Colourbox watermark on the preview images. Will the watermark still be on my downloaded images? No. It will disappear when you download the image. The reason we use watermarks on thumbnails is in order to ensure that suppliers are reimbursed for use of their work.

On different sections of her site she has other images with different watermarks. These ones are from Shutterstock which like Colourbox above is a royalty-free website HOWEVER to use their images you have to purchase a license.

  ​

I've contacted Colourbx and Shutterstock to clarify if it's okay to use their images on a business site so long as their watermark remains intact or if a company/business must purchase a license in order to use their images. If it's the latter then I can't help but feel that Ms. "I'm a Legal Student and I have a lawyer" should have had her so-called lawyer give her better advice on NOT using images that don't belong to her without permission or without a license.

So, after noticing she doesn't have SSL on her site and she's using images with watermarks I decided to check her domain name and sure enough her private information is listed and confirms the info she ranted to someone else about not being poor. So she gave me the name of her attorney and they appear to be in Raleigh, North Carolina while the address is listed in Florida which is roughly almost 700 miles away. Why would anyone have an attorney almost 700 miles away?

So looking into the attorney's info according to their website they specialize in:


Select a Practice Area to learn more.

• Criminal Defense
• Divorce and Family Law
• Education Law
• Election Law and Redistricting
• Litigation

If this is the same attorney office giving her information on setting up a business then she needs a new attorney.

So looking into her Facebook profile that she has linked from her Red Carpet Box page you can see her college. She ranted to me in a Facebook message she goes to a private law school. So Miss "I know the law because I am a law major" actually is a PRE-law student and to me she's not a true law student as in actually in law school. If you look at her Facebook about you'll see the name of her college, I would have been impressed had I seen Yale Law School, Harvard Law School or any reputable law schools there instead. I applaud her that she's going to college but I think it's absolutely shady that she attempts to pass herself off as a law student or law major when she's not in law school. I wish her all the best in taking the LSATs when it comes time since she's a very busy person for being a mom of six, being in college taking law classes and studying for those LSATs AND running this Red Carpet Box, um, business.


Curious isn't it?

Edit: I did get a response from Colourbox.

Hi!
Thanks for your question. You are not allowed to use a Colourbox image (with or without the watermark) without a license. When an image has been purchased and downloaded correctly, the watermark will disappear.

Best
Colourbox

Conclusion: She does not have a license nor the right to use their images since it was not downloaded correctly.

 

[VegasLover75]

Just wanted to give an update on my missing box situation.  Patty emailed me several times last night and is going to check with usps & if that doesn't pan out she is just going to ship me a new box.  I need to have a bit more patience, her customer service with me has been great since she realized I was upset and I am looking forward to my box again.  I just wanted to clarify the situation so anyone else that hasn't received their box will know that she is going to make it right with me.

 

[zadidoll]

That's great she's going to send you a new box if she can't figure out what happened to yours. You do have to be patient with UPS and UPS MI especially the latter since USPS has been off in delivery dates for some people.

 

[nelliebelle1197]

Zadi-

Has she implied in any way she is practicing law? A pre-law undergrad degree means nothing. A law student cannot practice law without the supervision of a licensed attorney and then only if her state bar has a third year practice act or something like that.

 

[zadidoll]

No not an attorney, but she did implied she was a law student during her rants to me in a Facebook message. Her emails to me are progressively becoming more and more strange as well as hostile. First she confuses me with a member here at MUT and instead of apologizing to me she continues to make more threats, nasty comments and lots more emails to the point where it's harassive.

 

[bluepearl]

The Raleigh law office probably has a friend or relative of hers working there who agreed under duress to pretend like he/she was their lawyer. There is nothing too weird about a firm with those qualifications also practicing business law, but NOT from another state!! Laws surrounding the operation of businesses vary more from state to state than any other class of laws that I've ever come across. A lawyer from one state's bar has no business giving legal advice on a topic so regulated by state laws to someone in another state, nor would they, for fear of exposure to liability and censure. I really do hope she's reading this, and comes to realize that hiring a lawyer should be considered part of a business' startup costs right up there with purchasing merchandise in importance, and that she's currently involved in activity so tortious that she needs to go out and get herself some legal representation – confident, applicable, and local legal reputation – right away. Everyone who's brave (or crazy!) enough to start a business always, by the nature of the beast, risks failure. But it's completely unnecessary to also risk one's life savings, one's reputation, and one's ability to ever start another business or even get a job again in the future. After reading the whole Posh Pod debacle thread last night, I'm starting to see a trend. For the record, it seems to me that Patty actually started out with her heart in the right place, unlike the Posh Pod person, who just seemed to just see dollar signs. The truth of the matter is, the going is going to get rough for ALL businesses eventually. In the case of small businesses, the going often gets rough pretty early on. What separates those who have a chance of being successful from those that are doomed to failure is not how they operate their business when everything is running smoothly, but how they react when those rough spots invariably come. The key, I'm convinced after 18 years of being a small business owner, is being able to take your ego out of the equation. You will make mistakes. You will have problems with vendors and suppliers. There will be various unforeseen circumstances and acts of God over which you have no control. Some customers will start to be unhappy - even if you've done everything right! - there's some people that you just can't please no matter what. The instinctual reaction of human nature is to take all criticism and attacks personally. Especially for the goodhearted business owner – once you've poured your heart and soul into your business, you identify with it. It *is* you. And to have that emotional commitment will take you very far in many ways. But in terms of how you actually operate on a day-to-day basis, that personal identification has to be completely removed from the equation. You can never react as if you take anything personally. You can never lose your temper. You can never even lose your patience. You need to have thick skin to the point of armor. You have to check your ego at the door. It takes enormous self-restraint, but if you don't learn how to do it, you absolutely, positively will fail. It seems to me that Patty has started sliding down that slippery slope. It's also human nature, once we get our panties in a bunch, to not back down. We need to "win", to be "right". My advice to Patty (or to any other aspiring business owners running into the same problem) to learn the skill, would be to just shut down Red Carpet Box – it's a loss cause anyway – and then go spend some time volunteering for charity, learning Buddhist meditation, fostering kittens, and doing as many other generous-but-trying, patience-testing, selfless activities as she can think of. Then, come back in a couple of years and give it another go. The good news is, it gets easier with practice. I don't mean to sound patronizing; this is just my experience – I'm probably quite a bit older than the rest of you (glrph!) – and I genuinely do just want to help. I should also add that unfortunately, there is another possible way to succeed in business, and that is to be a heartless as*****. My above theories and advice only apply to people who really care about what they're doing, who really want to be of benefit to people, to society. I really do think that Patty seems to qualify for that definition, she just fell into this all-too-common trap that we ALL do, whether we're business owners or not. The other thing I would invite these jilted business owners full of righteous indignation to recognize is what an incredible blessing MUT is! This is one enormous, statistically valid, knowledgeable, and FREE focus group! If I was ever going to start a beauty related business, you guys would be my focus group, my beta testers, my advisors, my reviewers, etc. And I would take your criticisms and suggestions to heart seriously and immediately, and be acutely aware that alienating this community as a whole would be like shooting myself in the foot. Or the head! I'm mostly a lurker here, but MUT is an amazing resource, and this is an apropos time to say thank you to all who run it, and to all who participate!