Now that I read those old quotes about how she treated her wedding vendors, it sounds like she just wants free stuff. She blows up small infractions until she gets something in return. And even then it seems like that's not enough. Presumably b/c she's unhappy unless she gets to keep the items for free instead of just a discount or some other reasonable solution. Coming from a small business owner that behavior is... rich.
But how can you afford $700/day in activities on your vacations if you DON'T push for free stuff?
Post by katrinabennett on Aug 16, 2016 5:18:15 GMT -5
I read all the pages. Well everything here and the starting post on the other board. Question just for clarity. Did she solicit money when her made up child died? Not that it matters. I am just wondering what her end game was. I am also wondering if that is criminal. Probably too late to pursue. Even without financial solicitations, this leaves the worst taste in my mouth. And I don't understand how a mother could pretend to have a child that died. Make up stories of illness and loss. Why would you want to put yourself and others through that? And how sad and lonely are you? And even on the trips. Just her and her son. That must be lonely after a while. Not surprised she has no friends IRL. She is so full of herself but also so 'woe is me and my horrible past' I have no patience for that. I also can't believe all the people who don't eat potluck from people they have met before would order these weird looking cookies. I was apprehensive about ordering LLR from someone here and it's just clothes.
I read all the pages. Well everything here and the starting post on the other board. Question just for clarity. Did she solicit money when her made up child died? Not that it matters. I am just wondering what her end game was. I am also wondering if that is criminal. Probably too late to pursue. Even without financial solicitations, this leaves the worst taste in my mouth. And I don't understand how a mother could pretend to have a child that died. Make up stories of illness and loss. Why would you want to put yourself and others through that? And how sad and lonely are you? And even on the trips. Just her and her son. That must be lonely after a while. Not surprised she has no friends IRL. She is so full of herself but also so 'woe is me and my horrible past' I have no patience for that. I also can't believe all the people who don't eat potluck from people they have met before would order these weird looking cookies. I was apprehensive about ordering LLR from someone here and it's just clothes.
I was under the impression that she had a paypal set up on her grief blog and she may have done fundraising, but I am not really clear on that. The blog is no longer active. But this is what I was wondering a million pages ago. If she conned folks out of money due to a made up child, then yes that would be fraud, and would be actionable. But it doesn't appear that anyone called the police when this happened (it seemed to have stopped in 2009, from what I see, but maybe I am wrong).
I'm surprised that these bars appealed to so many people. Â They don't look good!
True. I can maybe understand after 4/5 of your friends have them and tell you they taste good and work. But the first people? Ew. Watch Master chef. Appearance matters.
L shopped my online party. Â Bought some stuff for herself and one pair of leggings for her mother. Â I guess she specified that the shipping for her mother's leggings was not her address but my friend didn't see that and sent all of the stuff to her. Â When she figured out what happened L complained. Â My friend offered her money to pay for reshipping the leggings to her mom and L still complained. Â Friend offered to express mail a free pair of leggings to L's mom and she declined. Â She also complained that the tracking was not updated by the post office and that one of her shirts was sized differently than shirts she had previously ordered from LLR.
I thought her mother had passed away? On her FB she was always referencing it...
She posted in the regrets thread a few days ago that she regretted not being with her mom when she passed away.
She posted in the regrets thread a few days ago that she regretted not being with her mom when she passed away.
Woah! And the web of lies continues to unravel...
this actually all adds up (mom died around the time of the wedding, there is a stepmom who she has referenced before on here). I mean, it may not be true but the story is consistent.
this actually all adds up (mom died around the time of the wedding, there is a stepmom who she has referenced before on here). I mean, it may not be true but the story is consistent.
Sorry I updated above but it was her stepmom she bought the leggings for.
If I'm being honest I am feeling some kind of way about all these people now coming out with shady business details. This was an Internet stranger and a business deal, not a family member you have to be worried about seeing at a family function. One person speaking up could have saved many people heartache or at least shitty business.
I don't understand not speaking up out of kindness especially when money was involved.
Because individually, she's just kind of a bitch/difficult customer. That doesn't really seem worth an online flaming. I've worked with people in my Etsy shop who aren't particularly easy and I sort of dread when they buy more because it's always a "thing" but I'm not running here to blow them up.
But everyone keeps saying this is a family. Why would you inflict that on someone you care about? I mean there are hundreds of PMs going around on just this board alone gossiping about shit. No one thought to say hey friend with another small business you might want to avoid dealing with her because of x,y,z. You (general) might not post it publicly, but you could send a private warning.
But most here are more concerned about being nice than being honest. Eff that noise.
But everyone keeps saying this is a family. Why would you inflict that on someone you care about? I mean there are hundreds of PMs going around on just this board alone gossiping about shit. No one thought to say hey friend with another small business you might want to avoid dealing with her because of x,y,z. You (general) might not post it publicly, but you could send a private warning.
But most here are more concerned about being nice than being honest. Eff that noise.
I'm with you. Especially if she was being rude to posters like Brie.
I know this board is reluctant to call people out but it seems that if someone had said months ago, "hey Celiacmom, why were you rude to my friend" or whatever, maybe this all could have been sorted out a long time ago.
....OR if a mod did something when they were made aware of this a fucking YEAR ago!!
Putting this on small business owners isn't fair. They're trying to make money for their families and if they came here to complain about Celiac and the board didn't see their point and agree with them then they're out money of future business. Not a risk I would take.
Are we really making fun of how the cookies look now? I mean, they are lactation bars not gourmet cakes.
But that's all besides the point anyway. It's not about the cookies. (Also they actually did taste pretty good)
No it's not the point. She's a horrible human being that has done unimaginable things but I do not understand the posts saying there was some responsibility of customers/posters on here who had a poor experience to let others know. It seemed pretty obvious from the photos of her product and kitchen that she wasn't running a very professional business. The ants, hair and products arriving late isn't that surprising based on how it's presented.
I dunno, maybe I'm feeling like a chump for ordering or something, but it's pretty unfair to say that it was "pretty obvious from the photos that she wasn't running a professional business". Of course yeah, it's disgusting that some people got hair or ants but for the most part I would assume people have the same experience as me - I received a box of nicely packaged bars, individually wrapped and then packed neatly in ziplocks (so double bagged). I mean, even if she's not selling $80k/month, she clearly has a dedicated customer base who feel that the products are worth the money and are good quality. I have some bars left here that I can take pictures of if people would like. (no, I am not going to eat them).
If I'm being honest I am feeling some kind of way about all these people now coming out with shady business details. This was an Internet stranger and a business deal, not a family member you have to be worried about seeing at a family function. One person speaking up could have saved many people heartache or at least shitty business.
I don't understand not speaking up out of kindness especially when money was involved.
Because individually, she's just kind of a bitch/difficult customer. That doesn't really seem worth an online flaming. I've worked with people in my Etsy shop who aren't particularly easy and I sort of dread when they buy more because it's always a "thing" but I'm not running here to blow them up.
I'm with you. Especially if she was being rude to posters like Brie.
I know this board is reluctant to call people out but it seems that if someone had said months ago, "hey Celiacmom, why were you rude to my friend" or whatever, maybe this all could have been sorted out a long time ago.
Maybe, but this is starting to feel like an unfair attack on the people to whom she was shitty. Like, it's their fault so many people purchased from her and supported such an awful person.
Not everyone is interested in calling someone out publicly.
And I can't speak for Brie here, but as a business owner with the majority of my business coming from here, the idea of calling out a seemingly liked poster, over her being a rude customer (which presumably she'd deny), would NOT be worth it.
Yeah, I mean, she always paid for everything immediately, and bought a ton from me and referred people to me, so I'm not about to call her out over being picky and demanding. It never impacted me financially, she was just high maintenance and not particularly understanding. (She jumped all over me once for having low stock in her size of leggings, when it was a backorder issue from the warehouse that I legit had zero control over.) A few other GBCN consultants and I vented over her via PM and that was about it.
And FTR every other single person from GBCN who has purchased from me has been exceedingly pleasant and easy to work with. She was literally the only one that was difficult.
And FTR every other single person from GBCN who has purchased from me has been exceedingly pleasant and easy to work with. She was literally the only one that was difficult.
This just goes to show that for the most part, we are a great group of ladies. There is always going to be one twat waffle that ruins things. But that's just true for life in general.
She once complained to me because she was tracking her leggings and they had sat at her local post office for one day. She was very confrontational, like "WHAT WILL YOU DO IF THEY DON'T GET HERE?" which I thought was pretty rich considering her bars took a month to arrive.
Were you supposed to go pick them up and drive them to her house or....?
For what it's worth, I haven't had a single person be rude to me when purchasing a banner.
I've only had people who don't read the whole listing and then complain about things being made out of paper, lol. HELLO, MY SHOP NAME INCLUDES THE WORD PAPER. But it's always through Etsy, not here.
*whispers* What else are BANNERS supposed to be made from?
I was under the impression that she had a paypal set up on her grief blog and she may have done fundraising, but I am not really clear on that. The blog is no longer active. But this is what I was wondering a million pages ago. If she conned folks out of money due to a made up child, then yes that would be fraud, and would be actionable. But it doesn't appear that anyone called the police when this happened (it seemed to have stopped in 2009, from what I see, but maybe I am wrong).
I have absolutely no idea, but this would be my guess. If you look at her old posts on TN/B literally EVERY SINGLE POST she pastes her blog. EVERY ONE. My assumption is there was some kind of paypal or maybe she simply had ads on her site generating income when people visited.
The Paypal button was what started setting off warning bells for Sulla originally. When more and more started coming out, another Nestie said that celiac had had an active fundraiser on CafeMom at one point for "Avi". I saw blog/paypal link with my own eyes, but I never saw the CafeMom fundraisers so I can't say if that was legit or not.
Here was my thought at the time. Her cookies took six weeks to arrive and didn't really work for me. As @littlemoxie noted them not working for me wasn't necessarily a product flaw. I thought calling her out over slow shipping seemed petty. I do wish I had mentioned her being rude in her Moo N Cookies Mom to Mom Support group and to customers on her page.
The cookies I had ordered took like a month to arrive, too. But she was on one of her many vacations in between the time I ordered and when I finally got them. I was a little annoyed since they weren't cheap, but I had some already from when she and justjen had worked together to send me some. (The cookies didn't work for me either, but that wasn't their fault - I was doomed from the start.)
I feel like a first class idiot in hindsight, but I like to support people I "know". I just received my first order of bows from swizz (yesterday ironically, hah!) and I totally intend on buying birthday banners from @natariru.
Post by newnamesameperson on Aug 16, 2016 8:52:37 GMT -5
I understand the thought if there was an issue then it should have been stated so others are aware. However, I don't think it's always so clear cut. Even if you are frustrated with her manner of speaking, product, or product shipping it would seem odd to create a post to say that. If I had interacted with her and she was inappropriate with me, I would likely reach out to her directly rather than to the whole board. It's really easy to see how someone would want to resolve a situation directly and be unaware that she was acting similarly with others (especially considering her fan base on facebook and positive reviews).