February 26, 2010

Happy Skull!

The imitation skull beads are off the shelves (and on their way to me to destroy!) I called Fire Mountain Gems and spoke with a very helpful product manager who apologized for the incident and assured me the beads were purchased as part of a close-out bulk buy and they generally make very strong efforts to keep knock-off works out of their inventory. The offending beads were removed from the lot and customers will be sold the beads minus the skulls! Yay! They also assured me they work very hard to make sure artists rights are not being infringed upon because, as she said "we are all in business together!" I had called on Monday and the next day they told me they had removed the beads from their website and would be informing catalog customers that the skulls were not part of the mix. I was really happy it was resolved so easily. I'm hoping not a one of us has to deal with that again...

11 comments:

Lorelei Eurto said...

congrats on a smooth fix. i'm sure it's not always that easy but FMG is a pretty stand up company and I would have been really disappointed to hear otherwise.
fingers crossed that this never happens again. geesh.

SummersStudio said...

This is great news and I am so happy that FMG did the reputable and right thing by you. And thank you for standing up and speaking out! That helps all of us.

peacockfairy said...

Good for you! Glad to hear you achieved success without a long, drawn out process!

Mellisa said...

What a smooth resolution! Good for you and good for them in how it worked out :) The only bummer is that the knockoff maker still made money on the whole thing...

SueBeads said...

Great ending to this story! I love your happy skulls!

TesoriTrovati said...

I have a warm fuzzy feeling in my soul right now...glad it worked out so well, with little friction, and really happy to hear that Fire Mountain Gems did the right thing. I will be sending them a note to share my appreciation that they helped out in this manner. Now...is there a bonfire that we should be e-attending to dispose of the offending beads? Or a big mortar and pestle that will crush these little skulls?

Enjoy the day, Gaea!
Erin

Gaea said...

I think notes of praise are a great idea! Really let them know what a big deal it is to be reputable and open! I was really happy at how respectful they were too. It would be nice to turn those lemons into lemon aide!

Rebecca said...

This is an awesome outcome! Cheers to FMG for being supportive of all original and very creative artists! Also, congrats to you for standing up for your hard work and designs.

Winchell Clayworks said...

That's great news! So glad to hear they worked with you right away instead of "oh geez, we have to investigate" while continuing to sell the product. Kudos FMG!

Vintajia Adornments said...

Ethics in business instead of 'make money at all costs' a rare bird indeed. Bravo Fire Mountain Gems

Jenn said...

Wow. My heart ached for you and the Thornton's over the copying issues. I'm so pleased with the outcome at FMG. That just made FMG shoot up on my "good-o-meter" for being a stand-up company and supporting artists. Best wishes to you and hope this doesn't happen again.