The Saga Continues...

You can refer to the drama unfolding in the comments section of my posts about Indie Coterie and the owner, Letitia, but I will also reproduce segments of them here. I published them because I feel she deserves to voice her side of the story. However, I do not agree that my actions have been "cruel." That's very much an exaggeration on her part. I was upfront about the fact that I was a fashion journalist. One might expect that she would be more careful with how she treated me after finding that out, but she wasn't and that is not my fault. Throughout my correspondence with her and throughout Jessica's correspondence with her (Jessica is the designer of Knox Handbags. I have seen all of the emails Letitia sent her), she has fluctuated between being very nice and being very nasty. Furthermore, she is threatening me with legal action but I have already won my paypal dispute. This means an objective third party has ALREADY ruled that Letitia was in the wrong. A court would do the same. She has no legal standing whatsoever. There are not even grounds here for a cease-and-desist letter. My statements are pure opinion, and as such, are protected by the First Amendment. I am not guilty of libel or slander either since I made no claims and nothing I said was false or intentionally harmful. Nothing I said were private matters made public. Plus, she has already retaliated none too kindly to me on her own blog, but has since taken the post down.

Anyway, on to the drama, mama.

Letitia wrote:

you have comment moderation so this is for you privately..I dont know why you are posting negative things about my store? Why would you do something like that? Your incident does not judge my entire store. I asked the designer several time to call you back and explain that she was wrong for what she did to hold your bag hostage. You should know consignment works in certain ways, and although its not your business my policy with designers, desginers get paid each month if they are new to our store. So that is why she did not want to ship it, she thought by shipping and holding shipment I would pay her right away. She might have been desperate for money or something, but if I need to send you designer and buyer testimonials I will gladly. Please retract this comment about my store. it is very very inconsiderate when you dont even know me. I will have to take SERIOUS legal otherwise.

Thanks
Letitia

PS- feel free to put this on the site too

1st: she said it was for me privately, and then she said "feel free to put this on the site too," which I am. I am not doing it out of spite. I am merely providing a forum for discussion. Why am I posting negative things about the store? Well, because more people than just me have put up with underhanded dealings and have been burned by shopping at IndieCoterie. As a consumer and a journalist, it is perfectly within my right to give an account of what happened - an account thoroughly documented via email. Nothing I wrote moved beyond the realm of 1) What happened and 2) My reaction to what happened.

Letitia wrote:

wow, ok finally got around to reading this one too..anyway, dont know what else to say. i was just wondering if you could help me with something...you started off doing a really nice post about my store..did you ever think to contact any of the other designers like Amy Hemmens of Naik Fur, Diana from the So Fashon blog, Boaz, Doucette..I mean, you cant imagine how devastating this is for me to have you do something so cruel like this based on one designer who you dont know anything about..why is it that it was me that was not upfront? you havent realized yet that it was the designer who was doing soemthing wrong? i mean, i stole her images? are you serious, thats what she said? why would i even do that? if she didnt provide you proof, why are you assuming she is the holy saint here and i am the devil? i can assure you i have documented proof she was to be in my store and she even signed to it! when you own your own store and have one of your fave blogs do something like this maybe then you will see how i feel right now...do you even read the l report? do know how passionate i am about what i do? do know that i am a real person like anyone else? there are many things to consider before going around accusing people. im sorry if my emails were not the most professional, and my site doesnt look like netaporter, but i am not a broke as hell scam artist as you may think and i would like you to know the truth. why dont you speak to me and find out the truth and then post..well, the truth

thanks

I would love to see any proof Letitia has. Really. She has "threatened" me with proof this entire time, including during the paypal dispute procedure but has never once produced said proof. If I were about to lose my store because of poor customer testimonials on the internet you'd better believe I'd be trumpeting counter-proof all over the damn place. But, she hasn't. She keeps talking about proof but has never provided it.

Also, Letitia, look into Ockham's Razor. The simplest explanation is the best explanation. The fact is Jessica's story lined up with reality. Yours did not. You were not upfront with me. That is why I chose to believe Jessica. She has been calling me and corresponding with me personally. She has been nothing but sweet and professional throughout this entire ordeal - and yes, it has been an ORDEAL for her. You, however, have been glib and sarcastic with me. You have not been truthful either.

I do consider this from the human angle. Letitia, you are obviously passionate about what you do, but you have very poor customer relation skills and you have lied numerous times. You acted as if the bag would be sent only after I had ponied up the extra 10% that had been taken off when I used a coupon - then told me the bag was shipped the day I ordered it. You told me, knowing full well that the shipment had been cancelled in transit and returned to its place of origin, that the bag had been sent and I had gotten to keep my discount. You knew that the bag had never gotten to me, and you also completely ignored the principle at stake here. You would tell me one thing, like that the designer was going to call me and apologize, only to find out that that was not true at all. The proof is in the email correspondences that I have. Have you considered that Jessica and I are humans too? With passions of our own? And that we don't like to be lied to or harassed?

I feel that I am within my right to keep my posts up. I have freedom of speech and a personal blog with a personal testimony. There is nothing illegal about that. It has also helped to have the post up because I was able to find out about another customer who has had problems with you and your store.

Observation: Throughout all of Letitia's comments, she never offered an explanation as to why she lied to me or why the other person who commented on my blog suffered a similar fate because she too shopped at Indie Coterie. There are NO answers in her comments. No real apologies. She pleads with me to take down my posts and perhaps I will, once what I said is sufficiently refuted or proved to be wrong. So far, it hasn't been so it stays up.

Cruelty is mistreating customers and designers who wanted to buy from you and work with you. If you want to equivocate, go right ahead. The truth is, well the truth. And it stands for anyone to see.

Edit: I am so confused. I decided to investigate the comment left by "Me Too" in this post. If you click on the link and read the comments you will find a story by another person who went through something similar to me. Sure enough, I went to Indie Coterie and on their Customer Service page (I saved a screenshot) it says, "Indie Coterie offers FREE shipping on all U.S. orders by USPS 2-3 Day Priority. " So why was I charged $25 for shipping? I mean, if Letitia going to adhere SO strictly to site policy that I can't get a refund (outside of a paypal dispute where paypal is making her pay me back) then why was I charged $25 for shipping? Also, the "me too" girl is right about IndieCoterie's refund policy. If you follow the link on the IndieCoterie website, it takes you to a retail website in the Netherlands. A further point of interest: the Netherland website, mytheresa.com, looks exactly like IndieCoterie. Check the font and the placement of the links and photos. Did Letitia steal the template? Is she affiliated with these people, and if so, how? What the heck is going on here?!