The tackiest look of them all...

being an unprofessional online boutique owner.

Don't you love it when you catch someone out and then they react like a caged animal - lashing out at you and everyone in sight? Later, they twist the case around and suddenly YOU become the crazy one. This is what happened between me and Letitia, owner of IndieCoterie (the worst online boutique ever). Her crazy is clearly documented, but she insists that *I'm* the crazy one? Why? Because I want back the $250 she stole from me? Yes, that clearly makes me insane.

Anyway, let's commence the story.

On Jan 18th (almost one month ago), I was on MUA and someone posted a link to IndieCoterie with a note that the Knox handbags were 40% off. I was elated because I just managed to get a small amount of money saved to splurge on a quality bag and I have wanted a Knox bag for close to a year now. At 40% off I could afford it, and even better I found a coupon for an extra 10% off that covered the super-high $24 cost of shipping.

The following day (Jan 19th) the owner of IndieCoterie, Letitia, contacted me saying that I cannot use a discount code with a sale and was asked to provide my paypal information so I can be charged the difference that was taken off when I applied the code.

I wanted to honor her policy and stay within budget so I thought the best thing to do would be to cancel my order. I wrote her back the same day, asking for my order to be canceled. I never heard back from her. I wrote her again on the 22nd and asked if the order had been canceled. I didn't hear back from her until the 25th and was notified then that my order had already been shipped, but that she could compensate for the inconvenience by letting me keep the discount.

Now, this is where things get crazy. I was confused because she blatantly refused to honor my request, a request that I found to be reasonable and delivered in a timely manner. I sent her all of the emails showing where I had requested the cancellation and refund as proof that I had sent them in a timely manner. My reasoning was: not thinking the item had been shipped, because she had mislead me in making me believe that the item would ship after I ponied up the extra $25 that the discount code had knocked off the purchase, that I had requested a cancellation BEFORE it had shipped and was thus qualified for a refund!


Only THEN was I notified that it was policy not to issue refunds. I told her that I had requested a cancellation well before the item had been shipped. Only THEN did she inform me that the item was shipped on the day I ordered it. This was odd because when she told me this it was Jan 29th, a full 11 days after I had ordered the bag and still had not received it.

IF it had been shipped on the 18th, I should have gotten it by then. I felt like she was being less than up front with me and I told her so. She did not take well to this (mainly because she WAS being less than up front with me and I had totally called her on it!). Then she writes me this terse email:

Your tracking for USPS is: 1Z3716X90399892677
This is being sent by the designer's studio, so I apologize if you felt I wasn't being up front (which is a degrading assumption that gets annoying from over curious shoppers), but I go by what I am told. It was supposed to be shipped the day you ordered.

Well, if you track the shipping on UPS.com (not USPS as she claimed) it is clear that the bag was returned to its place of origin: Brooklyn, NYC.

Thankfully, this "over-curious shopper" got the answer to this baffling puzzle quickly. The DESIGNER of Knox Handbags, Jessica, called me. Apparently this is the real story:

Letitia just recently started IndieCoterie, and apparently uses guerrilla tactics to get all of the pictures of merchandise on her site. Basically, Letitia stole the pictures of the merchandise and placed them on her site acting as if these items were for sale! Jessica found out and contacted Letitia asking her to immediately remove the pictures from IndieCoterie. It was then that Letitia tried to work out a deal with her along the lines of: let me keep the pictures and I'll sell your stuff on consignment. I'll get 40% of the sale, you'll get 60% and you will ship the bag directly to the buyer yourself. Letitia basically strongarms Jessica into a consignment deal (she hijacked the pictures, what was she going to do when someone actually bought a bag?!).

Doesn't this seem insane? All of the products for sale on IndieCoterie are not actually in Letitia's possession. Letitia has tried to lecture me on how a consignment store is run, but I used to work at a boutique where 40% of the stock was on consignment by local artists. I know how it works. She, apparently, does not.

Okay, so Jessica tells me that after she agrees to the consignment deal that no bags sell. That is, until Letitia puts them up for 40% off (without the consent of the designer, obviously the designer wants full price for her items!). Two bags sell. I buy one, and a girl in London buys one. Jessica ships them both out, only to be informed by Letitia that she WILL NOT BE PAID FOR THEM. Jessica stops shipment on my bag.

Letitia failed to mention that whole thing to me in all of the email exchanges we had. She kept saying that my bag was shipped, knowing full well that the shipment had been stopped because she refused to pay the designer (apparently, Letitia is broke as hell, which explains her desperate-to-keep-the-money-even-though-it-is-mine behavior).

So, I respond to her via email:

I don't think I was wrong in assuming you were being less than up front with me about all of this because you were. I guess I will be getting my money back from you anyway. I just spoke to the designer of Knox Handbags and found out what was going on. I will be opening a dispute with paypal and she will be backing me in the dispute.

And I did. I opened a dispute with paypal and with my cc company. The best part is, Jessica has written a letter to my credit card company along with copies of all of the emails Letitia sent her to help with my dispute. She has been great throughout this thing. I feel really bad for her. I am sure she takes a lot of pride in the gorgeous bags she creates. It must be horrible to not get paid for your work and to have to deal with a crazy like Letitia. Apparently, Letitia has harassed the designer by saying, "Why are you acting this way. Are you on your period?" When Letitia responded to my paypal dispute where I accuse of her holding my money hostage (which she is), she responded, "What, are you 12?"

Real professional, Letitia.

The greatest thing is: email. Every exchange between me and Letitia and Jessica and Letitia is thoroughly documented! There is no way to get out of this one. My money is coming back to me and I couldn't be happier to put this whole thing behind me.