Brandice Says

So, some of you who’ve known me for a while will remember my disastrous encounter with a North Carolina scam artist, Summer Plum. She befriended me through my tea-related video podcast, eventually even creating an Earl Grey blend with my name attached to it, and then when I ordered about $70 worth of said tea, I never received it and never received a refund and Summer eventually did her very best to disappear without ever being accountable. It bothers me to this day.

February 21, 2009

“I hate that I’m about to write this post, but it’s time. I’ve personally and publicly backed a tea blender who has at this point really and truly disappointed on a business level, regardless of whether the tea sold by the company is fantastic.

Felicitea has, after over a year, been reviewed on my tea podcast STeaP multiple times, I’ve purchased the tea, I blogged about the company when I was writing for Slashfood, I’ve raved about it to many people, I helped in decision making for a tea that has my name, and in November I received an email that Felicitea was in danger of going under financially and needed some help.

I immediately jumped into action, recommending the site for Christmas tea gifts to several people, and I purchased (on November 22, 2008 at 6:04 pm EST) $68.99 worth of Felicitea Earl Grey Brandice to give away as Christmas gifts.

The events that followed:

November 22nd - I order $68.99 worth of tea from Felicitea.com, and sent the following email to several people:

Hi all,

I don’t typically forward newsletters, but Felicitea is a great company and Summer (the owner) is having a very rough time with the economy being what it is. People aren’t splurging on custom tea blends and massages during a recession, so if you know a tea lover who would enjoy some really good tea, I highly recommend Felicitea for Christmas/holiday tea gifts.

I particularly recommend the Earl Grey Brandice, which I helped in creating (and do not receive any compensation for - I just genuinely love the tea and am proud of the blend), or the Sloth Tea. Summer also does haiku tea cups on Etsy that are very cool. I’ve grabbed a few for myself over the past few months.

Anyway, if you’re looking for tea for gifts, this is my recommendation. I love a lot of the bigger tea companies, but I’ll be supporting this smaller one in hopes of keeping Summer in business during holidays, and I hope you’ll consider throwing some business her way as well if you’re in the market for some tea.

xo,
Brandice

December 2008 - My tea never arrives. I keep waiting for it, but eventually Christmas comes and goes and I’ve given away IngenuiTEA tea infusers with no tea to put in them. I’m a little hurt, but unsure how to broach it with Summer from Felicitea.

January 10th - I finally become uncomfortable enough with the fact that I never got my holiday tea that I send the following email:

Not to be a bug, but that EGB I ordered weeks before Christmas never arrived. :( I didn’t know if the delay was due to needing time to get supplies to make it or what, but since it’s been quite a while, I wanted to check in with you about it.

Brandice

And the response was (the end comments are about my invitation to have Summer start doing video footage and some blogging for the STeaP site, which has never happened):

My official position on the US Postal Office is “hatred”. These people can’t handle anything.

I’ll ship you another order.

Also, SteaP stuff is coming. Committing to it and then having the holiday season? I couldn’t do both. I’m sorry. I’m working tea vids already - should have something uploaded on Monday. :)

Summer Plum

I feel a bit better. Clearly, the package was lost and I was just stupid not to say something much sooner or I might have had my tea prior to Christmas.

January 15th - Summer emails:

Tea will reship tomorrow.
:)
Summer Plum

So, even though I’m a bit confused about why she’s mailing it out a week after I alert her to the fact that it never arrived, I eagerly await my tea, but…

January 25th - My tea has not arrived, and while I’m doing a test call for STeaP Live and testing out TalkShoe, Summer pops in the test call and we chat for quite a while. At one point, she mentions that my tea is “right by the door” and is going out the next day. I say something along the lines of “Oh, good. My dad is coming in to town next week, so I should be able to give him some while he’s here.” Summer also mentions that she will be on STeaP Live for the episode coming up that will involve a review of one of her teas and I excitedly say that I will be interviewing her.

January 31st through February 3rd - I spend time with Dad while he’s in from Texas, and at no point does any tea arrive on my doorstep.

February 10th - STeaP Live reviews Felicitea Day Dream tea, and I (the host) awkwardly try to cover for the fact that Summer never shows up as previously stated. Instead of spending most of the episode interviewing her, I record one of the worst episodes I’ve done, video or audio, because I was completely unprepared to compensate for her absence. Also, the one person in the chat who had ordered a sample of Day Dream to try with me on the show stated that he never received it and seemed a bit peeved about that.

February 19th - I post the following on Twitter:

Trying not to get outright angry at a tea vendor I’ve backed publicly that seems to have screwed me out of some tea at this point.

Shortly after twittering this, I receive a call on my cell phone from Summer, who leaves a voicemail apologizing, saying that perhaps my box of tea was mixed up among her moving boxes and she will find it and she will overnight me the tea and I will have it by tomorrow.

February 20th - I did not receive any tea.

And… here we are on the 21st, which is now officially three MONTHS after I ordered the tea. There is no excuse, NOT ONE, which would allow for a shipment of tea to take three months, and no amount of fondness for the company owner or the tea itself will excuse bad business or this many broken promises.

At this point, I have no faith that the original package was even lost in transit, I feel foolish for the support (and money) I’ve given, and I feel let down to an extent that I just can’t let it go anymore, especially if it means that others could be treated this way during a business transaction. I tried filing a dispute of the transaction on PayPal, but you only have 45 days to do that, so I sent the following email:

Hi Summer,

I really would just like a refund at this point. The tea (which did not in fact arrive Friday) would be nearly two months old in the package you were going to send, and it’s three months overdue as of tomorrow. There is no excuse at this point that would make up for tea that I should’ve had in November (December at the latest), and I would rather just have the amount of $68.99 refunded.

Thank you,
Brandice

So, there you have it. STeaP will unfortunately no longer be reviewing Felicitea’s line of teas, especially in light of the fact that there is a likelihood that any samples ordered by my audience will not be received in time for recording.

I have unfortunately learned a very disappointing (and financially costly) lesson, but my hope in publicly describing this interaction in detail is that I will prevent this from happening to anyone else. A company may offer the best tea blends on the market, but business practices as poor as the ones I’ve experienced in recent months are simply a deal breaker.”

March 5, 2009:

“Summer actually replied with:

Brandice,

I absolutely agree. There is no excuse. I personally apologize and except responsibility.

I am sorry, I will do my best to make it right to you personally, as well as to the tea community at large. This was completely and utterly my fault due to negligence here at Felicitea. You’re $$ will be refunded asap and, as fresh tea was made and repacked and prepped for shipment, it will still be delivered to you. Do with it whatever you like.

I completely respect and understand your decision, and as a tea customer, would completely agree with your decision.

You have my sincere and complete apology. I recognize that I have damaged our personal, as well as business, relationship, and it makes me sincerely sad. I appreciate your patience and eagerness to work with me. I am deeply regretful I let you down.

Sincerely,
Summer Plum
Felicitea

Do I have tea or a refund? No, I do not.”

May 5, 2009:

“The latest update is that after I blogged openly about my issue, Summer actually emailed me on March 31st:

On Mar 31, 2009, at 8:42 AM, Summer Plum wrote:

Brandice,

I recognize that you are upset, for which I apologize.

At the end of February, there was a number of things that occurred here, ending with the hacking of my bank accounts, both personal and business. I was advised by the bank, for legal reasons, not to discuss it publicly until the situation was resolved.

I apologize tremendously, but until I was able to do anything, we were stuck in limbo. As soon as I can make shipment & refund, you will have it. I hate that you think I was ignoring you. I was not, it was simply not within my power to resolve the issue, and could not offer you an explanation as to why sooner.

All bank accounts, and the money in them, were suspended until the situation was resolved, and I was unable to do anything. Currently the bank believes everything should be released within the first week of April. I will be refunding you as soon that happens. I recognize that you are not the only one who had issues, and they will also each be addressed individually, and refunded and/or shipped as the money becomes available again.

I have your tea ready and packed to ship. I am happy to send it to you, at my own cost, if you are still interested in it. I completely understand if you are not. I regret the situation as it occurred and the damage it has done to our relationship, both professionally and personally.

My sincere apologies,

Summer

And then I waited and waited for the promised refund to finally come, and tonight I finally found that email still sitting stagnant in my inbox to remind me that I still don’t have a refund, and I decided that over a month was enough time to wait, and I replied (not before publicly calling Summer out once again on STeaP Live in this week’s episode).

The basic gist was, “grow the hell up and refund money owed, or I plan to be vocal about your incompetency and dishonest business practices until I can no longer type.”

And I sure as hell WILL remain vocal, because as long as Summer is willing to remain unaccountable for her actions, I will do my part to make sure that no one I even remotely care about loses money to her dishonesty and fraud.”