Just dont get people these days....

Hello everyone...



Whew lots of things have been going on here lately. But I wanted to talk about how people these days just have no respect for others, their work, their feelings, nothing.



What happened to treat others how you want to be treated? Do unto others as you would have then do unto you? I am starting to think that just does not exist anymore. Some people now adays are just out for them selves, how they can take what ever they can from you, say what ever they want to say to your or about you, whether there is a word of truth in it or not. I just don't get it.



I have always treated other people, whether it be family, friends or strangers with respect, and would never do or say anything to out right hurt them for no reason, or for reason of spite, or jealousy. My husband and I are good people, and we try very hard to portray that in everything that we do. But, we have found in the last few months that we are among very few who still try and live their lives this way.



For example...I have been in the candle making industry for 11 years now. I worked very hard in the first 2 years to test every wick, jar, fragrance oil, wax, color, everything. I did not just throw a candle together and sell to the first person who would by it. It took me 2 years before I ever tried to sell a candle. I did not try and worm my way into someones life that made candles, and try and get all their suppliers info, or bug them to tell me each and every step they do to try and get out of researching and testing everything. Just so that I could hurry up and throw a candle website together and call it a business. And then, go on that person's webiste and copy word for word all of their decriptions, policies, and product info, the layout...etc. Just to get out of doing any of the work myself.



This is what has happened to me. Someone that I know has done this to me. She came into my home, helped me package and label some orders, and evidently took all the info that she could about my products, supplies, packaging, scents, everything. Then went onto my website, which I worked so hard to design, and copied the whole thing word for word. This person has done no testing, she has done no research. She bought supplies, threw a wick in a jar with some wax and some fragrance oil, and is calling it a candle, and is selling it to the public. Does she not realize that there are so many liabilities in what she is doing. There is a little thing called insurance that you must carry when you are a candle maker. If you do not know what you are doing, or what you are working with, sizes of the wicks, if they are too big or too small for the jars you are using, etc....you can burn someone's house to the ground. You can start fires with that candle, you could cause that jar to explode do to the heat. There is so much that can happen and you can and will lose everything. The FDA, for one, and who ever the harmed person hires, will come after you and they WILL take everything from you.



And then we have the issue of copying my website wording word for word. That is very wrong, not to mention against the law. Especially when my website is copyrighted. And she not only copied my current website, she copied alot of wording and such from my previous candle business, which she knew that I co-owned with a friend of mine. That website is copyrighted as well, and she will be hearing from the owner of that very shortly.



Now I have no problem with anyone making candles, wanting to make candles, someone who wants to do better for themselves, own their own business. But, do the work yourself. Dont be so lazy, dont copy me, and everything that I do, because you just want to jump into selling and try to make some money. It will come back on you. Most all of us in this business spent years testing, and retesting to get it right. So we would not have to worry about losing everything that we have because we did not do it right. We spent years, making our candle business our own, so that our customers would come back, so they would love the product that we produce. If you just outright copy someone, what joy and satisfaction are you getting from your so called business? What are you going to do when you harm someone, or burn someone's house down because you dont know what you are doing? Will you feel bad? Will you care? You did not care when you stole the hard work and idea's of someone else instead of doing it on your own.



I have contacted an attorney, and I have also contacted the website host for this website. I let them know that my site was copied, and sent them copys of the pages that my copyrighted work is on. Since last night, sudden changes have been made on this person's website, but then others have not. My friend/co owner of my other candle business still has her/my wording on there, so I know she will be contacting the web host as well. The good thing is, we have copys of these pages, and we can prove it was done, and we have no doubt we can get this website shut down. What has been done is wrong on so many levels. If you want something, do the work yourself, test and research, so that you know you are doing it right. Make it your own, don't steal from someone else because you just wanna make a fast buck. And because you are just too darn lazy to do anything on your own. Or maybe it is just because you are not smart enough to do it on your own, so you have to copy my work and call it yours.



I feel very sorry for the future customers of this website, they have no idea what they are getting, and neither does the candle maker. You can not throw some candles together in 2 weeks and sell them, when you have never in your life done anything remotely close to making a candle product. It is very sad to me, that people must do this sort of thing to try and get ahead of everyone else. But, it has happened, and I have reported it to the appropriate people, so there are about to be some actions taken. I just hope that this woman realizes that not only could she lose her website, but she is also losing alot of others things along with it. But, when you make choices to do things like this, then I guess you really don't care about losing anything, or anyone!