Saturday, February 11, 2012

Llarowe Charity Auction

I sat here for five minutes trying to come up with a name for this blog post. A title that summarized the blog post. I failed. For those of you who don't know, llarowe is a website that sells all sorts of small niche polish brands and international brands that otherwise can not be purchased from certain locations all in one spot.



The owner Leah Ann LaRowe has really gotten very large very fast. I think that is the first and largest problem. The second problem is that she became the exclusive distributor for Lynnderella polishes. A curse disguised as a blessing. The thing is, Lynnderella really had no place going to a larger distributor when she couldn't keep up with the demand herself - a smaller market where she sold only within the United States and where she strictly enforced a 5 polish minimum to order. If she couldn't keep up with THAT, why she thought going to a larger world wide distributor would be a good thing is beyond me.

The mass amount of people trying to buy the small amount of Lynndrella polishes left Leah Ann in trouble. They sold out within minutes of going up on the site. She decided and worked out a separate order form OFF the website that was going to handle just the Lynndrellas. People complained. She backed down. She keeps changing how it works, and to be honest, I don't even understand the lottery system she currently has going. But the fact that she is too worried about what everyone thinks of her and keeps flip flopping is the first thing that really annoys me about her and the entire Lynndrella fiasco.

Next some people decided to cash in on the insane demand that there is for Lynndrella and up they went on ebay for insane amounts of money. I personally would gift a polish before I would sell it for profit, but I don't blame anyone who does sell them. The amount of time, energy and effort to be online at the exact right time and get your hands on the polishes, and the payment makes them yours to do what you want with them.

Lynnderella and Leah Ann both disagreed with that. They both were very public with their unhappiness about it and Leah Ann specifically attacked the idea of doing so and ranted about it. Now Lynn I can kind of understand her stance. They are her baby, her creation and she wants to share them with polish lovers. NOT with re-sellers. Though I personally think that there is nothing that can stop it and she should just take it as a HUGE compliment that her product is in such high demand. Leah Ann on the other hand.... she is the owner of a store. She has no right to make any judgements or comments on what is done once the product leaves her hands. She sells it. Period. Once its sold, its the new owners to do what they want with it. But nope. She had a COW!!! So any ways, after personally attacking those that resell look what she does



Now I am totally ok with the idea of re-selling on ebay. I am even MORE ok with the idea of all money going to charity. The hypocrisy however I am not cool with. Charity or otherwise you cant attack those who resell on ebay as much or as strongly as she did and then turn around and do the same thing. It makes me want to scream. But she doesn't just have ONE charity auction, she has FOUR!



Originally if you bid on the auction it put you on a waiting list to get first dibs at buying more Lynndrellas. That promise was taken back. Apparently (though I never saw this) the auction was to start at midnight on Sunday. Started early. There was so much upset and anger on facebook that she decided to delete and disable all comments on her facebook wall. You can now not leave a message about anything on the wall.

Also, when you are having SOOOOO many problems keeping up with the stock, to do this just leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. Maybe should have said these were from her personal stash, or that these were from Lynnderella specifically for this purpose. I don't know........ It just sits badly with me.

And another thing that seems completely unprofessional is that she couldn't even spell Lynnderella correctly. Or google for that matter.

A total of four auctions. I really really hope they make a killing for charity. I really really hope Leah Ann puts her head on straight and starts treating this as a business. Stops with all the needless facebook nonsense, stops trying to please everyone and puts her head down and works.

EDIT - It seems that the posts were illegal. In order to legally list a charity auction on ebay you have to actually submit and list it through their charity listings section. Turns out Leah Ann didn't do so and as such the auctions were taken down. 


Sadly this just once more illustrates the unprofessional aspect once more. When you do ANYTHING under your business name you need to double check then triple check you have dotted your i's and crossed your t's. Sigh......  


EDIT TWO - So she just posted this on her facebook page. 




Wow! Karen brings up a very interesting question. Why in the world NOT re-list the listings legally and properly? It seems petty and childish to not re-list. But once again, here is Leah Ann creating a temper tantrum and back stepping from what she said she was going to do. I am really getting more and more frustrated with her. Notice she takes NO responsibility for what happened? 




What a fabulous idea! I couldn't agree more or have said this better!


This is all too much like another drama ridden company and their followers. Why is everyone saying take down the comments that aren't praising Leah Ann? No one is being rude OR attacking. I think I forgot to drink the kool-aid!




And why is it all who had issue with this auction were hateful? REALLY??

Now it also seems that Lynnderella had an opinion about this! 





I appreciate that Lynnderella took responsibility for this being her idea for an auction. But again, how can you  be so angry at who sell on ebay and then go do the same thing??!!! Why cant you see how hypocritical you are being??? And to complain about the unkind comments made on facebook about Leah Ann? ARE YOU KIDDING ME????


Patience is compeletely gone for Leah Ann's "ReBeLs" or or whatever you choose to call them. Not everyone. Just the ones who get angered and hysterical over constructive criticism. And my patience for Lynnderella is wearing thin. Though I really urge all of you to go to her blog and read her complete blog post. She goes in to why she cant keep up demand and answers a lot of questions I had and am sure you had too! 

26 comments:

  1. And that's even if she truly is donating all proceeds to charity, like she said. She showed such a disdain for everyone and misleads constantly I have a hard time believing the 3k+ she'll make from this is going to charity.

    But, I'm cynical, so maybe it's just me. Hmm..

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    1. I removed my comment because someone sent me a nasty email about it. For the record - I agree with several of the points made here... but I also support Lynn. We all want the same thing. I also give Kudos to Shayna for having the guts to speak out about this.

      <3 <3 <3

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  3. While I don't want to bash anyone, I want to thank you for posting this. I am very frustrated by the situation myself. I am totally fine with Leah Ann/Llarowe auctioning off the polishes for charity, if that's what she wants to do. What I hate is the freaking flip-flopping-- she's running a business and by constantly changing her mind after a few people get upset she makes things confusing for those of us polish lovers who are paying attention and trying to keep track for what's going on-- specifically with the Lynnderella polishes, which seem to be the root of the problem. I would love to get my hands on some of them, but I refuse to pay outrageous prices on eBay and since I never seem to catch them on sale on the site I am beginning to think it's an impossible dream. Most sites do something called a preorder when a new collection comes out. I really felt like Leah Ann either should have stuck with the excel spreadsheet idea or set up a 24 hr window in which to preorder polishes from the site (maybe with a minimum required order). Then the sale is shut down and no one gets polishes until Lynn can make them. I guess that could stress out Lynn, but if people were ok with waiting, it would probably be the fairest way to do it so the most people got a chance. I know I don't have time during the day to constantly stalk Facebook and her site just to see if any polishes appear for sale.

    I really appreciate that Leah Ann is bringing us polishes that we wouldn't normally be able to access (like HITS, Glitter Gal, etc) but I think that she needs to lay down the law when it comes to her business and get over the fact that not everyone is going to be happy with what she decides. That's life. It would help her out enormously-- but I imagine it isn't easy, especially since she seems to be trying to be interfacing with fans while she's running her business. I hope she can navigate these growing pains so we can keep getting access to the polishes we love!

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  4. I agree with your post. I think the biggest thing that annoys me is that people who had a dissenting opinion on this topic were attacked and called aggressive or mean. I have nothing against Leah Ann. I would love to order polishes from her. But this whole making a policy then retracting said policy is crazy. That just isn't how you run a business. People have no idea from one day to the next how to do things. I also think I'm more sad that people are getting this worked up over NAIL POLISH. Seriously. End of rant. :-)

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  5. It's beginning to feel like I'm dealing with the mafia to buy polishes.

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  6. I've put my two cents in on the facebook page, and on twitter. She didn't list these right, and instead of admitting it, she flipped out and said "the heck with this." It made me extremely leery that she didn't have them listed under charity. And I don't think I'll ever buy a polish from Llarowe, because I feel like I can't trust her. I feel like she doesn't know what she's doing, she can be unprofessional when things go wrong, and she can't handle a bit of criticism for her decisions. She gets worked up over people not loving her, and the truth is that not everyone is going to love her. I certainly don't at this point. But she needs to deal with it, get herself into the "this is a business" mindset, and work things out.

    Just my two cents.

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  7. Sorry if I do spelling or other kinds of mistakes, I'm french

    One day I went shopping at a ramdom store and was not satisfied with the service.

    You know what I did? I never went back to that store. End of story, didnt do an entire blog post about it???

    I never bought from Llarowe, dont even own any Lynnderella, but I feel all this post is useless.
    Unfollowed
    **Lets see if you take down my comment?

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    1. I would never delete a comment unless it was spam or was inappropriate (aka swearing, threats, or horribly offensive)!

      I am sorry to see a follower go but I think just like we blog about good experiences and the good of companies and offerings, we need to do the same with negative experiences and offerings!

      If I personally offended you I am sorry! Either way, enjoy the rest of your weekend! Im off to work tomorrow! Someone should!

      Delete
    2. Isn't a blog about one person's opinions? I feel this post was very well written, and very informative. I personally did not know about this fiasco. Whether I agree with Polish Jinx or not is not the point. The point is that she is frustrated with the situation, and expressed her feelings.

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    3. Well, I saw some of the drama on llarowe's page and then found a link to this blog, and I completely agree with you. She seems to say she's going to do certain things a lot, and then change it, and I can never keep up. There are a couple lynns I would like to own, but I'm thinking I will probably never get them. In fact, I'm thinking I'm going to try frankening my own with similar colors to the ones I want. But anyways, my point is, I am now a new follower of your blog. So while you may have lost one, you also gained one. :)

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  8. What's interesting is if she truly was donating the money to charity she'd re-list. However, since she isn't it makes it seem like she said she was to raise the bid price and pocket more money.

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  9. Bitter Much? Amazing how immature you and all the rest of the attackers are. Grow up. None of what has happened has affected you in anyway. You aren't out any money in anyway.

    Freedom of speech is a AMAZING thing. Not only does it allow you to voice your opinion. It allows the rest of us to see just how big ass folks can be.

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    1. I believe Leah Ann was also being a bit immature in how she was approaching the situation. She should have taken a more business approach and not acted like a child.

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    2. We only asked questions that were business related. In no way were they personal attacks, but Leah Ann responded as if they were. She needs to keep emotions and business separate.

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    3. How is this post being bitter? It's pointing out inconsistencies in the ladies facebook, her poor handling of her business, and the fact that instead of conducting herself in a professional manner, she freaks out over everything. I'm sorry, but all she had to do was say "OMG whoops, I listed it wrong!" and relist. It's not complicated or hard. That lady seems to take every little thing as some ulterior motive personal attack which is utterly ridiculous. It's childish, immature, and completely not how you run a business. I've sold things on ebay, it's really not a big deal if something gets pulled for being listed wrong. You just start over and do it correctly! They are extremely careful about auctions, especially charity ones, because everything has to have careful records for tax purposes. If she wanted to donate to charity so badly, why not just label certain colors as benefiting charity when they come out, keep track of the proceeds and donate them like that? I don't understand why people are calling people haters or names for pointing out the obvious logical way to handle things here. Geez. I'm not a fan of fanatics about any brand. Even if I love a brand, they aren't some kind of gods, they're run by human beings, they screw up, and they need to handle things professionally when that happens instead of freaking out about it. A good company is always honest, clear about their intentions, does not flip flop on their terms, and is polite to their customers.

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    4. I'm sorry but I do not understand how this post could possibly be construed as 'bitter'. To be bitter is to antagonize or be hostile towards. I see several inconsistencies in Llarowe's business dealings pointed out, and one customers review of said dealings. That is not bitter.

      Also if you are going to talk about the freedom of speech then should Polish Jinx be allowed that same right on her own blog? Sadly your comment only made one person look like a ass to me, and it wasn't the blogger.

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  10. Are u freaking serious?!?! It's like u want to see her go down or something. Everyone saw the whole ordeal u didn't have to write a huge post about it! I'm sorry but this is completely stupid IMO. She will still continue to have her fans and so will Lynn. I'm beginning to really think all u "haters" wish u can be in Lynn's shoes and you're not so you're not happy. It's not even about voicing your opinion...it's already taking it to another level to put people against them. Why so angry! Be happy...life is short and no need to get so worked up about it if it didn't affect u! And if u follow her so closely u wouldve seen when she wrote that she didn't care if people sold on eBay to make quick money...it's buying a bunch of polishes at the same time or making several orders to go and sell them at inflated prices. That's not what she was doing annnndddd the was Lynn's idea. What is it to you? It's not YOUR shop! Good luck with whatever u have going on.

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    1. NOt at all. i really hope Leah Ann succeeds. But I also think she needs to be held accountable for certain things. And that is hard to do when she chooses to delete all negative comments, all inappropriate comments SHE makes and chooses to take no responsibility for her own bad judgement.

      And now that she has deleted first all the comments and posts related to the auctions at all and then the facebook group all together, this stands.

      And I honestly think deleting the facebook page was probably the SMARTEST thing she could have possibly done. Forget about it and just focus on the store.

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    2. Who are you to say that "everyone saw the whole ordeal"? I'm glad she made this post. I can stay updated now and not in the dark. Why do you feel the need to shove this whole incident in a closet and never speak of it again? Face the facts - Llarowe made a mistake, and she should take responsibility. I would have been okay with her if she had taken down the auctions and relisted everything properly. But no, she had to blame us for her problems and made no attempt to rectify it. Her actions scream immaturity to me. Thank you Polish Jinx for not being afraid to voice your opinions.

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  11. You've gained a follower in me with this post...

    I have nothing personal against Llarowe or Lynnderella. I don't even care that they used ebay after chastising others for reselling with it...that doesn't matter to me. What has bothers me about Llarowe is that she's constantly changing how things work, bending over backwards to make everyone happy...you can't make everyone happy! All it does is hurt her business with inconsistency. She needs to decide how she's going to do things and stick with it. If people whine about the Lynnderellas selling out super fast, that's not her problem! But she makes it her problem. I appreciate what she does; making HTF polishes more accessible...but it seems like she's in over her head. She should put the Lynnderellas on her site, perhaps have a limit on how many can be ordered at a time, let them go where they may, and ignore the people that get irrationally upset with her over something she can't control.

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  12. Thank you for posting this! I was so excited when this auction was announced--just to get on essentially what was going to be an ordering waiting list.

    Anyway, I got an SMS txt from her Facebook while I was at work tonight talking about the auction already going on...like...what? Why do it so quickly after the announce and not take a bit to drum up more potential bidders? Why say it will be tomorrow night and do it tonight?

    This whole thing was confusing and mishandled. I had excellent customer service with Llarowe, but I don't think anyone can deny that this auction was handled poorly and honestly, there hasn't been much effort made on Llarowe's part to clarify anything. I would have appreciated just knowing what was going on. Anyway, thank you for doing exactly that.

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  13. You have gained a follower in me as well. I wouldn't have found your blog if not for all of this craziness!

    And I applaud you for this post. Like any company there are good reviews and bad reviews, and this just stands as a bad one. Current and future shoppers of her store should have the opportunity to read customer opinions, and if Leah Anne is going to deny them that opportunity on the store's facebook page, then bloggers are obviously the next logical place for it.

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    1. Thank you Bry and all others who are new here! I can't always promise you will like what I say, but I am honest and ALWAYS say what I think, like it or hate it. I do try to be fair and open and give people the benefit of the doubt but at the same time think that its only fair to share the negative along with the positive so long as its done in an appropriate fashion.

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  15. Aaaand now we see what they were really up to all along. This is a prescient post! I think you were one of the very few calling Lynnderella and Llarowe out this early in their little EBay game. Yuck. Won't be buying from either of them again--there is no way Llarowe did not know that Lynn's brother Paul was scalping Lynn polishes on EBay with her knowledge and consent. And there Llarowe was, hassling and blacklisting from her own Lynn sales anybody ELSE who dared to sell a Lynn on EBay. Create a monopoly and drive up prices! Disgusting hypocrisy and overtly crooked business practices 101. These two should be blacklisted from selling polishes period, though of course that will not happen.

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