Maurice - Hall of Shame

[Guest guest]

> I want to let every know that I am starting a WWW Hall of Shame for

> companies that misrepresent their products and/or the ingredients

that

> they sell to unsuspecting customers. I will post the beginning of

this

> list latter today.

>

> If anyone can think of a good reason why I shouldn't post this list,

> please let me know. I know this list will be controversal, but I'm

> sick and tired of homecrafters and raw material vendors that sell

there

> products based on false information. Why do they do it? I can

only

> guess but it should be corrected.

Maurice,

I am a bit late joining this list to respond to this subject (at

least for my sake) but I had to let it be heard. Please do not

misinterpret my response, for I do not intend for it to sound cruel.

I can think of a good reason why you should not post this Hall of

Shame list. You targeted a specific problem, and found it (which is

good), but then you didn't try to find out the reason the products

were misrepresented. Was it really greed, in which case they deserve

to be shamed?

I know that I, as well as at least one other person on your list went

with the information we were given (from our supplier - same as if we

had bought our product off the counter at a local craft store and

wrote down the ingredients). The supplier, as well, may have gotten

their information from yet another uninformed source. I realize that

ingnorance should not be an excuse. However, hear me out...

I am not a greedy person. I started making soap as a hobby and made

so much of it that I decided to turn it into a business. There is

only so much soap my family and I can use at a time and I did make

alot.

I feel it was tacky for you to make claims implying that I (since I

am the domain owner and webmaster of a site on your list)am

intentionally " misrepresenting my products " and am " deceiving the

public " merely because of " plain old greed " . How much money do you

think a brand new website that sells soap, toiletries and crafts

makes??? My website has only been online a short while...6 months,

in fact. Long enough to just barely make it into the search

engines. I feel giddy inside when we have one order a week! Is that

greed? Now, thanks to your Hall of Shame list, the business forever

has a black mark on it.

I feel it would have been better to contact the webmaster or the

company and ask for the information to be corrected. Had you

contacted me, I would have fixed it immediately! If you are " so sick

and tired of people deceiving others " , why did you just post their

site on a message board when they are likely never going to see it to

know there is a problem? Why not tell the companies? You just left

the sites sitting in cyber-space as they were...unchanged. It doesn't

really accomplish anything.

I know, I know...I found it. I just happened to be checking my site

statistics, saw a url referral to this list and wondered what it

was. I never even knew this list was in existence. Many home soap

makers don't have that option.

So I say, no, you shouldn't post your list, at least not any

more " volumes " in the manner in which you posted before. If you

contact a company and they refuse to do anything about it, THAT is a

different story.

Please don't misunderstand me. I respect your views and admire your

knowledge and willingness to help and share. But why keep it to this

list? I will probably go on the rest of my life telling every M & P

soap maker that sorbitol does not come from the mountain ash berry!

But I wouldn't point my finger at them in public and call them greedy

or ignorant or deceitful as you have. Especially not when their back

is turned.

N. Hicks