What to do with Problem Connections on MerchantCircle

[Tears of Joy Video]

I found out this week that one of my connections on merchantcircle was copying my ideas and using them as her own. She has a videotaping business, different than mine and seemed nice, so I didn't really feel threated by her. But a few weeks ago I sent out a email to everyone on my contact list about the fact that we are collecting personal stories for our new site and I am looking for contributed personal stories. Well she took that same email and changed it with her name and sent it out to her contact list. She even kept our tag line in her email. Angie from the diaper baker was nice enough to bring this to my attention and send me her email. Thanks Angie.

I wrote her a letter stating that this was down right plagiarism and that it reflected bad on her business and that I did not appreciate that. I also deleted her as a contact. Besides this can anyone think what else I should do about this? I would like to do something more, but don't know what else I can do.

Also what can we do with businesses like this we find on merchantcircle? We need to find a way of warning other businesses about bad business practices in networking as well as bad business practices in business. Any ideas?

[Lindy Asimus]

I'll be interested to see if you get a response. It is possible I suppose, that someone else in the office thought they were doing something good, and the owner is not aware how it happened. Maybe you can get in for a cut of any business they make from the campaign! ;-)

It does raise the question though, as we are sharing ideas, we are networking on all of these social media, to help and not to do harm. Or should we be more compelled to declare that this is our interest and our intention and that we're prepared to work together and participate ... not just tag along so as to make convenient use of other's work without adding our own contribution?

[Howard Larson]

If I was in a "not good mood" I would do a e-blast to my 700 plus MC contacts exposing this person. I have a hard time just keeping people from selling products or services that I do to people on my site.

Some people care about people who steal ideas some (many) do not. I think here in Team Circle you will find people more caring in MC I dont think so.

Long story short.. expose the name here in Team Circle so everyone can be aware of this person.

[Tears of Joy Video]

Howard, that isn't a bad idea. Only thing is my MC contacts are mixed in with all my other contacts, so this may take a while to separate. I have over 1200 contacts on MC now.

[Lindy Asimus]

As a topic for another thread, this member database and how to best utilise it - might make for some interesting ideas...

[Candle Boutique & Gifts, LLC]

Perhaps we can ask Merchant Circle to have some kind of a post about bad experiences, or in this case outright theft by other merchants somewhere within MC. Something like the Better Business Bureau does. Since we are all connected we should be able to trust the people we are connected with, and I am sure that for the most part, we are, but there is always going to be those that abuse the priviledge.

I am not talking about things like this: We got an email from a company that threatened to give us a bad review because they claim they were receiving 1 to 2 dozen "news feeds" from us. We do not have the ability to send news feeds as far as we know, so we couldn't understand why they would think they were coming from us. This is not the type of thing that should be reported, but serious things, like theft of intellectual propery should be.

Anyway, just an initial thought. Sorry about the fact it happened to you.

Betsy/Candle Boutique & Gifts/Winston Salem, NC

www.candle-boutique.com

[Lindy Asimus]

We do not have the ability to send news feeds as far as we know, so we couldn't understand why they would think they were coming from us

Now this is interesting, because we really don't know what HAPPENS as a process on MC when we do something like make a coupon, or whatever. But I have received notices from members that suggest to me that doing so, initiates an email to our members.

[Candle Boutique & Gifts, LLC]

Well, you can elect to send the coupon, newletter, whatever to your contacts on MC or not, but this company was claiming they were getting what they called "news feeds" from us at a rate of 1 - 2 dozen PER DAY. We do not send news feeds to anyone and certainly not on MC, so we could not figure out what news feeds they were referring to, or why they would think they were from us and not MC.

[Tears of Joy Video]

The company was breathless video productions. Not here on teamcircle, so I felt this is the place to ask for help before going to the MC forum.

[Lindy Asimus]

Again, it is a kind of bind if you name them... more publicity.

[Tears of Joy Video]

Lindy,

I want the people here to know about them so they can beware of their practices and since they are not on this forum, I felt it would be better than naming them in MC. However the type of publicity this gives them is not good, so I am okay with that.

[Candle Boutique & Gifts, LLC]

We have almost 12,000 connections on MC so it would be almost impossible to let them all know, but if there is anything we can do to help, we would be happy to do it. Merchant Circle, on the other hand, could email everyone within MC warning them of the unethical practices of this company.

By the way, this has nothing to do with this problem, but does anyone know when our ads will begin showing up again? They have been gone for awhile now so basically connecting with other merchants is somewhat wasted. Any info - let me know.

Betsy/Candle Boutique & Gifts/Winston Salem, NC.

www.candle-boutique.com

[Daniella "Xactli"]

I think requesting that MerchantCircle send a warning of the unethical practices of this company is a great start. Not sure if they will help though - it's hard to get them to fix the problems on their site.

Xactli.com
XactliDomains.com