ComplaintsforToo Good Gourmet

• Initial Complaint

  12/20/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  Hello, I have discovered this company is selling unauthorized, pirated and incomplete versions of an original product as well as stealing intellectual property from their website: www.tarotcollectibles.com. The product I am referring to is called "Wisdom of Tea and Tarot." It consists of a boxed set of **** Grey Tea, a printed PDF of instructions identical to that of www.tarotcollectibles.com and an incomplete set of 40 Tarot cards which look almost identical to the original product produced and sold by www.tarotcollectibles.com. The original PDF, card design and overall product is in fact copyrighted by www.tarotcollectibles.com thus resulting in the act copyright infringement by Too Good Gourmet. This is highly disappointing as not only are the cards sold in this boxed Wisdom of Tea and Tarot set counterfeit, but it is also an incomplete deck consisting of 40 cards rather than the necessary 78 in order for proper usage. Nowhere on the outside packaging does it describe that the Tarot card deck includes 40 cards rather than 78, and this is only discovered after that fact the product had been already purchased and opened, finding it says 40 cards on the back of the deck after removal from packaging.There is also cardboard in place to make the deck of cards look like a full 78 before opening the package.This packaging is clearly meant to mislead the buyer when in fact the deck is incomplete and a counterfeit product based off of the original idea and work of www.tarotcollectibles.com.I fully belive TooGoodGourmet should not only be discontinuing this product but take whatever action is necessary to compensate www.tarotcollectibles.com for the counterfeit production and distribution of one of their products as well as harming the company's reputation for quality product.Here is the website to the original, copyrighted product that TooGoodGourmet has stolen:https://www.tarotcollectibles.com/store/p160/Trippin_Waite_Tarot.html

• Initial Complaint

  12/16/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Recently a person contacted me about a product being distributed by this company to a store called Homegoods. This retailer sells a tea and tarot deck kit called The Wisdom of Tea and Tarot. The person who contacted me recognized my work and was hoping I could help them with their product issue. The issue was being sold an incomplete deck of cards. However this product wasn't authorised by myself or my partner who is the co creator of this work. Basically Too Good Gourmet is distributing unauthorised copies of my cards , repackaging them and stripping our company's name off them . No credit was given to my partner or myself. They also didn't ask our permission to reprint our images. To add insult to injury they stole text directly off our site and made a little white book of meanings out of our PDF.s. I have sent a cease and desist . The company refuses to respond. This is a bad company. They are stealing my intellectual and artistic property mass printing it and distributing it to Homegoods.

  Business response

  01/07/2022

  From: ***************************** [mailto:*******************************************]
  Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2022 9:10 PM
  To: info <************************************>
  Cc: ********************* <*************************************>
  Subject: Complaint against our company

   

  To whom it may concern:

  I am writing to respond to the letter we received regarding the complaint against our company for the Tea & Tarot gift set sold to Home Goods.

  We have been in contact with this artist and I am not sure why she chose to escalate this to BBB since we had already resolved the issue with her directly.

  We were sold the tarot cards with her artwork from the same company in ***** where she gets the cards produced.  We were assured at the time of purchase that this was stock artwork from them and that there were no copywrite issues.  ********* understands and appreciates the fact that we were duped and that the fault lies with the manufacture of the cards.  We in no way would ever infringe on someones artwork and are deeply sorry that this occurred.  We are working with her to register a complaint with Alibaba.

   

  Please let me know what more you need from Too Good Gourmet to close this issue on your end.

  Thanks!

   

  *****************************

  President

  Too Good Gourmet

  2380 ************

  ******************, **  94580

  Office:  ************

  Cell: ************

  Customer response

  01/07/2022

   
  Complaint: 16370883
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  I do accept ********** apology. However this does not solve the issue of TJMAXX/Homegoods continuing to distribute my work without my permission.  God forbid the big corporations lose a little bit of pocket change pulling my deck off their shelves.  I do not own a multi million dollar company but I do own my brand reputation. This has caused some brand confusion" with customers who continue to email me with their incomplete card deck woes. I had a few of these complaints over the holidays from customers who purchased this set as a gift to their mothers and significant others. Too Good Gourmet is well aware of the type of complaint  because I  saw some of them on their  Yelp page.  Whether  ******** understands this or not  it causes damage to my brand . I dont know what people are posting in tarot forums and online card reading communities. It  also took ******** awhile to send me the requested information.  This complaint was lodged before that time. She is going after them on Alibaba but I want her to make sure that Joey *********** (the printer) knows I am part of this process. I do not blame ******** for making a mistake . It can happen to anyone who lacks experience dealing with ******* vendors. However what you do after you find out about it determines what kind of business person you are. I already know that TJMAXX/Homegoods could care less about my brand or damages. Never once during this whole affair has there been any suggestion of throwing the artist the dime they deserve for unauthorised use of web site material and IP. They are making thousands in profits off these sets. Homegoods and TJMAXX  should of learned from their Burberry experience not to buy fakes from *****. They have no sense of integrity or decency at all. There is no excuse for their continued distribution of my product after they have been told but they continue to do so.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *******************************

  Business response

  01/21/2022

  Dear BBB:

  I really don't have very much more I can do or say on this matter.

  I have given an apology, contacted the vendor who sold me the items using *********** artwork, registered a complaint with Alibaba as she requested, and have contact our customer on this matter.  I do not hold any more inventory on this item, nor does my customer.  I in no way intended to use her artwork and have specific email correspondence where I confirmed with the vendor that we were purchasing stock, non-copy write artwork for the item they sold us.

  I had truly thought the matter was resolved after speaking with ********* in December.  I provided her all the email correspondence and contacted Alibaba as she requested.  Still, we are receiving letters through the BBB, emails from other people obviously associated with *********, and bashes on social media sites.  I am sincerely apologetic and also feel that there is nothing more I can do than I have already done.

  Please let me know what more you need from me to close this matter.

  Thanks!
  *****************************

  Customer response

  01/21/2022

   I am rejecting this response because: People who are contacting you are filing complaints because of the product and your lack of service not because of me. They are legitimate grievances because you refuse to respond to them. Therefore I am contacted to make good on products that YOU sell. This is unfortunate because people who contact me tell me you do not respond to their complaints. If your Yelp page is anything to go by I believe the accuracy of their statements. I tell people it is not my doing. Yes I redirect them to your business pages because that is the only way to get through to you even then it does not help.  It is also not true that the supply of product is depleted. I was sent an email last week from somebody who purchased this product at Marshalls. If this continues I will look into my legal options. Marshalls now too? Really ******** you profited from my product in the first place both TJMAXX/Homegoods and yourself . Was I offered any compensation at all? What did you contribute to that product a few bags of tea while I contributed both  my artwork and website material? People who have contacted you are not my operatives LOL. They are your customers who havent received refunds or rebates. One woman was so upset you ruined her Christmas. She was expecting a full deck of cards. What did your company give her ? A half deck of cards and a few tea bags. You need to get real with yourself. It's obvious by how long it takes you to even respond to complaints here, your lack of customer care. LOL Feel free to mess around  with your own business but  dont imply I am responsible for the bad comments you get on social media. I mean except for my own remarks of course. You did me wrong whether you like to take that on board or not. You leave it to my business to respond to your customers because YOU DO NOT RESPOND TO THEM in a timely manner. That is all on you. Of course you cant do anything more because you do not want to compensate my business for money taken for my work. Also for the customers who are completely miserable because you will not talk to them. Am I going to get money back for decks I  sent to these unhappy people? You are using my designs and my website material. Therefore you are hurting my business by distributing this junk. Do you not understand you created a brand confusion case? LOL 
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *******************************

• Initial Complaint

  12/03/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Order was placed with this company on 11/1/21 for a total of $56.58. I had to request an update of my order on 11/17/21 via email, as I had not received merchandise and had not received any update on shipping, etc. I did receive a reply back within 3 hours and a ***************************** assured me my order would ship out the next day (11/18/21). Upon receipt of my order on 11/22/21, there were issues with the merchandise. One of the Christmas-themed small cardboard boxes of mini chocolate chip cookies (that of a Santa Claus) was "unglued and smashed" & lying inside the shipping box, causing the plastic bag of cookies to also fall out loose in the shipping box. The cookies were NOT themselves lying loose & were intact inside the plastic wrap. This particular box was bought as part of a 3-box gifting set for $11.67 (the other two boxes were a nutcracker w/mini shortbread cookies and a snowman box w/mini sugar cookies). One of the small felt ***** that are glued on top of these particular boxes had also come loose from one of the boxes (the "snowman" box) and was lying loose in the bottom of the shipping box, so I had to re-glue that. One of the boxes of "Holiday Dip Mixes" that usually comes with a red ribbon bow tied around the small whisk that is taped to the front of the dip box was missing, so I had to find a ribbon from my own personal Christmas wrap inventory to make another one to place on the front of the box. All 10 items were just "thrown" in the shipping box loose with no protection (i.e., bubble wrap).I emailed *************** same day as receipt of merchandise (11/22/21) with detailed explanation of damage/missing pieces. She emailed back asking me to explain damage (I emailed her back that I HAD explained in previous mail). Never heard anything back, so sent another follow-up on 11/30/21 either wanting a replacement or a refund for the "Santa" box of cookies ($3.89+ tax) credited to my card. (It's now too late to replace.) NO reply to date (12/3/21).

  Business response

  01/04/2022

  See attached

  Business response

  01/04/2022

  See attached

  Customer response

  01/04/2022

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.  Having said that, I never received any email from *************** via email. The email address she listed on the reply back to you isn't correct.  She used the dollar sign ($) in lieu of the @ sign in my email address, if that's in fact the symbol she even used.  Also, I never received any type of voice mail from her via my home phone number.  However, someone did replace & ship one of the damaged boxes of cookies, albeit they shipped 3 of the same box.  I only needed one box.  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *********************

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩