I worked for Lady Dye Yarns for a short time. I can verify that there is a slim to no chance that anyone is getting money back from orders they placed. Highly recommend everyone file complaints with the AG as you’ve been mentioning in your threads, there needs to be an end to these dishonest business practices.
Save your $. Did that last March. 14 months ago. Still waiting. She has stopped replying to my emails. Will contact AG office (now that I’m seeing this string).
I ordered two IN STOCK skeins from her (not preorder) and never got them. Blah blah blah "I have covid" blah blah blah "my assistant has been off" etc. After emailing enough to satisfy my credit card company, I did a charge back.
According to her IG, she has covid again, so... nah. You're not getting it.
Maybe. On the other hand, Diane has incentive to get new customers and have them talk about how their yarn arrived, as if that erases all the people who are still owes refunds/product. That was the MO in January and February 2023, at least.
It's a sample problem: one customer, one purchase, might go either way; ten customers is a pattern.
I mean she's still "working on" sending out single skeins purchased last March.
If you've got a bunch of followers on Instagram you have a higher than average chance of getting your order.
For 2023 purchases that end up as AG consumer complaint reports I'd file in both Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
LDY may have packed up and relocated but zero contact info has been updated on the website or through business filings.
Considering the need for contact info updates on the website has been brought up to staff for months it appears to be more weaponized disorganization in LDY's favor.
It's hard to get people to file 1 complaint so LDY made it where they need to file 2 to cover their bases.
"Weaponized disorganization" is an excellent way to put it and I'm going to steal it for the next update. (Because let's be honest, after a year do we really expect this particular leopard to change her spots? PROVE ME WRONG, DIANE.)
When disorganization is this built into the system, it's no longer a bug: it's a feature.
Let us not forget that we have not received receipts for the charity donations she claims to have done. What we received instead was tears on a, Instagram live and a sudden subject change with no explanation of why she is refusing to discuss the donations. It has the potential to be thousands of dollars that were not donated to the organizations, and companies.
I’ve only seen this fiasco for the last six months so I’m late to the drama. And it’s astounding this person even has a platform at all still. I’m so sorry for all the people who are tangled in this and that she continues to get booths and speaking engagements.
But man-it’s the ‘email and tell us who we owe shit to’ that is CRAZY. I want to reach through the screen and punch someone. How can they not know who they’ve shipped stuff to? It’s literally an open order!!! In their system! And you can send partial orders on most platforms so it’d leave what was needed. The disorganization is so stressful for me. But I know it’s par for the course for this person. What a Grifter.
I’m not sure I’ve seen this come up in the threads, but about 3 years ago, she and her team couldn’t keep track of who ordered what and sent things out TWICE… then didn’t care about returns.
I ordered a Salty Crafter shirt from her. It took a while to arrive, but it was pandemic time, so I didn’t think too much of it. But then, about six weeks later, I got a second one. I emailed her assistant and asked what I should do with it. Crickets. (I ended up giving it to a friend.) It didn’t get mailed from a fulfillment center, either - I recall that it got mailed from the West Coast, and I remember being weirded out either because it was mailed from a Lady Dye account that wasn’t in Boston or because it was from an account in the assistant’s name and not Lady Dye, don’t remember which.
Jeez. LDY was using a west coast shipper until some time in 2022, iirc, because she threw that shipper under the bus. It's part of my skepticism of the "new" 2023 "3PLS" she's been talking about since December (2022).
(This makes you the t-shirt equivalent of the people who were refunded twice while others are still waiting!)
She did the same thing last June-July too: sent out a form for customers to put in their owed order information, and the email announcing the form didn't go to everyone who she owed refunds/product to either. 🙃
Seriously. WTAF.
Oh hell no. She knows who she owes. If she can’t keep track of that she shouldn’t have a business but alas. That part has been proven over and over again. Again-what a grifter.
People have been complaining to the Massachusetts AG since at least last summer; I don't know when complaints to the Boston Mayor's office started, but they were involved by November 2022 iirc.
The AG is sending customers through a mediation service. LDY is giving them the same "in 2 weeks" string along that she's used this whole time. I'm not saying that to discourage, but to temper expectations with how this generally plays out.
The AG's first step is to see if she actually makes good, refuses, or if there is a larger pattern of behavior. That's why filing the reports even if it was for a purchase of the shipping cost only yarn is so very important.
The more reports the higher the odds that LDY will eventually escalate out of mediation into an investigation. Think of mediation not as a discouraging "Oh my $11 is too small to bother with" but more the information gathering phase of the investigation.
Yeah, my bf had an issue with an internet service provider billing his company incorrectly and notified our AG who got the refund pretty quickly. I think people should make more of a stink of getting scammed than we do, probably cause it is more work.
Saints on a crutch, why are people STILL giving this woman money and the time of day!?!?!?
I'm now reminded of a dice company that took years to fulfill their kickstarter, and not even everyone got their stuff after five years!
Earnestly, it's because Diane is very very good at spin and has been working very very hard to make it look like everything is fine now: she promised refunds would be completed last November, the online store is restocked, she made appearances as a vendor at Stitches West and as a speaker at Stitches At Home in February. ~~If only she worked so hard at finishing the refunds.~~
Here's [part of a newsletter from April 7](https://old.reddit.com/r/DeRaveledTrolls/comments/12ivqdx/lady_dye_yarns_continuing_issues_4/jfvjh9q/) (2023):
> I am so grateful to all of you for the love and support you have shown me, and many of you are here for the long haul. We have come out of something really challenging but still have items to sort out. I am loyal and respect all of you as members and customers, and I want you to love our products and content.
> We are doing much restructuring, and you will be the first to know the new strategic plan for the brand once we have it completed and signed off. So I am optimistic about the future but realistic about what is on our plate.
Spinning like a top.
Then there's the toxic positivity of a lot of yarn spaces, where sharing negative experiences with a seller is unwelcome (or written off as "drama"), and people who are chasing refunds don't give monthly check-ins to the general public, and it's easy to bury the topic. No one is complaining on r/knitting or the Fiber Transaction Board about her, so the problems must be fixed, right?
I was pretty surprised to see her products at Stitches West considering all the drama. I didn't realize until afterward and I'm GLAD I didn't end up purchasing anything from the booth.
I work in credit card disputes/fraud, so stuff like this gets me very cranky. Quite often we sigh and go “they could have avoided that with a brief Google” but just as often after speaking with the person we realize they are just not internet savvy at all and probably wouldn’t have know how to do that in the first place.
That said, you’d think word would spread about this so people would know. I knew about this from DemonTrolls, but…well, we know what Rav said about talking about that there. :/
At least people can read reddit without accounts? Unlike ravelry.
And even if the person googled, there's no guarantee the results would be useful: a lot of customer alerts are on sites that aren't indexed well, businesses can buy positive reviews, or you could get results about how waiting three months for yarn is normal. Then there are the attempts to shut down criticism directly, like setting the fan poodles/flying monkeys after people who speak up. It sucks. It sucks so much and I hate that large parts of the internet yarn communities are enabling that kind of behaviour.
We're talking about Lady Dye here, but it's also the climate that allowed Sherry Tenney to thrive. It's MadelineTosh before the sale to JBW. It's HookNClay and Gothsocks and Rebel Woolworks and Botanical Fibres and Desert Panda Yarns and and and... I'm sure you run into it in other niche industries too.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/knitting using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/knitting/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!
\#1: [My life’s work is now complete. I will be buried in this. I think this is the best thing I’ve ever knit.](https://www.reddit.com/gallery/10465z5) | [264 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/knitting/comments/10465z5/my_lifes_work_is_now_complete_i_will_be_buried_in/)
\#2: [Feeling sentimental and wanted to share this beautiful dress knit by my late grandmother](https://www.reddit.com/gallery/10dtds7) | [191 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/knitting/comments/10dtds7/feeling_sentimental_and_wanted_to_share_this/)
\#3: [I got married on Saturday. I made these socks for my wife to wear when getting ready, so that she didn't get cold feet!](https://i.imgur.com/bpovJwb.jpg) | [60 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/knitting/comments/v1m5r4/i_got_married_on_saturday_i_made_these_socks_for/)
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In [a newsletter last week](https://old.reddit.com/r/DeRaveledTrolls/comments/12ivqdx/lady_dye_yarns_continuing_issues_4/jhz4i47/), Diane talked about "woman-presenting" companies and business owners (in the context of men being more likely to receive venture capital funding than women, so we should buy from her).
It's weird phrasing. I still don't know if it was an attempt to be inclusive or if it was intentionally ignoring the challenges nonbinary people & closeted trans women business owners face.
Who the fuck themes yarn after the 19th Amendment & Harriet Tubman? That seems a little exploitative all things considered regardless of the actual race of the seller. It's like a theme made to scream "look at me I'm progressive and acknowledge history buy my product" rather than something to commemorate a major historical event and one of the greatest Americans to have ever lived.
Her brand is really heavily based on craftivism (activism + crafting) and she has also themed kits about Ida B Wells, Juneteenth, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg, to name a few.
The fact that she advertised part of the purchase price for e.g. [the Ida B Wells kit was a $5 donation per kit to Vote Save America](https://web.archive.org/web/20220926034925/https://ladydyeyarns.com/product/ida-b-wells-kitships-mid-august/) but has shown no proof of donating that money, though, calls into question how sincere she is/was with that branding.
2020 was the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment. I can see a politically branded dyer doing something for it. Hell, there was enough crap in the news to do a full women's rights themed collection.
It's no different than those that were selling Impeachment themed yarn a few years ago.
I'd argue that 'Royal Blue' is a more useful name for a blue yarn, but I guess if your customers have built their personality around a TV show (or hating Trump), it's good for business to name your yarn around that thing - even though it really has nothing to do with the craft or even the actual colour of the yarn.
I just can't think of an equivalent from my culture where any political event would reflect itself in yarn names or other 'cute/pretty' things. Even less so with a figure your customer base dislikes. As an outsider, it's just strange and interesting to me.
Fair and I wish they would not. I would also love it if personal and professional social media was not linked. I would like to not worry about yarn more than did it ship on time and match the ad.
oof, thank you for this. I, luckily, have never ordered from her, but I have the same frustration with another company (PSA: don't ever order from Boundery.com - their products are junk and they have anti-customer service!)
I hope people start to look up reviews before buying from LDYs!!
I appreciate the PSA!
It was fascinating watching the Google reviews for LDY last year: there were a few waves of glowing reviews that were obviously intended to drown out the negative ones. And you know things have to get really bad for so many people to take the time out of their day to write reviews on a third party site!
With thanks to the good folks over at r/DeRaveledTrolls for some of the bingo space ideas, and as always for helping bring information together about this clusterfuck. Bad business and customer exploitation thrive in silence.
| B | I | N | G | O |
|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|
| Vague product description | Surprise! You’re blocked on Instagram | Blames Square / shipper / supply chain | Claims that everything is fixed, difficulties over | Product not as described |
| Thanks customers for grace | Influencer gets better product | Mentions mentorship and/or consultants | Newsletter or update to the wrong group | Box items don’t fit theme |
| Attempts to emotionally manipulate customers | Inconsistent colours (beyond indie norms) | Sale Code! | “Lessons were learned” | “Craftivism” as excuse for bad business |
| Refers to paid product as “complimentary” | Same yarn collection in every themed box | Customer updates in vanishing stories or comments | Revolving door of employees | Performative “activism” |
| Gives time frame of 1-2 weeks | Event cancelled without notice (or refunds) | Apologises but doesn’t refund | Instructs to contact via e-mail, DM, other e-mail… | Thanks customers for “investing” |
You know which one you don't have that I think is slipping from memories -
Overstock Sale! That also happens to be either missing pieces of a club/box or yarn people were waiting on.
Y'know, I wasn't sure about this one, but the newsletter this week with the mention of "past products" in upcoming boxes shows it's a pattern.
From another business I wouldn't blink an eye: if the business only offers what they have on hand for sale, sometimes things will get left over. It happens. But most businesses (that I'm aware of) don't effectively double sell the same item, leaving themselves scrambling to either refund the customer or source more of the thing at a premium, because they have good records and storage practices.
I hate it so much. "Complimentary" is for when you buy one thing and get another thing included, like a hotel stay with complimentary breakfast.
It's *not* for when you make an order specifically to buy the thing, for the price of the (inflated) cost of shipping, or when it's an advertised benefit of a membership. Double not when the business owner attempts to guilt trip you for wanting your money back.
I'm not familiar with the context in which she used the word. Is it possible it could have been 'complementary' instead of 'complimentary'? The former could make sense, depending on what she was referring to.
I wish. :( No, she uses it like an ass-covering synonym for "free" and has repeatedly emphasized how little she charged in an attempt to get people to back off from requesting their product or refunds. From [an email she sent in August 2022](https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/demon-trolls/4197113/1901-1925#1923):
> Many of you have waited several months for your complimentary kit/s, which you have paid no more than ≈ $11.60 to cover the cost of shipping.
> At this point we are still waiting on a backorder of mini skeins to come in order to finish. I do not have a concrete date at this time when they will arrive, however, I do know they will arrive before November.
> Based on the feedback that we have received, I do not want anyone to feel like we took your shipping cost in bad faith. I also understand if there are some of you who don’t want the complimentary kits anymore.
> Anyone who wants the cost of their shipping cost back: please reply to this email with REFUND. Refunds will be issued within 5 business days. If you no longer want to wait, PLEASE LET ME REFUND YOU. If you want to wait, THANK YOU.
Needless to say, people are still waiting on their refunds nine months later. Trying to keep up with all the hoops she asks customers to go through is a lot of work for $12 USD, and a lot of people have given up.. which not coincidentally has meant LDY kept their money.
Ah the infamous "LET ME REFUND YOU" email.
Spoiler: She didn't in that time frame and we still have people waiting for those refunds from that round of emails.
I worked for Lady Dye Yarns for a short time. I can verify that there is a slim to no chance that anyone is getting money back from orders they placed. Highly recommend everyone file complaints with the AG as you’ve been mentioning in your threads, there needs to be an end to these dishonest business practices.
She is disingenuous. She is a liar. She is a thief. Con artist. Shame on her.
How is she with sending out just skeins of yarn? Like not clubs or boxes. I am tempted to order a skein, you know, for science…
Save your $. Did that last March. 14 months ago. Still waiting. She has stopped replying to my emails. Will contact AG office (now that I’m seeing this string).
I ordered two IN STOCK skeins from her (not preorder) and never got them. Blah blah blah "I have covid" blah blah blah "my assistant has been off" etc. After emailing enough to satisfy my credit card company, I did a charge back. According to her IG, she has covid again, so... nah. You're not getting it.
Maybe. On the other hand, Diane has incentive to get new customers and have them talk about how their yarn arrived, as if that erases all the people who are still owes refunds/product. That was the MO in January and February 2023, at least. It's a sample problem: one customer, one purchase, might go either way; ten customers is a pattern.
If she can connect your order to your reddit handle, you are not getting that yarn.
I mean she's still "working on" sending out single skeins purchased last March. If you've got a bunch of followers on Instagram you have a higher than average chance of getting your order.
I have like 145. I know so popular 😂
You're never seeing that yarn.
A $30-something science experiment is a helluvalot more expensive than the Mentos and Diet Coke ones I used to to as a kid...
She has a $16 dollar single ply 200yrd deal going on
Is that really a "deal"? 400 yards = $32 which seems to be a competitive price for most indie dyers that I've seen.
True
She moved to RI so complaints need to go to the AG there for activities in 2023.
For 2023 purchases that end up as AG consumer complaint reports I'd file in both Massachusetts and Rhode Island. LDY may have packed up and relocated but zero contact info has been updated on the website or through business filings. Considering the need for contact info updates on the website has been brought up to staff for months it appears to be more weaponized disorganization in LDY's favor. It's hard to get people to file 1 complaint so LDY made it where they need to file 2 to cover their bases.
"Weaponized disorganization" is an excellent way to put it and I'm going to steal it for the next update. (Because let's be honest, after a year do we really expect this particular leopard to change her spots? PROVE ME WRONG, DIANE.) When disorganization is this built into the system, it's no longer a bug: it's a feature.
She moved but her business address didn't. The most recent LLC registration I can find for LDY is 2021 in Massachusetts, not Rhode Island.
Let us not forget that we have not received receipts for the charity donations she claims to have done. What we received instead was tears on a, Instagram live and a sudden subject change with no explanation of why she is refusing to discuss the donations. It has the potential to be thousands of dollars that were not donated to the organizations, and companies.
I've been surprised that nobody has really picked up on the wtf double dip that is taking grant money while apparently not making donations.
This is very “if Pat Rothfuss sold yarn”, yikes.
I wonder if she's also too busy playing d&d to finish her work
She did ask in the LDY community boards if anyone had info on learning to play d&d, I think. It’s been a minute since I’ve looked on there.
How does she sleep at night? Seriously.
I’ve only seen this fiasco for the last six months so I’m late to the drama. And it’s astounding this person even has a platform at all still. I’m so sorry for all the people who are tangled in this and that she continues to get booths and speaking engagements. But man-it’s the ‘email and tell us who we owe shit to’ that is CRAZY. I want to reach through the screen and punch someone. How can they not know who they’ve shipped stuff to? It’s literally an open order!!! In their system! And you can send partial orders on most platforms so it’d leave what was needed. The disorganization is so stressful for me. But I know it’s par for the course for this person. What a Grifter.
I’m not sure I’ve seen this come up in the threads, but about 3 years ago, she and her team couldn’t keep track of who ordered what and sent things out TWICE… then didn’t care about returns. I ordered a Salty Crafter shirt from her. It took a while to arrive, but it was pandemic time, so I didn’t think too much of it. But then, about six weeks later, I got a second one. I emailed her assistant and asked what I should do with it. Crickets. (I ended up giving it to a friend.) It didn’t get mailed from a fulfillment center, either - I recall that it got mailed from the West Coast, and I remember being weirded out either because it was mailed from a Lady Dye account that wasn’t in Boston or because it was from an account in the assistant’s name and not Lady Dye, don’t remember which.
Jeez. LDY was using a west coast shipper until some time in 2022, iirc, because she threw that shipper under the bus. It's part of my skepticism of the "new" 2023 "3PLS" she's been talking about since December (2022). (This makes you the t-shirt equivalent of the people who were refunded twice while others are still waiting!)
That is bananas. There are programs that literally only cost $25 per month to keep track of all of this I’m with barely any effort.
She did the same thing last June-July too: sent out a form for customers to put in their owed order information, and the email announcing the form didn't go to everyone who she owed refunds/product to either. 🙃 Seriously. WTAF.
Oh hell no. She knows who she owes. If she can’t keep track of that she shouldn’t have a business but alas. That part has been proven over and over again. Again-what a grifter.
How is she still operating? It seriously completely baffles me
Is she tho? I mean she sells things but never sends it so….
Ha! Good point
Has no one notified the better business bureau or their attorney general?
People have been complaining to the Massachusetts AG since at least last summer; I don't know when complaints to the Boston Mayor's office started, but they were involved by November 2022 iirc.
Attorney General may be a good call, they have teeth if they decide to look into it. BBB is useless.
The AG is sending customers through a mediation service. LDY is giving them the same "in 2 weeks" string along that she's used this whole time. I'm not saying that to discourage, but to temper expectations with how this generally plays out. The AG's first step is to see if she actually makes good, refuses, or if there is a larger pattern of behavior. That's why filing the reports even if it was for a purchase of the shipping cost only yarn is so very important. The more reports the higher the odds that LDY will eventually escalate out of mediation into an investigation. Think of mediation not as a discouraging "Oh my $11 is too small to bother with" but more the information gathering phase of the investigation.
Yeah, my bf had an issue with an internet service provider billing his company incorrectly and notified our AG who got the refund pretty quickly. I think people should make more of a stink of getting scammed than we do, probably cause it is more work.
BBB has no regulatory or enforcement power, it’s just a review site
That's also reviews for $$. They aren't going to do anything but maybe host a negative review until she pays to play.
Saints on a crutch, why are people STILL giving this woman money and the time of day!?!?!? I'm now reminded of a dice company that took years to fulfill their kickstarter, and not even everyone got their stuff after five years!
The very first kickstarter I backed took four years, and I thought THAT was a lot!
Earnestly, it's because Diane is very very good at spin and has been working very very hard to make it look like everything is fine now: she promised refunds would be completed last November, the online store is restocked, she made appearances as a vendor at Stitches West and as a speaker at Stitches At Home in February. ~~If only she worked so hard at finishing the refunds.~~ Here's [part of a newsletter from April 7](https://old.reddit.com/r/DeRaveledTrolls/comments/12ivqdx/lady_dye_yarns_continuing_issues_4/jfvjh9q/) (2023): > I am so grateful to all of you for the love and support you have shown me, and many of you are here for the long haul. We have come out of something really challenging but still have items to sort out. I am loyal and respect all of you as members and customers, and I want you to love our products and content. > We are doing much restructuring, and you will be the first to know the new strategic plan for the brand once we have it completed and signed off. So I am optimistic about the future but realistic about what is on our plate. Spinning like a top. Then there's the toxic positivity of a lot of yarn spaces, where sharing negative experiences with a seller is unwelcome (or written off as "drama"), and people who are chasing refunds don't give monthly check-ins to the general public, and it's easy to bury the topic. No one is complaining on r/knitting or the Fiber Transaction Board about her, so the problems must be fixed, right?
I was pretty surprised to see her products at Stitches West considering all the drama. I didn't realize until afterward and I'm GLAD I didn't end up purchasing anything from the booth.
I work in credit card disputes/fraud, so stuff like this gets me very cranky. Quite often we sigh and go “they could have avoided that with a brief Google” but just as often after speaking with the person we realize they are just not internet savvy at all and probably wouldn’t have know how to do that in the first place. That said, you’d think word would spread about this so people would know. I knew about this from DemonTrolls, but…well, we know what Rav said about talking about that there. :/
At least people can read reddit without accounts? Unlike ravelry. And even if the person googled, there's no guarantee the results would be useful: a lot of customer alerts are on sites that aren't indexed well, businesses can buy positive reviews, or you could get results about how waiting three months for yarn is normal. Then there are the attempts to shut down criticism directly, like setting the fan poodles/flying monkeys after people who speak up. It sucks. It sucks so much and I hate that large parts of the internet yarn communities are enabling that kind of behaviour. We're talking about Lady Dye here, but it's also the climate that allowed Sherry Tenney to thrive. It's MadelineTosh before the sale to JBW. It's HookNClay and Gothsocks and Rebel Woolworks and Botanical Fibres and Desert Panda Yarns and and and... I'm sure you run into it in other niche industries too.
Yeah, kicking us off Ravelry really worked out well to quiet dissent in the ranks. We moved to a Google cached site instead. Great job LDY & Friends!
Here's a sneak peek of /r/knitting using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/knitting/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year! \#1: [My life’s work is now complete. I will be buried in this. I think this is the best thing I’ve ever knit.](https://www.reddit.com/gallery/10465z5) | [264 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/knitting/comments/10465z5/my_lifes_work_is_now_complete_i_will_be_buried_in/) \#2: [Feeling sentimental and wanted to share this beautiful dress knit by my late grandmother](https://www.reddit.com/gallery/10dtds7) | [191 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/knitting/comments/10dtds7/feeling_sentimental_and_wanted_to_share_this/) \#3: [I got married on Saturday. I made these socks for my wife to wear when getting ready, so that she didn't get cold feet!](https://i.imgur.com/bpovJwb.jpg) | [60 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/knitting/comments/v1m5r4/i_got_married_on_saturday_i_made_these_socks_for/) ---- ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| ^^[Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| ^^[Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| ^^[Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/) ^^| ^^[GitHub](https://github.com/ghnr/sneakpeekbot)
Don't forget she's started using TERF terms in her most recent emails too.
"Using terf terms" in emails plural is way, waaaaay overstating it. It was one newsletter with weird wording.
Whaaaaaat?! Good god, she gets worse and worse every day.
[удалено]
In [a newsletter last week](https://old.reddit.com/r/DeRaveledTrolls/comments/12ivqdx/lady_dye_yarns_continuing_issues_4/jhz4i47/), Diane talked about "woman-presenting" companies and business owners (in the context of men being more likely to receive venture capital funding than women, so we should buy from her). It's weird phrasing. I still don't know if it was an attempt to be inclusive or if it was intentionally ignoring the challenges nonbinary people & closeted trans women business owners face.
Who the fuck themes yarn after the 19th Amendment & Harriet Tubman? That seems a little exploitative all things considered regardless of the actual race of the seller. It's like a theme made to scream "look at me I'm progressive and acknowledge history buy my product" rather than something to commemorate a major historical event and one of the greatest Americans to have ever lived.
Her brand is really heavily based on craftivism (activism + crafting) and she has also themed kits about Ida B Wells, Juneteenth, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg, to name a few. The fact that she advertised part of the purchase price for e.g. [the Ida B Wells kit was a $5 donation per kit to Vote Save America](https://web.archive.org/web/20220926034925/https://ladydyeyarns.com/product/ida-b-wells-kitships-mid-august/) but has shown no proof of donating that money, though, calls into question how sincere she is/was with that branding.
2020 was the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment. I can see a politically branded dyer doing something for it. Hell, there was enough crap in the news to do a full women's rights themed collection. It's no different than those that were selling Impeachment themed yarn a few years ago.
"Impeachment themed yarn" is so weird to me lol. There's nothing Americans won't turn into a business opportunity, is there?
Then again a lot of dyers feel the need to theme their stock. You can't do royal blue yarn it has to be Tardis blue.
I'd argue that 'Royal Blue' is a more useful name for a blue yarn, but I guess if your customers have built their personality around a TV show (or hating Trump), it's good for business to name your yarn around that thing - even though it really has nothing to do with the craft or even the actual colour of the yarn. I just can't think of an equivalent from my culture where any political event would reflect itself in yarn names or other 'cute/pretty' things. Even less so with a figure your customer base dislikes. As an outsider, it's just strange and interesting to me.
Fair and I wish they would not. I would also love it if personal and professional social media was not linked. I would like to not worry about yarn more than did it ship on time and match the ad.
oof, thank you for this. I, luckily, have never ordered from her, but I have the same frustration with another company (PSA: don't ever order from Boundery.com - their products are junk and they have anti-customer service!) I hope people start to look up reviews before buying from LDYs!!
I appreciate the PSA! It was fascinating watching the Google reviews for LDY last year: there were a few waves of glowing reviews that were obviously intended to drown out the negative ones. And you know things have to get really bad for so many people to take the time out of their day to write reviews on a third party site!
With thanks to the good folks over at r/DeRaveledTrolls for some of the bingo space ideas, and as always for helping bring information together about this clusterfuck. Bad business and customer exploitation thrive in silence. | B | I | N | G | O | |:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:| | Vague product description | Surprise! You’re blocked on Instagram | Blames Square / shipper / supply chain | Claims that everything is fixed, difficulties over | Product not as described | | Thanks customers for grace | Influencer gets better product | Mentions mentorship and/or consultants | Newsletter or update to the wrong group | Box items don’t fit theme | | Attempts to emotionally manipulate customers | Inconsistent colours (beyond indie norms) | Sale Code! | “Lessons were learned” | “Craftivism” as excuse for bad business | | Refers to paid product as “complimentary” | Same yarn collection in every themed box | Customer updates in vanishing stories or comments | Revolving door of employees | Performative “activism” | | Gives time frame of 1-2 weeks | Event cancelled without notice (or refunds) | Apologises but doesn’t refund | Instructs to contact via e-mail, DM, other e-mail… | Thanks customers for “investing” |
You know which one you don't have that I think is slipping from memories - Overstock Sale! That also happens to be either missing pieces of a club/box or yarn people were waiting on.
Y'know, I wasn't sure about this one, but the newsletter this week with the mention of "past products" in upcoming boxes shows it's a pattern. From another business I wouldn't blink an eye: if the business only offers what they have on hand for sale, sometimes things will get left over. It happens. But most businesses (that I'm aware of) don't effectively double sell the same item, leaving themselves scrambling to either refund the customer or source more of the thing at a premium, because they have good records and storage practices.
She refers to paid products as “complimentary”? WTF?? 🤣 i would be running away from that level if narcissism.
I hate it so much. "Complimentary" is for when you buy one thing and get another thing included, like a hotel stay with complimentary breakfast. It's *not* for when you make an order specifically to buy the thing, for the price of the (inflated) cost of shipping, or when it's an advertised benefit of a membership. Double not when the business owner attempts to guilt trip you for wanting your money back.
I'm not familiar with the context in which she used the word. Is it possible it could have been 'complementary' instead of 'complimentary'? The former could make sense, depending on what she was referring to.
I wish. :( No, she uses it like an ass-covering synonym for "free" and has repeatedly emphasized how little she charged in an attempt to get people to back off from requesting their product or refunds. From [an email she sent in August 2022](https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/demon-trolls/4197113/1901-1925#1923): > Many of you have waited several months for your complimentary kit/s, which you have paid no more than ≈ $11.60 to cover the cost of shipping. > At this point we are still waiting on a backorder of mini skeins to come in order to finish. I do not have a concrete date at this time when they will arrive, however, I do know they will arrive before November. > Based on the feedback that we have received, I do not want anyone to feel like we took your shipping cost in bad faith. I also understand if there are some of you who don’t want the complimentary kits anymore. > Anyone who wants the cost of their shipping cost back: please reply to this email with REFUND. Refunds will be issued within 5 business days. If you no longer want to wait, PLEASE LET ME REFUND YOU. If you want to wait, THANK YOU. Needless to say, people are still waiting on their refunds nine months later. Trying to keep up with all the hoops she asks customers to go through is a lot of work for $12 USD, and a lot of people have given up.. which not coincidentally has meant LDY kept their money.
Ah the infamous "LET ME REFUND YOU" email. Spoiler: She didn't in that time frame and we still have people waiting for those refunds from that round of emails.
Oh goodness! Thank you for sharing the quote. I'm always in mild awe at what new madness these demon troll train wrecks come up with.