I KNOW, but it was just out there, I had to use it. Anyway, with allegations of theft and scamming floating around, the Bernie Madoff of Anthro-blogging has decided to cut off the story at the pass and issued this bizarre “lol sorry”:
An Apology
I want to take a minute to apologize. I messed up and I owe it to my readers to apologize. As you may recall, I used to run a Personal Shopping Service on this blog. I am not going to make excuses, but I really dropped the ball and screwed things up with some of the girls who hired me for this service.My life got overwhelming with some serious family issues and juggling too many things. I should have expressed this, been honest, and not continued to try to personal shop. For this, I truly apologize.
You readers have put a lot of faith in me, and you’ve been supportive and honest with me. I ask for nothing in return, other than a chance to say I was wrong, apologize, and I hope to move forward as a better person. I have made right with whom I needed to, but should anyone still have an issue with me, please contact me at berlyb33(at)gmail(dot)com. I will not blog until I’m sure everything has been rectified.
Not to be insensitive here, but that’s called life, dude. If you are operating a business offering a service, you deliver on your promises no matter what personal crap is going on. If you can’t, you close out your register and take leave until your life is in order again. What you don’t do is make excuse after excuse and promise after promise and continue accepting customers when you are fairly certain you cannot fulfill your job.
It’s nice that you’re sorry, but I don’t think anyone cares about your feelings, honey. They care that they gave you money with faith and trust, expecting you to do what you said you would, and in many cases, you did not. Refund these people with profuse apologies, shutter up your “personal shopping” thing, and let’s all get back to more important things like “Jerseylicious”.
This happened to me with her, actually. It was a couple of months ago. I did get my money back but it took a while and I basically had to stalk her for it. Interesting, to say the least.
Team Olivia.
DITTO!
That apologie is neither ruffly nor twee. I am disappoint.
I need a like button!
Sorry, but this angers me. She needs to GOMI, seriously. I want to see her bloggy friends recognize who she really is. She is NOT going to stop- she did this before (I’m sorry! I’ll fix it! My bad!) and how many girls have never gotten their $ back?!?!
http://anthroholic.blogspot.com/2009/10/contest-cancelled-and-my-apologies.html
She really is an anthroholic. BINGE. LIE. STEAL. ANYTHING TO FEED THE ADDICITON. THEN APOLOGIZE. DENIAL.
classic symptoms of an addict
Whoa that post/contest foreshadows the shadiness.
I was sorta “meh” about all this but, um, she’s now looking sketchier than ever.
Whoa. I wonder what the original rules of the contest were that a lawyer had to get involved & income had to be reported to the IRS????
is your name from strictly ballroom?
That varies a lot from state to state. I don’t know where she lives, but here in Massachusetts the rules for giveaways are really onerous—you have to file paperwork with the state and submit tax paperwork.
Can I get an Amen. Or, to quote Paul in well, Paul: Yeah, whatever dude.
Anyways…thanks for the public forum….appreciated it – and don’t worry, no more whining from this girl. Well, about this issue, at least.
“I will not blog until I’m sure everything has been rectified.” Is she for serious? What a martyr!
Easier to disappear.
My first two thoughts were “I hope no one accepts the apology” and “she’ll probably post again within the month with her first few posts starting as ‘I know I said I wouldn’t blog, but I just had to—’.”
She should take her blog down-it sounds as if fraud may have been committed!
can anyone who didn’t get full compensation from this bitch please make sure she KNOWS she owes you???
Be sure to send her several emails she will never get.
Post it here!
She’s posted a few replies over at the pursuit of hippyness.
As one of the people who was involved with her, I am getting upset all over again at all of this. It took eight months for me to get things resolved. Of course, I wanted my items/money but it would have done so much more for her to be honest. To say, you know what – I f*cked up and I am sorry. Instead, it was excuse after excuse, and I was the one somehow left feeling like the jerk for questioning her.
Regardless, I am glad this is all coming out into the open and I hope everyone gets their money back.
will you get your $$ or is the official ‘apology’ enough for everyone??
Wow, I am impressed–this forum is powerful…
I’m sure it was that “pursuit of hippyness” post that did it, not GOMI.
GOMI motivated hippyness though. She read our commenters, and it got her mad enough to post her experience. pat GOMI on the back :)
seriously! glad that it shed light on the issue and hoping that EVERYONE gets their money back! gah – i hope her readership drops like crazy because of this.
Anthroholic is seriously lame. She says that she’s “not going to make excuses” and then makes more excuses. She is a liar and a thief. It amazes me that she has the guts to have a blog and do this sort of thing. And you all thought that Small Town Fashionista had problems!! Anthroholic has serious issues.
So what was this contest she had 2 years ago? Send her money and she’ll share it with the winner? yeah, right!
Whaaaaa? Did people really fall for that? Srsly?
Sorry for the ridiculously long comment, but I found Athrogrifter’s original contest announcement from 10/6/09 via Google Reader. The page isn’t cached anywhere, so here is the text of the page.
***
I’m so excited to tell all of you fabulous readers, that I’m holding a contest with the best prize us Anthroholics could ask for: Anthropologie giftcards!!!!
As a lot of you already know, Roxy over on Effortless Anthropologie held a similar contest last month. I thought it was such a great idea, I asked Roxy if she’d mind if I did a similar contest to show my appreciation to all of you! She is super sweet and didn’t mind at all (plus this time, the super-generous Roxy will get to enter!).
So drumroll please…..I present to you, the first ever Anthroholic “Fall Into Anthropologie” Contest. Why did I name it that? Because it’s FALL! And if you win, you can fall right into the store and spend free $$$!
What am I celebrating you might ask dear readers? The fact that in three short months, I’ve got almost 200 followers on this little blog of mine, and even more on Google Reader. I wanted to do a giveway this time that each and everyone of you could enter if you wanted to. I also wanted to say thanks for taking the time to read my blog. I appreciate each and every one of you and am so happy that people like my blog!
This contest is open to anyone and everyone that lives in a country Anthropologie ships to!
So down to the nitty gritty. My goal is that we’ll raise $1000 in prize money. That money will go towards the prizes: Anthropologie giftcards! If this happens prizes will be:
Grand prize: 1 $500 giftcard
Second place: 1 $250 giftcard
Third & Fourth places: 2 $125 giftcards (1 per each winner)
If we surpass $1000, I’ll adjust the # of giftcards and amounts. If we don’t reach $1000, I’ll adjust these amounts to be less.
Deadline to enter is Friday, November 20, 2009.
As entries start to roll in, I’ll post updates on where we’re at. Remember, you can enter up to 5 times to increase your odds!
PLEASE READ THE DISCLAIMER AND TERMS & CONDITIONS. BY ENTERING YOU CONFIRM THAT YOU HAVE READ AND ACCEPTED THE DISCLAIMER AND THE TERMS & CONDITIONS.
DISCLAIMER:
This contest is NOT sponsored by, affiliated with, or in any way endorsed by Anthropologie or Urban Outfitters.
TERMS & CONDITIONS:
1. Any money entered to this contest CANNOT be returned or refunded.
2. Entries are accepted via Paypal ONLY. No cash, checks or other entry forms will be accepted.
3. Entries can ONLY be sent to paypal address: berlyb33@hotmail.com
4. You may enter up to 5 times ($25 total).
5. Please enter in $5 US increments only. Any increments less than $5 US will be void and CANNOT be returned or refunded.
6. This contest is VOID where prohibited.
7. All entrants’ mailing addresses MUST match their Paypal account address. Anthroholic WILL NOT SHIP to any other address.
8. International entries welcome! BUT you must live in a country that Anthropologie ships to.9. By entering this contest, you agree to participate within Anthroholic’s chosen contest methods. You agree not to sue, pursue legal action or defame Anthroholic should the contest not turn the way you want it to.
10. These terms & conditions may be updated as needed. By entering you agree to all current and future terms & conditions.
11. Each entrant CANNOT win more than once prize. But the more you enter the better your chance of winning.
12. By entering you agree NOT to file a Paypal chargeback.
13. Contests must be confirmed and claimed by winners within (7) days of contest end. Any prizes not claimed within that timeline will be redistributed via the method described below.
14. Anthroholic is NOT responsible for prizes lost in the mail. All prizes will be shipped via UPS and a tracking number will be provided.
15. All donations will go towards this contest and only this contest.
16. Upon making your donation, you should receive a confirmation receipt from Paypal. If you do not, please email me at berlyb33@gmail.com to let me know. I’ll double check your entry.
17. If you have any questions, please shoot me an email at berlyb33@gmail.com
Winner drawing method:
I will keep a spreadsheet of all entrants names and email addresses that have made donations. A separate line entry will be made for each $5 donation. I will use random.org to pick a number within the range of entrants to choose the winners. I will announce the winners after the contest closes, on my blog.
Most importantly, enter here:
I’ll also have a permanent button located in the sidebar of the blog to make entering easy!
Good luck everyone!!! I can’t wait for the entries to start pouring in. I’ll keep you posted with updates as we go!
WOW! Thanks for posting this. Unbelievable!
I agree. Wow! It would be so easy for her to just make up people as winners and pocket the money. I don’t know the story on this. Is that what happened?
What a scam I wondered how she could afford all of those clothes when I believe she has some sort of office job.
Yep. From what I can tell, she’s an office admin. Not exactly high ranking on the pay scale, so I always wondered how she afforded all these clothes, too. If she was using her reader’s like a credit card and running lotteries, that explains a lot.
Uh..readers. Not reader’s.
Yeah…ponziholic canceled this contest and did not refund people’s money. Even the people she cheated are now getting refunds with her service fee and a paypal fee deducted by her. Basically, she is charging people for screwing them over. Classy.
I noticed that her contest post says she took her cue for a similar EA contest – wonder who won that one???
*from not for – argh!
I don’t know specifics, but I’d bet dollars to donuts that the “similar EA contest” was just a standard giftcard giveaway funded by Roxy’s ad revenue and/or personal funds.
(n/m…someone posted a link below)
When the contest on EA was held I won the grand prize and I got my giftcard in the mail a short time later.
I’m sure you did, Hannah U… I’m sure you did….
Again though, why does this Hannah U only ever chime in to say “I got the Effortless Gift Card” as though she has something to defend? The winner was never publicly announced.. How convenient!
Can we get some lolyers up in here? This looks fucking rediculous and like she was ready to pocket all the money right from the jump.
You agree not to sue, pursue legal action or defame Anthroholic should the contest not turn the way you want it to.
10. These terms & conditions may be updated as needed. By entering you agree to all current and future terms & conditions.
…
12. By entering you agree NOT to file a Paypal chargeback.
This is batshit. You have to agree not be upset when she pulls her same old “I’m keeping your money, BITCH” crap.
I am a lolyer but I am NO frigging use here as I am not a US lawyer. Dammit.
(For what its worth you’d want to be quite cautious about this sort of stuff in the UK in order not to fall foul of the Gambling Act 2005 – so I imagine there would be a similar regulatory background in the US?)
well a little googling seems to say that if you have to pay to play it’s a lottery and against US law.
http://mikeschinkel.com/blog/nopurchaserequireditsthelaw/
this is from 2006 though and the FTC link doesn’t work.
when roxy does those contests it’s with the money she gets from the shopstyle links and does not take reader donations!
So Anthroholic tried to set up a lottery on her blog? How dumb is this bitch?
pretty much and got called out for it and cried about it.
I found the contest post that Anthroholic was referring to on EA’s blog:
http://effortlessanthropologie.blogspot.com/2009/09/final-reminder-last-day-to-enter.html
http://effortlessanthropologie.blogspot.com/2009/07/announcing-were-all-in-this-together.html
Granted, she may not have yet been generating income through her links, so that may be why she ran the contest as a lottery.
However, I could not find a list of the winners’ names… anybody know?
I won the grand prize and got the gift card shortly after.
Someone should post this link on Effortless Anthropologie sale comments–they will all see it
Someone just did!
good. this needs to be outed. and look, its mini-thread already got a few replies sharing the disgust.
FYI roxy from EA did NOT delete the comment with this link but wrote “refrain from personal attacks” since THOSE would be deleted. at least she let the link stand.
Roxy also removed ponziholic’s link and the fact that she posted a whole entry on scammers, speaks loudly. Roxy has always been a straight shooter. I won a contest there once and received my prize money, no problem. I’ve never seen one person on ponzer’s blog thanking her for whatever they have won. Shhhhhhaaaadddyyyyy.
Just to confirm I did win something from Anthroholic’s website one time and receivd it promptly. I was the winner of a Sora necklace. Kim even followed up with me to make sure I received it.
Look at GOMI, providing a forum for people. Without it, I don’t think people would have come together to realize this was happening to many, many other women. I’m happy for those who were able to finally get some answers and get their money back.
Good work, GOMI.
I really hope anyone still waiting on their money is able to get it back.
OT Someone said something about Messica scarving…lol…someone…lol….to death LOL…on some TV show. Is there a video of it? (i am crying)
http://tinyurl.com/6bn5lkl
Not that I expected you to know it was on WGN, but I haven’t used lmgtfy in a while so there you go.
this. is. fantastic. THANK YOU
http://www.wgntv.com/videobeta/8e3739ec-3b48-404c-a5bc-2aed278706e9/News/Re-mix-clothing-in-closet-for-new-fresh-outfits
It was melondrama, I think who said Messica almost scarved the poor woman to death, then stalker adopted it and I have been laughing at it ever since. It’s my favorite GOMI memes ever!
Oh yes, this blogger is a scammer for sure. Way too many excuses to too many people. And there are none for her. Nice job of outing her, GOMI commenters!
You rang, oh yeah.