09/15/2025
It's been almost a month since I've posted here - I've been busy running my business, getting kids back to school and tbh I feel like the energy I put in to ending the plagiarism of my art is not the best use of my time... but the fight continues!
I reached out to a couple retailers :
Artisans of the Okanagan - Reached out on Facebook, no answer.
Left a comment on the instagram post, it got deleted.
I called and spoke with a woman who claimed to be an employee. She was grumpy, dismissive, wouldn't tell me when the owner would be in or give me the owners number or email, and then proceeded to tell me all the reasons why my copyright wasn't valid, why they didn't have to comply, tried to say they've been selling them longer than 2010 (store hasn't even been open that long!) lamented that "hey we're just trying to make a living here...". I told her I wanted no conflict with any retailers, please take my number and have the owner Rudy contact me. She didn't.
Davison Orchard - Sent a message on Facebook and got asked for my phone number so the owner could call me. She didn't. I reminded her, said I'd be happy to talk to her. Still didn't. So I called her, and she didn't sound happy to hear from me. said she was out of stock now, wouldn't agree to stop selling the fakes moving forward.
Sheppards Home Hardware - Shout out to Darrel, manager and loss prevention officer, who cooperated fully and gave me all the info I asked for, agreed to take them off the floor immediately and is going to try to get a refund from QCD and let me know how that goes. This man has a moral compass and was pi**ed off to hear about this story.
Butchart Gardens - This was the first place I found them in 2016; I brought it to the attention of staff then and it obviously went nowhere, they are still carrying them. I contacted the manager and she refused to agree to discontinue sales of the fakes, even after I offered to supply her with legit copies produced locally!
Then, to my amazement, they had a lawyer email me a C&D with a bunch of 'legalese in parenthesis" - the lawyer probably charged more for that email than they made from a decade of quail sales. 🙄
