So I think today I finally get why Twitter is so important! Thanks to everyone who re-tweeted our little story and I feel like we are not quite so helpless anymore!
I called Topshop head office (owned by Arcadia Group) The marketing departments response was that it wasn’t their problem because they don’t design the jewellery and that a company called “Freedom Jewellery” designs it for them. Freedom Jewellery are owned by www.dckconcessions.com. When I called they were all in meetings (typical) so I didn’t get anywhere there except to send my email to the girl who answered the phone who assured me that it would be forwarded to the appropriate person. No response except to confirm they had received it.
I called Topshop again and finally got the name of someone in their legal department. She didn’t seem surprised and even said “oh we have had problems with this one before…” then said “oh no, that’s right, it was a tshirt with a castle design on it similar to this style” She asked me to forward through details of the design and my original pencil drawings (doubt they have pencil drawings of ANYTHING). She asked me to forward through details via email and this morning I had an auto response email saying “The email has been blocked by our automated filtering systems as it appears to contain content that does not comply with Arcadia’s email policy.” So not even sure if she received the email or what is going on.
Regardless of who produced the design I really I think it’s Topshop who have the explaining to do, even if they hide behind this maze of companies and alias’ and phone switchboards and they claim to have no idea it was a copy and the fact that they just buy from this other company it really annoying! I have a strange feeling that this is how they get away with it and can claim it isn’t theirs, because they get another company to rip it off for them and then they only sell it – but if it’s exclusively in Topshop (and no other stores) Isn’t that the same as Topshop ripping it off themselves?
Interesting that the brooch is now out of stock too? We ordered one yesterday and got an email today saying that “due to popular demand it’s out of stock” Why is it still on the site then and is it still in the stores?? If anyone has seen one can they let us know? or better still take a photo!
If you want to leave dck concessions a message about who much you hate ripoffs (and they have done it before see below) you can do so here – obviously it wont stop them but will be nice to let them know we are all watching them? www.dckconcessions.com/dck_contact.php and most of all keep an eye on their site and anything that looks like a ripoff let the original designer know.
I just found out one really interesting thing about this that makes a lot of sense now! It’s happened before in Australia with DIVA the worst jewellery chain store there is and guess what, they are owned by the same company that make the Topshop stuff! I’ve already boycotted Diva from the beginning but hopefully more and more people keep boycotting chain stores such as Diva – See the blog post here from last year from shanalogic.com I’m not sure of their outcome but there is also a Facebook group they have created here.
