06/15/2023
EDIT:
She has taken down all of the content.
Thank you all for your support but now that she has done the right thing in removal let leave her be please 🙏🏻
Not a witch hunt, just wanted to spread awareness to get things resolved.
Good morning all of my beautiful fellow business owners ☀️
As the owner of Herbs Vintage Car Rental I am sharing an unfortunate situation that has occurred early this morning.
I woke up to an Instagram message notification that another VW bug owner, who rents out her almost identical bug for weddings and photoshoots as I do, had stolen my content as her own.
I watched the video she put on her story multiple times because I really was in disbelief of what I was seeing.
She had taken one of my reels from a Styled Shoot at Willow Ridge Weddings & Events on behalf of New Braunfels Wedding Guide, and made it appear to be her own.
She did not give me credit and even cropped out my business name. Changed the song and added her own content to the video. Almost like it was never someone else's video for their own business marketing.
I really am disgusted at this for a few reasons:
1. As a fellow business owner we all work so so hard at building up our businesses. To then have another steal your work is simply despicable.
2. The Volkswagen community is a close nit community. We really are. We LOVE supporting each other in every way. So for another VW owner to do a double whammy and not only steal from another hard working business but then to go against everything the VW community stands for is just heartbreaking.
Once I came to the conclusion that more than likely she did in fact steal my content for her own, I sent her a message:
"Hi there,
I'm a bit confused on why you took my video and made it look like your own?
This does not seem to be a case where you were a fellow VW bug owner reposting someone else's content for their benefit.
I don't see my business name on here anywhere.
And given that our bugs look very identical, it would seem as though this is your car and your content to share.
Can you explain this?
I hope I am mistaken about what this situation appears to be."
I tried to give a bit of the benefit of the doubt. Maybe I was mistaken or she made an error accidentally.
Nope.
She definitely saw that I sent her a message. Although she didn't open it.
I went back to her story and no longer was able to see the video she stole and used.
That's odd.
So I went into one of my other accounts to see if it was still there. Sure enough it was. Which meant she blocked my VW Vintage Car Rental Instagram from being able to see it. Wow...
That's when I sent my final message to her:
"Sure doesn't look good on you to then go and hide my account from seeing the story of my video you stole without giving any credit.
This is horrible behavior on your part and I've never come across anything like it, especially in the VW community.
You already have a beautiful bug of your own, with great content going. So to feel the need to steal someone else's content and then act like a coward and thief is disgusting.
I was excited to have found a similar bug and business to my own and within 24 hours of following you, you took this route.
Please remove my content from your story, and I hope you never do this to anyone else again."
I originally found her business on Facebook yesterday and was so excited to find a similar VW and business like my own. Let's be friends right?
I went to her business page to find the same stolen content not only posted on her business page but also her personal page.
😵💫😵💫😵💫
On her personal page in the comments of the video she put "📸 credit: groovyherb73"
That's weird.
Why steal my content, block my IG from seeing the story after I confront you but kind of give some credit?? Not even correctly (let alone fairly). That's not your car. And I didn't take those photos, Jessie Schultz Photography did, and amazing photos at that.
I was just in utter disbelief at this point.
I went back to see if the video was still on her IG story and she had taken it down like I asked on my final message to her.
Okay..
Then why leave the stolen content up on both your Facebook Business Page and your personal page??? 🙄
I reached out to a close friend who is in the wedding industry for some advice on the situation.
She investigated herself and found that she decided to continue to keep the content up but to add to her comment of trying to give me credit.
You can see from the screenshot evidence that it was added at a later point but for what purpose? It's still NOT YOUR CONTENT TO SHARE IN THIS MANNER!!
She thinks that putting "not our car. This is a 73 VW bug" is enough and to keep the stolen content up as her own....
So here's to unfortunately sharing a business owners true colors.
Be careful out there my fellow business owners.
And always shed light on situations like this so we know who not to do business with.
If you can't love and support your fellow business owners, and instead want to shove them down by stealing their work, maybe you should rethink your business ✌🏻
