#vflat duo boards

[creativitycoach]

Why I am not a fan of Replica Surfaces as a company or Mandy Gleason

Replica Surfaces Biscotti Linen, Scandinavian Wood, Lush View

There are many pros and cons to consider when selecting backdrops and companies that provide them. Everything I do at this point is to fund the 501(c)(3) nonprofit public charity I founded. As such, when selecting companies from which to purchase or partner, a key factor is philanthropy. A company that supports the community cares about the community. A company that does not support the community cares about lining its pockets.

Companies that are socially and environmentally conscious actually consider the environment and its peoples. It should not be a question to support a company that cares. They may support the community by working with charitable organizations, projects, offering discounts, or damaged items. My experience with Replica Surfaces is that they do none of these things. V-Flat World offers a modest discount and supports Humanity Showers. Poppybee Surfaces offers a modest discount but does not donate damaged goods. Regardless, those are at least two backdrop companies that seem to take an interest in people who devote their lives to helping others and making the world a better place.

V-Flat Coral and Terrazzo

As far as social media, V-Flat World has an exclusive Facebook group that supports their consumers without playing favorites. If they like your posts, they may feature them. Replica Surfaces VIP Facebook group is a high school clique. The few and the favored get benefits and are uncensored. Others in the group posted things for which I was flagged. They promote their favorite vendors by requesting free products and photographing them for their own ads. This is not quite an equal opportunity that I have witnessed.

Replica Surfaces Bathscape, Sunsoaked Terrazzo, Tuscany Styling Towel

We cannot forget things such as their styling towels and mystery gift. Their styling towels are great in photos, but I have found linen scarves and fabric remnants at local shops that perform just as well if not better in photos. The question remains, why pay Replica Surfaces $40.00 for three styling towels, when you can purchase scarves and fabric remnants for a fraction of the price?

As far as the mystery gift, it is simply a cheap set of three small, smaller, and even smaller wooden blocks. I literally bought a pack of 25 of the same size of the smallest block from the dollar twenty-five store, so what is so special about Replica Surfaces cheap styling blocks? Do they perform better than other blocks? No. Are they worth the price (purchasing five surfaces to receive the blocks for free)? No. Are they of workable size? Not unless you are shooting something as small as a coffee bean. The blocks are rather useless.

All this is not disputing the beauty of some of their surfaces. How you conduct business is personal preference. The surfaces are nice, but they are smaller, thinner, and single sided compared to V-Flat World, and they cost more. Why can Replica Surfaces not produce boards that are double sided and at least 24”x24”? Likely they want their 3mm thick boards to be incompatible with surfaces from other companies. Still, it does not answer why Replica Surfaces cannot make a more affordable and appealing product double sided. It seems like simple greed. However, that is one person’s postulation.

Their marketing tactics are genius but shady. Yes, it is nice to re release products, but to offer such small quantities and actually tell consumers to set alarms to fight other online shopping customers for their products that may or may not sell out is rude. They are driving up demand but not meeting supply. After they release a new limited collection, then have a sale as soon as the collection sells out can bankrupt consumers. Replica Surfaces has no conscience and have consecutive releases and sales without consideration of paydays of many consumers . They care only about their bottom line and how full they can get their pockets. It is great to have sales, but it is greater to allow consumers time to refill their wallets. It seems another point driven by greed than consumer mental health.

For simple surfaces such as Subway Tile, what really makes the selling point when competitors offer more superior products at lower prices?

What would convert me to a fan of Replica Surfaces when their competitors already have many more reasons to avoid Replica Surfaces? Perhaps if they were more community conscious, aided and supported community projects and nonprofit organizations, made their boards more standardized in size, and made their boards double sided to give consumers more options. That is all setting aside the bureaucracy of their Facebook group, where they censor and ban some people for stating and doing exactly what their favorites do uncensored and not banned. As if their sophomoric antics could not be predicted, I was banned from their Facebook group for reporting violations others committed but were not flagged, which were allegedly the same violations I committed. Why would anyone want to support such a juvenile company and immature owner, Mandy Gleason?

When I attempted to resolve the discrepancies with Replica Surfaces, Liz reiterated rules I had not broken and offered no explanation as to why I was penalized, and my white neurotypical counterparts were not. She stated the word “addict” is triggering for her due to her sister’s addiction. Yet, when given proof that over 57 posts and comments contained variations of the word “addict,” she did not apologize that I was the only one banned. She did not offer any words as to why when those other instances were reported, they were neither banned nor removed. Why would Replica Surfaces be extremely lenient and tolerant of consumers who more closely resemble her?

I offered to give away my boards for free, but that was considered sales. Yet crafters in the group share their product links and prices and made sales within the group. The company photographer promotes products from her favorite makers, so why is that open sales solicitation not considered a violation? Again, those makers share much in common by way of specific demographic to Mandy Gleason. At no point has the company apologized for favoritism and inequitable application of group rules. One can only postulate the rules are merely a way to cull unwanted minorities from the clandestine white washed culture of the group.

They shadowban comments about where people obtain resources except in the instance of badmouthing competitors such as VFlat. They censor all customer service reviews to give the appearance of flawless customer service. Even Leah is not knowledgeable as to which surfaces are limited, because of her conflicting statements.

When you uncheck the box to state you do want to continue receiving stands, they automatically recheck it then blame the customer for not checking it. It defaults to check marked, so they can have an excuse not to provide stands with their bundle deals that specifically state one received two sets of stands with purchase of five boards. When this was brought yo their attention, I was blamed for not removing the checkmark, although I kept removing it, and it kept defaulting back to checked. Then Leah stated to correct that five sets of stands owed to me were not included, she stated she mailed seven. Later, she mailed stands to Bowling Green, Ohio, then changed her story to say she was only allowed to send two of the five sets owed. At this point, Liz stepped in, added the five stands to my next order, but removed the mystery gift owed to me, from purchase of the five surface bundle. It is annoying they refuse to comply with their own website claims; however, I was not as nearly upset about the removal of the useless styling blocks owed to me, pursuant to their website bundle deal.

Will I continue to purchase Replica Surfaces? Only during steep sales if a client really is fixated with using a specific backdrop. For example, a client loves Replica Surface boards for their products, so I use this boards and charge enough to recover my “lost” expenses for the boards. Essentially, the client is paying for the boards as well as product photography services.

Will I promote them on social media when I use their boards? No. Will I continue to participate in the clique that is their Facebook group? No, because they are discriminating. Will I rant and rave about how great they are? No, because the company and its owner are not. The products are subpar to others on the market. Even the stands are $26.00 for two, which a set is supposed to be free with purchase of two boards. Similar stands of better quality are available on Amazon at $8.99 for four.

V-Flat Duo Boards are larger with higher resolution. It is easier to style props to create faux rooms rather than a smaller board with a scene of a room. Plus, you can style the props to create rooms in many ways. The solid colors and classic patterns of V-Flat are better for makeshift walls and floors. There is more room to zoom and crop.

V-Flat Coral, Terrazzo, remnant fabric from Jo-Ann

I found myself losing parts of the photos with Replica Surfaces, because the area is smaller. The stands did not hold the surfaces flush, so there was room where I had to sacrifice part of the product photo to avoid getting any parts of the surrounding background also known as my makeshift studio. V-Flat Duo Boards offer the flexibility to zoom out a bit to capture more scene. Their stands hold surfaces straight while Replica Surfaces did not. The Replica Boards were leaning and crooked, so it required cropping, which, again, meant part of the mood created had to be sacrificed.

Price gauging for substandard products and lure of a special mystery gift are definitely cons much like the greed of the company.

Replica Surfaces Florence, Wine Cask, linen scarf from Amazon

I have provided the company many opportunities in email and their Facebook group to rectify their actions. However, Mandy Gleason does not support charitable organizations, Asians, and differently abled, but she still wants their money. Their shipping had always been within hours in my experience, but my last order took three days to ship, and they failed to provide shipping confirmation via email as they typically had done previously. More disconcerting is they prompted a shipping exception and further delay with an illegible FedEx label. Perhaps this is Many Gleason’s way of punishing consumers who bring her shady, unethical business practices to her attention.