I am a new cake decorator (less than 2 years decorating as a business) and posted an ad on CL yesterday. Well not long after I posted my ad with my website, I saw another cake ad. So I checked it out and I'm not kidding, she took word for word what I had in my ad and used it for her ad. She also must have checked out my website because she used the same site to build her website. Okay not a problem, right, I am usually a pretty calm person, I thought okay my ad and website must be pretty good.

As I was looking over her site I noticed her name and thought hmm that name sounds familiar, well I looked back through the emails I had received the day before and guess what, she emailed me pretending to be a customer, asking about two cakes, the email had two pictures and she asked how much I would charge to make these cakes and how would I deliver the cakes and of course after I replied I did not hear anything else from her.

I normally don't get upset easily and think there are a lot of negative post on here sometimes, but this did ruffle my feathers because she wasted my time. If she wants to decorate cakes good for her but don't waste people's time.

Am I over reacting? I am also pretty sure her home kitchen has not been inspected because that is the one part of the ad she did not copy, which is her problem. But this was pretty ridiculous.

There are so many websites out there to give you pricing information, or better yet be honest and ask your questions, a little research goes a long way but then I guess I was her research.

Really! Why can't people just be honest. I think most cake people are as nice as can be and would be willing to help each other out.

yeah, that's not cool. There is an opportunity here for you to mess with her, but I would need more time to think about it. If for nothing else but to let her know that you know exactly what she did.

That sucks. The fact that she wasn't up front with you is ridiculous. I, too, am very new at this. I go to different cake supply shops and bakeries all the time to do research. But, as soon as I walk in the door, I let them know who I am and why I am there. They are ALWAYS happy to help in any way they can. I'm sure that if she had hit you up as a fellow decorator, you would have had no issue in giving her whatever info you could...am I right? That's why we have places like this, CC, so that we can all share with each other. We are all one big caking family. But, I guess, there are still the low-life sneaking scum that every family has to deal with.

Not cool at all!

This is not cool. I had someone to use the name I choose for my business. It was very unique. I looked it up no one had it. So I begin using it and now someone on facebook is using it. I'm going to copyright my business name and website. Right is only right

That sucks! I get that there may be a lot of similar and repeat information out there, but to blatantly plagiagrize your stuff is NOT COOL! It's one thing to research various sites and get ideas from different sources, it's another to actually just copy and paste someone else's hard work because they're too damn lazy to do the work they're supposed to do (SORRY...going off on a crazy person rant). BUT..my point is, hold your head high, maybe take a boxing class to purge all that bad vibe and continue on.

GL in your business!