Back in October 2010 I was contacted by someone from Queen City Emporium, an Independent Artisan Boutique in Springfield, MO, to sell my crochet hats in their store. Needless to say, I was ecstatic! Here I was, fairly new to selling my creations online and already a *real* store wanted to feature my work! I couldn't believe it! But, being new to consignments, I went to the Etsy forums to seek advice before I ventured into it. From the extremely helpful advice from other sellers, I compiled a list of questions for them and received satisfactory answers in return. Everything seemed legit and I was very excited to get started on a rather large collection of my work to send to them. Unfortunately (or rather fortunate, you be the judge), I was nearing the end of a very difficult pregnancy and just wasn't able to make the product neccessary to send to them, so I kind of dropped the ball on the opportunity. Boy, am I sure glad that I did!
Apparently, there have been quite a few sellers on Etsy that were also contacted by Queen City Emporium and did set up consignment agreements with them who are having trouble now getting paid for their work. It seems that more and more sellers are coming out everyday who say that they aren't getting paid by QCE and are also having trouble getting their items returned to them for QCE's breach of contract.
Its very sad that a company is taking advantage of indie artists and small businesses like this! I'm just super glad that it didn't work out for me to send them a ton of my work (I was preparing to send them around 30 hats!). I'm sure I would have cried. A lot. So, for right now I am praising the LORD for His wisdom and His timing and am praying for those sellers out there who have lost product and money to this company. Here's to hoping that they all get what is coming to them!
