Claire's Accessories: How not to deal with social media complaints

Retailer Claire's Accessories is the latest large company to bury its head in the sand when complaints are raised on social media.

"I know there is not much I can do about this right now," she commented, "but yet I feel I need to do something...to let them know they have sloppy designers and the big boys at Claire's need to be more aware of this kind of thing. They should be ashamed of themselves for having to stoop this low."

The designer has received extensive online support for her cause with more than 200 comments on her blog and hundreds of tweets.

 

Many people have urged Figiel to take legal action against the retailer which was founded in the US in 1974 and now has outlets around the world including several in the UK.

The incident has echoes of an incident last year when an artist accused stationery business Paperchase of using one of her designs on products. After huge attention on Twitter, the retailer eventually admitted that it was a copy and apologised.

And sure enough Figiel's story has spread all over Twitter.

 

 

Figiel has blogged about her claim which has attracted more than 200 comments.

The popularity of the post also means that at one point if you typed 'Claire's Accessories' into Google, it was the seventh result on page one below the company's own websites and its Wikipedia entry. 'Claire's Accessories copied me' isn't exactly a great result for the retailer!

 

 

 

So what di Claire's Accessories do about it all? Ignore it; that's what.

Before I published my story, I called the company three times to get a response. Despite calling the main number for its UK office, no-one answered. I eventually got through and asked to be put through to the press office. I was but it went straight to someone's voicemail. I left a message. No-one responded. I then searched LinkedIn and managed to find the details for Claire's Global Web Marketing Manager in the US. I sent her a message. No response. My final attempt to get in touch was to post on the company's official Facebook page with a link to my story. That message has since been deleted.

Many people are using Claire's Twitter account in their tweets about the issue and it has tweeted since I posted on Facebook so the company will be aware but rather than react and respond, it has chosen to ignore the situation.

Claire's Accessories updated its Twitter account with a story about the necklace worn by an actress at a film premiere but it continued to ignore Laura Figiel's claims despite the continued attention on Twitter. The PR tells me "a statement" is being written.

 

 

 

 I also discovered that this isn't the first time the company has been accused of copying designs. Olivia Brunio, the creator of 'Hip Hop Candy', made similar claims. According to her Facebook page, Claire's settled with Brunio and agreed to pay royalties on all products sold. 

 

 

When I finally managed to speak to somewhere regarding this issue (after being told by the Claire's Accessories receptionist to contact Exposure PR, the agency that handles the company's public relations), a PR executive told me that Claire's was "aware of the issue" but had not yet responded because it is "being investigated".

The world has changed. Negative messages about companies spread fast. This latest issue could be a misunderstanding but no-one will know that until Claire's accepts that it needs to reply. As it stands, the company now has a reputation for stealing the concepts of independent designers.