Good Afternoon Folks:
I am a bit irked because in the one year I have been in this hobby, I have noticed that 3 ladies have literally copied and pasted the exact text from my advertisements or automated messages. Now, they say that imitation is the highest form of flattery, however, I find myself annoyed and upset by the occurence when I know I should just suck it up and deal with it. Have any of you men or women encountered this in business, personal life or schooling?
I know this is beyond a coincidence because one year ago, a reputable lady in San Antonio had copied a few lines from my advertisement which were a.) unique to my vocabulary and style b.) something that this lady would probably never articulate c.) with every new post I advertised, she'd either copy the exact language from my ad and paste it into her ad and well, I just felt violated a bit. This also happened in Austin by another woman who had the audacity to tell my clients that we shared that it was her "mission" to copy my ads.
So a few months ago, a client notified me that a lady on P411 had adoped a similar name to mine in Austin with "Angel" in the root of the provider name and an e-mail address similar to mine. I shrugged my shoulders and didn't care. Well, a few weeks ago, the very provider who adoped a similar name to mine decided to contact me for a reference of a client I had seen while I was touring in San Antonio and I gave my client glowing reference. When I gave her a reference, my "automated e-mail response" was sent to her directly within minutes. Two weeks later, I needed a reference from her on a client who is wanting to see me and had seen her in the past and guess what, she totally plagiarized my automated response which reads: "Thank you for your interest in securing an appointment with me..I am currently swamped with dozens of emails and am trying my best to get back to everyone." I created this automatic response back in Novemeber of 2009, and coincidentally, she creates the same exact automated response after seeing mine....with the same exact symbols of " * * *" and everything. So, I decided to respond to her automated message (which was literrally a copy and paste of mine) and informed her that I thought it was very "cute" that she adopted my same exact automated message. A client had informed me that he had seen her and is aware that her "manager" is doing her advertising since she doesn't do it herself. Maybe I should be upset at her manager? I am a one-woman army. I do all of my advertising, all of my marketing without the help of anyone. All of my ads are written by me.
Should I be offended/violated by the obvious plagiarism or should I be flattered? Why can't some girls formulate their own ideas? They just have to steal, steal, steal.....
Angelina