Astrocal needs your help!

 

In 2023, our Seasons & Cycles Moon Calendar was copied and circulated by companies on Amazon in the UK as well the USA. When we discovered it we were devastated. Not only because it was such poor quality and such a terrible AI variation copy of Tina’s artwork but because the information it contained was incorrect and misleading. It was so similar to our calendar and customers might have thought it was ours! We are so particular about accuracy and spend many hours proofreading as it’s a huge responsibility to make sure that what we publish is correct.

In countries like China, copying other people’s work is not seen as a problem. They seem to have different rules to those we follow, legally as well as morally, here in the UK and the USA. We had invested a lot of money into our calendars and had to watch our sales drop right down whilst the awful copy was selling fast at half the price. We eventually had Amazon remove the copy – three times! This experience has made us feel quite vulnerable and a little weary. So we’ve cut down on our print run and our product range for the moment whilst we go gently into the future to see what it brings!

We print all our products in the UK and do not use cheap processes or paper. This means our costs are much higher than if we took our print to China. We’ve always refused to get drawn into this way of working because we want to support our local businesses and to produce a high quality product for our customers.

Our business is small – there’s just two of us doing all the work of design, production, selling and customer services. We’ve had to spend a lot of time, money and resources to protect ourselves going forward and we now believe we have done all we can. However, the unscrupulous copiers who are no better than untalented parasites will no doubt give it another go this year.

Is your calendar genuine?

You will know your calendar is genuine if you buy from us but if you do buy it from Amazon, Etsy or Ebay (as our US and EU customers have to) here’s what to look out for:
• our Astrocal logo – we have branded all our products so you’ll see the logo lots!
• our website is always on the back (or front with our posters)
• a QR code inside our Moon Diary, Moon Calendars and Lunar Planner – when scanned will take you to our website confirming its authenticity.

If you buy from Amazon, please leave us a review as that really helps other people know that we are genuine.

Amazon are overwhelmed with fraud and IP infringements and are struggling to control it. A huge amount of products on their platform are fakes or copies. Our IP lawyer showed us a page of 50 bathing robes with only one being a genuine product! The problem is out of hand and the only way it can be dealt with is by the customers themselves becoming more aware.

Watch list

We have put together a watch list so you can be aware when buying on Amazon or other large platforms:

• Pay attention to the language – counterfeit products often come from abroad and the spelling and grammar is a give away here. They will also profess to be a small company but if you dig a little further you will see they are not. They often use very flowery words all about how they care for you!
• Look for the Small Business badge on Amazon to be sure you are in fact buying from a small business! Unfortunately, we can’t have a Small Business badge on Amazon in America as we’re not American!
• Spot the skewed prices – if it’s very cheap it will be fake and bad quality. Temu and Shein are great examples of what not to buy!
• Check the company contact information – the address will probably be an office address in a tower block somewhere and often in your country of residence. These addresses can be purchased very cheaply and don’t exist.
• Check user reviews for bad grammar and false statements  – so many reviews are now fake.
• Report counterfeit / fake products. You can do this right from the product page on Amazon, for example.⁣⁣
• If you accidentally purchase a counterfeit product, please return it and report it.⁣⁣
• Don’t support marketplaces that sell (or allow to be sold) counterfeit or A.I. products.⁣⁣

Finally

Purchase directly from the creators. Yes, Amazon is SO convenient, but buying directly from us creators supports us so much more and right now, ensures that you don’t get conned into buying a fake product.⁣⁣ Our long term goal is to withdraw from selling on Amazon so when this happens, please seek us out and buy directly from our website.

Astrocal needs your help

If Astrocal is to carry on we need your help. We will be searching for fake copies but we can only do so much. If you see anything at all that you think is a copy of our work then please let us know. We now have some pretty hot lawyers who are on the case for us and will hit hard when we need them to.

Thank you

We want to thank you for all your support and understanding. It means so much to us and confirms that we’re on the right track!