I got a letter from an eBay user the other day. She wrote to tell met that she had found my store though one of my auctions, and was very interestedly browsing and planning a large order from me, when she came upon a listing that offended her. Thus, she felt a need to tell me that she would NOT be buying anything from my store. The offending item in question was the Rose de France Chip Beads. Apparently, since the word "France" appears in the name, they are considered unpatriotic and treacherous, and I am a traitor to my country for offering them. When I picked my jaw back up off of the floor, I politely wrote back explaining that the stone simply happened to be called by this name, and that there wasn't anything I could do about that. She replied that I shouldn't be offering it in my store.

So I lost some business from a potential customer due to the fact that the poor little light amethyst stones have "France" in their name and are also pretty enough to make me want to sell them! I know business is business, so intellectually I am sad at the loss of what might have been a good sale, but at the same time I am wondering if it would have been worth it to have a customer who would get upset about something like the name of a stone.

Suzanne