爆料黑玫瑰 之 博客版 (Bloggers' Big Revelations) Part II

Hey all! As promised to many interested readers and to those who have personally emailed me to enquire about my bad experiences, here's Part II of 爆料黑玫瑰 之 博客版 (Bloggers' Big Revelations), in particular Zoe Rambutan. Whether truth or not, it is up to you to decide. I am just writing based on my own experiences. :)

As I mentioned in my previous blog post on Part I of 爆料黑玫瑰 之 博客版 (Bloggers' Big Revelations), I have worked with Zoe Rambutan for a period of more than half a year as well as revealed the rates that she was quoting for both modeling and advertorial assignments. This has stirred up quite a bit of commotion in my Formspring page. There are a handful who agree with what I wrote but there were also others who felt strongly against it. I respect everyone's views and I thank those who have given me their support. To those who felt offended by what I have written, I thank you for giving me your views, regardless of any malicious intent on your part. :)

Truth be told, my experiences with Zoe Rambutan was generally unpleasant. Let me elaborate further on this, as requested by many readers.

Honestly speaking, I had a good first impression of her. I felt that she was pretty and she portrayed a bubbly and friendly personality on her blog posts. I was looking forward to hiring a famous blogger and share a pleasant working experience with her. I have to admit that I am not born rich, and every single cent that I forked out for this blogshop business is through my hard-earned savings because I teach tuition. I was actually very excited that I will be working alongside Zoe Rambutan and even though I have to pay a high price to hire her, I felt it might be worth it.

I still remember my first few working experiences with her. It was okay, she talked a little - asking me about the clothes I bring in. I usually take the initiative to strike a conversation especially in awkward situations. The conversation usually last no more than 4 sentences ending with a one or two word reply. There were times when we may not even talked except for a simple "Hi" and "Bye". This was actually fine to me, considering that maybe she finds me a boring person to talk to or maybe we do not have a common topic.

What actually made me start to form a negative impression on her was when I felt that  money is more important than integrity. At least that was how I felt. Let me show you why:

I would like to confirm an advertorial date with her on one occasion. I was then told that the date was already taken up by another blogshop who had already made their payment. However, she told me that if I can make my payment, she will be give me the date I would like and give the other blogshop another date.

Note: I was taken aback. If another blogshop has already made payment and blocked the advertorial date, why is she offering it to me?

Besides paying a high price to hire her, I had to put up with her attitude. Let me give you a few examples:

I have accommodated to her schedule. Even though I have my own commitments on Sunday, I always put it aside just so to fit her schedule because Saturday is boyfriend day for her. I have no complaints about that though because I believe that in a working relationship, either one party has to accomodate. However, the string actually broke when I felt accused of changing dates for photoshoot.

There was no apologies.

Another example below where there was no apologies when Zoe Rambutan mixed up the dates for my advertorial. I had already confirmed earlier in May that my advertorial will be on the 10th of June. However, she insisted I had confirmed with her 9th June instead. I copied and pasted her confirmation with me the 10th of June slot in the sms. There was no acknowledgement from her regarding her mistake. In the end I decided that I will just push my advertorial back another week since I am unable to take up the 9th of June slot, which she insisted I had confirmed.

This was my reply below.

If you would like evidence that Zoe Rambutan was the one who kept changing shoot dates with, please refer below. I am actually not very bothered by her changing shoot dates with me because I understand she is working and might have some last minute meetings. However, this is to address the issue of agitated blogshop owner who claimed that I am a liar and that Zoe never changes shoot dates.

Last but not least, I felt that once I am unable to provide her with money, the bridge is burnt, as evident below:

I told Zoe Rambutan that I have decided to stop my operations for LFDB and hence would like her help to help me include a little note at the end of her blog post in search of interested parties to take over. Then this was the conversation.

Then that's the end, no more replies. I guess it is quite clear that she does not know how much hard work a blogshop owner puts in, and that "spending $150 to $200 on 1 advert" does not get the mailing list, and that $1500 is actually considered little, in value terms. The worth of something cannot be calculated by its fame, but by the amount of assets it has. Take for example an antique. No one knows about the existence of the antique, but it is worth a lot.

One more thing which a lady at the studio I used one day agreed to this statement which was left by a reader - "She will only be good to you if you suck up to her. like buy her snacks or drinks". How true it is, I am not sure and am in no position to comment on this.

Actually, I do have a few more incidences that some readers actually filled me in. These are their personal experiences with Zoe Rambutan. I only managed to share one here because I did not take a snapshot of my conversation with the rest of them (in Google chat), and hence no true evidence, just so in case that someone accused me of not having any evidence.

Enough said, let me bring you in to another incident, whereby Zoe Rambutan pulled her best friends in for photoshoot and quoted really high modelling rates for her friends - fresh face with little/no experience.

Fresh face models with little or no experience asking for $200 and 2 items, equivalent to $230 monetary. What do you think? :)

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With that said, was my argument evident enough? At least that was how I felt while working with Zoe Rambutan. I am not out to tarnish anyone's reputation, but to speak the truth on what goes on behind. It does not do me good either to speak ill of someone who has 8000 unique views daily, and who has a lot of die-hearted supporters. I am also fully aware that I might get really nasty comments by her supporters, which might even go far worse than "fat bitch" as quoted by a blogshop owner who left a comment in my Formspring, and that my blogshop's sales/reputation might go down the drain, or even more so those who mentioned that I self-advertised on Cozycot. In fact, I have even advised and encourage budding blogshop owners to engage Zoe Rambutan for modeling services because she can really pull in the sales.

I guess no one in the right frame of mind would do this but I did. Why?

Because I believe truth need to be told, supported with factual information. :)

I wish Zoe Rambutan all the best in her future assignments, and believe that she will still be able to pull in good sales record for the blogshop owners who are working alongside with her.

Let me repeat myself once again. You may form your own opinions after reading this blog post. :)

*Oh yes, for many who have said that I self-advertised on cozycot, please feel free to send me the links and I will post it up and address it. It would be better to send it to me rather than sending them to Zoe Rambutan since she is not in any position to comment on it. However, please make sure that my name and email address is in the self-advertising image okay?

Thanks!