A competitor is selling crafts-grade tiles that are clear glass with a thin coat of color that scratches off. They have search engine ads that have “Mosaic art supply” in the title of their ads! That is why you think you bought the tiles from us, but they are not MosaicArtSupply.com, and this is not our product.
You can help stop this competitor from damaging my business name. READ TO THE END TO FIND OUT WHAT YOU CAN DO.
Earlier this year, a manufacturer sent use a set of samples that included colored and textured mirror tiles of various types like those you have been purchasing on competitor websites. We were very excited to get these, but testing revealed some disturbing problems.
Foil Comes Off When Cut
We thought the textured-bottom mirror tiles were a clever product because they came in odd trapezoidal shapes so that the user could avoid cutting the tiles and breaking the coating on the reflective foil that protects the foil from being oxidized and tarnished by adhesives.
However, some people will want to cut the tile anyway no matter what is recommended, and so this problem with the foil delaminating and coming off the glass is a real issue,
A More Serious Issue: Clear Glass
The problem with the foil pales in comparison with what else cutting revealed: The glass itself is clear, and the coloring is a surface treatment that is easily scratched by sand and grit!
Color Scratches Off
The clear glass with a colored surface was not the only serious problem we found. Some of the manufacturer’s other types of mirror tile had a much thinner type of protective coating to keep the reflective metal from getting oxidized by the glue –more like the coating on generic mirror stock than tile.
They Are Not MosaicArtSupply.com
A competitor is using the phrase “Mosaic art supply” in the title of their search engine ads, and that is why you think you ordered the mirror tiles from us. We only sell materials that are architectural and fine art quality.
I have contacted Google explaining why I think the competitor’s use of “Mosaic art supply” as the title of their ad is a deliberate attempt to create confusion between websites:
“Mosaic art supply” is not a valuable keyword phrase for an ad based on the number of searches. Based on search frequency compared to other mosaic phrases, this keyword phase would sell for well under half a dollar per click. but currently costs several dollars and rising. The ad rate would not be worth paying if not for our use of the phrase as our domain name. Any Internet retailer can tell you that many people do not pay attention to the URL and that ad titles are often equated with business name.
What You Can Do
Mosaic Art Supply is a small LLC that exists to provide resume-building day jobs for emerging artists, who would otherwise be waiting tables or answering phones in more stressful environments.
We don’t have the budget to respond to questionable ad campaigns by a competitor who supplies craft-grade materials to discount stores. What we do have is some standing in the mosaic community.
What we are asking from you and others is that you create links to favorite products and instructions on our website from any appropriate venue (Facebook, your blog, your website, social networking sites, forums, etc.). Linking to some of our more useful blog articles would also help.
With sincere thanks,
Joe Moorman, owner Mosaic Art Supply
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