HOUSTON – The woman behind a tumbler design business, who has come under fire for not delivering the product and keeping the money, claims she did give refunds, but customers say otherwise.
Faith Flippin' Tumblers is a Facebook page that was started by a Houston-based craftswoman named Faith Davidson.
She started the page last August after she saw a decorated tumbler at a small shop in Old Town Spring. Davidson started to create the cups herself and would record herself on Facebook Live designing the tumblers.
People online from around the country and the world liked what they saw and started following her page. It grew to 15,000 followers very quickly, and with the likes came the orders.
"I'll be honest, I am behind," Davidson said. "Sorry I wasn't able to fulfill your tumbler. I do apologize, but they have gotten a refund. They have."
It's a claim that has some customers even more upset, stating the opposite, that they never saw their money again. Initially, several customers of the Houston-based small business on social media complained they waited months and never got what they were promised: sparkly tumblers.
"I got so intrigued by it, and so it was amazing seeing her glitter tumblers," said Chrissy Landuyt, an online customer from Ohio who ordered three tumblers. "I paid $125 and was told that it would be here by Christmas, and so I proceeded to watch and watch and watch."
Landuyt, along with about at least a dozen other customers from across the nation, claimed after several months, they did not receive their products in the mail.
"(She would tell me,) 'I'm just so busy ... I'm working on it,'" Landuyt said.
Later, Landuyt said she wouldn't receive any response at all. She said she was eventually blocked after asking about the status of her tumbler in one of Davidson's Facebook Live posts. It is a claim echoed by another customer, who also reached out to KPRC. Tiffany Finamore found the Facebook page and ordered from her home in Tennessee.
"She basically took my money," Finamore said. "I ordered November the 22nd, and here we are in February and nothing."
Davidson doesn't dispute the fact people did not get their tumblers but alleges she paid back the money and gave people a warning it would take a while.
"It's not false. They didn't get their tumblers. They're correct, but they did get a refund. They did make a claim on PayPal, and they got their refund. They did, a 100 percent," Davidson said. "When people asked for a refund, they got a refund. It was through PayPal. They would do claims, and I would have to pay it back, or I would explain to them I am behind. I am doing it. I showed proof that cups are being made or I haven't made it just yet or I'm in the process of doing it just now."
She said she's been tied up with her 1-year-old son and her husband and has been overwhelmed with the requests.
"It takes about five days to do a cup, maybe. That's the easiest cup to do, but it literally takes a process, the time to cure the epoxy, the time to make decals for the cup. It really, truly is time-taking."
When asked if she's stopped taking orders due to the backlog, she stated she did in December, but after her interview aired on KPRC Channel 2 News, several customers showed invoices for tumblers between December and January. The most recent invoice sent in by a customer shows an email receipt on Jan. 15 for $40 and states, "We appreciate your business. After 48 hours of a paid invoice there are no refunds or changing orders.. Unless your cup is damaged in shipping or if we mess up cup while making it..thank you." A note at the bottom reads, "cup due in a week."
Davidson maintains her innocence.
"I'm not a fraud. I'm none of those things. I'm human. I do make mistakes. I am behind on my tumblers, but I make that known," she said. "I tell them, 'Yes, I'm behind. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm human. I get behind.' Yeah, I may have taken orders on that I probably shouldn't have taken so much orders. It happens. Life happens. I'm behind, but I have been catching up."
A quick search and scroll through Facebook will show other consumers warning each other to not order from Faith Flippin' Tumblers and people posting repeatedly on Davidson's page and on their personal Facebook pages looking for an answer.
Davidson claims she's being harassed. Customers claim they just want answers.
"They are making false accusations about me on there," explained Davidson, who claims the same group of people continues to message her. "I've gotten a threat from some guy in Washington that I need to watch my back. I'm afraid to go outside."
Customers, whose orders range from $25 to more than $100, said they've asked for explanations and have been blocked.
Now, customers allege Davidson has started doing Facebook Live posts selling little balls with trinkets inside. It's a claim she doesn’t deny and said it was a game her followers enjoyed.
"So I posted on there, 'Hey guys. There are little capsules,'" said Davidson, who said she sold them for $2 apiece. "Stuff that's shipped out right then and there. No one was concerned about tumblers. People were telling me to do it again. Make a game. People are saying I'm taking the money and buying Michael Kors purses. When people buy these games, I take that money and I go buy the stuff I tell them they're going to buy in there."
Andrea Crim, a former friend of Davidson, said she helped Davidson set up Faith Flippin' Tumblers in October 2018.
"I hope everyone gets their money back, including myself. When I started working with her and doing the invoices, she told everyone to dispute invoices. All the disputes came out of my pocket," alleges Crim. "I think she just got so backed up and so unorganized that she just couldn't keep up with them."
Crim said she helped with orders for two weeks and offered to help take some of the orders off Davidson's hands, but she said the tumblers she made got done and were shipped off.
Crim told KPRC she then decided to cut ties with Davidson and the business completely after they had a falling out. She said when she left, Davidson was already backed up with orders.
"Initially, when I started the page for her and I was admitting and I was helping, everything went through me. She didn't have any problem with it that I was invoicing from my PayPal," Crim explained. "But when I told her that I no longer wanted to work with her, she kind of went off the deep end, and a lot of people filed disputes against me after I had completely given her all the money that she had made."
Both former friends agree they worked with each other and split after a disagreement, but the details of what happened afterward differ.
"When me and Andrea started this, the form site, she billed every time someone placed an order. It went to her PayPal. I wouldn't see her invoices. I wouldn't see her money come through. I wouldn't see who paid. She would only send me money, and that's all I saw," Davidson alleges. "Some of the cups I was making, I don't know if (I) fully got the money for it because I never saw everything, and it just did not add up."
Crim disputes this.
"I don't think her initial intention was to scam anyone. I think she wanted to do the orders. I think she got so backed up and so unorganized that she couldn't keep up with it anymore," Crim alleges.
KPRC contacted the Better Business Bureau, which advises customers to be wary and do research on every business they give their money to.
"We are seeing a spike in complaints of receiving online retailer complaints, like businesses that have popped up on social media," Denish Maxey, a bureau representative, said.
The BBB said anyone who experienced something similar could report it to the bureau at 713-868-9500. BBB representatives said customers can also call the attorney general's office.