Yunnan Sourcing False Advertising on Reddit thread
If only we interrogated the real cause of Guy Fieri’s untimely demise with this same furvor…
I have ordered from Scott 4-5 times. I’ve also emailed him with questions. Every interaction with him and his website indicates a well run, honest business and an ethical, helpful person who loves tea. That matters to me a lot more than reddit. Until someone with as good a reputation as Scott criticizes him, I’ll ignore this episode and consider it a tempest in a teapot haha
I was following that thread as it developed…
Honestly, it was a huge, pointless witch hunt. The “evidence” was circumstantial and shaky at best. Even ignoring the “…” and “: )” evidence:
For the two deleted accounts: I don’t know the chronology and am not sure there’s evidence that they were deleted after the post has surfaced. If it were YS’s account, it would seem stupid to delete it… Wouldn’t that make you more suspicious?
One of the other two accounts (u/tinklefor) actually responded in the thread to defend himself… He arrived late to the party, but he was there.
The one account YS did admit was himself was mostly used to ask questions about taxes with occasional Verdant bashing. Scott admitted in the thread that he shouldn’t have done that and also mentioned that he has enemies over there. However, like others have mentioned, he was mentioning the false advertising… It would be different if he made up things like he found cockroaches in his tea from Verdant, etc.
Honestly, there have been a wave of ppl bashing Scott on r/tea recently. There was the pesticide post, then someone commented on the rise in pricing of popular cakes in another post (really it’s just economics…), and finally there was this post.
Ultimately, these “complaints” are frivolous and have nothing to do with the quality of YS’s service and products, which speaks for itself. If these ppl really want to bash, how about they just comment on something to do with the service/products? Instead of doing what the Chinese call catching wind and chasing shadows (捕風捉影).
And ironically this whole debacle (in addition to the sales) was the final push that got me to place my first order with YS! I just received my order today and am very happy about it :)
On the contrary, whenever someone did criticize quality of a YS tea on reddit the past 10 months, one of the now-deleted accounts was frequently quick to argue with them (I had not the slightest suspicion this was going on, but I remember at the time thinking huh, these people seem to be taking these YS criticisms a little too personally): https://imgur.com/a/Zw1bu
Anyway, the screenshots show that the accounts were deleted just after the YS-shill-gate thread. I suppose there is some miniscule probability that this is one big understanding, and if that’s the case I’m sure we are all quite sorry.
But then we have to believe both A) that one deleted account bashing competitors and plugging YS was Scott’s as he admitted, and B) the other deleted accounts were not his?
So he did it at least once, was caught red-handed, admitted it, deleted the account, and made some excuses, played the victim, and said he was leaving. But the other accounts are just honest people who just happened to have accounts that did nothing but plug and link to YS, argue with people who criticized YS, and call competitors tea ‘vomit’? Except u/tinklefor, who claimed to be a real person, after people had pointed out ’wouldn’t the other deleted accounts have just said, hey I’m a real person?’ Sigh…
Teaotic, you seem to have v strong opinions about this…what do you suggest is to be done ? Stop supporting Yunnan Sourcing perhaps ?
“Anyway, the screenshots show that the accounts were deleted just after the YS-shill-gate thread. I suppose there is some miniscule probability that this is one big understanding, and if that’s the case I’m sure we are all quite sorry.”
I wish I had your certainty about what happened. To think, Scott spends years creating a business and a good reputation….and then it can be cast into doubt so quickly and with such certainty.
@pkts, I just want the information to be out there, especially for novices/newbs to take into account when parting with their hard-earned tea $. This was not at all a thread to litigate YS quality. The users who noticed this were YS fans themselves.
I discovered really good tea on teachat a decade ago, and in that climate, there were many vendors recommended, lots of information shared, and nobody doubted anyone’s integrity. But teachat all but died.
I’ve had some free time this year, call it a toddler paternity leave following some serious health issues.
After a near-death experience in 2016, I realized I very much wanted to experience again some truly special/rare teas that I hadn’t had in years, and find new extraordinary teas, even if the hunt cost some serious back-to-school tuition $, as it did. So I started hanging out at r/tea and teachat again last winter.
Spending so much time on r/tea this past year, I witnessed on a daily basis, credulous newbs coming in, asking for recommendations, and the vast majority of the time being steered directly to Yunnan Sourcing, do not pass go, do not explore other vendors, do not collect $200.
All those tea novices deserve to know that at least some of those recommendations may be coming from affiliates or the co itself posing as unaffiliated third parties; that there are many other respected vendors out there, other regions, etc; and that the best way to explore tea is to drink widely and variedly, and then figure out what you like, rather than be told ‘XYZ is the best vendor so just place a big order from them,’ from 10 different people, 6 of whom may be real and the other 4 social media marketing accounts.
I greatly appreciate that Steepster is a very congenial group of tea lovers typically devoid of conflict and drama. There is more than enough drama in the world with the NFL, Capitol Hill, Russia, Iran, potential Nuclear war with N.Korea, …… (just to name a few). That said, constructive accountability to ethical standards is also very important and highly valued. A point to consider with accountability: Is this best handled in open forum or one-on-one? (Which would you prefer if you were going to be on the receiving end?)
Well said. I trust Scott and have dealt with him for years. I can email him a question about a tea or recommendation that is normally very close. I think he sources well and prices fairly for what he sells. Tea is a passion for him and many of our other vendors. There have been these accounts on here similar to reddit if you guys remember the “Monkey King”. I think these accounts can be found on any tea forum out there. Let your personal interaction with a vendor speak for itself. Don’t let anything but that experience guide you. I really didn’t want to have to comment on this when I saw it but this will be the only one I will make.
Good tea for a fair price. No fakes. Great customer service. That has been my personal experience of YS, and I’ve probably steered quite a few people there myself for their first order for these very reasons.
Until any of that changes, I’ll continue to order from YS.
I’ll believe this when we get the IP addresses of all these supposed alt YS Reddit accounts. Until then I will file the accusations in the trash right along with Obama’s Kenyan birth certificate, Trump’s bone spurs, and pretty much anything I see on Twitter.
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