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She told us that she had previously been the victim of a scam herself and that she had paid approximately $500,000 for the business associated with beautifulgifts.co.nz. She said she did not know what to do and was in a very difficult situation. We felt sympathy and compassion for her. She also told us that Temu was seriously affecting her business.

She mentioned that her website was receiving very little traffic from Google and was not generating significant revenue, with most of her sales coming through her Trade Me store.

Because of what she told us, we proposed working together. We genuinely wanted to help and believed that, by cooperating, we could build something stronger and compete more effectively in the market.

We spent considerable time discussing a potential partnership through Zoom calls and other conversations, and we also assigned our best employee to support her for weeks while she learned everything from us and used it. We discussed how the arrangement could work and what each party could contribute.

After this, we felt used. We had compromised and spent a considerable amount of money on this project. She was fully aware of this, but from our perspective, she did not care and ignored our messages.

We believed that, by working together, we could have generated significant sales for her while also helping a small New Zealand business compete more effectively against large overseas companies. What frustrated us was that, instead of focusing on the additional sales and opportunities that could have been created, it seemed to us that the focus was mainly on the money she believed she might be giving up or the potential profit that we could make.

To us, it was similar to saying: “I will help you sell your house, but I am not allowed to make any profit from helping you, even though your house would otherwise remain unsold and you could potentially sell more properties because of the work I am doing.” That way of thinking is difficult for us to understand.

From our perspective, this is where greed can become destructive. A person can become so focused on not losing even a small amount of money that they are prepared to spend far more money fighting over it. We felt that she was prepared to spend ten times more on a dispute rather than accept an arrangement that, in our view, could have benefited everyone involved.

I once heard a story about a man who owned a building worth approximately $23 million. Despite his wealth, he lived very modestly and hardly spent any money. At one point, he was reportedly offered around $20 million for the building, but he refused because he believed it was worth even more. After he died, his family quickly sold the same building for approximately $17 million.

For us, that story illustrates what can happen when a person becomes too attached to money. Someone may spend their entire life accumulating wealth, worrying about every dollar and refusing opportunities because they always want more, only for someone else to eventually benefit from that wealth.

I once had a boss who was similar in this respect. He owned large amounts of land, cattle and investment properties, yet he could hardly sleep because he was constantly thinking about money. He appeared to have considerable wealth but very little peace.

That is the point we are trying to make. Money is important, but there comes a point where constantly worrying about making or losing more money can take away a person's peace and enjoyment of life. In our view, no amount of money is worth living without peace simply because a person is always thinking about what they might gain or lose.

We have no assets or anything that she can take from us. 

It reminds us of the story of David. She told us she owns investment properties in Christchurch. In the biblical story, David had Uriah the Hittite, a faithful servant who fought for him, killed after David saw Uriah's wife from a balcony. God was very offended by this, and the prophet Nathan told David a story about a man who had many sheep but went to a poor man who had only one sheep and took that sheep from him.

In our eyes, the lesson is similar: a person who has much should not try to take from someone who has very little. We are the smaller party in this situation. The problem is that we have very little to lose, while lawyers and legal disputes can consume considerable amounts of money.

We hope this story makes her reconsider. We pray that the spirit of greed that we believe has affected this situation leaves her in the name of Jesus. We love her and hope she takes this into consideration. At the same time, we believe there is a lesson to be learned from what has happened.

From our perspective, however, the relationship did not develop in the way we had understood or expected. We believed there was a verbal agreement between us. On three separate occasions, we asked directly whether she considered herself our business partner, and she answered yes each time.

We will not disclose the details of those discussions here because the matter has since developed into a legal dispute. Our position is that commitments were made and that we relied on those commitments when making business decisions. She may have a different interpretation of the events, and those issues are now matters for the appropriate legal process.

We believe the breakdown of the relationship caused significant harm to our business. There have also been allegations and reports made involving us that we strongly dispute. Because these matters are contested, we believe they should be dealt with through proper legal channels rather than through personal attacks.

The main lesson we have taken from this experience is simple: do not use people, do not mislead people, and do not make commitments that you do not intend to honour. In business, trust matters. We try to stand by what we say and expect the same standard from the people we work with.

Businesses are generally free to choose their own pricing strategies, even when customers may consider those prices very high. Whether something is legally permitted, however, is different from whether customers consider it fair or good value. Consumers should always compare prices, research a business, read independent reviews, and make an informed decision before purchasing.

The dispute has now involved lawyers and significant legal costs. We are a small company and would have preferred the relationship to have developed differently. Nevertheless, we will continue operating independently and focusing on our own business concept.

Anyone researching https://smartfoxstore.com.au/ (Not US) should make their own decision based on verifiable information. We encourage people to look at a range of independent sources, including customer reviews, public business information, and discussions on platforms such as Reddit, rather than relying only on statements made by either side of a dispute.