Being a business owner means more than the fact that you aren't bothered with a boss, can make your own hours, and can call yourself, leave a voicemail on your own voicemail to call out of work.

It means being responsible for yourself, the quality of your products, producing brand awareness for your consumers, and holding trust with the other companies that you work with.

But when you find out you were scammed out of $4,000 dollars because of a company you utilize as your payment platform, you can’t just let your boss handle it, because you’re the boss!

Bruce via Website
Bruce via Website
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This is Bruce, a Maine Business Owner recently posted on TikTok and the video went viral. Bruce is the owner of, Siders Woodcrafting, where he makes the most excellent, high-quality wood products from cutting boards to custom projects. His work is impressive and there is no question that he puts passion into every piece he creates.

"Our artisan cutting boards are true works of art that you’ll adore in your home for years to come."

Bruce Graybill, Woodcrafter


 

Bruce Via Instagram
Bruce Via Instagram
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In mid-October, Bruce posted a video on TikTok of a charcuterie board he created from a cherry tree. Due to ants that had made a little home inside the tree, Bruce had to fill the ant colony trails with epoxy and was filming the process of the treatment with the mineral oil for TikTok.

The video received over 300,000 views which naturally increased the traffic to their website. Bruce also sells the epoxy and the sales on that product took off too! They ended up selling over $4,000 worth of epoxy over the course of 10 days.

Here is the TikTok video that started it all!

The payment platform they used is called Square. Bruce told us that one of the orders was marked red for possible fraud. After the last shipment was sent Bruce said he received an email from the company saying that there was a high likelihood that all the shipments were fraudulent.

Bruce attempted to stop the orders that hadn't been delivered however, they were unable to get in touch with UPS directly, because they said their website kept kicking them off.

However, Pirate Ship reached out and stopped the orders for them. You can say that the pirates helped to save the day this time! They were able to stop approximately $1,000 in orders, but Bruce let us know that UPS charged them almost $300 to have the orders returned.

Bruce said they reached out to Square asking for help but were told they had no responsibility for the transactions. Bruce asked about fraud protection and was told that they received the protection we were paying for but Square did offer to upgrade for protection, which they did.

Several days later, they went onto their website and made a purchase entering all the criteria they wanted to be alerted on and it still processed the payment but did not alert them.

At the same time square has withdrawn money from those sales from their account, which has caused them to lose money and merchandise.

They are currently in talks with their insurance company. However, this family will never give up on designing original pieces that stimulate our zest for life and invigorate the soul with pure creativity.

Remember to stay vigilant with every person you do business with when you're an owner. Bruce and his wife Mary are honest and hard-working people but unfortunately, fraud doesn't discriminate and sometimes companies feel they aren't liable. However, we are Mainers, and we accommodate others. We can all learn a little something from Pirate Ship, the company that didn't have to help but did anyway.

Check out Siders Woodcrafting website as well as their TikTok and Instagram, if you want to own a personally crafted, high-end, original wood product from Bruce and his family.

Please check out the photo gallery of Siders Woodcrafting products, they're incredible!

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