Flag Fiasco

When a flag company abused people's patriotism, learn how TrustDALE and that flag company restored people's faith.

A Missing Flag

Colonel Rick Pelham served in the US military for 36 years. To honor his service and the sacrifices he made throughout his career, his wife Christy wanted to get him a unique and meaningful retirement gift. So when she saw an ad for Rustic Flag Company on Facebook, she thought she had found the perfect way to show her gratitude for her husband's decades of service. To make the deal even more appealing, she noted that Rustic Flag was a veteran-owned company. This was the perfect way to give back. She ordered a custom wooden flag and paid $330 upfront. Then she waited.

The custom wooden flag was supposed to arrive in 10 weeks. But after more than three months, Christy began to get anxious. She wanted to know the status of her order. She tried contacting Rustic Flag, but she never got a response. Her emails went unanswered, and eventually, they turned their phones off. Christy was out $330 with no gift to give her husband.

A Bigger Problem

It turns out that Christy was not alone. Thousands of customers had paid for flags that Rustic Flag could not deliver. When Rustic Flag first began selling flags, they delivered high-quality, unique gifts. But as the flags went viral and orders piled up, they just couldn't produce the flags fast enough. Instead of pulling their ads and shutting down new orders, Rustic Flag continued to take money for flags that it knew it could never produce.

Instead of using the infusion of money to increase production, Justin Scott, the owner of Rustic Flag Company, spent the money on personal luxury items, like fancy cars, and to pay off personal debt. That left thousands of customers in the lurch, with prepaid orders that no one ever intended to fill.

Eventually, the Tennessee Department of Justice got involved. With over 1,000 complaints of unfulfilled orders, the justice department sued Justin Scott and Rustic Flag Company.

A TrustDALE Solution

Far from Tennessee, in the town of Granbury, Texas, another company was also making custom wooden flags. THAT Flag Company—which stands for Time Honored And True—began to receive calls and emails from irate consumers who mistook them for Rustic Flag Company. So they looked into Rustic Flag Company's marketing tactics and immediately realized something wasn't right. Rustic Flag Company was offering steep discounts, up to 60% off. From a business standpoint, that kind of discount was unsustainable. The owners of THAT Flag Company could tell that this was a business on the verge of total collapse.

However, instead of retreating and leaving Rustic Flag Company consumers out in the cold, THAT Flag Company stepped up. With a commitment to helping veterans and patriots in need, That Flag Company set about to fulfill as many of the unfulfilled orders as that could at no additional cost to the swindled customers. They don't have the capacity to replace every missing flag, but they do what they can as quickly as they can. That is what you call Making It Right, even when there is little reward. So hats off to THAT Flag Company for taking care of veterans in their time of need.