AG works to resolve complaints against breast milk jeweler

Mommy Milk Creations makes breast milk pendants like this. (Submitted Photo)
Mommy Milk Creations makes breast milk pendants like this. (Submitted Photo)

By Kim Kalunian, WPRO News

The Rhode Island Attorney General’s office is working to resolve complaints filed by customers of a local breast milk jeweler.

Fifteen women from various states filed formal complaints against MommyMilk Creations following an exclusive WPRO investigation into the Wakefield-based jeweler. But those 15 moms tell WPRO that little has changed since the story aired in July.

“I’d have to say things have gotten worse,” said MommyMilk customer Renee Miller in an email. “I know a few have received their orders since your story but I have not. I filed with the [Rhode Island Attorney General] and have not gotten a response.”

Miller, who lived in Arizona, said she inquired with MommyMilk owner Allicia Mogavero about a refund, but Mogavero stopped responding to her emails.

Many moms told WPRO previously that they didn’t want their money back, they just wanted the jewelry – containing their breast milk – that they were promised. But moms like Michigan’s Genevieve Carpenter are growing tired of waiting.

“I want to wash my hands of this and at least recoup some of my money,” wrote Carpenter in an email. She said Mogavero offered her a 75-percent refund in mid-July for the order she placed in November of 2014.  “So I replied with, ‘Ok, please refund me and let me know how you will be doing it,’ and I’ve never heard anything back.”

For Jodi Williams, a Connecticut resident, things took a bit of a different turn. In an email dated July 10 – a day after WPRO’s final correspondence with Mogavero and five days before the story aired – Mogavero apparently sent Williams a message saying she was cancelling her order.

“It saddens me to have to make this decision and it was made with a heavy heart as I’ve never had to refuse service to any customer in the past,” the email reads. “Unfortunately I will not be fulfilling your order…and I need to send you a refund.”

Williams said she responded to the email accepting the refund, but she tells WPRO she has not received the money.

“I’m just so sick of this whole situation,” Williams told WPRO. “I just want my refund, and her not to do this to anyone else…and to make this right for everyone in my situation.”

Washington resident Michelle Schwartz, who sent MommyMilk her breast milk in 2013, said since July, “things got better, then worse, and are now back where we started.”

Schwartz is still waiting for her product from Mogavero, and is also waiting to hear something from Attorney General Peter Kilmartin.

“As of today, I have never heard back from the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office,” said Schwartz, who filed a complaint on July 15. “I am very upset about that fact…I feel like they do not have our best interest as a priority.”

Other moms expressed frustration with the lack of communication from the Attorney General, but a spokeswoman from the AG’s office said they are actively working to resolve the situation. The spokeswoman could not provide a specific timeline for when a resolution would be reached.

Meanwhile, Mogavero has scrubbed her Facebook of posts, and cleared her website of all products aside from a DYI breast milk keepsake kit. Calls and emails to Mogavero for comment were not returned.

More from 630WPRO.COM