Advice for Rajikaru situation

Hey all, I'm at wits end and in need of some serious advice for a situation I'm having with Rajikaru. Please ask for details if you need them. I'm going to post as much as I can here, but the situation is kind of straight forward. Please read everything.

 

I used SMJ to purchase a yawajiri bottom from a seller. This item cost me $900 (before ALL of the shipping I paid receiving and sending this back). It was the grail of all holy grails in my doll collecting hobby as far as items went, so I didn't mind. I was prepared for it to be overpriced, I paid, was nothing short of ecstatic.

 

The seller listed the item as new and unopened. In the pictures everything was fine. Some of you might remember me posting a thread about it here I think, but the item arrived to me in bad condition. The condition it was in made me unable to play with it as the butt was permanently wrinkled and the thighs were flat. The item had been sitting in a bent bag forever.

 

On 6/4/2017 I messaged SMJ and asked if we could do anything about it. I told them I understood their rules, but this was a lot of money and the item was falsely advertised. The seller refunded me an insulting amount of money, but SMJ talked to Rajikaru and asked if he'd be willing to repair it. He said yes. I sent it back.

 

After taking months to arrive it finally did. They sent it to Rajikaru and then.... nothing.

 

It has now been nearly a year and I don't know what to do. Rajikaru is not responding anymore to SMJ, he is not responding to me, he has my item hostage and promised to fix it if I paid and have been waiting this entire time.

 

Upon looking at his website, on the questions it looks like other people are also waiting??? Unless I'm seeing things wrong.

 

Seeing him post frequently and continue to make new products is starting to really make me angry. I talked to someone else and he said sometimes Raji will take a month or so to reply to a message, but this is getting ridiculous.

 

I am very scared I will never get my item back. I am very scared that I just threw $1000 down the drain on an item I wanted so badly and had in my hands for days. I can't get my money back from anyone, I can't contact Rajikaru, SMJ can't do anything, Paypal can't do anything and I'd only be hurting SMJ and they did nothing wrong (they're helping me so much it's amazing).

 

I need some serious, real advice. And I'd really like to somehow resolve this before I put out a bad word. :/ It's been so long. Any experience people have had or have heard is very helpful too. Maybe this is normal and I'm freaking out? Maybe it's not? I don't know. If anyone wants to PM me about anything feel free too. If anyone can speak to him who is fluent, if anyone knows any tricks with this situation or guy, any legal stuff - anything,

A year ?! It really responds very slowly so ... Have you tried to go through a Japanese proxy? That is to say you ask a Japanese, send him a message in Japanese. Maybe the information will be better.

If he does not have other social networks?

A year ?! It really responds very slowly so ... Have you tried to go through a Japanese proxy? That is to say you ask a Japanese, send him a message in Japanese. Maybe the information will be better.

If he does not have other social networks?

 

Well, Shopping Mall Japan is talking to him so I'm assuming it's in Japanese? I honestly don't know 100%, since I don't know that much about SMJ other than I use it. Can anyone confirm this?

 

I've asked Rajikaru myself on Twitter but he hasn't even checked his messages and it's been over a month now.

 

I don't know anything other than his Twitter. I just can't believe he can still make things and post like normal when people are waiting. There's got to be some way to talk to him. Maybe I can find someone who speaks the language fluently.

So I don't have any advice for your specific situation but I can say that I've tried contacting Rajikaru in the past without luck. I've also had an order pending through a proxy for a very long time (months though, not a year) but it did arrive in the end. He does list his email at http://rajikaruyo.cart.fc2.com/laws so maybe he'll reply if you contact him directly?

 

Hope you'll be able to resolve this.

Updating the thread: Still no contact. I am trying to find someone who speaks Japanese who can email him, but not a lot of luck. I assume the proxy does anyway, but they aren't getting anything either.

Still no contact, despite me and the agent reaching out multiple times. They said he may have sent the original item back but I haven't heard anything since.

 

It has now been over a year and I'm close to considering it a grand down the drain, all because I wanted repairs and he agreed to it.

 

I'm so disheartened by this

So sorry to hear all of this.

Something similar happened to me with 2 different statues retailers in the past few years.

Unfortunately the situation didn't work out in the end.

I hope you'll be able to fix it, sooner or later.

Updating the thread: Still no contact. I am trying to find someone who speaks Japanese who can email him, but not a lot of luck. I assume the proxy does anyway, but they aren't getting anything either.

 

You can send him machine translated e-mails. Keep the sentences as simple as possible to avoid ambiguity.

 

On a side note and probably too late in this situation: It's best to deal directly with Rajikaru as he takes orders via e-mail or Twitter (where he periodically posts openings for items).

Updating the thread: Still no contact. I am trying to find someone who speaks Japanese who can email him, but not a lot of luck. I assume the proxy does anyway, but they aren't getting anything either.

 

You can send him machine translated e-mails. Keep the sentences as simple as possible to avoid ambiguity.

 

On a side note and probably too late in this situation: It's best to deal directly with Rajikaru as he takes orders via e-mail or Twitter (where he periodically posts openings for items).

 

I've been trying but he just *doesn't* reply. My proxy has been getting replies out of him, but he keeps saying "soon" and nothing else. For a year. But recently he just stopped replying. I've messaged him on Twitter three times in the past few months. This guy is a real piece of work. I guess there's just nothing I can do... I highly doubt police would care even though I'm looking into filing. And I don't have his address. I also doubt anyone would volunteer that information. But I'll try emailing him again.

So sorry to hear all of this.

Something similar happened to me with 2 different statues retailers in the past few years.

Unfortunately the situation didn't work out in the end.

I hope you'll be able to fix it, sooner or later.

 

 

Thank you Bellatrix If you don't mind me asking, what happened?

SMJ just confirmed that he has sent the item back to me. It's not repaired and rajikaru has wasted a lot of my time, but the item it here. I can't really play with it as it is, so maybe I can try to warp it back to shape.

 

What an absolute migraine this has been.

SMJ just confirmed that he has sent the item back to me. It's not repaired and rajikaru has wasted a lot of my time, but the item it here. I can't really play with it as it is, so maybe I can try to warp it back to shape.

 

What an absolute migraine this has been.

 

 

Damn, that's just so disheartening to hear. All that time and stress for nothing. But, you at least got the torso back so you're not out the full bit you paid for it. Maybe you're right and can do something to make the shape better. If not maybe you can recoup some of the money by selling it at a loss. I'm sure a beginning collector looking for a deal would buy it. Or even someone who knows more about silicone might want it to try and repair/reshape themselves. It's worth a try if you can't fix it or just don't want to deal with it anymore.

 

I'm really sorry to hear this happened and that it took so freaking long to get some resolution. At least you got it back and can now warn others of what might happen with his products and supposed service. I'd heard before that he doesn't like dealing with non Asian buyers and this unfortunately seems to confirm it.

 

 

 

Billy

Reading through all this I'm very sorry to hear it. Hobbies like this are supposed to be a fun escape from the ugliness and frustrations of the real world, and I know how disheartening it is to deal with something like this.

 

I don't know you outside this forum so I don't know your personality, but if this had happened to me I'd do what Billy suggests and sell the item on to someone else, making sure they understood exactly what they were getting so I wasn't passing on the hurt. I know that for me personally the item would be tainted and just seeing it would be a reminder of the bad experience. And I try really hard to focus on the good things and forget about the bad. You have Matoi coming pretty soon, and in a year or so 2B and 9S to look forward to and I suspect those will live up to and perhaps pass your expectations for them.

This is late and I'm sorry, but thank you so much for everything you said cfx It means a lot. This while experience (still ongoing, I love SMJ but they are very bad about contacting me. I keep having to wait weeks and then ask them how things are going, only to have them move it one step forward) has got me feeling disenchanted with things.

 

As for selling it and getting some of the money back... I might. And maybe just wait and save for another one. It's the butt piece (lower torso piece) and I don't know how much I can get for it. But I DO remember seeing someone with one much more damaged than mine sell for over $600, so I might be able to get some money back from it. I've never seen one of these sell for less than a bazzilion dollars anywhere >_< And of course the person would be fully aware of everything "wrong" with it. Or who knows... maybe I can fix it. Maybe rajikaru did fix it and didn't tell me. I don't know. I won't know until I get it back.

 

Sometimes I feel like items are tainted if I've had a bad experience, sometimes they aren't. We'll see. It might be though. :/ Maybe I can fix it or do what you suggested and find someone who knows more about silicone than me.

 

I do have Matoi to look forward too and I'm extremely excited about it. I'm heavily involved in the resin side of the BJD hobby and have some other dolls coming in, but I am very much looking forward to Matoi reigniting my spark and making me fall in love with her. I just need to keep thinking about that! ^^

 

The Nier dolls will surpass my expectations oh my god, I *know* i'm going to bawl when I open them.

 

Thank you both (and everyone) who has helped me through this and talked to me and made me feel better too. I'll still update this thread with the final resolution after I receive the item back again.

 

"At least you got it back and can now warn others of what might happen with his products and supposed service. I'd heard before that he doesn't like dealing with non Asian buyers and this unfortunately seems to confirm it. "

 

YEP and same. I'll reserve some colorful words and opinions, but... I heard the same... and yeah. He needs to get over himself. If he didn't want to he should have said no instead of saying he would and making me spend the money to ship it and go through all this. Was absolutely no need to tell me yes - we didn't push him.

You might check to see if any of the moders on the forum can do something similar to what you are looking for with a Volks torso part.

If it's the part I'm thinking of it's a complete lower torso and thighs in one piece; being silicone it's still flexible enough to pose but you get closer to the seamless body look.

 

What I have seen is also rather...anatomically detailed so I'm not going to post links for it here and I'd have to find them again as I didn't save anything.

If it's the part I'm thinking of it's a complete lower torso and thighs in one piece; being silicone it's still flexible enough to pose but you get closer to the seamless body look.

 

What I have seen is also rather...anatomically detailed so I'm not going to post links for it here and I'd have to find them again as I didn't save anything.

 

Ah, I haven't seen one. I've only gotten a basic impression of what it is from this thread.

 

Evokedoll does full silicone bodies. No idea how detailed the "bits" are though.

 

http://www.evokedoll.com/en/index.jsp

If it's the part I'm thinking of it's a complete lower torso and thighs in one piece; being silicone it's still flexible enough to pose but you get closer to the seamless body look.

 

What I have seen is also rather...anatomically detailed so I'm not going to post links for it here and I'd have to find them again as I didn't save anything.

 

Ah, I haven't seen one. I've only gotten a basic impression of what it is from this thread.

 

Evokedoll does full silicone bodies. No idea how detailed the "bits" are though.

 

http://www.evokedoll.com/en/index.jsp

 

 

It's this http://rajikaru.com/yawa/yawa.html (safe) If you want more pictures, NSFW or SFW I can show you. The thigh is very beautiful when people pose it well.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/otto_boy/

 

This person has it on most of their dolls for a good example. Not explicit as far as I can tell, but nsfw

 

It is very anatomically correct, very seamless and very realistic with the inner skeleton. The way it poses looks very real. I'm sorry for assuming that everyone knew what the lower part was! I was VERY confused at why everyone kept saying "torso". If anyone spent a grand on a torso piece they'd be uh... ripped off. xD

 

The lower part is a lot more rare. I like Evokedoll bodies enough, but it's not really what I'm looking for. I just don't like the arms and legs and it's not quite as realistic as raji's. Unless they make pieces instead of a full doll and I'm missing it? I mean who knows... I have actually wanted to try it and see if I can get past the elbows and stuff. Maybe I will

 

I mostly bought it because the belly and side squish and bend is one of my favorite features. And the butt :3 I'm all about that slight squish.

 

Wait, aren't you Wolfheinrich? Have I got this wrong the whole time? Because I could have sworn I've seen a peach pai bottom on one of your/their dolls

Yes that's the product I've seen. Whatever site I saw it on though they were really into showing all of it which wasn't my thing. The flickr you linked is much nicer, boudoir photography trumps explicit for me.

 

I only called it a torso because I don't know what else to call it, heh. I didn't know it has its own internal frame; no doubt that is why it costs so much.

 

This instagram account appears to have this on their Miki Hoshii. Probably NSFW but not explicit:

 

OT, from that flickr account, I just want to say Rin Shibuya looks awesome in the 7th Dragon III Samurai outfit:

Apparently I've been there previously as I know I've seen this mega cutie Neris before:

 

Edit: I don't know if this is an Evokedoll body but here's a picture of Asuna with a seamless body:

I think that shows the good and bad points of those bodies. Bad is how some of the joints look, like the elbows. I also think the mold parting seam lines are pretty unsightly. They're fairly faint but they still sort of undo the whole point of the body. Evoke's pics don't show those except where they show them before they're removed, but I suspect they're more visible than their pictures suggest. From some of their pictures I don't think the hands look that good either. Of course the good is the fact it's seamless and the legs look quite nice as do the arms if they aren't bent too far.

Wait, aren't you Wolfheinrich? Have I got this wrong the whole time? Because I could have sworn I've seen a peach pai bottom on one of your/their dolls

 

No, I am definitely not Wolfheinrich. If I had realized how famous Wolfheinrich was in the bjd community when I joined the forum I would have picked a different username. I'd seen his website prior to joining, but didn't know much beyond that. Wolf is a derivative of a username I have used in other forums, and has nothing to do with BJDs or Wolfheinrich.

 

 

It's this http://rajikaru.com/yawa/yawa.html (safe) If you want more pictures, NSFW or SFW I can show you. The thigh is very beautiful when people pose it well.

 

 

It is very anatomically correct, very seamless and very realistic with the inner skeleton. The way it poses looks very real. I'm sorry for assuming that everyone knew what the lower part was! I was VERY confused at why everyone kept saying "torso". If anyone spent a grand on a torso piece they'd be uh... ripped off. xD

 

I think I understand the appeal just from seeing the poses. It is very realistic looking when bent into the various postures in those images.

 

As far as silicone parts go I am only aware of Peach Pai, and even that only because Billy.

 

Giant busts aren't really my thing, but everyone has different tastes, and who am I to judge how someone customizes their dolls? The point is to enjoy them, otherwise they don't have much reason to exist.

 

 

OT, from that flickr account, I just want to say Rin Shibuya looks awesome in the 7th Dragon III Samurai outfit:

 

Edit: I don't know if this is an Evokedoll body but here's a picture of Asuna with a seamless body:

 

It's hard for Shiburin not to look great.

 

I think there are other makers of full silicone bodies, and I am not sure if Evokedoll even has bodies with a bust that small. Their M doesn't look much smaller than Volks L.

 

Asuna does look good with a seamless body. She's such a cutie to start out with that it's hard for small aesthetic improvements to not make her look great.

Hi, I'm looking to get a doll with the peach pai and torso part but I have some questions. Does the dollfie dream dynamite fit the lower body part? Which model of dddy is it for?, I'm wondering cause I see a 3 and f3 on the main volks site and I'm a bit confused. How often are these parts made and how much are they? Whats a good way to pose the doll so the parts don't wrinkle?

Just posting here for an update again:

 

My last updated stated that the yawajiri is with Shopping Mall Japan waiting to get shipped to me. They were shipping it for free out of courtesy for the situation. However, they told me this in September/October. I am still waiting on my item and am continuing to get excuses from SMJ. The nightmare hasn't ended yet like I thought it had. I've been pushing and pushing to get them to update me, but it's always me who has to initially do the asking regardless of them telling me they'll let me know. Usually a month goes by between replies and I've only ever spoken with one person each time I've had an issue, so I wonder if one person is running the customer service side. Regardless, it seems like neither of us can get the Japan location office to budge, so now there's a new situation from them.

 

I have no idea how to feel at this point. I feel like I'm just whining into the wind.

 

 

 

Hi, I'm looking to get a doll with the peach pai and torso part but I have some questions. Does the dollfie dream dynamite fit the lower body part? Which model of dddy is it for?, I'm wondering cause I see a 3 and f3 on the main volks site and I'm a bit confused. How often are these parts made and how much are they? Whats a good way to pose the doll so the parts don't wrinkle?

 

Hey Chanela, this isn't quite the right place to ask, but I'll answer:

1. There are two different lower parts (now three I think). It will specify what body type it's for. The dynamite is usually bigger/thicker/chunkier.

2. It's for DDdy3, I don't know if it fits on 2.

3. I don't think the f3 frame will fit, but I haven't tried because (as stated in the thread) I don't have my item and haven't for over a year and haven't bought the new frame yet. I do plan on testing it if I ever get my item back. The new frames are shaped differently, so I'm not sure. If you want a peach pai, just get the old body. Or try to find someone who has the new frame and a peach pai. But again I don't know because the f3 frame came out like weeks ago.

4. The parts are made whenever rajikeru feels like it and you can probably only get them on YJA. Rajikaru doesn't list everything on a webstore like he used to and takes lotteries for Japanese customers only it seems. And even if you were to use a proxy on the webstore, they sell out so fast it's ridiculous. The Peach Pai busts can go up to $250 usually and are more common. The bottom thigh parts will go up to $1,000. I paid $900 for mine. I've seen damaged ones go for about $6-700. It's not going to get any cheaper than that. The best way to keep them so they don't wrinkle is to completely take it off of your doll and HANG it midair from one of the metal leg spikes. You can do a standing pose if you need to keep it on your doll, but I HIGHLY suggest you don't keep clothes on them and make sure their thighs aren't touching. Any sort of pressure over time, even a short amount of time, will cause the silicone to permanently warp. Which was my entire problem in this thread lol. It's best to spread the legs apart enough and hang them. It looks crazy, but it's the safest. I've seen Raji do this as well. Please PM me if you have any more questions I'd be happy to answer them. Or if you're still curious, I plan on getting the f3 frame within a month and have some Peach Pai busts I can try on it.

May be moot at this point, but for reference...

 

It would have probably been better not to try such a roundabout way of resolving the issue. Sellers, including a proxy like SMJ, are required to send you the item you purchased, as it was described. Even if they have terms like sold as-is, that means nothing. They are bound by merchant agreements they make with their payment processors, which take precedence over any policies they set.

 

If it was a cheap item, whatever maybe just let it go. But for a relatively expensive item, I would insist that they accept a return for a refund. Or, yes, I will just do a chargeback and try to buy another one in the future. There's no reason to feel bad about it. You are right to expect to received the item you paid for, as it was described to you. Even though SMJ may not be at fault, they accept this risk by way of their business model.

May be moot at this point, but for reference...

 

It would have probably been better not to try such a roundabout way of resolving the issue. Sellers, including a proxy like SMJ, are required to send you the item you purchased, as it was described. Even if they have terms like sold as-is, that means nothing. They are bound by merchant agreements they make with their payment processors, which take precedence over any policies they set.

 

If it was a cheap item, whatever maybe just let it go. But for a relatively expensive item, I would insist that they accept a return for a refund. Or, yes, I will just do a chargeback and try to buy another one in the future. There's no reason to feel bad about it. You are right to expect to received the item you paid for, as it was described to you. Even though SMJ may not be at fault, they accept this risk by way of their business model.

 

Hey, I don't mean to be rude, but you seem to be skipping a lot of detail I already went over early on. It's a lot of reading and the situation has changed over time (and has been going on A WHILE) so I've been through a roller coaster of emotions, advice, and steps on their end.

 

The way I took wasn't roundabout. It was the only way I could handle this. Chargebacks couldn't happen because I used Paypal, and I didn't want to open a claim on Paypal because that's wrong and I didn't want a refund anyway. It's not SMJs fault and I would never be able to use their service again (which I want to). They were kind and agreed to help and contacted Raji for me because it was the only way. They don't do refunds and it's clearly stated on their website anyway. I probably wouldn't have won. I wanted my item repaired, not returned or refunded. This item was a grail item for me that doesn't come up very often so when I bought it over a year ago, I was pretty elated and had rosy glasses on and wanted to keep it. Neither me or SMJ knew that Raji was going to be so horrible about this. So the situation was fine until then, which is what made me post here in the first place. Everything was fine until time started passing and I learned Raji is uh... colorful words. Initially he agreed to repair it pretty fast so why would I have demanded a refund? It's all I wanted. Again like I said, it wasn't roundabout, it was a progression of things that I had no idea would happen. So all of this isn't as linear as you're making it sound.

 

Raji agreed to do this and there lies the entire issue. That's what I should have never done. SMJ has been wonderful to me this entire time and even now the rep who has been helping me is contacting the Tokyo office manager to solve the issue in the last update I posted. I'm fully aware of how to handle this usually (I've been in this hobby for 5 years now + others), but it seemed like it was going to get worked out when I asked for a repair. I wish it would have been that easy to solve. :/ Why I feel bad now is that Nick is doing everything he can to help, but the staff responsible for mailing my item aren't doing... well anything. I will admit though... I have been tempted to open a claim and still go back and forth, especially now that my item still isn't repaired, but it's so close.

 

edit: I have actually contacted my bank about doing a chargeback and the claim is open. This will be for a VERY small amount compared to what I paid, but the rest is in Paypal and it's a start. I was afraid of asking for a refund recently because I thought I wouldn't get my item back, but now I'm wondering if they'd even keep it/could. Unless SMJ has a storefront or YJA shop I'm not aware of, I don't see how they could resell the item. Hm.

Hey, I don't mean to be rude, but you seem to be skipping a lot of detail I already went over early on.

 

I did read your posts before I commented, and it doesn't change anything I wrote. SMJ may have been helpful, perhaps the person you were in contact with did everything they could. But the result is still that you have no money and you have no item. If you're fine with that, then of course that's entirely up to you.

 

I'm just saying, there was a different way the situation could have been handled such that someone in your place could've taken advantage of consumer protections created exactly for these cases. You take unnecessary risk by sending the item back to try to have it fixed by the creator. And unfortunately this is a possible result. Whereas you could've been guaranteed your money back and then had the opportunity to buy another one should it become available (perhaps through another proxy if necessary).

 

On one hand you send the item back to SMJ and get your money back, straight forward. Alternatively you forfeit that option when you send it back willingly to then have it sent to Raji, who'll fix it, send it to SMJ, who'll then send it back to you. Surely that is much more roundabout than the first option, and much riskier.

 

I mentioned it briefly but let me expand a little bit on why it's fine to just ask for a refund. When something like this happens, it's obviously bad for everyone all around. However, someone's gotta take the loss. In these situations, the seller tends to be the one with more power. They're generally much bigger financially than the buyer, and they have more control over procurement, quality assurance, and delivery of their product. As such, when the payment industry and government committees sat down to write the rules, what they came up with gave more power to the buyers, the weaker party in the transaction. I think it's fine to follow the rules that they have decided are best. As long as you use the provided dispute resolution process in good faith, I don't think you should feel hesitant to do so. Of course, you can and should try to work with the seller to try to resolve the problem to the satisfaction of everyone. But I would not recommend doing something that waives your protection under these rules.