The Facebook debacle & other issues

42 minutes ago, BitterFox said:

Not to scoff at the buying power of 'The West', but Danny has closed his brand off to the single biggest buying community: China. He was caught posting to a forum disparaging remarks about the Chinese community and has basically been blacklisted by Chinese hobbyists. It's why you probably have to think very, very, VERY hard to come up with a Chinese hobbyist that owns a Smart Doll.

Oof, way to bite off hand that feeds you.

On a more positive note, it's cool that I'm seeing more Chinese based companies get into vinyl (specifically tinyfox, I'm currently ogling their storefront, eagerly waiting for their 1/6 bodies to come back into stock) 

18 hours ago, Deyja said:

 

If it truly isn't about the money, Danny, then maybe you should focus your hobbies elsewhere, because the vinyl 1/3 doll industry is clearly causing you quite a bit of grief that doesn't need to be.

This...

Ages ago, iirc, during the f.fm "good ol days", was when DC started the "WabiSabi" thing... And the "faulty wig" thing...

Could this be the reason f.fm disappeared, instead of the "rumored" DDS/malicious hakkerz? 

"I'm getting grief on my own website!!!!  Mustn't let that happen, delete all the things, blame someone/something else, play the victim."

 

1 hour ago, battrastard said:

This...

Ages ago, iirc, during the f.fm "good ol days", was when DC started the "WabiSabi" thing... And the "faulty wig" thing...

Could this be the reason f.fm disappeared, instead of the "rumored" DDS/malicious hakkerz? 

"I'm getting grief on my own website!!!!  Mustn't let that happen, delete all the things, blame someone/something else, play the victim."

 

playing a victim's childern's card game.

As much as I love Smart Dolls from an aesthetic (and playability) perspective, I just got sort of sad every time I looked at my Prow and thought about how much contempt it seems DC has for his customers. I know it wasn't her fault (she's a doll), but there was just something that made me feel almost guilty (?) for owning her. I know that sounds a little bit goofy, and sometimes I'm a little sad that I sold her (though I do hope her new owner enjoys her!), but I just can't feel good about supporting a company headed by someone who consistently behaves extremely unprofessionally at best, and downright maliciously at worst. 

As others have mentioned though, I'm actually super stoked to see where TinyFox ends up going and also, the influx of more anime-style resin dollies has been great, so at least there's that!

On 8/27/2021 at 10:01 PM, MaleficentMrsofEvil said:

I've screwed up a couple times doing this, especially on eBay, when sometimes you have to buy quickly before others do. And, um, if I recall correctly, isn't that sort of an issue with SmD? That stuff sells out quickly? And doll resellers are especially notorious for this tactic. I'll see what many would consider a grail purchase (e.g., Poppy Parker anything from Integrity Toys, or any of the older Robert Tonner Cami and Jon dolls) for a price that would be excellent if it included the doll and the outfit. It's only when you scroll all the way down to the bottom that you see "outfit only. Doll not included." Now - I did NOT leave any bad reviews, or return any of my purchases. I didn't express so much as a whiff of disappointment anywhere online, because it was my fault for not catching it. 

But still grumble grumble grumble my lizard brain sees what I think is a great price, and I hit that "buy" button. It's only when I receive the item that I realize my mistake. And yeah - it's my mistake for not looking more closely. But still. The small toddler inside me kicks rocks and grumbles that the sales picture was misleading. 

That does sound misleading though..? Sorta like the guy who sold a PS3 box pretending it was the whole console (was it PS3 or Xbox? Either way, people are now wise to listings like "[console] box and manual") If the outfit alone isn't the primary pic, then it's fair enough to feel conned imo.

14 hours ago, BitterFox said:

He was caught posting to a forum disparaging remarks about the Chinese community and has basically been blacklisted by Chinese hobbyists. It's why you probably have to think very, very, VERY hard to come up with a Chinese hobbyist that owns a Smart Doll.

Omg if you have a source for what he said, I definitely wanna see it! Will understand if it's lost though. There's so much that Danny has said that I wished I'd screenshotted, because he's since removed it. 😕

Today he made an IG post about how well he treats his employees - and that's fantastic! 

He had to end it with a kind of snarky little bit though, and it just really feels so snide and unnecessary. 

Like, the people who are upset about the lack of availability of your dolls are your customers - the people who allow your business to thrive. Sure, it's not the most egregious thing he's ever said, it just seems so unnecessary. 

Didn’t he say his dolls will never be limited 

1 hour ago, oyashiro said:

Today he made an IG post about how well he treats his employees - and that's fantastic! 

He had to end it with a kind of snarky little bit though, and it just really feels so snide and unnecessary. 

Like, the people who are upset about the lack of availability of your dolls are your customers - the people who allow your business to thrive. Sure, it's not the most egregious thing he's ever said, it just seems so unnecessary. 

da internets b like.    wow is he hearing voices?  are our SMD's bugged?  JK

Ironically whenever I google 'Smart Doll' I get a lot of news articles about unrelated 'smart' dolls, which have electronics for listening to kids and sending the data back to be analysed by a server.

So...

Yes? 🤣 

(j/k)

On 8/29/2021 at 8:42 PM, Katsudon said:

Ironically whenever I google 'Smart Doll' I get a lot of news articles about unrelated 'smart' dolls, which have electronics for listening to kids and sending the data back to be analysed by a server.

So...

Yes? 🤣 

(j/k)

lolz.       their using baby moniter tech!   j/k  

Edited August 31, 2021 by wishbearstar

I commented on it; I couldn't stop myself this time. I questioned why he felt he needed to boast and validate his generosity. Yeah, he'll know who I am even though I'm banned (and good with it).

I have nothing against anyone who wants to share good deeds they have done or kindness here and there, but to use it as a business tactic to attract new buyers (similar to how I was first pulled in to SmD), that is if they pass the purity tests, is downright dirty. Reminds me of Angelica Pickles from the show Rugrats always waving an ice cream bar or candy in front of the other babies in that sassy "And I get one and you don't!"

Edited August 30, 2021 by Deyja
for got to add a word and a personal touch--have a nice day!

I'm legitimately concerned for his employees because of how much he boasts about how well he treats them... Why are you so eager to reassure me? What's that quote - about protesting too much to hide a lie? Considering his behavior pattern I wouldn't be surprised at all if all this "I treat my employees SO WELL to pwn the entitled swine" is 1) to make him feel good about himself and 2) "justify" how much he hates his customers.

I'm not saying anything is definite, but I just get a really bad feeling from this in that very specific way...

The wink face is becoming his signature look

5 hours ago, oyashiro said:

Today he made an IG post about how well he treats his employees - and that's fantastic! 

He had to end it with a kind of snarky little bit though, and it just really feels so snide and unnecessary. 

Like, the people who are upset about the lack of availability of your dolls are your customers - the people who allow your business to thrive. Sure, it's not the most egregious thing he's ever said, it just seems so unnecessary. 

 

1 hour ago, cookimooon said:

What's that quote - about protesting too much to hide a lie?

The lady doth protest too much? (Shakespeare)

I've managed to keep my nose clean from this topic, but as monkeypizzasonic linked the full thing on the new dolls thread after glancing through I thought a little commentary was appropreate.

10 hours ago, oyashiro said:

about how well he treats his employees - and that's fantastic! 

Except that it doesent actually really tell how well the company does treat the employees?

the following is purely speculation:

The only thing that the post sayes is that they have a roughly bi-monthly performance bonus that uses their monthly wage as a basis. There is no mention what the base wages are -- that as a raw base number is it even competitive with other companies out there, only putting emphasis that their company gives out bonuses more often than other companies.

For all we know based only on this information, they might even be employing the typical hiring tactics of telemarketing: "You can make this much moniez!" only to find out that you need to hit daunting actual sales quotas to get even half of it.

There are no mention of any possible penalties to these bonuses. like, would you lose them fully if you have to take sick days for instance?

Also the looking into the four day work week, as long as you produce the same profit for the company that you would in five ... there is actually no mention how this would be implemented ... do you stick the eight typical workday hours onto those four days, so you end up with four ten hour work days without any overtime (The labor law issue I assume), in exchange for one more day off the week, or are you supposed to haul ass at 125% efficiency to make up for the day off, only to spend the day rebounding.

And crucially ... how will this effect your bonuses, that if you arent able to keep up with it.

But, at the end of the day, if the workers are cool with the arrangements -- *shrug* -- Enjoy the field outings ... if it doesent mean missing your production quotas and "loss of mana"

 

 

Quote

Except that it doesent actually really tell how well the company does treat the employees?

The level of braggadocio in that post led me to assume that at least he thinks he treats them well. I can't speak to specifics, of course. I don't know the work conditions for the company, but I was sort of just hand waiving that part of the post as it wasn't the part that actually perturbed me. I guess, to speak more specifically, if he actually treats his employees well and doesn't overwork and underpay them, I think that is great, even if he can't resist saying the dumb stuff about his customers ^^; 

To be fair, he has mentioned elsewhere that the employees get paid decently, and moreso since they've become more successful.

Do not like things like bonuses being a meritocracy. I guess that's what he means by 'mana'? Meritocracy is always a con.

I'm more concerned about what legal stuff is required for a 4 day week. Only because from the brief bit on part time labour rights in Japan I looked up, this either means taking away employee rights or keeping them. I hope it's the latter, and not the former, because the former would be a shitty cash grab. 😕

Edit: gonna clarify for the sake of keeping info here that the bonuses are biannually (2x a year)

Edited August 30, 2021 by Katsudon

On 8/28/2021 at 3:45 PM, BitterFox said:

 

Do you know what he said (about the Chinese community)? I'm curious about the kinds of comments.

I don't want to speculate too much about employee treatment since that seems like it'd be getting into "personal stuff" territory, but I will say it is very annoying how he uses it as an excuse for bad customer service.

"Asking when a thing I keep talking about will come out? Trying to overwork my employees!" "Saying I should make a release schedule? Trying to overwork my employees!" "Problem with quality control? Trying to overwork my employees!"

There are doll companies with only two or three employees that have loads better customer service than SmD, because they talk to customers politely and are willing to communicate about problems instead of just trying to shut the entire conversation down. And there are prob also doll companies that don't overwork their employees while still maintaining customer satisfaction because they're upfront about timeframes. Not an excuse.

 

If he can treat customers like he is, then I'd be afraid of how he could turn around and treat his staff. As in, if customers have to walk on eggshells around him, how must his employees fair when it comes to outbursts.

Anyway...
Like I said before, he seem to be after those "good-boy"-points, by how well he does x thing - in this case, how he treats his staff.
But also, like how radio stations/programs need to recap what they are talking about after each song (for new listeners who might've just tuned in), he's making sure new followers get the info. about how he works.
BUT, I still think it'd do better as a rant under the "about" section on the site. It would come off less as boasting... And I want to echo @monkeypizzasonic - it would look less as if he's using his employees for any and all excuses.

But then he wouldn't have an outlet...

am the great pertender, willing to dream forever...    Cj: the great pretender.

I'll generalize since it's all public info depending on what groups your run in.

He posted on a local Singapore forum how his Japanese employees are arrogant idiots. It was deleted but you can still find huge diss thread on 2ch for that. Chinese was a Tweet, if I remember right, that was leaked where he said something like all Chinese are trash. That's the main reason SmD can't even enter Chinese market. Some friends used to block all SmD owners after, and won't buy anything using SmD as a model lol.

 

12 hours ago, monkeypizzasonic said:

I don't want to speculate too much about employee treatment since that seems like it'd be getting into "personal stuff" territory, but I will say it is very annoying how he uses it as an excuse for bad customer service.

"Asking when a thing I keep talking about will come out? Trying to overwork my employees!" "Saying I should make a release schedule? Trying to overwork my employees!" "Problem with quality control? Trying to overwork my employees!"

There are doll companies with only two or three employees that have loads better customer service than SmD, because they talk to customers politely and are willing to communicate about problems instead of just trying to shut the entire conversation down. And there are prob also doll companies that don't overwork their employees while still maintaining customer satisfaction because they're upfront about timeframes. Not an excuse.

 

Yeah, there have been several occasions where he's jumped immediately to "you expect me to overwork my employees!" when there are ways to resolve the situation without doing that. The one that sticks out to me the most was when some bug on the website showed a timer for every listing. People were freaking out about what it might mean, and when the situation was resolved, Danny made a post along the lines of "Sorry we had technical issues, but you can't expect my employees to work overtime to fix your concerns." Except all he had to do to stop people worrying was make a post when the bug happened saying that the timers were a bug and didn't actually effect sales. He could do that in 5 minutes tops and no one's work-life balance would be disrupted. Even adding a notice on the site itself saying to ignore the timers wouldn't be that hard (he certainly has time to post much longer rants there). 

He could probably resolve a lot of things via better communication and organization of releases, but it's easier to put the blame on entitled consumers who want him to mistreat his employees.

Well this could easily lead into conclusions that if the staff gets overworked from very basic customer service, how overworked they really are in the first place... 

2 hours ago, Akito said:

Well this could easily lead into conclusions that if the staff gets overworked from very basic customer service, how overworked they really are in the first place... 

That doth be the question.