The Facebook debacle & other issues

7 hours ago, nChoco said:

I’m most surprised by the fact that in that article they mention if you have difficulty installing a wig due to arthritis, they will be willing to help pre-install the wig.

It's only a matter of time till his rules start contradicting themselves

8 hours ago, Yumeiro said:

It's only a matter of time till his rules start contradicting themselves

but will anyone question it?    or when smart doll fabulous & intelligence release, will they look the other way? lolz

Edited August 23, 2022 by DollyDearest

2 hours ago, Yumeiro said:

It's only a matter of time till his rules start contradicting themselves

At this point, they are starting to look more like C.Y.A.’s than rules.

As a potential customer, you can’t expect anything if their website plainly states all the reasons you shouldn’t buy from them.

5 hours ago, nChoco said:

At this point, they are starting to look more like C.Y.A.’s than rules.

As a potential customer, you can’t expect anything if their website plainly states all the reasons you shouldn’t buy from them.

C.Y.A's?

Probably "Cover Your Ass"

3 hours ago, DollyDearest said:

C.Y.A's?

 

3 hours ago, Subaru said:

Probably "Cover Your Ass"

Bingo!

The content is not there for customer satisfaction. It's so that he has a leg to stand on if you open a dispute with a credit card company for example. He'll point to this stuff and say that "it was clearly stated you could get a product with production variances/defects (pronounced: wabi-sabi)"

5 minutes ago, nChoco said:

The content is not there for customer satisfaction. It's so that he has a leg to stand on if you open a dispute with a credit card company for example.

He always allows returns / refunds for dissatisfied customers though. It's not like people have to open up a dispute, unless of course they want a full refund and to keep the product.

1 hour ago, BeyondTime said:

He always allows returns / refunds for dissatisfied customers though. It's not like people have to open up a dispute, unless of course they want a full refund and to keep the product.

Yeah, but it’s probably unwanted from Smartdoll’s end. That is most likely why they want to ban “troublesome” customers, to minimize any returns.

That’s one way to get your customer satisfaction ratings up I guess. Just ban the ones that could be critical.

If there are plans to offer a sticky with a summary of SmD issues, may I request a warning that this forum appears to be monitored closely, and that people who post here should not mention if they've ordered from SmD recently? 

When you think about it, isn’t it very unusual to allow returns in the doll world? Can you return things to Volks, for example? 

There are times I’ve had quality issues, or issues with the wrong item being sent, with like clothes and such I purchased from bjd stores like Dollmore. Each time, they just told me to keep the defective/wrong item and sent me a replacement. 
 

once I did get a doll head with a crack in the neck (a Dollmore Trinity). After showing sufficient proof, I had to return the damaged head for a replacement. But they paid for the shipping. No fuss, no hassle. No snarky rants posted to their website afterwards. 😏

46 minutes ago, belpita said:

Can you return things to Volks

They do correct defective items as long as you contact them within the time period allowed. As far as I can recall you can't return things because you aren't happy with what you bought. They do list their terms for returns in their website. 

So that’s probably why if you are unhappy with your purchase, you can return to SmD.

The “wabi-sabi” components, such as bumps on the doll vinyl, and doll part variances (left and right may not match, head cap doesn’t line up with head) can, and should be, seen as production defects.

In other expensive products such as a car, production tolerances allow for small variances that are defined by the engineers at time of designing a car. Given the high amount of parts that go into one, each car can be slightly different even if the spec sheet should be the same. In some assembly lines, people are doing the bulk of the work building the car, not necessarily a robot. However, if two identical cars off the line were compared, you probably wouldn’t realize any differences unless you were meticulous and careful to measure each car.

6 hours ago, MaleficentMrsofEvil said:

If there are plans to offer a sticky with a summary of SmD issues, may I request a warning that this forum appears to be monitored closely, and that people who post here should not mention if they've ordered from SmD recently? 

Seconding this! Don't want anymore new, or current, members accidentally getting hit by the Danhammer just for mentioning an order.

33 minutes ago, Katsudon said:

Seconding this! Don't want anymore new, or current, members accidentally getting hit by the Danhammer just for mentioning an order.

Or alternatively, every single person starts mentioning they have an order...

1 hour ago, nChoco said:

2 hours ago, Katsudon said:

Seconding this! Don't want anymore new, or current, members accidentally getting hit by the Danhammer just for mentioning an order.

Or alternatively, every single person starts mentioning they have an order...

<joking> ... does make me wonder did he stuff chitose's in the are-you-kidding-priced optional heads section, just for mentioning that it was the only model that really tickled my fancy even the slightest .... you're welcome.... </joking>

It makes sense that returning items you just aren't happy with in terms of preferences would be less likely to be fulfilled. However, if you aren't happy with what you bought (QC wise), it sucks that he will ask you to return the whole doll even if it's one thing (like a head, hand or even a clothing item) is found to be defective or lower quality than expected. Why so dramatic? Maybe I missed it but is there something wrong with returning the head in exchange for one that is up to snuff? Otherwise it's like you are forced to just keep your doll. Is it genuinely more trouble and against regulations or production or...is this just about being petty? It feels like he's punishing you. 

I'm trying to wrap my head around why the reaction is also so varied when things go wrong with a doll. I once received a whole body for free with a clothes order, because I myself had caused stains on my doll. No questions asked, other than me explaining what happened. I wasn't even demanding a new body, just asking for advice on what to do, because I was new to vinyl dolls.

And then you hear about people getting permanently banned for asking about a product that was most probably sent in a faulty condition.

1 hour ago, belpita said:

I'm trying to wrap my head around why the reaction is also so varied when things go wrong with a doll. I once received a whole body for free with a clothes order, because I myself had caused stains on my doll. No questions asked, other than me explaining what happened. I wasn't even demanding a new body, just asking for advice on what to do, because I was new to vinyl dolls.

And then you hear about people getting permanently banned for asking about a product that was most probably sent in a faulty condition.

It's trying to save on "unnecessary" costs by trying to force customers to not complain or ask for recourse. Normally a business would just bake these costs into the price of the product and absorb them as they come, but this is an alternative perspective. We'll just ban those that don't accept probably faulty products, so only the "good" customers are left.

12 minutes ago, nChoco said:

It's trying to save on "unnecessary" costs by trying to force customers to not complain or ask for recourse. Normally a business would just bake these costs into the price of the product and absorb them as they come, but this is an alternative perspective. We'll just ban those that don't accept probably faulty products, so only the "good" customers are left.

yesh.  the good lil boys & girls get cookies. the bad one's get lumps of coal in their stocking & publicly shamed lolz      We, make good decidsions.   

Anyone see the "dummy" product that was posted on the site?    

Edited August 23, 2022 by DollyDearest

The what?

 

17 hours ago, nChoco said:

Normally a business would just bake these costs into the price of the product and absorb them as they come

This is especially baffling given that their dolls are similarly priced to their competitors, but they seem to make plenty of additional money on option parts.

Case in point:

• Dollfie Dream F3 feet: ¥3,740
• Smart Doll high heel feet: ¥14,000
   
• Dollfie Dream large bust: ¥3,300
• Smart Doll large bust: ¥9,900

That's around 3x more expensive!
If anything, it seems that those "unnecessary costs" are covered better by Smart Dolls than by the alternatives...

Not to mention, I can't imagine them having to give someone a completely new doll body frequently enough for this to become a huge issue.
This is not a cost issue, it's a management issue.

1 hour ago, ChrisFhey said:

That's around 3x more expensive!

It might be economy of scale. We don't really know how many dolls Danny sells, we don't know how many Volks sells either, but I think it's probably a lot more than SmD. Danny might have higher production costs, and he might have higher R&D too. 

4 hours ago, 3lysa said:

The what?

 

the dummy product, it's some high priced item, but when you like you get some wierd error message