The Facebook debacle & other issues

11 hours ago, Yumeiro said:

I think it is more the fear of being banned that is the point. Like, how many are willing to risk it?
It is a good reminder that it is not a fact, but just as good to remind people that it could be.

as long as the thread keeps in mind that a single order cancellation is not the same thing as A indefinate store ban, which is my point.

Because the reasonable response still would be that if you placed an order that you werent eligable for, would just be a cancellation, and you would be free to shop whatever you need to, to be eligable for the item and try again. -- (I dont approove of this gatekeeped approach, but their house, their rules.)

But the moment someone comes here with proof that as an existing customer, without no apparent confrontational attitude, got banned for life from the store for trying to order something they werent eligable for, I will be delighted to get out the grill and barbeque sauce for a good roast, but untill then Im stuck with chocolate chip cookies for my morning coffee.

I get it, risk is risk, but fearmongering is also a thing.

 

11 hours ago, Stormlight said:

If enough people just start buying dolls that had been already purchased, instead of through the company or a dealer, Danny will eventually start losing money.

Why go through all that hassle when there are ALWAYS used dolls being thrown up on the market? It’s just easier. 

The aftermarket is a peculiar thing, and as someone who got their start in the hobby through it (back in the days when Volks international sales were not a thing), I do acknowledge it as a thing. But its also a problematic thing.

Sure there will always be items for purchase on the aftermarket, but as you've already pointed out yourself, the price needs to be right for what is being sold, and the condition its in.

Also at any given time, will you be able to get exactly what you want from the aftermarket, versus the store. -- The doll lineup while inflated by various means, is quite scary in terms of the ammount of variety you can pick your favorite from.

the Body warrenty, its seems to have been nerfed last time I checked one disclaimer about it, to one year, and two issues. but it still is something.

Then there is also the supply and demand thing, prices for less desirable items might be reasonable now, but lets say the feed to the aftermarket closed up at some point, but the customer base increased there, at some point the stuff available there would dry up eventually, and also leading to price inflation -- a hypothetical situation, but something I could see happening -- but again, im a weirdo.

 

11 hours ago, Stormlight said:

And the way word is spreading about him slamming the ban-hammer down left and right (whether he actually is or not is totally beside the point)

Im going to be a bit pedantic about this, because even though I dont really like what the company lead has become over the years, Im not exactly for baseless accusations. If there are real issues or stupid rules being implemented, sure -- I'll roast, but not just for my own warm fuzzies without any grounds or merit. Because eventually the baseless stuff will take weight off the real issues that would need to be scrutinized.

 

(and yes.. I had to look stuff up in webster -- not a native english speaker and all)

On 3/31/2021 at 11:34 PM, Stormlight said:

And the way word is spreading about him slamming the ban-hammer down left and right (whether he actually is or not is totally beside the point), how many people are going to risk that happening to them? Why go through all that hassle when there are ALWAYS used dolls being thrown up on the market? It’s just easier. 

Actually, I get the impression that shoe child and his trigger happy banhammer do not really deter people from buying from him. If anything, the idea of exclusivity - being part of the non-haters, the "good" customers, the true smartdoll lovers who support shoe child and his noble, selfless desire to protect his employees - seems to work to make his supporters jump on anyone whom they perceive to be a "hater" in order to prove their loyalty.

15 hours ago, finnleo said:

as long as the thread keeps in mind that a single order cancellation is not the same thing as A indefinate store ban, which is my point.

Agreed, but I do wonder how many people who get that cancellation message don’t return because they feel like their business isn’t welcome. A lot depends on how the cancelation message is worded. 

A reasonable message to the effect of “our stuff doesn’t fit other dolls well, and people who buy it return it in a used and unsellable state so we don’t sell to people who want it for anything other than a SmartDoll” shouldn’t dissuade future business. 

I think part of the issue here on this forum is that we know too much about the hostility between CJ-senpai and “that other doll brand.” There has been so much speculation here that the original hostile tweets have merged with the speculation to form a perception that may have been blown completely out of proportion to the real feelings involved. A message that says “our stuff is made to fit our dolls” ends up being read by us as “I HATE THAT OTHER BRAND SO MUCH!!!!”

 

8 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

how many people who get that cancellation message don’t return because they feel like their business isn’t welcome.

I did think about including this ... again ... because the kid with the MDD ... but now we are nearing the problem with a two year old 60+ page thread dealing with customer service and PR snafu's, that you end up trying to cut your losses and condense stuff (the their house, their silly rules thing) since this has been brought up at least a few times already, and dramatic change is probably not going to happen.

 

8 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

A message that says “our stuff is made to fit our dolls” ends up being read by us as “I HATE THAT OTHER BRAND SO MUCH!!!!”

Again ... for the x'th time ... its still so easy to make this assumption with the underlaying theme of "you use this stuff on my stuff, or else" approach -- almost to the point of it seeming to be reaction bait ... which we've covered X ammount of times already.

But to lighten things up ... we are probably soon due for a moment where we can go all Beuford T Justice again:

(Profanity warning:)

anyways... carry on..

 

54 minutes ago, finnleo said:

Again ... for the x'th time

Honestly, in my case it’s more a question of the last I said this may have been 600 posts ago and I can’t remember that far back. XD

I would like to point out, with the "our stuff is made to fit our dolls" thing being brought up...

 

Most of the Smart Doll wigs barely fit the G0/Semi-real sculpts, including the wigs they came with directly from CJ.  For comparison, a milk Kanata head/F6, a Cinnamon (Mirai) Monday head/G03 and a Flesh DDH07 head.  While Dollfie heads are still bigger, there's a slight difference in the two SmD heads, mostly in the width (I can also get my anime Mirai/F1 and old Resilient/G02 doe further comparison).  That business practice has kind of.... shot him in the foot, because now even SmD stuff (and one of the things he used to be particularly adamant about only fitting SmDs - the wigs) don't really fit SmDs.

11 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

Honestly, in my case

mm, not just you, but other people chipping into the thing. The Dejavu is strong in this one though, very much like a ouroboros if you ask me, in more or less the literal definition with all traits of destruction, rebirth and all.

If someone could figure out how to ignore threads while not logged in, I would probably take that option about now ... heh.

*goes away to tinker with a salvaged alloy PC case in the meantime...*

11 hours ago, Meowjima said:

Most of the Smart Doll wigs barely fit the G0/Semi-real sculpts, including the wigs they came with directly from CJ.

<sarcasm>

But they fit some $mart doll, yes ?

</sarcasm>

Edited April 2, 2021 by finnleo

14 hours ago, Meowjima said:

I would like to point out, with the "our stuff is made to fit our dolls" thing being brought up...

Most of the Smart Doll wigs barely fit the G0/Semi-real sculpts, including the wigs they came with directly from CJ.  For comparison, a milk Kanata head/F6, a Cinnamon (Mirai) Monday head/G03 and a Flesh DDH07 head.  While Dollfie heads are still bigger, there's a slight difference in the two SmD heads, mostly in the width. 

Thank you for the photographs, I didn't realize the head sculpts had changed so drastically. Can you elaborate on the symptoms with the wig size? Is it too loose on the G03? Any luck with a different brand or are they just a tad too small for most wigs?

53 minutes ago, sunlightandtea said:

Thank you for the photographs, I didn't realize the head sculpts had changed so drastically. Can you elaborate on the symptoms with the wig size? Is it too loose on the G03? Any luck with a different brand or are they just a tad too small for most wigs?

The semi-real heads are tighter.  A lot of the time I would have to take the headcap and turn it inside out just to get it to fit.  I never had the problems with Kanata's wig, but I had the issue with both of my semi-real girls.

 

Seconding that the wig that came with my Genesis was an actual struggle to place on her head, unlike literally any other wig I've owned for any other doll. The CJ defense of this is so that "it won't fall off" but even wigs with more elasticity won't fall off if they are the correct size (plus, there are methods aside from "death grip on head" to keep wigs on--velcro, silicone wig caps, some people even use a dab of poster tac, etc.).

I just came across this on FB. 

I sort of cant help myself:  (not applicable beyond the the carwash quote):

 

But to comment on the actual thing the possible issue I see here is "him" ... as in him directly, not customer support.

But still double charging (if its actual charged ammounts, and not just a lingering equity reservation overlapping the actual charge)  is easily proved with bank statements, so even if this was a direct approach attempt, youd think the response might have been more in the lines of, "I dont personally handle this, please contact customer support".

carry on ...

EDIT: again the feeling of dejavu is strong... will have to research the thread tomorrow after sleep and work... maybe... if can be bothered.

Edited April 7, 2021 by finnleo

Does DC have a customer support team/person? I feel like a lot of the problems arise from him trying to handle most of the customer-related stuff personally and defaulting to banning/blocking/canceling orders/etc over anything that could possibly be seen as a "complaint". 

1 hour ago, monkeypizzasonic said:

Does DC have a customer support team/person? I feel like a lot of the problems arise from him trying to handle most of the customer-related stuff personally and defaulting to banning/blocking/canceling orders/etc over anything that could possibly be seen as a "complaint". 

Yes he has dedicated customer service peeps. Most notably Ai-chan, who answers all e-mails and only directs ones that he cannot answer to Danny (like special requests or whatever).

I bet in the FB screenshot, that girl just DMed him on instagram.

12 hours ago, lucidium said:

Yes he has dedicated customer service peeps. Most notably Ai-chan, who answers all e-mails and only directs ones that he cannot answer to Danny (like special requests or whatever).

I bet in the FB screenshot, that girl just DMed him on instagram.

Well that's good at least. Guess the problem comes from what method of communication people end up using.

15 hours ago, lucidium said:

Yes he has dedicated customer service peeps. Most notably Ai-chan, who answers all e-mails and only directs ones that he cannot answer to Danny (like special requests or whatever).

I bet in the FB screenshot, that girl just DMed him on instagram.

i'm pretty suew ai-chan is danny.  

@Meowjima No, I can confirm that they're not the same (he has forwarded e-mails to Danny before, as well as going to cons as part of Danny's team).

Edited April 9, 2021 by lucidium

Does anyone have a source on the rumor that Smart Doll will now only sell Chaos parts (aka repair parts and blank heads) to people with at least five orders with the company?

21 minutes ago, Mothiraffe said:

Does anyone have a source on the rumor that Smart Doll will now only sell Chaos parts (aka repair parts and blank heads) to people with at least five orders with the company?

It's not a rumor. I'm not sure if anyone here was told directly, but I have a couple of friends who were. It was on Danny's Instagram at one point, too.

Edited April 9, 2021 by Selenae

24 minutes ago, Mothiraffe said:

Does anyone have a source on the rumor that Smart Doll will now only sell Chaos parts (aka repair parts and blank heads) to people with at least five orders with the company?

I saw it on a SmD FB page. I think the writing on the chaos parts selling pages was rewritten to say that. On the post talking about it, Danny Choo posted he was taking them down completely instead because of the talk in the comments of that post. No screen caps or anything, but I personally read it, so I'm only passing on what I saw myself.

 

Edit: Actually I looked it, and the announcement he pulled them all off the site is a separate post there. 

 

Edit 2: If you search on the internet for smart doll chaos, it shows the pages,  and it is written there. So, you can go check it out.

 

 

Edited April 9, 2021 by bluepita
More info twice

3 hours ago, bluepita said:

Edit 2: If you search on the internet for smart doll chaos, it shows the pages,  and it is written there. So, you can go check it out.

And for the lazy boy's, and for future use if it goes poof:

smap

 

To be honest, amidst the whole cool kid talk there are some valid points made in there, though no mention on how frequent these issues actually are.

Some, could mean two...

two out of ten orders is twenty percent, which is catastrophic.

Two out of 20 orders is 10 percent, which would be annoying, at 40 its only 5%, and by a 100 orders its only a 2% thing, where anybody selling china knick-knacks on ebay would probably start to be amused by the hubb-bubb.

This is also where the whole eyecandy approach to everything on the site will start biting you in the butt.

In the pages for the chaos items there's talk about the defects, but no pictures of the defects you might see, which sort of also applies to the apparel side of things currently too. Loads of talk about possible variations due to the artificial weathering, but you only get the HDR eyecandy photo's, and nothing about the variation that might occur, and what is acceptable variation according to them, and what is not (though I guess the latter doesent exist.. *ahem* mean, but the thread exists for this reason in the first place)

--

also maybe slightly unrelated but for some peculiar reason my skin starts to crawl whenever Im browsing the site ...

10 hours ago, finnleo said:

for some peculiar reason my skin starts to crawl whenever Im browsing the site ...

Yeah, what's up with that!?

(The kid/baby photos? 🤢 - just knowing they are there..?)

Someday they'll open up again, and start selling chaos stuff in the store again, and it won't be as much of an issue hopefully.

5 times is a lot though; I think 2 or 3 would have worked just as well. Also more pics of stuff you could get that shows some of the defected ones would definitely have helped.

(If they're open next year when I go I am sorely tempted to do a chaos head/parts run and throw them all up for sale so the customizers can have some fun with them.)

In my head, fragile doll for 500$ isn't a toy for a kid that is 3-4 years old. I felt uncomfortable seeing a picture of a doll like that next to a visibly disabled, very young kid on the website. Because this isn't toy for a child like that, and to prove that point - doll is two metres from the kid on a wheelchair , to make sure they won't touch it... 

I understand that everyone have right to have nice things. But it just makes me sad, that there is so many more suitable toys for 500$ that kid can actually touch, and I don't think that a kid below age of 8-10 would be even capable of understanding that it's not a barbie. 

 

It's fragile, stains like crazy, it's nothing like a kids toy, including tiny elements that can snap like wrists. Showing it on the website, next to kid at very young age, visibly disabled implies that it's a toy that is targeted for this group, and I don't feel like it is. 

 

It's my personal feelings, that collectors items for adults  shouldn't be advertised as a toy for kids in young age, and showing pictures like that are a form of advertising, even if those are reposts from fans.

 

I just don't feel comfortable with it. 

 

Down with you, peasants! Down! DOWN! I banish you in the name of wabi sabi!