The Facebook debacle & other issues

@Deyja Exactly my thoughts. But at this point, all I can do is shake my head, while quietly being thankful for Obitsu, Volks, and Azone.

I'll leave the rest of you guys to it, though. I've already voiced my thoughts regarding Smartdoll on older pages, and do not want to clog this thread up with repeated opinions.

Edited April 11, 2021 by Selenae

This is purely speculative, 100% my opinion, and not backed by verified facts. 

 

I feel like Danny doesn't actually experience 99% of the problems he claims to have selling Smart Dolls, and he's just saying "we have too many problematic customers so no one can buy spare parts anymore" as an excuse to stop selling them because it bothers him when people aren't trapped in the cycle of SmD in order to repair or customize dolls. On god I'd sauté and eat my shoes if he posts verifiable evidence to the contrary. Not just with this issue, with the other things he's said in the past about how his customers are simply too entitled for him to hope to succeed as a business-owner. He's said these things time and time again and never once has there been a shred of evidence to back that up. 

After I find a copy of Blue Prowess I might be done even getting them secondhand. I am so very tired of the Danny Drama. 😞

I feel like he might be actually experiencing what he says he does. 

But there are few factors, in my opinion. 

Targeting product to young children combined with lack of pictures of actual defects.

10 year old doesn't understand wabi Sabi, and cannot comprehend the website. Parents are buying toy. They see eye candy pictures, with absolutely no images of potential blemishes. Without any proper information that it's not a toy. 

So parents are getting their 500$ toy, and it's not like on pictures, and they aren't in the hobby to understand what is a normal blemish and wabi Sabi and what is a factory defect. Or kid breaks it easy. Or it gets stained in a week, because kid obviously won't provide proper care for fragile art doll. 

 

So if you will advertise product as something that it's not, then you will have unhappy customers. I feel like smart doll wanted to make it to the mainstream so much, to target people outside of dolly world. It's brilliant, and very business savvy to target a toy alike stuff for children, showing other children with it. 

But if I wouldn't know much about dolls and wouldn't want to know... And my kid would just ask for particular doll and I would be crazy enough to spend so much on a toy... Then I would be unhappy with my purchase. Because I would expect a barbie like experience, that I can leave a child with a toy. But leaving 7 year old with a smart doll, will most likely effect in a broken smart doll, stained, etc. I don't know any normal parent, who would be fine with spending 500$ on a toy that gets broken on the first day, because it's not really a toy. It is parents fault for not making enough research, but... People arent thorough, and we can't change it, we can just adapt our business model to avoid it, like realistic pictures of potential defects for example. 

If you are targeting your dolls to entitled parents, then don't be surprised that your customer base is entitled... 

 

4 hours ago, Mothiraffe said:

This is purely speculative, 100% my opinion, and not backed by verified facts. 

 

I feel like Danny doesn't actually experience 99% of the problems he claims to have selling Smart Dolls, and he's just saying "we have too many problematic customers so no one can buy spare parts anymore" as an excuse to stop selling them because it bothers him when people aren't trapped in the cycle of SmD in order to repair or customize dolls. On god I'd sauté and eat my shoes if he posts verifiable evidence to the contrary. Not just with this issue, with the other things he's said in the past about how his customers are simply too entitled for him to hope to succeed as a business-owner. He's said these things time and time again and never once has there been a shred of evidence to back that up. 

After I find a copy of Blue Prowess I might be done even getting them secondhand. I am so very tired of the Danny Drama. 😞

I think anyone who has worked in a customer service role or who handles customer email inquiries wouldn’t doubt that he really -does- get some grade A morons in his inbox on the regular because....that’s what happens to everybody. Unfortunately the world is full of incredibly dumb people and they tend to be the loudest. 

But the fact is that he can’t do anything about it. There’s an infinite supply of idiots in the world. In a perfect world, sure, he wouldn’t have to deal with people who never read, but that’s not reality. No, I’m not saying he should tolerate the exact same type of annoying customers everyone else has to deal with, I’m just saying that he’s fighting a losing battle by trying to cut down on them because no matter what, there will always be more. Therefore my issue with how he reacts to annoying customers has consistently been the fact that -he punishes everyone-, even (especially..?) his fans, who typically aren’t the ones behaving badly.
 

I just... can’t understand the stress of being a Smartdoll fan nowadays, having to constantly step on eggshells and be on your best behaviour at all times and choose your words extremely carefully and then in the end it doesn’t even matter, because no matter how well -you- obeyed all the rules, you’re still going to lose a privilege you had before because of someone else?? Someone else complained about a wig so now no one gets wigs. Someone else complained about release dates so now no release dates. Someone else complained about chaos items so now only 5+ buyers can have chaos parts. Why are the fans being punished for the actions of ‘the entitled’? What part of that is fair? And how does that give anyone incentive to follow his ever expanding list of rules if it doesn’t matter anyway?

(This is setting aside the fact that he does constantly blow ‘complaints’ out of proportion and exaggerates how many times he might receive a certain inquiry. Even if we take what he says at face value, it still makes no sense to me to punish the people who are actually behaving. Sure, the person who caused the wrath was probably also banned, but someone else is going to take their place.)

Edited April 11, 2021 by Monty

48 minutes ago, Monty said:

Someone else complained about a wig so now no one gets wigs. Someone else complained about release dates so now no release dates. Someone else complained about chaos items so now only 5+ buyers can have chaos parts. 

XD I can't even express how very annoying that is. (But I try anyway.) 💢🤬💀💩

As someone currently working in customer service, I can confirm that people Do Not Read. I cannot tell you how many times people have come up to me at the register with a 20% off coupon they expect to use even though it says "online only" right above it! Not even in small print!

And some people get pissy about not being able to use it, but most people are mildly disappointed but listen to my explanation about which coupons they can use and move on with their lives. But if I was running the store, I would not take away coupons completely just because some people don't read (and would probably not register anything but the "20% off" even if we put the "online only" part above it in bright red, bolded, and underlined twice).

On 4/10/2021 at 10:54 PM, forged_in_mess said:

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. 

Well that's some understatement. One of my friend has ball jointed dolls and a kid (not that young anymore), but the kid was taught and totally knew that these dolls are valuable items and the dolls need extra care. That's just up to parent how you teach your kid to handle things and how you teach that some items are more valuable than others. (And just a sidenote, I totally was able to tell authentic Barbie from "fake" Barbies and other kinds of dolls way before age 8 )

But I still don't think that Smartdolls should be marketed for the kids _by_default_. 

I was also one of those kids that appreciated and took care of pricey toys at a young age.  I have no problem handing some of my more robust resin dolls to small children not even my own, with the understanding something can still not break. 

I don't have a problem with Smart Dolls being marketed to kids, but I agree that having that be the default marketing tactic doesn't take into the consideration that there is an expected resilience in "toys" that are generally missing from collector items, and these are most definitely "collector" items. I feel there needs to be more information available to the purchaser/parent as to the particular quirks to be expected.  It would definitely help alleviate complaints from uninitiated first time owners.

When it comes to marketing to kids, I’m much more concerned about the choking hazards than I am the durability of the doll. 

45 minutes ago, Akito said:

Well that's some understatement. One of my friend has ball jointed dolls and a kid (not that young anymore), but the kid was taught and totally knew that these dolls are valuable items and the dolls need extra care. That's just up to parent how you teach your kid to handle things and how you teach that some items are more valuable than others. (And just a sidenote, I totally was able to tell authentic Barbie from "fake" Barbies and other kinds of dolls way before age 8 )

But I still don't think that Smartdolls should be marketed for the kids _by_default_. 

I feel like there is a difference between a doll that belongs to mom and is handled by the kid with supervision and a smart doll being bought for kid to play with like it would play with barbie. Kid can of course be careful under care, but maybe I don't have that much knowledge about all kids psyche, but I just don't see them remembering about being careful, if left alone with smart doll. In heat of the play they could easily snap wrist in seconds, not from bad will, but from nature of being a more impulse driven. 

 

It just reminds me of a trend, that was happening when I was a child, when on baby showers mothers were given absolutely useless stuff for infant, like gold cross, some engraved spoons, jewelery etc. Nothing that a child at that age can actually play with, but something that is "for the child" but needs to stand on a high shelf so child won't touch it. 

It seems that the about us page has been updated at some point to say "Made by kids for kids"



needless to say... this is a bit confusing O.o

My left eyebrown has reached the sky, and usually sky's the limit.

 

 

Ps: soooo... exploitation of child labor, uh? XD

I believe this is his convoluted attempt to mansplain his reason for catering to tiny, destructive humans.

And then when the parents who PAID for the doll their kids break attempt to use that warranty, he’ll probably mansplain in his usual manner why the warranty is null and void.

Ummm... anyone having de'ja vu of American girl by that last bit?

I remember reading about adults who have broken smartdolls simply by -hugging- them, as well as constant stories on how easily that spine snaps (including the one on the smd I used to own). There are owners of milk dolls scared to do anything with their dolls because if they break they can’t get replacement parts. Either he’s completely reworked the frame again without telling anyone to be more resilient to breakages from kids or that blurb about how resistant they are is a load of poo.

 

and again, the burning question of whether he has literally any certification to/has or will do any of the extensive testing required to sell to kids like this, now that he’s finally pretending they’re the target market. He could be in for some legal trouble. 

Edited April 13, 2021 by Monty

4 hours ago, Monty said:

Either he’s completely reworked the frame again without telling anyone to be more resilient to breakages from kids or that blurb about how resistant they are is a load of poo.

My money is on the latter...

One of his recent insta posts did show they were working on a new frame, but I assume if it was already in production/being used they would have said something.

I had an American Girl doll when I was younger, and I remember being afraid to play with her much because she was so "fancy" and expensive. 

Maybe a smaller, more durable version of SmD with less parts but the same customizability/inclusiveness aspect that could be specifically marketed to kids would be better? IDK if that's something DC has any interest in developing though.

On 4/10/2021 at 5:23 PM, Selenae said:

@Deyja Exactly my thoughts. But at this point, all I can do is shake my head, while quietly being thankful for Obitsu, Volks, and Azone.

I'll leave the rest of you guys to it, though. I've already voiced my thoughts regarding Smartdoll on older pages, and do not want to clog this thread up with repeated opinions.

 

**Sighs in not privileged....

 

Just that dolls tend to be a representation and by 2021 you'd think there would be companies that get with the program if they sell internationally and realize that when you call things "Beautiful" and leave out a group. It really does hurt...

I mean it's not like I don't buy other kinds, because yes I do have a DD. But just saying comments like that tend to depress me because it's a HUGE reminder even if it's not meant to be hurtful...

1 hour ago, monkeypizzasonic said:

Maybe a smaller, more durable version of SmD with less parts but the same customizability/inclusiveness aspect that could be specifically marketed to kids would be better? IDK if that's something DC has any interest in developing though.

Like Cortex?

44 minutes ago, Q_T said:

 

**Sighs in not privileged....

 

Just that dolls tend to be a representation and by 2021 you'd think there would be companies that get with the program if they sell internationally and realize that when you call things "Beautiful" and leave out a group. It really does hurt...

I mean it's not like I don't buy other kinds, because yes I do have a DD. But just saying comments like that tend to depress me because it's a HUGE reminder even if it's not meant to be hurtful...

Apologies, but I don't really understand what are you referring to?

Despite what I think of SMD myself (not a huge fan, really) I think they actually do carry a decent range of inclusive products.

I believe they make like what, 4 skin tones? Milk, cinnamon, tea, cocoa... more than Volks does (except the 3 shades of white & fairly mild tan).

The only thing I personally think is lacking is a wider range of body types, but I guess that's just a matter of time, before they make younger/shorter/more generous sizes.

3 minutes ago, Bellatrix said:

I believe they make like what, 4 skin tones? Milk, cinnamon, tea, cocoa... more than Volks does (except the 3 shades of white & fairly mild tan).

Plus blue, but if you add in rainbow colors Volks makes 6 colors and SmD makes 5. 

1 hour ago, BeyondTime said:

Plus blue, but if you add in rainbow colors Volks makes 6 colors and SmD makes 5. 

Yeah I was referring to more natural / properly inclusive colours ahah

37 minutes ago, Bellatrix said:

Yeah I was referring to more natural / properly inclusive colours ahah

Yeah, I kind of figured. I was just being pedantic. XD

@Q_T Dude, I am disabled, blind, and in a wheelchair. Don't you dare use my words to complain about "privilege."

2 hours ago, Yumeiro said:

Like Cortex?

Cortex wasn't marketed for kids though, I feel like it was more marketed towards collectors who wanted to build doll kits. It probably had more smaller pieces than the vinyl dolls because of that, so the cortex as it was sold wouldn't have been a good choice for younger fans.

 

...I think QT was saying that Volks/Obitsu/Azone don't have the range of skin colors SmD has, so anybody who wants a dark-skinned 1/3 vinyl bjd and doesn't want to deal with dyeing) doesn't have the option of choosing another company over Smartdoll*? "Privileged" is kinda an extreme way to put it though.

*Unless/until Volks starts releasing tan Dollfie Icons more often