I was recently asked to write about the BJD companies that have been easy to deal with, both personally and professionally.
The last time I wrote about how I felt about a company, they dropped my account with a loud thud. This time, I don't have that to worry about. Yay.
Truthfully, with one possible exception, none of them have been easy. There were many reasons for the difficulties, and to be fair, the language barrier played a huge part. No one's at fault for that, it was just inherent in dealing with folks who don't know English very well. And I sure don't know Korean or Chinese. Most of the people I dealt with know far more English than I know Korean. :)
There was one company that was way more fun to deal with than the rest, and that was Elfdoll. Who can resist the charms of Ms. Cholong? Certainly not I. Over time as we worked together we became friends, then family. Ms. Cholong smoothed the rough waters Elfdoll occasionally created and made dealing with them a pleasurable experience. It's not easy to balance the needs of both the retail stores and the manufacturer, and Ms. Cholong has become an expert at it. I can truthfully say I wish every company had had a Ms. Cholong equivalent to work with.
I can point out good qualities for pretty much every company I dealt with. For example, Souldoll was generous with replacement parts and that made handling their dolls easier. Unidoll was the same. Pipos improved their production time dramatically over the years and did a beautiful job preparing their dolls for shipping. Those little critters were wrapped and packed to within an inch of their little resin lives. Dollzone gave us all good quality for very reasonable prices. Dollmore was impressive in just the variety of stuff it sold. Elfdoll BJDs were excellent in quality. And so on...
Pretty much all of the BJD companies had the same drawback: lack of, or slow communication. Sometimes it would take days to hear back after I'd sent email asking questions or with special requests. It could take weeks to get a definite decisions on issues. It was frustrating and frankly not helpful when I was trying to get answers for my customers. It wouldn't surprise me if this were a common problem for many types of businesses.
When ordering dolls for myself, I've had the best experience with Iplehouse. I've ordered two dolls from them in the last year and both were sent out in the time frame that was promised. Neither had any defects upon receipt. There were absolutely no problems with either transaction. I both look forward to, and dread what they may introduce in the future-temptation is something I have a hard time resisting. Just ask Leo; he can tell you all about it.
Companies I will try to avoid dealing with: Luts, due to lack of communication. Angelregion, due to the arrogance of the person I had to deal with, and lack of communication. Dollmore, for the rudeness of the person I had to deal with and the awkwardness of the shopping cart. Unless, of course, any or all come out with a doll I can't live without. Then I will place an order, grit my teeth and cross my fingers, or perhaps buy the doll from someone who gets it, then must sell it. I'm just like any other BJD collector; I want what I want and I've never grown up.
I really enjoyed reading your musings in the two posts that you have written. I was especially grateful buying from you because I didn't have to deal with the companies directly due to difficulty with the websites and language too. Shopping was easy and since layaway was offered, it gave me time to buy over time.
I'm sure you had many conversations and communications with doll companies to bring the very best to your customers.
I am glad that you are enjoying your time away from the daily grind; I not only appreciated being a customer, but was thrilled to receive your newsletters.
I wish you lots of fun in your personal collecting and hope that you enjoy it!
Ivy Perez
Hi, Kathy! I'm enjoying reading your blog...your insight is very interesting!
Anyway, regarding the slow communication, or lack of altogether, I've heard that it's due more to the Asian culture; they're eager to please their customers, therefore if they can't give a positive answer, they give no answer at all. And looking at it from an American perspective, that's as unforgivable as if the answer was not what we wanted to hear. Not to mention Americans are ridiculously impatient about everything!
Looking forward to reading more of your blog!
Ah yes, The thud. I remember that thud. It coincided with (although it did not cause) the demise of my own interest in that company. I appreciated your directness then, and I appreciate it even more today. Thank you for this quick overview of the companies you have dealt with. Have to say I agree 100% with you about Ms. Cholong - she's the best thing that ever happened to Elfdoll the Company, and Elfdoll customers, both.
Thanks for having the courage to deal with the language and cultural barriers on your customers' behalf, for being easy to work with for those of us who wished to make special arrangements, for always providing friendly, effective and FAST communication, and for setting an excellent example for doll dealers everywhere. AND, for doing it all so honestly and consistently.
I only wish the commute to visit your store hadn't been such a long one!
Hi Kathy!
It's great to see you are still with us in a different way. I saw the link for Dolls and Friends in my frequent contacts today and surpressed a little sniffle.
A number of my favorite dolls shops have gone of the years, and some of my favorites have fallen out of favor! Luts at one time was one of my favorite sites. I checked for new items daily and placed many orders. The service I got from Doogi was wonderful. Soon Doogi was replaced by Sean. I was disappointed, but soon liked Sean just as well. But then Sean disappeared and I no longer got a name of who I was talking to. That's when the service went downhill. I quit ordering from them and rarely check the site.
Speaking of Ipplehouse, I have always liked their service and my first orders were placed before they had a English site! You would email them with a list of items and they would get back to you with the prices in dollars. When you agreed to the total they set up your order as an item and you checked out with cookbook instructions on the Korean site!
There are things I could say about my experiences with a certain doll shop in Iowa that has changed it's name at least three times but all I will say is I am now suspicious of any shop that's in Iowa! That's not fair to everyone else in Iowa!
Dollmore is arrogance? in what way (or case, perhaps)? it's interesting as I'm thinking to order some stuff from them (but not the doll, yet). I'm doing a correspondence right now and from my point of view, they answer me nicely...
and the shopping cart?...i don't know...it's pretty normal for me...
(i've seen worse than that...)
I agree with Krissy, I'm an asian and i live in this culture and in an Asian country. We have different way of communication. Sometimes, it's better to deal with 'directly' face to face...from my experience, sometimes, some people will find that an answer will sound rude in email(I see it in my job, the way my friend answer the email with daily-style-conversation...it was like...duuuhhhh...haha...) but if you talk directly, no, it's very rare that they are rude at the first sight (^.^)'.
I think, it's a matter of adjustment to another language. English is the best lang i knew so far that can say something flat, strict, but not too offensive. In Asia, it's sometimes kind of whether it's very polite or (sounds) not...it's because, from my experience, when the 'answer' is too nice, most people think that it's like "bargainable" or "negotiatable". So, when they are answering it strict, sometimes, it sounds rude...
moreover, there are some custom trading here...it's like, you can't exchange or return or ask for money refund for things you buy...although that's NOT always the case...but i think it's quite common and we are very get used to it...i guess, that has to do with my previous explanation.
Some people need to express their language more properly...i'm still learning, too...
Believe me, even speaking in 'national' language can be different with speaking in 'tribe or local' language. even in my country contains with a lot of tribes, sometimes, my tribe don't feel comfortable with the way other tribes talking (and vice versa) (^o^)'...but we are getting used to it because we are learning each other and absorb the good value from each other, too...
(^.^)
Interesting...I'm pretty new to the bjd world and was thinking about ordering a doll...right now I'm thinking about D.O.D.
Ahh, asian cultures, what you consider 'rude' just might be their way of doing business. But, yes, when I buy things in asian countries I try to bear with the brusque way they sometimes brush me off or talk to me. =_= If it's one thing I've learned is that asian people never get stuff done over email. You have to constantly nag like crazy for them to reach a decisions.
It was an insightful post, I'll be sure to take your opinion into consideration when buying my first bjd!