Shopping Are there any doll companies that you wouldn’t order from again?

This is my personal opinion, so take it for what it's worth.
I think what companies to avoid is kind of the wrong question.

I think what is much more impritant is to educate yourself in what to look for in a good company and how to find out about things to avoid. I know this is not what you asked for, but hear me out.
A list of specific companies would sort of suggest that as long as you avoid those specific companies you would be fine and no matter how detailed and nuanced you make the list it will also imply that those companies as some how inferior to companies not on the list. But here is the thing: People come in to this from very diferent perspectives and what is something easily forgiven or worked around by one collector could be an absolute dealbreaker for another.
Another thing to consider is that new companies appeares all the time and in my experience have a higher risk of having some problems. This is perfectly natural, we are all beginners at one point and many doll artists have no background in business at all. But when there are not a lot of customers yet, there is no one to add them to the list and if they were to be added, that could still haunt them once they got their act together, wich is not exactly fair. A lot of really great companies have hade serious problems in the past. Things do change over time and it's important to make your decisions based on current information.

If I were to make a list of things to pay attention to it would read something like this:
1. Wait times. Make sure you know how well this company tends to keep their time estimates. There is a large grey area between cmpanies that tend to be a little late but delivers eventually and companies that tend to just keep their customers on hold for very long periods of time. Only you can decide how long is too long and you can only do that if you know the companys track record.
2. Quality control. Make sure you understand in what conditions the dolls you are looking at usually arrives. Many companies will list a number of imperfections that are considered normal and not cause for a refund. Some companies may have a history of colous varying a lot from batch to batch. Some collectors are fine with that and even happy to see the hand on the artist in their dolls, other want industrial perfection and of course there is everyone in between. Only you can decide what is "good enough" in your book.
3. Comunication. Different companies handle their customer service and comunications in different ways. make sure you know of a way to contact the company if there is need to do so. Se if ther is any consensus in the hobby about the best way to contact a company and how quickly and clearly the tend to reply. Now weight this against the previous two points. A company that are known for being well organized and have a quick turn around and few quality issues can perhaps be forgiven for not having the best comunication, but for a company that is well known for delays or other problems you realy need that life line of being able to get a good respons if something goes wrong. Also take things like the potential language barrier into account.
4. Control your expectations. Not all companies have a ton of info about their dolls. Not all companies have the clearest photos of their dolls (this goes both ways, some don't do them justice at all, others are edited to a point where they are not entirely honest any more). Hearing about a bit of real life experience with the dolls is valuable and seeing owner pictures can help as well. But in the end, no matter what we do, we have to accept that there may be things about the doll that we don't know until we hold it on our hands. Regualting expectations and being a little bit humble can help us avoiding dissapointment.

I know it's not what you asked for, but I honestly think it's a more useful approach. Doing your own research is absolutely vital in a hobby as diverse as this one.

Edit to add: This assumes companies not allready banned on DoA, by the way. Those would probably be a good idea to stay away from regardless, but even there educating yourself first and make your own well informed decision after that is never a bad idea.

 

I think this is really true! For example, I usually avoid dolls that come with seam lines. I always make a note if a body I like comes with seamlines as a potential dealbreaker. I don't personally care for them for my own dolls and I don't have the experience with dolls enough to sand them down myself.

I also will say that some companies have a nonstandard way of attaching the head to the body. When I first got a doll with a faceplate I dropped it a lot every time I tried to get it off. These are things you won't really know until the doll is in your hands, but it's definitely something I would avoid again because personally I found it to be a hassle.

 

Dollshe.
Sorry, not sorry. Never again.

 

Unfortunately (because I think their sculpts are beautiful) Project Delta. I ordered a doll head from them a while back. I had to order via email, and they really just didn't seem to know what they were doing. I paid for the head in full, including their quoted shipping and fees, but over the next few days they kept asking for more money. First it was an "oops, actually we increased the price since you paid so you owe us more now", then it was "You need to pay shipping".

I did get the head in under a month, and it was very nice. They've probably gotten their act together since, but it left such a sour taste in my mouth I just can't buy directly from them anymore. I definitely felt like a sucker for that whole transaction

 

Definitely agree with @Lillith, what a great post!

But to also answer your question: Dollshe. I won't order from them again and neither should you.

I've ordered 2 dolls from Dollshe, and I got them in a timely manner and they are gorgeous dolls. But it was a long time ago, and if you check on the waiting room thread and discussion thread here on DoA, you find it absolutely full of people who've been waiting literally for years for their orders. Constantly being strung along by Dollshe. Being told "oh it'll ship next month". For years. Then they run huge discount sales to attract more orders, often saying the order will ship within some short time period, and those get added to the list of orders that in fact take years to fulfill. The owner has an instagram account and when people posted comments asking about Dollshe's outrageous wait times, he deleted the comments. Last I saw, he made his account private because that happened so much. Not good! So even though I've personally had fine experiences with them, I would 100% never order from them again.

 

Angelesque- started out fine but then got steadily worse over time. The biggest issues were 'forgetting' to order dolls, ordering the wrong doll and then blaming on the company (and not resolving the issue), 'forgetting' to reply to important messages, 'forgetting' to post dolls/thing out and so on. There's a whole thread about the issues with this dealer so don't need to go in to detail here.

Dolkus- I had initial had some good experience with them and then had a tough time when they went through the period of time where they were very very bad. I've only ordered once since then for a doll in stock that was only available through them and it took them nearly 3 months to simply ship the doll (the doll had been advertised as being in stock for nearly a year at that point so no manufacture delay). So seems they're still not great and I would only order through them if I absolutely could not get the doll anywhere else.

Spirit Doll- doll arrived with damaged face up and was randomly spattered with paint. The offered to redo the face up but when I sent the head out, it got bounced back to me. They then said their letterbox was broken and they couldn't received packages. So I don't know why they told me to send the head back and I was pretty annoyed that I wasted another $30 on postage for nothing. I didn't particularly like the body and didn't want to pay for another face up so just sold the doll in the end. Given that most of SD's doll don't appeal to me I doubt i'll buy from again and probably wouldn't bother paying for a face up.

Ringdoll- I had a reasonably good 1st order from them (just one part had damaged paintwork but not a biggie). But then I had a pretty stressful time with my last order. I've posted about it in the company review thread but will quickly go over it here.
They sent the doll in the wrong colour so offered to send a new doll in the correct colour. They then sent me a completely trashed, chipped, stained, heavily yellowed body with a broken wrist peg (I assume it's an ex-display one). My poor dealer had to chase them for six months to get a replacement hand.
Then the head for the body took over a year for them to send and arrived with no face up because the artist decided not to do it. And because the hand and head is new they don't match the very yellowed body. Thankfully I had a yellowed Dika head that needed the body that was a good colour match so after spending several hours cleaning up/restoring the body I've used it for that (still need to blush the new hands to match).
So yeah, given that RD's wait times are increasingly longer and other people have had issues with the company, I don't want to risk ordering from them again. Which is a shame as I do like thier style and when they get it right, their stuff is reasonably good.

I've had a few niggles with other companies with missing parts or lackluster face ups but the majority of the time i've been very happy with what I got. And there's been companies who had done the most amazing face ups or have been so kind in making a replacement part etc that it massively outweighed a couple of difficult orders. I could do a whole essay about the good company experiences I've had

 

Your post is wonderful Lillith, and I think it addresses the biggest usefulness of a forum community in helping others to have positive ordering experiences, boiled down to:

So my tiny contributions are this:
I have ordered directly from so few companies it's actually sad. But I probably wouldn't order from Impldoll again, which is absolutely not to say that I wouldn't recommend the company, because they have never wronged me in any way. I just think that after trying a couple times, I really don't like to own their dolls myself. Sometimes that's the way it goes! (Watch though I'll order one of their bodies with the extra shoulder joint one day though because I like to tempt fate and I keep looking at it haha)

Otherwise I have a long standing dislike of ordering from Doll Peddlar (which is a USA based dealer who does carry actual dolls and other items), and I do not order from their webpage, though I did order a single wig from their Ebay recently. I heard a lot of negative things suddenly about their customer interactions recently which I am not really referring to, but I don't find the site user friendly, I don't find the prices are professional, and I didn't appreciate several years ago when I ordered an outfit set from them that said it included a coat, but it didn't arrive with one, and when I asked them they said I have to buy it separately if I want it, regardless of their mistake in how they described the outfit.

 

I have only found one company I won’t buy again but it’s mainly just not my style. I bought one Myou to try them out in a sense. I loved the sculpt of this one doll, the resin, and posing but the proportions just didn’t work with any of my others.

 

I only had one experience bad enough to quit a company completely. My experience with Dream of Doll was bad enough I never went back to their site. I didn't even realize I didn't go back until last year when I noticed I didn't recognize any of the releases after my doll!

I got a doll with multiple casting flaws after spending half a month trying to figure out how to fax them credit card info with little to no help from their side. If I had been older and wiser, I would have spent my money elsewhere after a couple days of trying to pay.

 

Dollshe as everyone else has said, because of the wait times. I got lucky and got my Grant Phillippe promptly, but that was years ago. Fairyland seems to me to have an attitude problem. Fantasia keeps disappearing and reappearing with the same old problems. There are one or two dealers I won't buy from as well.

 

I've generally had pleasant (or at least decent) experiences with the companies I've ordered from (or received bjds from—in the case of secondhand). If there's a sculpt I liked from those companies, I wouldn't have an issue with putting in an order again with them.

That said—there are a couple of them I'd either be hesitant to do business with again, or would downright never order from directly (as in from company, but might pick up secondhand if one crosses my path and tickles my fancy). The most notable one for me is Dollshe. I personally haven't had any order issues in the three I've actually placed, but those were before everything went to chaos. With how his track record has only gotten exorbitantly worse in the time since then, I wouldn't feel safe betting away my money on a direct order through him again. At this rate, the chances of seeing either doll or a refund would be a piddly 5% at best.

For more minor offenses:

• Fantasia Doll: I was lucky in the fact that I had competent enough communicate throughout the process of my order and received what I purchased. Why they're on here—since then, there've been several others who haven't heard back nor received the dolls they ordered, or received the wrong items. The only reason I don't put them at the same level as Dollshe? My take on their absence/lack of communication might be likely due to some health-related issues they've struggled with for years, on top of doing all the casting/design work themselves. I'm not saying this to excuse their actions, but to express that it's not so much malicious (as it is in the Dollshe case) as it is negligence that's more likely than not unintended. If something were to come to light that would speak otherwise, I'm willing to change my answer.
• Not so much from personal experience, but I have heard that ordering directly from Bobobie is notoriously problematic. Slow/lack of communication, not always clear with answers in response, slower production than their sister company (Resinsoul), etc.

That's about all I can think of at this moment. I might add on to this (or post a separate response) if any further companies come to mind.

 

I know this is not what you want to hear, but wouldn't it be considerably easier to go to the corresponding product and service review threads and the waiting room threads once you are interested in a specific company, so you can see if it fits your expectations?
I mean this is why DoA has these threads...? Please, I don't mean to be overcritical or unkind, but I don't really understand what a "what companies do you avoid/ what companies do you have bad experiences with" - thread is meant to achieve? Especially as there are hundreds of companies, and there will always be someone, somewhere who will have had a problematic experience.

 

Dollshe. I'm still waiting for dolls from 2018.
Never ever again. Only second hand from now on. Especially since he's shipping out dolls unstrung. And I've had several dolls with thin spots in their resin recently.

 

Dollshe. I ordered a Fashion Mini in 2018, patiently waited three years, and then realized the company/artist had made the very poor decision of selling dolls they couldn't (or wouldn't) make. And then didn't offer refunds or the option to change their order to a doll they could make, but kept their customers waiting. After waiting over three years I canceled my order. I had known Dollshe had a reputation for long wait times and ordered through BJDivas, who were great to work with. I've since ordered other dolls through them.

Yes, Dollshe makes beautiful dolls, but so do many other companies, and they ship within a year reliably. Please spare yourself the headache and buy from another company.

 

Ringdoll. As lovely as their doll is they took 16 months, yes, 16 months to send me a pair of heel feet they forgot to send in my original fullset order. I had to do a bunch of follow up and when the 12 months hit, I even requested to cancel the heel and get my $20 refunds and cutting my losses. They refused and made me wait another 6 months.

In this case, the heel was a critical piece in the doll because I was planning on making her a character that had a particular heel shoes design. There werr other incidents like overhcarge for shipping etc but it been so loong i forgot the full details. Either way. I end up deciding to sell the doll because too many negative associations came with Ringdoll now.

 

Nobility Doll. THe custom muscular girl was a fiasco, years ago, and caused me too much stress. I ended up selling the doll. I don't even know if they exist anymore.

Dollshe. NEVER AGAIN, not unless the world flips over and he suddenly is stuck doing only sculpting, on an enforced schedule, and someone ELSE manages his business. I got a head direct from Dollshe I think but everything since way back when he was reliable-ish, I have gotten secondhand.

 

I'm another in the NEVER AGAIN, DOLLSHE group. The wait times and the somewhat incoherent casting order is just terrible. Dollshe is a great sculptor but an absolute garbage business/management guy. And there's always that looming fear that the "Need more orders to pay for casting older orders because he's dawdled so long business costs have gone up but the deep discount sales barely cover expenses" situation will fall off a cliff... Like I am surprised there are people who are still okay with ordering from Dollshe despite all the evidence it will be a miserable wait, but he is going to run out of people with saintly patience sooner than later.

I don't think Shinedoll is around to even order from anymore, but it was my worst packed doll with the neck piece poking out of the box.

Otherwise, I haven't really had many issues so bad I would swear off a company... which is kind of lucky for having been in the hobby for 14 years.

 

If you're in love with Dlace's dolls like me, do yourself a favour and wait a bit (months/years). The artist is very swamped right now and can't deal with many parallel orders. I personally won't order again for a few years, or at least until I finally get my order...

 

I probably won't order directly from Fairyland, having had their dolls secondhand. I love the ones that I've had but the quality control is... lacking. The seam lines really bug me, and the magnets are really hit or miss.

 

As one whose collection is mostly Fairyland, I feel you. Seam lines all over the place (which can be mistaken for cracks on fantasy parts), head caps that are too loose or too tight, the neck key not always staying in place, bobble heads, and even more. And to top it all off, they're some of the priciest dolls on the market.

 

From 2018?!?! That's an absolutely awful wait time my goodness. I'm so sorry to hear that!
I'll have to make note to avoid that company [I'm new enough where I never realized Dollshe had such an issue]. I can tolerate up to a years wait time after that it's just trying. I understand there needs to be some patience but with the prices of BJD's especially it's just really disappointing so many company's have such issues.

 

Yeah, it's been pretty ridiculous. Unfortunately the wait times weren't that bad when I ordered. And those sales snagged me. But now after this amount of time it's just a big Nope for me.
I've seen some people that haven't updated the wait list on orders as old as 2016.
I'm not sure if they're actually still waiting or it just took so long they never updated it.
Plus they've sent out dolls to people who ordered long after I did. It's basically just insult to injury at this point.

 

The dollshe comments are cracking me up, mainly because I expected it. I waited around a year for my order and I consider that having come away relatively unscathed.

 

THis is so sad I loved the Grant Phillippe doll but i heard that they have some delivery problems so I decided don't bought it, anyway I had the hope of bought from the company some day, its so sad to hear that they still having problems.

 

You’re not the only one…. The name choice plus the negative reviews have firmly cemented the brand name as Dollsh*t to me