Ordering Dollshe ordering questions--

Well, I can’t help you with the rest but here is the waitlist so you can probably ballpark the wait time.

 

@Orionis Wait times for Dollshe are a bit insane. Once in a great, great while, they will happen to have what you ordered in stock, and send it quickly. However the average wait time is anywhere from nine months to a year. I know someone who's been waiting over two years. If you can find what you're looking for secondhand, I recommend it, provided you don't want to wait.

My own experience with Dollshe's customer service was good- I once ordered something by mistake and had to ask them to cancel it. They got back to me quickly and were polite and professional. This was several years ago, however. If you're US-side, I recommend going through BJDivas if you have any doubts. It won't cost you any more, you'll only have to pay for US shipping, and you can have a layaway for as long as you need, in as many increments as you want.

Dollshe's ordering is straightforward and I don't think there's anything additional to expect outside of the wait time. However, another good place to ask would be the Dollshe threads in the Discussion catagory (In whichever size you're shooting for).

 

I hang out in the wait room a lot (and now I'm even on the list), but I've seen wait times between 6-8 months and two years. the Longer end of that with dark resins or honey resin, and sculpts that arent completed yet (ie: he's just shown prototypes).

End product is really high quality. I've ordered heads from him in pure and honey resin, a whole doll in honey resin, and I own a body in one of his blue resins. It's all really well made. the joints seem to hold really well, and pose really well. The honey resins sand well, and have no seamlines, but are translucent, so some people love that, and some don't.

I've heard mixed reviews on dollshe answering emails. I ordered the full doll direct, and sometimes there was a bit of a wait for replies. also everything will always be cast "Next Month". Probably take that with a grain of salt. BJDivas dealt with my head order. They were really awesome with communication, but didn't always have answers, becasue they still have to deal with dollshe. They try though, and they're really great form my experience.

Tips for direct orders: go through a dealer if you want a layaway. Companies don't make dolls till they're paid in full, but Divas pays in advance and so the doll is ordered at the start of your layaway. With dollshe, expect to be told "next month" a lot, without it necessarily being next month, and just know that it'll show up, and it'll be very well made when it does.

I can't answer to whether or not it's better to go second hand. They'll likely cost more than the current sales--most people selling didn't pay these prices--and they're usually in the more common resin colours. Statistically blue, green, and the darkest tans/greys are just less common and pop up second hand less often. I've seen all of them eventually, but you may be in for a wait for the combo you want to pop up, depending on the popularity of the sculpt/resin colour.

 

Yeah, so, I've been waiting about 21-22 months for a dollshe doll by now... I don't expect her anytime soon, so I'm going by what other people say and I'm hoping she'll be as high quality as their other dolls! Typically, they do respond to emails within a day or two but if the question is anything along the lines of "When will my doll get cast?" don't expect an accurate answer.

If you're within the US and a layaway/lower shipping costs sound appealing, 100% order through BJDivas. They have lovely customer service and have been very friendly and helpful whenever I've directed a question their way. They just moved, so they're a bit behind on emails, but still respond fairly quickly.

If you can find the doll of your dreams secondhand, that'll most likely be the fastest way to get them. Whether you can or not, I don't know. I agree with Chameleon, they'll likely be more expensive than any sale prices from the dealer, but you'll receive them much more quickly and only you know what the difference between a few weeks and a few years is worth when considering the cost of a doll.

 

Some people are getting 10-12 months wait, but some have gone up to THREE years. I think 3 years have been for new not-yet-produced products, but less popular sculpts and rarer skin tones (including honey) will increase your wait. Two years seem pretty frequent.
Dollshe seems to cast out of order. We are still trying to figure out if he does batches by sculpt or by skin first.

Also someone in the waiting room has recently informed us that dollshe only starts production at the END of the layaway. Meanwhile bjdivas is supposed to pay the whole order upfront to dollshe so IN THEORY you could save on wait time with them, but then again they place bigger orders.

I got dolls from Dollshe around 2014-2016 (if I remember correctly) and the quality was great! Absolutely no complaints there.
Whenever I email them with product questions, or my recent layaway payments, I’ve gotten decently fast replies and they’re helpful.

 

Even if not in US I can still recommend BJDivas. They offer an international shipping which means that the body will be sent straight to you instead of going to the US first.
I decided to do a layaway for my two boys because I would be waiting for a year anyway so why not pay in small amounts and have them ready at the end of that layaway.

 

I love Divas, and I’m also international (Canada). It’s reassuring having the dealer able to communicate with you even when there’s no real news. I have an order through them right now that I’ll hopefully see before I graduate (spring ‘22 if I don’t do honours, ‘23 if I do).

 

BJDivas also sometimes has dollshe dolls in stock, so you can look there too.

 

I am a long time customer of Dollshe, and I can verify that the wait times are longer now than what they were before, although all of my orders have arrived within 6 months when I bugged them about it a couple of times. My last arrival was last October. They do always send the tracking code to me directly when my order ships. So, they do reply fast and do have in my experience good customer service, but there will be a lot of explanations and shipping schedules they will not likely adhere to if you ask when your order is ready. Expect to hear explanations about broken molds and printers. Also, if they promise to ship by date x, that is usually not a real promise.

BJDivas is great for international customers if you want someone to deal with the communication/customer service for you and need layaway and want to get your doll made already during it if possible. With them your order will be put in the wait line already during your layaway. But, please remember that it is not morally very nice to threaten to open a PayPal claim to pressure the dealer if you decide you do not want to wait over the six month mark, as the dealers cannot help the wait, and all that you refuse to pay will be paid by BJDivas, which harms their operation and not Dollshe.

I can unfortunately for my part say that the quality in newer dolls is weaker. But this means dolls that were designed later on, as the quality decrease is mainly in engineering, not in resin itself. The resin has changed colours likely during 2019, but I cannot see other changes in it. The dolls that were designed earlier like 28M and 26F, still have the silicone nubs that help with the posing if you order them now, and are overall good quality still. Only renewal is that they switched the metal neck enforcement into a plastic one, and stopped offering wrinkle-lipped versions of them. But the newer designs like Diana and Khan are in my opinion much worse. Their knees buckle and they cannot be left standing unattended at all, as they are so floppy. Diana had a wrong size neck hook when she arrived, her head couldn't be removed at all. Others had this problem too when I asked. The newer molds do not have the silicone nubs, never did, and it seems like the engineering work is minimal all over. Diana needed both sueding and wiring to be even near to what my 26F woman body was.

So, in short, for quality it does not in my experience matter whether you buy second hand or directly from them, but shipping is definitely faster. But if you do not like the newer resin colours (they are essentially the same as old but a little pinker in shade, only oriental is much pinker than it was), you should look for pre-2019 dolls second hand.

I have never had a doll arrive broken or with missing parts, or a significant defect other than the hook on my Diana, but that was replaceable with pliers and a smaller hook I had at home. There have been small dusts in resin and other things like that, but it is probably the case with all dolls. I never actually contacted them about the problems with my Diana, so I do not know how they act when a customer is not happy with a product.

 

YES THE ORIENTAL is much pinker! here I just got oriental hands from Mr Choi (5th motif is cast by dollshe) so a handy pictorial comparison for you:


I think they'll be ok once blushed but point: oriental is pink now \ O /

 

Hey, I was lucky last year with my order from an Arsene (50% off). Arrive at my customs office in Germany in oriental skin tone exactly 3 months after ordering
What I always miss is that you can't even send an email that the order will be sent ....

 

I also would like to order from Dollshe them, but oh my gosh... That's crazy how long some people have to wait. Thank you so much for the tips about BJDivas!!!

 

@Orionis I don't know the facts of single cases, but I do know BJDivas recently had to refuse future service from some individuals because they caused some trouble like this. It was on their Instagram. I would think therefore that there are people who directly pressurize the company, too. And on some occasions I understand wanting to cancel the transaction, if the company has an unreliable or unknown reputation, I would not myself risk several hundreds without buyers protection and would open a claim if I heard nothing but vague explanations for six months. But Dollshe has so far been financially rather reliable company even though their wait times leave a lot of room for improvement. I have heard they voluntarily refunded some purchases if the customer waited for very long or the doll they ordered was not made at all (Dollshe usually takes orders on new dolls before the mold is even made, which sometimes explains the ridiculous waits; I have always ordered dolls that they alredy had in production, and even with extra heads and parts they arrived in decent time).

 

I ordered in June and just got mine over the weekend, so I'll answer as someone who just got their brand new doll in a "recent" order and someone who ordered back in 2010. This time around I ordered a Grant 28M L4 with all the extra hands. no sleeping head (I don't even want the the head I got, but there was no option to just get a body)

Are the wait times really that long? I've heard 10 months to a year here and there, but I'm not sure if it's accurate, so I'd prefer to check and know for sure.
You've already seen the answer for this. Big yes.

What's the end quality of the dolls? If you've ordered from them before, have you had any issues with the resulting product? How's the customer service? Do they respond fast, and do they answer questions well?
So here's the thing about communication and customer service - back in the day (2010-12, total of 14 months) I emailed them a lot and bugged them about my order. This time around I ordered and just...forgot about it. I mean, not literally, but I really tried not to even think about the doll or the wait or anything. I didn't email them, I didn't try to ask any questions, I said nothing at all. One day I got an email saying my doll would be shipped that monday, it was, and it got here! yay! This was a much shorter wait than my last one (like I said, I "just" ordered last June, so it's not even been a year. That's not the norm, I got lucky.). So I can't really speak about communication, but I didn't need to communicate with them either. Which is also kind of important.

Not only did I order way back when and not too long ago, but I have a several DS dolls that I've bought in between from the marketplace. All of them have been what I consider to be good quality dolls. The 28M is really really nice. I took him apart yesterday and all the parts are well cast (no flaws that I saw, not that I look for them XD), no thin spots (at least one of my older classic bodies had a very thin neck that collapsed when I tried to mod it, I also know of two other people with that issue so that was a thing back in the day), everything was very even and nice and went back together easily. He stands well (with no head lol) and seems to pose wonderfully. This is my newest. All my other ones are either Classic or Pure and I have one Rhythmos. The Rhythmos hands are not great, one of them broke almost immediately when I got it....but for some reason I had an extra pair laying around already so I just swapped it out. Hoarding parts comes in handy sometimes. I've never had any breaking or quality issues with any of my other Dollshe's. The old classic body has quirks, but they're manageable if you know what they are.

Are there any general tips and tricks for ordering from companies directly, or is it pretty self-explanatory? Is there anything I should be expecting from Dollshe specifically?
I ordered from Dollshe directly both times and it was easy. I ordered, paid via PayPal, got my confirmation email, and moved on with my life XD

Would I be better off just going for a secondhand Dollshe sculpt? I don't expect the price point to be too different, but the shipping time is definitely an important thing to factor in here.
Yes.
The only reason you shouldn't buy second hand is if you really can't find what you want and don't have much choice. I wanted the 28m L4 with all the extra hands in oriental, and I figured there was little chance of it happening because not everyone likes all the joints in the first place, or will sell all the hands, and I really really wanted that neck joint. I could have gotten the L1 with all the hands second-hand (with some head I don't know), but, neck joint. And...they had a sale!!!! (they always have a sale)

So yeah. If you can order second-hand do it.

 

thank you so much, all very helpful comments! at least I won't be surprised by a long wait...I ordered the Diana special package that's on sale right now, on layaway thru BJDivas (yay), and I justify it to myself with "I would've gladly paid $300 just for that face" and "this is an insanely good deal." I'm a little disappointed to see that back in 2018 (?) a similar special was being run, but with 3 sets of hands and 3 sets of feet, and this time around only 2 sets of hands and 2 sets of feet, and no option for the time being to order extra hands and feet thru the official website as far as I can tell. I really wish the set would've come with flat feet as well and I'm worried about breaking hands as I'm very klutzy. But all in all, still a good deal I think...I'm glad I've been mentally prepared for the long wait.

 

That they are

 

What is the longest someone has waited for a dollshe order? I'm 18 months in and curious if this is really going to be 36 months or more.

 

@Kohaku.creations I saw somewhere that someone has been waiting over 4 years.

 

What?! That's crazy!

 

hello. I have a question who waits more than 4 years for Dollshe dolls? I want to know if this is normal. I'm waiting . I bought Dollshe dolls through BjDivas broker.

 

You might have better luck posting in the Waiting Room thread. I've heard of wait times of over 2 years but never 4.

/threads/dollshe-waiting-room-12.819908/

 

@Desdemona

There are people on the waitlist since 2016: /doawiki/index.php?title=Dollshe_waiting_list

 

I fell into the trap of anecdotal evidence when I bought mine, so I'll give you a recap.

"No, don't order from Dollshe! He's unreliable and you might never actually get your doll!"
"Well these other people happened to get theirs in six months and were delighted. When will I find a sculpt this perfect ever again?"

26 months later (yes, two years and two months), I got an email on an OLD account that I had tried to remove from Dollshe's site when I changed all my accounts. (So randomly checking an old email was required; the site-- or maybe the way he takes his orders-- isn't set up to actually update your information.) Because it had been so long and shipping prices had skyrocketed, he emailed me to tell me that if I didn't want to pay an additional shipping fee the doll would be shipped unstrung (but he was waiting for my answer-- which had to come from this old email under an old name). At that point I wasn't about to give him any more money so I had him ship the doll unstrung and he arrived without incident (to the old name which I tried to change on the website AND mentioned in my response emails was incorrect). Thankfully I'm in a discord server with folks that have resources so stringing him wasn't the nightmare it could have been, given I had never done it before.

The doll itself is lovely if you like the aesthetic, but for your own sake, buy secondhand. The wait times are atrocious and mine was only average. (Think of it this way, if you were waiting for a doll for over four years like some people, would you call it a doll company or a massive scam?) The customer service is practically nonexistent and yes, the wait times are that long. Go secondhand or talk yourself out of it.