I need advice. Please help me on deciding.

Well, Dolk US seems to have improved recently? At least, there seems to be less complaints and the latest reviews for them have been positive as far as I know.

I'm personally waiting for an exclusive outfit I preordered from them. The outfit was only sold through them and since it seemed like Dolk US has improved, I decided to take a chance.

So far, it seems to be going well? Their new customer service person has even been very proactive in keeping me updated on my order.

My order was supposed to be ready back in June but it was delayed and they took the initiative to email me to apologise and explain the situation without me having to poke them for updates.

That said, they still seem to be quite slow about shipping preorder items... They told me last Mon (31 July) that my order was ready to ship but it still hasn't... They did send me an email today (9 Aug) with a photo of the contents of my order asking me to confirm if the contents are correct before they ship. I've confirmed that it's correct, so hopefully they will actually ship it now??

Edit: Also, I have not been asked to pay any additional shipping fees like some have complained about before. There also haven't been any hidden fees.

The only shipping fee I had to pay was the one I paid when I ordered. But my order is only an outfit, so it might be different when it comes to a doll.

 

Japan Doll Direct is the worst and most unprofessional, dishonest business I have ever encountered in this hobby, and I've had hundreds of transactions with middlemen/sellers/proxies,etc. Most business aren't perfect, sure, but I'd say 99% of sellers/middlemen/companies I bought from was an overall good experience. Japan Doll Direct is the only one that I can say was horrible in every possible way.

You'd save money buying from a different proxy in Japan from Dolk Japan, or take a risk with Dolk USA. Japan agents really don't charge much, only about 250 yen per item. I'd say Neokyo is good for an agent. If you want an individual middleman than you can personally talk to, I recommend this person https://instagram.com/the_811_ship_it?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== There are dishonest fees with Japan Doll Direct but there are no hidden fees with this person. The only problem is they don't offer layaway.

 

actually Neokyo won’t accept the order if there is indication that the doll will be shipped from overseas. I know, because I tried to order a doll and the request got declined because of this. Just fyi.

 

I don't think that applies here. Did you buy from Dolk Japan? If you buy from Dolk JP for their collab dolls, it actually comes from Japan, the agent is located in Japan and this product arrives to them so it shouldn't be rejected. It says 国内送料 (domestic shipping) on the Rozen Maiden sales info page, which probably means it is shipped domestically.

「ローゼンメイデン」水銀燈キャストドール

 

... oh well, I guess I spoke too soon about Dolk not asking for additional shipping fees because I just got an email asking me to pay for additional shipping fees... orz

They seem to be back to their old trick of asking for more shipping fees?? And it's still taking forever for them to actually ship.

My shipping timeline so far:
31 July: I get an email asking me to confirm that my address is correct as my order is ready to ship. I immediately confirm that it's correct. They reply that they'll are 'now processing' my order for shipment.
9 Aug: They sent me a photo asking me to confirm that the items are correct. I immediately sent a reply to confirm that they are correct. They reply that they are 'proceeding with the shipment right away'.
14 Aug (5 days later, on my birthday no less...): They sent an email asking for USD10. This is what they said: 'We wanted to let you know that we have processed the shipment and the total cost of shipment has increased by $10. This increase is due to the recent rate changes implemented by EMS and calculations based on the actual weight of the shipment.'

I ordered one outfit. The shipping I originally paid was USD18. So that's now USD28 for shipping one outfit. I guess that's about right if I think back at how much I had to pay for shipping for other things lately?? But I hate that they made it sound like all was fine and I didn't have to pay additional shipping until now....

Dolk's customer service might have improved a bit, but getting Dolk to actually ship something is still like pulling teeth... orz

Edit: Somehow mixed up July and Sept... fixed now!

 

I just want to be sure I'm reading this right, but they made you wait almost a year for shipping an in stock outfit?? Maybe I'm wrong, but I do not understand how on earth they can charge you extra for something that took that long to ship!

 

Ah, no, made a typo! That should have been 31 July...

And it was an exclusive preorder outfit that was supposed to come out back in June. In June, they emailed me to say there was a delay. Then on 31 July, they told me it was ready to ship... but till now (15 August), it still hasn't shipped...

 

Oh, ok, that's a lot better! But still...if it was out in June, you paid in July, they told you July 31 it was ready....I really don't understand why they're asking you for more money now.....

 

I actually paid when I preordered the outfit in Feb this year.

• Preordered the outfit in Feb (paid in full plus shipping)
• The outfit was supposed to come out in June. Got an email in June saying there was a delay.
• Got an email on 31 July saying it was ready to ship. Was asked to confirm address which I did.
• Got an email on 9 August with a photo of my order asking me to confirm that the items were correct. I did so.
• Got an email on 14 August asking for addition shipping fee. I paid it and am now still waiting for it to actually ship...

I really don't understand why they are asking for more money either.... I've ordered from so many doll companies and dealers before and none of them have ever asked for more shipping fees.

I've actually preordered a doll from Dolk several years ago and they didn't ask for an additional shipping fee back then. Though they also took forever to actually ship... But looks like they started asking for addition shipping fees during the pandemic and are still doing it... orz

 

The thing is, even if it's just an estimate, they don't say anywhere during the ordering process that it's just an estimate which is so shady...

Anyway, I think I remember seeing somewhere that they had supposedly improved the shipping calculator on their new site after getting all those complaints from people saying they had to pay large amounts of additional shipping, but seems like in reality, it hasn't really improved.

Ah, I found these posts by Dolk from last year. These were posted in August 2022.

Still, due to the ongoing situation with the global economic crisis and pandemic, the increase in our items shipment fee is still the same. Shipping couriers have not diverted back to the shipping cost they had pre pandemic.
The shipping cost on our website is an estimation only, these shipping costs are still subject to change upon the actual shipping process.
Please understand that these costs may still be lower than the actual cost for shipment.
Customers with active orders from DOLKUS will be notified how much the actual cost is upon shipment. Also, premium shipping might be the only available mode of shipment in selected countries.

(Source)​

Yeah, but they didn't tell me about the actual shipping cost until after they'd asked me to confirm my address and the contents of my order and made it sound like 'everything's good, we'll ship it now'. I'm mainly annoyed and frustrated with how they kind of stringed me along with 'we're shipping it now' then suddenly, 'oh, here's an additional shipping fee'.

Anyway, the above post is about their old site because they later posted this.

We encourage everyone to use the new website dolkbjd.com for a better shopping experience, all shipping is calculated via premium ems, and you can still use the old website.​

(Highlights from original post) (Source)​

I did order from their new site that's supposedly improved their shipping calculator... orz

 

Just a bit of an update.

So my package finally shipped on 17 Aug but my troubles didn't end there as despite confirming my address, they still got it wrong!!! My address should be '15K' but they wrote '5K'... They left out the important '1'... orz

Fortunately, the post office does send me notifications about EMS packages, so it told me the package was undelivered. I checked online and it said something about 'addressee not available' which was weird as I work from home and am basically home all day. (And I guess it wasn't my usual postman as he would have called me if no one answered the door.)

Anyway, I was supposed to get a notification card in my postbox but I didn't. By this time, I already had a gut feeling that maybe Dolk got the address wrong. I have experienced not getting a notification card before due to the card being accidentally put in the wrong mailbox. (And someone did try to claim my package before at the post office with a notification card that was put in their postbox by mistake! Luckily, the postal workers there wouldn't let them as they couldn't produce ID that they were me. And I was later able to claim my package with my ID and the SMS I received on my phone.) Anyway, I thought maybe this was the case again.

So I went to the post office today (22 Aug). (The package arrived yesterday.) I showed the postal worker there the notification I got on my phone and explained how I did not receive a notification card. She did find my package but needed proof of address. I gave her a digital bank statement and that's when she told me the address was wrong... Fortunately, she was very understanding and after checking my ID and calling my phone to prove that the name and phone number on the package were correct, she handed me my package. Shout out to the helpful postal worker so that the package didn't have to sent back to Dolk! (And I guess it helped that the address wasn't wildly off!)

So my lesson learnt is to just give Dolk your address again when they ask you to confirm if your address on their website is correct, I guess? But this whole ordeal has been rather stressful and unpleasant and I'm going to avoid Dolk as much as possible!!

Edit: Well, I decided to send Dolk an email to let them know about the error they made on my shipping label with a photo of the shipping label and a screenshot of my address on my order on their website. They apologized (of course) and said they will take measure to ensure that the shipping department double-checks all shipping labels before shipping. Hope this will prevent this from happening to someone else!