Spiritdoll Waiting Room #3

Well finally I did't send them message to schedule delivery, but after the 4-month-deadline is behind us I DID send them a message in which I asked immediate communication about my order otherwise I will take the necessary legal steps to withraw my payment. And I mean it. My patience is OVER. I am a person who believes in 'asking nicely'... but when somebody sh**s on my head then asking nicely is over. I have asked them nicely several times, I swallowed every empty promise but from today I regard my order as unfulfilled and act accordingly - until they don't make ****in' serious efforts to convince me.

Paypal dispute is not the only option, Dear Spirit!

 

Hmm, that's basically what I got, too. Four weeks ago. Time to send another email, I guess. I think that our Waiting Room list must be seriously in need of updates . . . I feel like a lot of the people on it have received their dolls already. If I have time, I will PM some folks to make sure.

 

I got the same message 4 weeks ago in which they promised me 'in two weeks'. Not a doll, not a tracking number, not a word about further delay, not an answer since then. If I have to make a guess: they lie. They send the same message with minor alterations to any e-mail - if they DO bother to send reply at all.

I don't want to crush hopes, I'd just rather stay on the ground of reality. Don't expect too much.

As for me I would rather cut my own hand than place and order at Spiritdoll again.

 

PMs are sent. Thanks for the offer, Slushi. ^^ There aren't really that many people on the list to begin with, so no biggie.

fujimiya, I know what you mean. I have to wonder if they are really having a lot of trouble with casting, though--I'm inclined to be lenient myself, but I haven't been waiting as long as you have. @_@ Have you taken legal action against them yet? Or did you get a response to your message?

 

There is no doubt Spiritdoll communication is really bad. I placed an order on a 3 month layaway. On March 12th I thought I paid my last part. I say I "thought" because I sent the payment to the wrong paypal address. Spiritdoll never "confirmed" my payment, nor said they never got the money. A month later paypal sent me an email saying that address did not exist. Then I realized my mistake.

I just hope they didn't cancel my order. I had to ask a favour to a Chinese friend to write them an email in hopes of them replying it. Not really. I did my best.

I tried contacting them via their Taobao shop through said friend. They haven't answered their Q&A since 2010. All is left for me is to wait for a surprise package maybe around August or so. I'm glad that EMS is really efficient in my country though.

 

Hi ^^,

I lurked this thread for a while, but I've ever written 'cause SpiritDoll has always update my status payment few days after I've done them.

I finally finished paying for my Blanc only in late febraury, so I'll waiting news for the end of may.
I think that will be some delay of course, but I can't say anything right now ^^''.

Anyway I hope everyone will receive their dolls with no further problems

Carmen: It's so bad , by the way I don't think they canceled your order, keep us informed!

 

I got the pm, but unfortunately I have no update. I paid off my 3 month layaway in the beginning of March and my order was marked as paid on March 22nd. I have heard nothing since then and I'm just waiting for an unexpected package in a month or so...
Oh and I requested DHL shipping for my order in an email about two weeks ago, let's see if they remember to do that!
All this trouble with Spiritdoll is really frustrating, I don't remember there being that much waiting when I first ordered from them. But then again that was a year ago and was a group order (the Abies head GO).

 

Uhm, unfortunately, although I have not shipping news from spirit about my Insane, three weeks ago I wrote a message in guestbook but they have not yet response...This is frustrating

 

Hi guys! I want to order an Elegance body for my girl, although it won't be a while. I just wanted to ask if all these 4-month wait times a recent thing? Spiritdoll has decent feedback in their thread. I don't mind long wait times as long as I know about it in advance, but their poor communication has me a bit worried. Do they have better communication when there's an event on? Does anybody have any experience buying with their Taobao seller?

 

Zomboid: I was in the same group order of you (Abies head GO), and, even though we actually waited for less time, I have received neither track number nor any notice when they shipped my head at that time.

Unfortunately SpiritDoll are terrible at communicating, by the way as far as I know dolls always arrive soon or later .

Since they've to dispatch a big amount of orders due to limited dolls, new bodies, new dolls etc, they probably have some delay on 'ordinary' orders too.

I'm not justifying their lack of communication of course, which is awful, but usually everything is gonna be okay, so I think we can wait without 'banging our head against the wall'.

It's my opinion of course ^-^

 

A week or two ago, I received the missing flat feet from my last year's order. Since I ordered before they changed their tan formular, the skinmatch basically doesn't exist.
They originally wanted to ship them with Insane and Blanc but in the end, they shipped them separately.

I just hope, they remember to ship via DHL.

 

That's something I can't understand. If you read their guestbook with tons of people trying to reach them, trying to get at least a payment confirmed, or if you read this thread, or the other somebody opened here on DoA especially about their lack of careful and responsible customer service, you see a picture of a company not to be trusted, though if you read their feedback, everybody seems to be satisfied. I don't know why. There is such a marked contradiction between the feedback and all the other posts about their performance. I suggest that you should concentrate on their guestbook entries since not all of the customers are active on DoA, on the other hand every customer has to post in the guestbook.

As for the available dispute opportunities beyond official Paypal dispute deadline I contacted my bank. I hope if Spirit will see that payment can be withdrawn, they will be open to communication and agreement about my doll. I ask but one thing: not to ignore me. It's all I want.

 

Anyone else saw this ? I don't know if it's legit but if it is... What the epic fuck if I may ?
I'm getting kind of scared right now...

 

Oh no!! I don't like this ... I feel sorry that they are have these problems and I hope that does not affect the quality of their products..(my Insaneee)

Gosh, would be a shame to stop selling their products and so as they have been advised to stop selling, I just hope they say will happen with the pending shipping...

 

Shin, where did you see that? I can't find anything like it on the Spiritdoll site.

Edit: never mind, I found it on the Q&A. This is disturbing. Maybe it just means they are going to close the Q&A section.

 

It's written in the guestbook, though apparently it won't show for everyone ?

Here's a screen.

Though apparently you need to be logged in to see it according to some people ?

It stills shows for me at least, and I did refresh multiple times....

 

Yes, I couldn't see it until I logged in. I don't much care for their Q&A section, hard to find responses and too many posts sometimes from the same people over and over asking about their orders. I wonder if that's a hoax? (wishful thinking, but still. ... I would think that news like that would be news posted on the home page.)

 

Are we sure is not a prank? 'cause I've seen comments from Spiritdoll on guestbook with username "Spirit", not spiritdoll.
Is just a supposition... c'mon, is a bit weird that they didn't typed anything on "Latest Event"

 

Well I did advise for caution because I have no proof that it is legit.
I'd really like it to be a joke but well, thought I'd share anyway since it does seem important.
If that's a joke, someone's got a real bad case of crappy humour if you ask me (thought tbh I'd like it to be a joke, because I really want that goddamn body.)

I did send them an email but honestly, it's not like they answer very often.
Here's to hoping.

 

Yep... I hope is a bad joke too.

 

I find it a bit suspicious and worrisome there's someone offering two Insanes from a name and address I don't even recognize as anyone from Spiritdoll?? @_@;; Not to mention the whole seperate post, and not a response thing. Doesn't make sense to me. Makes the other comment more unconvincing, even ; I would sure hope it's fake....

 

I hope it's not true... I have so much plans for the other Spiritdolls *cry*. Hopefully it's just a joke.

 

Right? I think that too .-.''

 

As sad it would be if Spiritdoll decided to stop selling dolls internationally (that's what I gather from the message), I think it would be a good decision. As long as they can't respond to customers (!) and produce and ship dolls in a timely manner, they have no business in maintaining an international order site. It would be great to see them taking a break and optimising their business strategy.
But I also think this message is a hoax,so...

Oh and EchoUndine: I also never received a shipping notice or tracking number for my Abies head in that GO, but I remember it "only" taking about 2 months from ordering to shipping.

 

I hope it's a prank, but now it's really time to take actions. If it proves to be a prank, any dispute can be stopped, but if it's proves to be true, there is no time to hesitate. I might be a bit pessimistic, but damn, we all have a good reason to be pessimistic, don't you agree? Oh God, why is this happening to us?

I don't think this comment is from Spiritdoll, but the Chinese orders has already been shipped ages ago. At taobao some may already be on sale second hand. He/she might even be a taobao agent, or just a second hand seller. I try to contact this person and see what he/she offers. It can do me no harm.

 

Calm down. I asked a friend of mine who lives in China and just phoned them. They do know nothing of this announce and didn´t make it. Now I hope they will immediately take some action to remove the post or clarify the matter.

 

Thanks for notifying us Ashemanu (if you don't mind, I forwarded this to the French forum where we follow the matter as well).
Though sadly for Spirit this just proves that they really do have big communication issues and must absolutely work on this to avoid such things.
It might sound nasty but I do hope this kicks them where I think and forces them to get a hold of themselves and get back to having a proper communication with their clients.

Edit : The message has been deleted, hopefully it's Spirit's doing and we'll get some sort of announcement from them soon.

Edit 2 : Spirit's announcement >


About the recent shutdown announcement on the message board

Dear all,

We have found that there was a message on the message board saying that we are going to close the website. This is NOT a offical announcement, please do not believe it. We apologize for the recent slow repsonse of the customer service but all the orders are being processed. Due to the short labour in the casting department, the orders will take more processing time, however, we will not close our website and we are not in any debt problem.

We would put out any official announcement on our home page rather than just a message on the message board.

Thank you very much for all your support.

Spirtdoll

 

Zomboid: You're right, but at that time, they definitely hadn't so much orders to dispatch, so a bit of delay is pretty normal, I assume ^^''

Well... glad to see that was just a prank and Spirit are processing all our orders :3, thank you guys for keeping us informed!

 

Thank you Ashemanu! This is really comforting. *sigh of relief* Thank your friend too!

Just a question for the greater good of the whole Spirit-waiting community: A couple of pages ago (or maybe in Spiritdoll Waiting Room 2) there was an idea that those who wait and get no response could contact the artist herself to inform her about the insufficient communication of the international website, but every contact leads to the distributor. (According to trusted information they are two different persons.) We could contact her only via her blog, but it is in Chinese. Could you please ask your friend in China to give us a help? It takes only a registration and a short message in Chinese to inform her. It would be such a great help to everyone here knowing nothing about her order/doll/money... Maybe her direct interventions will lead somewhere. If not, nothing lost, but it may worth trying.

This request is open to anyone with Chinese knowledge or Chinese speaking friends. I don't know what this prank was about, but I think we should join forces to get some better treatment.

Do you guys think it would help?

Well, I wish Spirit would act so promptly even if it's about not their own interest but about their customers' questions and problems. This tells quite a lot about their attitude. Do they ever check their Guestbook or mail? Would they ever recognize what happened if Ashemanu's friend hadn't phoned them?

Well... nevermind. At least we don't have to face the consequences of this bad news. Thank heaven for that.

 

Wow, that got them going! I am happy they took action to clarify matters

 

I'm quite relieved about this message.

 

Ack. Well, that was worrisome. Glad that it was only a prank, but maybe it jolted them into at least a little bit of action? I am just going to keep waiting and see.

 

I've received an email telling me my order was already being 'processed' though I'm not really buying it but well, as usual, wait and see.
I did email them to ask for a tracking because of the customs in France who are sloppy but they never answered.
Bleh.

 

Ashemanu, THANK YOU for taking the initiative on this so that Spiritdoll could set things straight before this got out of hand and this exceedingly juvenile, childish "prank" really did cost them business. Something like that can actually drive a company OUT of business.

We order the dolls, we wait, sometimes we wait quite a while, we get the dolls eventually. That's the way it works. Very few BJD makers do a lot of customer support and handholding; some are worse than others but generally speaking, it's just not part of the routine.

Tho I would say that Spiritdoll could solve some of its own problem if it just took the time to maintain the individual order-status items. . . that would eliminate three-fourths of the guestbook traffic.

 

I'm glad I didn't read this til now, I would of been truely upset if they went out of business.
I still plan to order more dolls from them in the future, regardless of their ridiculously long wait and lack of communication.

I'm glad to know that they are checking the website though. (But now I know that they are just ignoring the comments on the Guestbook)

 

My husband has had business dealings in several Asian countries, including China, and he suggests that these companies may have only one person who can translate messages, and that person might not always be available. Plus, the company may not even have a computer on site, but have to use a public computer which they only visit as seldom as once a week.
I'm not saying this is so, just that it is a possibility. As much as we would like to believe that our concept of customer service is international, I think a lot of our expectations may be cultural.
While I understand everyone's concern, I don't know that threats and harrassment will do any good. If this company is going to deliver, then they will deliver--within their own working timeframe.
But I'm glad they are not closing their site, because at that point I would be kissing my $$$ goodbye.

 

Agreed, phanuel, but I also have to agree with AnitaS that they would get a lot less flak if they just updated individual orders. I don't usually see any reason to message companies about my orders, since I've never had to make adjustments or wait longer than two months (I have been very lucky!).

As I am at only 9 weeks of waiting now, I am not really in a position to worry too much.

I received messages from the others on the waiting list, and the ones who had changes to make did so. The rest are just waiting, too. At least now our list is updated. ^^;

 

I have to disagree on this matter. This is not the way to run a business. We can't regard this behaviour as normal, just because 'that's the way it works'. The 'way' is to keep promises and contracts. Puchase is a contract. Not to communicate is not normal. Not to keep deadlines is not normal. Not to pay attention to requests, complaints is not normal. We MUST NOT resign ourselves to such treatment.

I have purchased many things from all around the world, from dozens of different companies from A to Z, and most of them communicate on daily basis and pop up a notice if they go on hiatus. In my opinion THIS is the way it works.

You might be right, I think this is the case with many BJD-related 'companies', but you have to consider your circumstances before venturing on opening a business of international scale. You can't start on international basis with 'sorry no speak English', you can't start a webshop without computer. Honestly, would you?
I do respect their efforts but sometimes I see some 'let's make profit of nothing' attitude. I don't mean Spiritdoll, I am only talking about tendencies in general. Without the basic requirements given you simply can't get started.

 

As for me, I wanted to order another body from them, but due to this appalling "international customer service", I will not purchase from them in the future. It's the only "punishment" I know since I've already spent a significant amount of money and cannot recover it through the usual paypal methods.

I fully agree with you, Fujimiya_Aya.

 

I also wholly agree with fujimiya_aya and personally I'm sick with the general stance of "it's normal to wait months without any communication" and handing over hundreds of dollars/euros/etc in blind trust. This is indeed not normal when dealing with foreign companies, I've also ordered different things hundreds of times from countries all over the world in the last 10 years and I must say, this behaviour is unique to the doll collecting hobby.
There are a lot of small companies around with only a handful of employees and yet they are able to communicate with their customers. If you want money from foreigners, you have to be able to communicate with them, aka speak English. It sounds harsh but that's the truth.
Sorry for bringing this discussion further on, there are several threads that cover this topic in the Debate section so I'll shut up now.

 

Is it really smart to even order from them? if it takes THAT long..
I was going to order my mom a proud body, but I'm seriously thinking about not doing it and try to find it secondhand on the marketplace atleast.. I dont want my mom to wait 5 months. -.-
Long wait sure, but atleast contact me on what your doing!

 

I waited less than two months for my Proud girl body (ordered December 28th, arrived February 15th). I got a payment confirmation for that, but never any shipping notice, but I'd been warned that that might happen. I'm a bit worried this time around because my payment is still unconfirmed and labeled as "Pending." I left a guestbook message about it, but haven't gotten a response yet. If I don't get a guestbook response by the 40th day, I'll probably start a PayPal dispute, just in case. I'd much prefer to get the body, though! :/ I wish someone could communicate to them that they're going to lose business because of the communication issues. I like my Proud girl body; it poses pretty well and the torso is gorgeous naked (though the wrists are not cute...), and it has the SD16-style heel legs, which are a MUST for me anymore. Aaaanyway. Just one more voice in the choir :/

 

I've already written to them in Chinese about loosing international customers. They never replied. Do they care anyway?

 

Then our idea about contacting them in Chinese may prove irrelevant - at least if we try to contact the maintainer of the international webshop. Well, our only hope may be that the artist and the maintainer of the international webshop are really not the same persons and maybe the artist will pay more attention to the reputation of her company name. Who knows.

This is the question I keep on asking myself. If I had known back then what I know now, I seriously doubt I would have ever ordered my Insane. It would have been such a loss though. This is the most painful thing about this. It is NOT easy not to order from them, since Spirit makes unique and lovely dolls with outstanding artwork and excellent 'engineering' or the bodies. Once her artistry touched you it it won't let you go. But as for my, they have reached an event horizon, a point of no return, beyond which all trust is lost.

I think it's the smartest thing to do. As you say: just in case. You can withraw a dispute any time.

There is one more thing we can do: We should always leave feedback and never stay silent in our feedbacks about the treatment we had/have to face. There are so many cases I know of personally when customers were not satisfied with something about the service (be it doll, face-up, commission etc.) but they are 'too polite' to say their real opinion in a feedback. This leads not to 'avoiding conflicts' but to more disappointed customers who decide on or against a purchase upon the feedback left about a company.

 

The Chinese customers are in no better position than us (except that they speak the same language). There is one person for the international customers, and one (maybe the same) for the Chinese ones, as I heard. I even doubt that he/she works fulltime. They have been told that their customer service sucks. But atm at least they do not care or do not know what to do about it.

 

I cant risk buying a body for about 500$.. as they dont send out tracking numbers or a note its send even, what if it gets lost?
I have no proof whatsoever to it even being sent without a tracking code.

 

And except that many of them has already received their limited dolls by now. At Taobao there are a lot of box openings of Blancs and Insanes. As for the international orders, no matter how early you ordered, non of us (I know of) received our limited dolls. Or maybe one of us? I am not sure. Not even the ones ordered at the very beginning of the winter event period are coming in. They seem to attend to Chinese orders first.

That's what I am worried about. If my Insane was stuck at customs for weeks now I wouldn't even know about it. Quite honestly I doubt he is.

 

Some pages earlier someone postet pictures of Blancs and Insanes from international buyers. I don't know but has someone who paid in full haven't received their dolls here? I only know of layaway orders for these dolls, and naturally they need more time. Maybe all the Chinese Blancs/Insanes are paid in full dolls?

I've ordered on the first evening of the event, but I paid them off by end of February, so it's natural that my dolls aren't here yet.

I understand that you are very upset about it, but well it's no use in complaining over and over again. It is known that Spiritdoll is bad at these things, so you could have known before you've ordered. I haven't ordered from Spiritdoll before and I'm not a big reader here at Doa, and I even I knew about it. I don't want to sound rude, but for my point it's getting quite annoying to read all the same complaints and so on every week. It's surely annoying, but it's no use in complaining here over and over again. Either you have stick to the wait and be patient or you cancel your order. That's part of the BJD world, if you like it or not. There is nothing we can do about it, if we want the dolls from the long wait companies.
I don't like the lack of communication either, but I want these dolls. I don't earn much money as well, but I never heard of Spiritdoll orders, which have not arrived. It may take a long time, it may be without shipping notice, but you will get your doll eventually.

 

Congrats, MizRayne! If they are sending out Proud Male Bodies, perhaps I will get mine soon.

 

But how the hell would I have known? I am quite a careful buyer after all, try to look up everything, and I have been aware that they have never been too good at communication, but - as far as I can look back - they have never ignored customers for such a long time. How am I supposed to know? Please tell me. Because I am here to share experience, ideas, or anything that comes to mind in this helpless situation. I am here everyday because I hope someday I will hear of some dolls already arrived. I am here everyday because I am worried. Believe me, I feel awful enough even without you lecturing me. You don't have to bother.

I really dream that with more determined customer behaviour we could get better treatment, but it will never work if we keep on telling each other 'stop complaining and resign yourself to it'. Nevermind... It was worth trying, but just as you told me: I should have learned more about BJD hobby by now and swallow whatever it gives me.

It really goes a bit off, so I shut up.

BTW... I ordered my doll on the 17th of December and paid full. I also know other full paid orders of customers not active in DoA. Why am I complaining? Why really? Shame on me. I really SHOULD BE content that I am ALLOWED to wait and I SHOULD do it in grateful silence.

 

While there is no use complaining (I don't even know if they read what it's written about them at DoA), it feels good venting what we think, you know?

And alas, there is something to do about it: Not buying from them any more and leaving a not so nice feedback (which is what I plan on doing anyway).

 

I've never said that you are not allowed to complain. I completly understand about it. But really one or two times is ok, but in this Waiting Room it goes a bit off the shore. It's no use in complaining here every other day about the same things. This is not only about you complaining, so please don't be personally offended. I don't want to offend anyone here, but really it's quite annoying to get the same complaint again and again and again. Do you know what I mean? WE know about it and we are all in the same boat, right?

About your question where to look, I've read some Spiritdoll feedback thread once, it wasn't the 2011 thread, but the 2010 thread and I talked with other buyers of Spiritdoll by pm.

About your idea about more determined customer behaviour to get better treatment- I don't really think this would help. During my time in Japan I learnt that Asian business is different from western business. Especially if the business had the main base in Asia. I had some ordering in that time, and it never did any help in complaining, they just kept running business as usual and eventually you get your stuff. It was normal to wait months about your stuff after paying (non BJD stuff). As far as I noticed about Spiritdoll there are just a few people odering Spiritdolls in the western community. They are kind of rare in Europa as well as in America. So their main base is in Asia. As long as the Asians don't bother about this lack of communication, they won't change anything. Spiritdoll is not Soom, who has a huuuuge base in Europe and America.

Edit:
I just got an idea to please all of us. Why you don't open a well 'Frustration/Complaining Thread' for dolls or just for Spiritdoll orders? I knew such threads from other boards. There all can let out their frustration anytime they want and it's not getting too big in the Waiting Room Threads. What do you think?

 

New announcement from Spiritdoll available here.


Customer service delay notice

Dear all,

We have a major internet failure in the customer service person\\\'s area. All the payment confirmation and enquiries will be answered by 2nd May. We are very sorry for the inconvevience. Please do not worry about the payment confirmations if there\\\'s a problem of your payment, we will contact you via email, other wise your payment is received. There have been also a delay of the order status update. We also apologize for these. Your order status will be updated by 2nd May as well.

Again, we are very sorry for the slow response of the customer communication.

Best wishes to all of you!

Spirit doll customer serivce representative