Tan DoT are not worth their price

I'd be really upset and disappointed with all of those problems, not to mention the dismissive reply. And you're completely right about the lips. I would have expected something of MUCH higher quality on such an incrediably LE doll. So what if its selling for a lot on the market? YOU paid good money for a LE doll that you really wanted and it wasn't up to standard.

 

I have to agree with you on the lips, but I wouldn't call this a scandal. I am sorry shall didn't meet your expectation but you can always send her off to someone to redo her face up. Or.. You can sell her on ebay. I am sure her price will go for pretty high. Then agian, I am a bit umcomfortalbe that they will have their outfit designer to do the face up. o_O;;

Also, those mark you speak of are on all of their tan dolls I beleive. Someone correct me if i am wrong.^^;;

 

honestly, i like her make up. it is a bit amateur, but it's done better than what i am capable of. i think its unique that her make up is done by the designer. it is hard to do make up on a tanned doll, keep that in mind.
the seams, i understand. the fact that they used to sand the dolls is an extra, and i dont know of many doll companies that do that, so its really not their obligation.
but i understand your frustration.

 

that reply is pathetic! when they saw the problems in there test runs they should have cancelled making the tan dolls. sounds like they just wanted to make money and did not care about the customer. that is it for me, i'm getting a narae!

 

Well you can't yell at them for the seams because you CAN'T sand them, on ANY tanned doll (DOD or otherwise).
But I understand it not meeting your expectations.

 

I think that's right. Treelore's Shall had those marks and someone else with a tanned Shall mentioned similar marks. As for the sanding, I don't think you can sand seams on tanned dolls. Luts' tanned dolls have crazy warnings against sanding on their promo pages.

Also -- Yeah, why was their designer doing the faceups? They have a regular faceup artist, don't they?

 

That faceup is bizarre... I didn't think that it would look like that... does DoD have an artist in training maybe?

 

Yes, they are there. The square marks on the torso and ankles are just a sign of the process. Someone who sold their Black Shall on the Marketplace put up pictures of it.

I thought it was a pretty respectful answer from DoD personally. They can't remove the parting lines because it will ruin the skin tone (where they sand will be lighter than the rest of the skin), they can't control France's taxes on imported goods, they explained that they left the space so that the headcap wouldn't scratch the head...
The one thing they really can control is the make-up artist and there's nothing they can do about the make-up now that your doll is out of the factory, and while the lips are disappointing, they're not irreparable.

 

I'm so sorry to hear about your disappointment in the doll!! I think Shoko is correct though, about the rubbing. In other pics I've seen of the tan dolls, there is a bit of rubbed off color on the ankles and each side of the bust at the seamlines---part of the production process, I believe. And tan dolls usually are not sanded due to the thin layer of tan color covering the lighter tone underneath.
But aside from those things, the lip painting to me, looks horrendous. Not a good job on that in general and doesn't even come close to the pictures on their site. I can understand that its a disappointment after paying so much for your doll.

Paul

 

Hmm.. yeah, asking chesca to do the make-up was not right....
the parting line is really not removed in any tan doll. You can't sand a tan doll, it changes the color.
Second, customs fees are really not their problem. They really can mark a doll as gift and marking it lower price is ilegal.
I paid custom fee at my DOD Mir even they marking as gift 'cause custom decided too, I worked another 6 months to pay the fee, but I don't blame them.
I agree the make-up was wrong, but the parting line was something to be expected on a tan doll and custom fees is something to be expected when you order something from another country. We pay 70% on products with a value highter than 50USD....
But I agree that the make-up was a big mistake... I know they are on a rush but designing somone else is not the best thing to do.
I don't think Tanned DoTs are a scandal. Somone said the small flaws are normal when you take the resin out of the mold or something like that, I didn't understand well...
They made a mistake.... but it is not a scandal.
It is just my opinion, by the way. Feel free to disagree.

Sorry if I was rude, I don't mean it

Cacau

 

It's not so good that the people from DoD assumed people would know the complications of tanned skin dolls, but really all the issues described about Tan Shall's skin are normal and expected. I personally like the face up she came with (especially the eyebrows) and since there's no extra cost for the face up and the total of the limited is very low as far as limited dolls go, I don't think it's that big of a deal. DoD seemed very courteous in their letter to me.

 

By the way, there was a person that sold her shall but not by the flaws, parting lines, etc but 'cause the skin tone wasn't as dark as she wanted. She said that, at least if it is the DOA person you are talking about.

 

Aside from the faceup issue, would have me extremely pissed off since I would be paying for what I expected to be professional work as advertised like the pictures on the website, I'm curious about the holes you mentioned.

With the recent issues over quality control and other dollmakers, do you mean she actually has holes in her body where there shouldn't be any?

 

Those lips are not up to standard for DoT- and it's a shame, becasue it's a lovely doll.

Did you also say there were 'holes' in parts of her???

 

Yes ^^'
I hope you can do a better make-up.
The parting line and the flaws are normal on tanned dolls ^^' it is part of the making process.
I think they trusted chesca and made a mistake... sometimes somone is good at making clothes but bad at making face-ups ^^' I think they over trusted her...
Hm, on good side of news, my friend at Rio de Janeiro recived her Tan Shall and loved her. She said she also has the parting line and the flaws but they are barely noticeable. (my friend that had a Syo said that DOD parting line is very very small compared to the one her doll had...) the make-up is good too.
We've also seen other happy stories with Tanned Dolls, such as tanned Camines and some tanned shalls too ^^

 

Well, I guess the word "Scandal" is maybe a bit strong but mind you :

-Not answering to any mails during 10 weeks
-Not mentioning the parting lines can't be sanded when she bought the doll (it's still NOT written in the description, only Luts warns in its ads that the tanned dolls can't be sanded)
-Giving the makeup job not to a profesionnal makeup artist but to a seamstress (she is really good as a seamstress yes, but she is NOT a makeup artist...)
-Forgotting to put the bill in the parcel ( which gave this poor Dora a really hard time and lots of stress)
-Not mentionning that the headcap might not perfectly suit the head.
-Not mentionning that there might be lighter marks on the doll

For all those reasons you can understand why she is angry against DoD. It's not to open a debate on "DoD is cool" or "DoD is evil" but to warn you people that the ones who ordered a tanned shall from DoD that they might be disappointed by their dolls. Of course DoD is not responsible of French Customs (but this added to her anger). When you pay such a high price you at least expect a perfect doll, don't you think ?
I know that many of you love DoD and wants to protect this great doll companie from critiques, but when there's something wrong it has to be said to prevent other problems like the one who happened to her. I'm objective and I'm trying to me honnest with myself.
The eyes are really lovely, the doll is stunning, but all those bad details I told you above are a bit ruining the love for this doll.

 

I thought the company had a good reply. But your email was a bit cross (though you have some reason, but to get a good answer, you have to submit a good inquiry). I knew about all the problems with tanned dolls, and I dont even have or want one. You really have to do research about a doll before you buy it. If you look at normal skin dolls, they have the "rubs" you explained, but they are not prominant because they are not painted over. They are like raw spots so the tan coat is absorbed differently in that area. I like the style of face-up, but I agree it could have been much better for it being a LE doll. And about customs, that really has nothing to do with the company, and it was quite easy for you to find the informaton out youself since you are a resident of your country, and they reside in a different one. Some people are not satisfied with their dolls, but you cant bad mouth the company because this is your personal feeling towards the doll, to someone else she could be a dream come true kind of doll. They most likely wasted way more than $700.00 USD (they note they ruin several dolls before the final product each time) to bring you the best product they possibly could, though not perfect to your standards, I think you should cut them a little slack.
I hope you get to re-do your doll in a way you fancy.
*jen

 

Not answering mails depends.
My UOL e-mail just recives DOD e-mails sometimes. Sometimes it recives, sometimes it doesn't. It is up with it being a korean e-mail and their server...

Oh, yes, the parting lines are possible to be seen on the promo pics ^^'

Nylh - It is not about DOD being good or evil, I understand. As I said i agree that chesca making the make-up was a mistake. I understand her frustration.
But I think explaining about the parting lines, etc are something needed so she could understand a little bit more of their answer and the situation. She didn't know the seams couldn't be sanded, it is aways nice telling her right? ^^
It is not a fight for who is good or evil. Everyone is just explaining and viewing the situation on their own way. ^^
I'm sorry if I sounded other way.

Kisses

Cacau

 

You know, when she bought her 10 weeks ago the Tanned El hadn't been released, almost nobody knew about how to take care of a tanned doll and if the parting lines where removable, don't forget that point.

 

I hink that if the face-up was paid for, they should refund it. The person who did the face-up was not a professional, and sholdn't have been doing that particular job- *especially* not on a limited doll.

 

If you do get a Narae in Tanning skin color, you can sand her. The colorant in the French resin goes through the resin mixture to the core. It is not an accurate comment that all tanned dolls can't be sanded, as Narin dolls do not have color applied only on the surface.
Catrina

 

Yes. Ask them about a refund on the face-up. You bought a face-up made by Jemma, not Chesca. I hope you can get it.
If you don't like the tan doll at all, maybe you could sell her?
There are many people that want a DOT Tan doll, and already knew about those kind of flaws and were waiting for the second bath that was canceled ^^

 

the color wasn't aplied only on the surface but it dries different on the surface and each layer. I think it is the same to Tan El, Tan Lishe and, I'm not sure, Tan Hound ^^

 

I think they are perfectly in their rights to be angered by the product they recieved. The doll in question in no way resembles the doll advertised and may also have quality issues. It's not a matter of cutting a company slack, it's the company advertising one thing, taking large amounts of money for it, and then sending customers another and the expecting the customers to be happy with this or to just take it in spite of the problems. I know I certainly wouldn't. And just because most of these dolls are ok does not negate her feelings or excuse the fact that one wasn't so ok.

These sort of reviews are important for future doll owners so they can weigh the pros and cons before buying. Every company has cons and we shouldn't be forced to overlook them simply because we want to be nice.

 

OH YEAH Tan Hound! I think that's when many people discovered the difficulties on tan dolls, since on Tensiya's site it said don't sand, it's very difficult to mix the colour/make the doll etc. etc. However, I'm really bad with timelines, so I don't remember if Tanned Hound came out before or after tanned DoTs. Or at least, before or after the DoTs were put on the DoD website (I know there were pics of DoTs before they were on the website). ^_^;; Sorry for butting in XD

 

I'm surprised about the faceup-- usually Chesca does beautiful work. She might be primarily a clothes designer but she's hardly an amateur with face painting.

I'm sorry about the problems your friend is having though.

 

I certainly agree that DoD should have put that warning on their promo page like Luts does. However, I did notice the seam lines on the tanned dolls in DoD's own promo pics. And while tan El wasn't available all those months ago, I knew from reading various threads here on DoA that you couldn't sand a tan doll. (At least, these type of tan dolls. As Catrina said, the resin used for the tan Naraes can be sanded.) That doesn't mean that DoD shouldn't have made that clearer though since not everyone is a member of DoA.

 

Thanks Kim, you got the whole point of this thread.

 

Tanned Hound came before ^^
At least I think... 'cause I remember lusting over him while I still wanted another doll, not Shall.. and I liked shall as soon as I saw her so... I dunno.

I think the answer from DOD wasn't the sweeeetest thing ever but was professional ^^'
They explained the problem of the parting lines and that custom wasn't their busininess (and it is not.) they explained why the make-up is this way and it gives you the door to ask the refund at the make-up. 'cause if it was Jemma you got a face-up by Jemma. But if it was Chesca, you paid a face-up by Jemma, by their artist and I think you should ask for a refund on the face-up price.
But do it when you are calm, be polite and professional, 'cause it makes things easier, or else you'd end up stressing yourself, and stress is not good ^^ you already had too much stress.

 

And, yes, DOD should have writted that parting line can't be sanded on tanned dolls.
I'll e-mail them about that ^^'

 

This is one of the main reasons I will never buy any Dream of Doll :/ as cute as Twingkey is.
The actual dolls almost never look as good as they do on their website , you have every right to be angry. Ive seen body pictures of tanned DOD's and the seams are horrible .Most other companies do have seams , just not those little square spots on their body parts, they seem a little too distracting IMHO.

**edited to fix my wording ^_^

 

I second what Krambear said, I have seen Chesca's face up---it is much better than this.
I understand your frustrations, I think you should ask DoD for a refund on the face up....

 

Jinx, sorry, I know it is not what you mean, but what you said about the tanned dolls might sound a little bit rude to their owners ^^' it is ok to dislike them, and dislike DOD, but saying they are horrible might hurt the people than own a tanned DOD and like them ^^'

---

By the waaay, I e-mailed DOD and requested them to put a message on the notice board warning about not sanding tanned dolls. I'll be waiting for their answer, I hope it'll save a tan dot owner from sanding their dolls. ^^'

 

yeah the seams on tanned dolls are annoying. my boy is sunlight skin and i've also sent a complaint email once i received him. volks offers sanding for sunlight dolls, and i thought they color it afterwards, but apperantly they don't and my boy arrived with noticeable discolored line on both sides of his torso and some marks on other parts of his body. guess nothing can be perfect, but i can totally understand you about it. still, a lot of hard work is put into these dolls, and like they said to make 1 good doll they need to dispose of several dolls. so have to accept nothing is perfect.
but they could have done better job on the faceup to make up for flaws they can't help >_>;

 

Myth, I am surprised that you say so! :O
3 of my Sunlight Volks dolls come sanded...they look perfect!
I always thought they did some magical thing to the resin...

I am really curious about what happened to your lovely F17!...sorry, I am just too curious^^;;;

 

I'm seeing so many people here defending DoD. Calling the purchaser at fault. Saying her email was rude. No. It wasn't rude. What was rude, was how DoD brushed her off with NO apology about the utter craptastic job they did with the doll.

I've seen tanning El, and Hound. They are FANTASTIC!

She has every right to be angry, and word the email as she did. The quality is horrible. It truely is. For $680, plus all the shipping hell, I know I would have been trite. I am sooooooo glad I did not buy a tanning Shall.

She has all the room in the world to be angry, here. It's her party, and she can cry if she wants to. I would.

 

Humans are not perfect, any company is not perfect, due to the fact that humans run them. Any given doll is not perfect. And seeing the doll was hand painted, you cant expect it to look exactly like the promo pics, as well as with any doll of any brand. As noted before by another member, the parting lines CAN be seen in the promo pics, obviously the rubs cant since they are under clothing. Its easy to overlook, but just with knowing the basic idea of the tanning process, I knew they couldnt sand the dolls before they were tanned, and I knew the raw or sanded areas would absorb the tan coat differently, thus an uneven color. The company didnt have to state it in the promo pics for me, I just did my homework.
I didnt say your friend was a beginner at BJD collecting. I have been into BJDs since Volks put out thier first super dollfie, and till this day, if I am interested in a doll, I do a crap load of research before plopping down $700.00+ for one, no matter what company it is. I know you and your friend are angry, and of course anyone would be if they are not satisfied with something that cost them alot of money. But calling this company a scandel was out of line. And when you want a good reply by a company, you shouldnt ramble on about you wont buy another doll from them again and what not, because I doubt they would want to help you after that. Even though you were mad, if you were a bit more civil, they probably would have offered more help. "You catch more bees with honey, than with vineger"
I am not trying to "be nice" to ass kiss the company, to tell you the truth, DOD dolls are not my cup of tea.
Again, the pros and cons are there, and I wasnt trying to overlook them. I just thought it was unfair to put a company down so much, when some of the fualt wasnt intirely on the companies back. Everyone is different, and everyone is satisfied in different ways. This thread seemed more like a rant than to keep other people informed, but hey, to each there own. Thats enough of me. And this is just my opinion, and opinions do not need to be critiqued. cyas *Jen

 

I don't think it is customer's fault. I didn't mean to sound this way, sorry.
I e-mailed DOD asking to do the notice, it is all I can do, I'm sorry.
And, she should e-mail asking the refund on the face-up. It is her right.

About the parting line, all we wanted was explain what happens if you sand it down, it wasn't to make her guilty or anything like that. It was just to explain what happens.

I didn't mean to make it sound like it was her fault,

I'm very very sorry ^^'

 

i got the same reaction when i criticized DOT poor customer service in another thread. people are weird about DOT. but they have poor customer service and poor quality control whether some people like it or not. it isnt in any way rude to any doll owner here! who is talking about there particular doll? no one. its pretty clear that if narae tans can be sanded that DOT just has poor quality.

 

now you bummed me XD;;
i have dug up the reply i got from Domuya:

so i just had bad luck? *sigh* well my boy is such an evil brat he gave me much trouble before he even got here so i'm not really surprised XD;

 

It doesn't change the fact that they allowed a lady to do a face-up who wasn't a professional, and then allowed that (really rather bad) face-up to leave their factory on a limited edition doll.

Persoanlly, I think that is inexcusable for a company who has been in this business for so long, and I believe that a re-fund is in order for that face-up.

(sorry, I wrote this about 5 mins ago and suddenly there were loads of replys, which is why it seems a little out of place!!)


And, I think warning potential customers is a good thing. I have heard the criticism of this doll, and will bear it in mind if I ever buy from DoT.

 

No, it is... I'm glad you posted this. ♥

 

Actually, Chesca -is- professional. She might have been having an off day, but she's no amateur. That said, I agree that the faceup needs to be redone.

 

As far as I can tell from the reply from the company, she is a profession seamstress... and she *isn't* the person who was advertised as doing the face-up.

If they had sent out an e-mail saying that she would be doing it, that would have been better.... but just to get her to do it without saying anything isn't on.

 

There is no excuse for that faceup. period. I would definately ask for a refund. I could do that faceup and I'm not professional at all!

As for the seams, even though DoD didn't mention it, from reading the forums, I knew a long time ago tan dolls couldnt be sanded.I specifically asked Narin about his tan BEFORE i bought, because I wanted to sand the ears to make them pointy. I believe the question was asked at one point and DoD said not to sand the doll. It's either in Waiting Angst or the original news thread, I'm not sure.

I recieved a tan doll and was compeltely happy. The squares on the ankles, wrists and torso are from removing the doll from the mold. Those can't be avoided. Every tan doll from DoD has those. Some companies might make their mold cuts in less noticable places, I'm not sure. I don't own another tan (yet).

The customs bill no company is liable for. Customs should be taken into account when the doll is purchased. If customs overcharged you, you can show them your payment statement and take it up with their office. Like Cacau said, she is liable for 70%. She knew that when she ordered her Shall. It is illegal to mark an item as gift or decrease the actual value. If DoD is caught then they are liable for a lawsuit or if the doll is lost in transit, they cannot recover the full value of the doll.

DoD also seems to bounce emails or mail servers reject them. I have several times found DoD replies in my junk box. I have had similar problems with other Korean companies. While I too had problems with Dod (they never changed mya ddress though I had emailed them several times nor did they send both dolls together as we had asked, but they apologized and mailed my doll almost two days later).

The faceup is unexcusable. I would ask for a refund, but the other complaints, I believe, are the fault of misinformation, miscommunication or assumptions.

 

The 'for the image' thing does sound odd- that's why I've been taken aback by it. It sounds like they are trying to cover up the fact that she did a bad job.

I'm also still in shock somewhat that they would let that face-up out of the factory.

I wouldn't go so far as to say all these dolls are this bad... but this one has defiantely slipped through the net of quality control....

 

As usual, any company critique is met with a bit of agression by the 'other' side.
Lets put it this way. The shipping costs, as many have stated, are not DODs problem. If, as you say, you (or your friend) had done the research you should know what to expect from the postal system in your area. DOD can't do a single thing about another country's customs. Secondly, I for one thought it was common knowledge with tanned dolls that their seams were more or less unsandable. There are a ton of topics on it in relations to Volks' tanned dolls. DOD did state that their tanned dolls would not be sanded even before they made the decision to stop sanding all together. There was never a promise made that tans would be sanded. I think it's possible the buyer should have done a little bit more research.
Now, in terms of DOD, they did NOT do a very good job. Their response was polite, but you did not get an apology. Secondly, that face up really really is not up to their standards and there's no excuse for letting it escape the factory. If they're in over their heads they're not getting ANYWHERE by skimping on their customers. You're within your right to be miffed about the faceup, and I hope you get reimbursed for it or are able to alter it to your liking. As for the rubs on the sides of the doll, as other owners have posted about this, the general consensus on how to fix them seems to be a bit of blushing. As far as I understand it's difficult to remove them from the molds without causing those scuffs in the first place.

Basically, there's a bit of blame to be laid on both sides here. Buyer research should have been a bit better, and customer service rather lacked. As I've said before, DOD may be overworked, but that's no excuse to take advantage of their customers.

 

If you're purchasing something this expensive I'd figure research was a definate before you hand over the money.

And DOD did state it wouldn't be sanded.

 

My apologizes Reena, but you're a bit rude, you know, you've the luck to be native english speaker, I am French but my english is relatively good, not Dora's, you're on DoA since longer than me, I'm not even sure Dora is registerd on DoA.
The problem is that when you don't know english you have a less good access to information. But I know that Dora loves her dolls, she already as 5 dolls (and 2 heads), she is not a newbie, she knows how to care of them, she also know that it's lot of money ans that it's important to get informations, but she trusted DoD to make a good job on her Tanned Shall, she trusted them you see. According to the photos, the Dolls looked great, and remember that the Tanned Shall is a limited Doll, the kind of doll you don't really have time to think and make an inquiry about before they are OOS. As some of her friends have DoD dolls, and that they are really well done with really lovely makeup, she thought that DoD wopuld make the same job on her Tanned Shall. As I said before, there was nothing on DoD saying that the doll wouldn't been sanded and that there would be some marks on her dool. If they had warned her, she would have been less dissappointed you know, when you know that the doll you have bought "might" have some defaults you cope with those better than discovering them while opening the awaited box.

 

Just because someone is a seamstress does -not- mean they can't do faceups too.. Customhouse does it, Volks does it.. what they meant with saying "for the image" means that she was the one that designed the image of the doll: clothes and, yep, faceups.