Yet ANOTHER problem with Gem of Doll

After my last problem surfaced (when they ignored me for months after I submitted my last payment on my Rae doll) I already had Dido and Dedo fullsets on order with them directly through their e-mail. And yet again they've been ignoring my e-mails regarding my payments. I finally got a reply that they had a system failure and lost all their data. How does that make me feel more secure about my order? I'm starting to really regret agreeing to pay for my order via friends/family on PayPal leaving me with absolutely no room to file a case against them. But I wanted to put this here as a warning. They are a great company for their product, but do not order from them directly. Go through a dealer or go on Taobao because their customer service is atrocious. And now because they "lost" my data and refuse to answer my e-mails beyond that, I have no reason to believe I'm even going to get my dolls anymore. I'm extremely upset and have no way to contact them beyond what I have so far. They only provide ONE contact e-mail and I get auto replies saying my e-mail has been received but then no replies beyond that. What on Earth is going on with this company? Has anyone else had luck recently in trying to contact them? Fool me once shame on you, but fool me twice :-/ It's my fault for ordering them again after my first fiasco with them.

 

Thank you. I'm sorry to vent here I'm just so frustrated that this has happened twice now. Well, more than twice, but on two seperate orders. People who order from dealers don't seem to have an issue with this. And people post they can get replies on Taobao or on Weibo but my order is via e-mail and they ignore me at every turn. I get their staff is small but when someone is shelling out this much money there's no reason to blatantly ignore them. I understanding being behind in replies but I'll send several e-mails during this entire time and a reply randomly to one of them but none of the more pressing ones. And then when I do reply to that giving them information they've requested to verify my order, they don't reply again. It's just baffling to me. Busy I can deal with, delays are fine. But this is blatantly ignoring e-mails that are clearly making it through and I"m tired of it. They are such a fantastic company in terms of their dolls but without proper customer service, buyers can't buy with a clear conscience :-/ I just want people thinking of ordering to know that there are ways to order from them that lack this kind of a headache instead of trying to do direct. This is one of the few companies it's better NOT to go direct, lol.

 

I've been requested to use three different PayPal e-mails from them over my Rae, Dido, and Dedo orders. I'm fairly certain PayPal DOES keep shutting down their accounts because they are requesting illegally that people use the friends/family payment option which is why if you order multiples times or sometimes within a single order they change the e-mail you send payment to.

This has been ongoing for several months, this isn't over the course of a couple days or even weeks. This has been a 6+ month fiasco dealing with them even before this even happened with them losing their data. I try to be understanding that they're in a bit of a rough spot and I'm sure people are having this issue too, but this is nothing new. This is one more excuse they've added to the pile and I'm fed up mostly because the experiences leading up to this. This just happens to be the straw that broke the camel's back.
But I do appreciate what everyone is saying and everyone's support! I just wanted to make it clear this wasn't a one-time-only issue I've had with them. Which is why I find it so important to discuss this. Again, their dolls are wonderful. I'm madly in love with the Rae doll I did manage to get so far. But there are better ways to order from them than through them directly. They are not properly equipped to handle direct, e-mail orders like this.

 

Thank you. I'm glad you're getting through to them. This isn't the first time I've heard something like this occuring either where some people can get a reply ASAP and others are trying repeatedly to get through and can't. I get the automatic reply telling me my message was received so I know for a fact it's getting through but then weeks if not months with no reply. I'll send follow up e-mails, I'll contact them here on DoA, a member once reached out to them on Weibo to alert them of the fact some of us were getting upset the last time I brought this up and got a reply (which suddenly THEN got me a reply) but it seems fishy that are deliberately ignoring certain e-mails like this. I get things being lost in the shuffle but this is happening on such a grand scale. The fact I can only get a reply if someone else intervenes or when I outright threaten to call PayPal to report them SUDDENLY there's a reply but to NOTHING else...that just seems like neglect to me. I hate that I love this company's aesthetic as much as I do because I don't like supporting a company with this horrible of a practice. I know that's harsh to say but again I've been dealing with this for over 6 months now just on this most recent order not including everything on my last order. I'm just at a point I don't think they are worth it anymore. I'm just so tired of how they have been treating my orders time and time again. I'm respectful, I'm patient, I do not speak out until it gets to this point where I have 10+ e-mails over the span of 6 months that have gone ignored. I have to send e-mail follow ups to ask "have you gotten my e-mail yet?". I did finally get a reply to one of those about 3 weeks ago asking for my PayPal address so they could "investigate" but then no reply again until today when I told them outright if this kept up I would contact PayPal about all of this and then magically a reply in my inbox telling me they'll respond to me on Monday. I will honestly be shocked if I get a reply on Monday.

 

I was going to file a review on my last order with them but since they didn't have a thread already I didn't feel like starting one. I decided to write off my poor experience on my last order as a fluke. But now after everything I've dealt with from this most recent order I've had it. I intend to write a review on both the past order and this one about my experience because, I want to make sure people ordering from them are aware that this is ongoing, that it's not just me, and help others struggling too know they aren't alone in dealing with this. I just really don't like dragging anyone's name through the mud but they've brought it on themselves at this point.
They claim they'll reply to me on Monday, but if they don't I intend to bring this up to both PayPal and my bank. Sadly, I don't think PayPal will do anything since I knowingly violated the ToS by sending this as friends/family and thus forfeit my buyer protection but I might have more luck with my bank. I'm on the verge of asking Gem of Doll directly to cancel my order and refund my money entirely. I don't want to do that because I really want my most recent order but I'm so tired of this. And part of my issue was I had to submit an address change and if they haven't updated it yet despite the fact I've told them three times (once a month) since my move that I need this updated that they'll send it to the old address and I'll lose my order anyway. It's just a no win situation no matter what I do right now.

 

I'd still file a claim with PayPal if you feel so inclined. If you used the friends/family tab like I did you aren't entitled to the money back but I would still contact PayPal. Enough strikes like this against them and maybe PayPal will actually intervene. This is just not an acceptable business practice on any front, especially from such a well known company. Try e-mailing them again and let them know you will be contacting PayPal about this if they don't reply. I don't like threats, but honestly, that's the only way I managed to get a reply from them at all. Keep in mind it is over the weekend but I got a reply today after telling them this so it's possible you might too. It may at least light a fire if nothing else. I don't intend to escalate this to PayPal UNTIL they've broken their most recent promise to resolve by Monday but once Tuesday hits if they've failed on this again I will escalate to PayPal. Again, even if I can't get my money back, they deserve a strike on their account for this. Not that it ever does any good since they just crop back up with a different e-mail address but..anything to get them to acknowledge this isn't okay. I really do hate to be so agressive but I'm angry. And you have a right to be upset too. We deserve answers.

 

@mangameow You do what you think feels right to you Don't ever lose that quality about yourself, it's an endearing one I hope that maybe with this thread (which I have alerted them exists), PayPal, and my most recent e-mails to them they'll be more willing and receptive to listen and pay more attention to other e-mails they are getting with gentler approaches (like your's). At this point it's not just about me anymore, I'm worried about your order and I'm worried about anyone else who isn't on DoA who is sitting idly by wondering why they aren't getting replies and where their order is etc.

 

Hard to say if a dealer would help if you didn't order through them. I guess it depends on the dealer and if you have a working relationship with them outside of this order. People are still getting orders through them and as a test I did ask one of my dealers to ask Gem of Doll a question (completely unrelated to my order) just to see if they'd get a reply. They did. They ARE prioritizing dealer's e-mails over individual's. And I get that some extend, the dealer has more orders with them but at the same time I've gone months without an e-mail from and it's just absurd. None of us should be dealing with that kind of neglect. Especially when it's not just "hey what's the status of my order" but "did you remember to change my address?" "did you receive my payment?" "can I get a current invoice of how much is left on my order for payment?" etc.

 

My latest order was around $700, so I have a lot of money sunk into this. I would not be keen on losing both my dolls and my money but once I get this resolved I won't be going back. I love these dolls, but..I'm really at the point that this degree of neglect toward other customers too is just bad business and I'm really not sure that's worth supporting with my dollars. I think I'm angrier now knowing I'm not alone in this than I was when it was just about me. I can understand one person slipping through the cracks but that's not what this is at this point I'm so scared that there's so many people out there potentially that are having this same problem.

I really hope so too. I hope this is a wake up call for them that they can't just ignore these sorts of things. Thank you for the support, everyone. I really really do hope someone at Gem of Doll is reading this right now. They need to understand how upsetting this is to both those directly affected by this and those who are just reading this.

 

@Anglerfishee Thank you for making those. I won't review my Dido and Dedo dolls until I get them or get a refund but I may publish my service review on them if they don't reply by Tuesday (their own deadline they set, not mine). But I will go to those boards and most my Rae review here in a second. I saved it in my gmail account from when I first got the Rae doll but then was afraid to publish it because it was a negative review and I had just started my Dido and Dedo order which are the ones currently being held hostage. But, I'm at the point I can't be afraid anymore so I'm going to publish. I really hope they turn this around and that those boards will be soon filled with happier, more pleasant reviews.

 

@Anglerfishee Thank you for saying so. I should have documented with photos everything but I was so excited when she arrived. But I put her accessories away because they're all so poor I knew she'd never wear them. I may have to dig them out to take photos so I actually can show off the problems in the quality of their accessories. Doll is gorgeous, resin is amazing and smooth, posing is lovely..but..that's about it. I had almost forgotten how poor they were until I dug up my review again. I guess that's just another thing they can improve on. I didn't even mention the sleeve's raw edges! Wow..this is not becoming a very nice thread. They definately have a lot they need to improve upon. I'm curious if I do ever get my new dolls how they compare and anyone else with current orders, as those review threads fill up, if I'll see improvements. I really hope so. I want to love this company so much. If ever a style fit my doll aesthetic perfectly, it's them. But..I feel like I've repressed memories about this it's all been so terrible and now it's all flooding back to me XD

 

@errinreynolds
I'm not sure what you mean by their dealer on DoA? Do you mean the Gem of Doll account here on DoA? Because I did reach out to them several times (I've posted about it in previous entries on this thread). They would see the message according to DoA but it never got a response. The last time this happened on my Rae order someone had to reach out to them on Weibo to alert them of my previous thread to get anyone replies. And now this time around I had to reach out to my Taobao proxy to ask them to contact them which got an immediate reply but still nothing to my e-mail and it took threatening to file with PayPal to get a response from them. It been several weeks I had gone without a reply at that point.
Again, if this were just a situation of catching them with their pants around the ankles, as you said before, I would be more sympathetic. I have been patient for months up until now. I've bent over backwards to put myself in their shoes and we get nothing for it but more lack of communication despite the fact they'll reply to their Chinese buyers on Chinese websites. This isn't about a lack of patience. It is has been on ongoing issue for 6 months. They'll immediately reply to quote requests or questions about placing an order, but once they have your money, they completely drop off with any communication. You'll sometimes get a random reply saying "oh, we'll reply to you soon" or "can you verify such and such" but then no reply after that. Not days--weeks if not months. And this is again on important issues like, did you get my payment at all because you keep changing your paypal address I need to make sure you still got it before I send this next payment. Your status on PayPal changed again and I can't send this as a gift how do you want me to proceed. Or did you update my address like I requested so I can actually get my doll. etc. These are time sensitive issues. And I can say mangameow has also been having issues for months before this server crash because we were speaking privately during my last order about this exact same issue of not getting replies from the company. In fact, I'm not sure mangameow ever got a reply from them after we spoke in the beginning of June but they can probably elaborate.
I don't think our upset right now has anything to do with wait times or frustrations with the server crash. It's that this lack of communication on important matters has been going on for a very long time, long before this most recent excuse.

As for living in Omaha: Lol, I thought once Omaha sucked you in you couldn't leave? We were just talking about this at work the other day. We all say we'll leave and we never do. Omaha has a way of sucking people in and just keeping them there indefinitely. Where abouts are you now?

 

For reference, you contacted me on June 6 reporting you had not heard back from your last two payments. If they never contacted you, you went SEVERAL months without contact.
^ that is the problem I was referencing before with this widespread communication problem for email orders.

 

That is wonderful news!! Please post pictures of your new angel when they arrive!

 

@mangameow Sadly no such luck here. The reply I got today essentially told me my order was never started and so God only knows when it'll actually get worked on or where in the queue they put it. Since I started payments on this back in March that's a tad upsetting. How do you forget to put someone's order in your queue.

 

@mangameow thank you. I have to wonder how this happened either. This is one of the few things I'm willing to bet was caused by the server crash. Usually this company's turn around time is such that these dolls should have already been done even before the server crash but I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt here and pray that it was THAT that caused my order to get lost. But that they've made no notice in that e-mail that they would then prioritize my order to make up for the mistake bothers me (in their words my dolls will still take quite a while). So as far as I can tell, they'll be at the bottom of the list in spite of everything. I'm just..I'm not even angry anymore. I'm just disappointed. I've given them so many chances. I'm just done with this company. It's not worth it it anymore to me. I'll still be excited to see everyone else's angels when they come in though. Even if they are just heads or bodies I do genuinely love GoD's craftsmanship. I just wish they could get their head in the game and even make a vague effort to make up for everything gone wrong in this order. Even just priotizing it since they forgot it, putting it in the list where it SHOULD have been instead of adding it to the back end as if this order wasn't started 5 months ago.

 

@Anglerfishee Sadly, they did not confirm my address change. I e-mailed them again about it though so we'll see. I wish I could say things are moving forward but I honestly doubt they are. Now that they are aware of their mistake I'm glad my dolls are at least on the list but that a miniscule step forward. And I sincerely doubt that their e-mail communication will improve at all. I have too much experience with this to believe at this point. But, it is what it is, it's out of my hands. I just don't want anyone else to have to deal with this without support from a community like I have. And I worry for them. But, I hope I'm one of the odd off cases and this hasn't affected anyone else

 

Probably a wise idea. This is just a company it's better to work with a dealer through @_@ Who did you end up using?