Angel of Dream (AOD) 1/4 size discussion thread Part 2

Haha yay! Out of curiosity, does anyone know when AoD made the switch?

 

Eek, posting in this thread because i need HELP. advice please....

i recently caved in and placed an order from Bing Shen. i wanted her in tan because my other AoD doll is tan, and 90% of the other dolls i own are white or pale pink skin, so i really want more variety in my collection. i LOVE tan skin as well as 'unnatural' skintones like gray, purple, etc.

problem is, i received this email from Angel of Dream today:

"Dear customer,
thank you for your order. We had a problem now. We no longer make sun tan skin dolls.

Can you change to other skin? Please let me know.

Best regards,
AOD"

...so.

does this mean they've stopped making ALL dolls in tan?
just Bing Shen?
what should i do?
i really like her sculpt and wanted her for a long time, but if i can't get her in tan i'm not sure i'm getting my money's worth, so to speak.
i've heard about 'home tanning' aka baking - would it be advisable to get her in pale skin and do that? is it too risky?

any help appreciated. i'm not sure how to responds to this email. if they've stopped making tan dolls forever then that really, really, really sucks.

 

leitan
sounds for me like they have completely stopped to produce tanned dolls =/


and hey.. i never introduced my boy to anyone here, even thought i have him for 5 years now
.. meet Vincent (Wang Zi)

 

I really hope they haven't stopped making tan skin as I have a tan Min head (from 2008) that I've never gotten around to buying a body for and it would pure suck not to be able to get an AoD body for him since I like their bodies so much.

 

well it's funny - as in not the type of funny ha ha - what happened because of this tan skin issue.

first, i didn't respond to the email immediately because i had to think if i want to buy Bing Shen and try to risk "home tanning" her or if i want to boycott their "no tan" decision. so i didn't respond the same day as i received that message. next day they sent me TWO identical emails asking me to make a decision about the skintone!

so i responded at once, i apologized but i pointed out that if the tan option wasn't on their website (after all, i *selected it* from the options menu) this problem wouldn't have happened, and i wanted a refund if they couldn't make a tan doll.
no response.
i wait ~3 days and send them another email... no response.

around the 20th i opened a paypal dispute with them clearly outlining why i wanted a refund, they cannot provide a product advertised on their website which in my mind is deceptive- if you're going to stop making tan, then at least make tan dolls for the people who already ordered them while the option was ON your site. anyway. i waited another 3 days for them to respond to my dispute. no response.

keep in mind i placed this order around the 8th July and it is now the 23rd. if i don't escalate my paypal claim by August, they can keep my money. i'm really, really kind of pissed off and disappointed with their customer service right now.

i'm also really disappointed because *i want* to like their company. i don't want to talk badly about them or drive down their business, but if these are their business practices you reap what you sow?

 

leitan: Well... I ended up with the tan Min head through a mistake on their part during a free head event when I bought my very first doll (tan Chi). I'd asked for a NY Min head and was sent tan instead. I sent them an email saying I'd asked for something different AND sent screencaps of my order which listed a NY Min as my free head choice. They said they'd send me the correct one and so I waited. And waited. And waited. I finally got somebody who was a dealer for them (but not whom I'd placed the initial order through since I ordered direct from AoD) to go to bat for me and 4 months later, I finally got the correct skin tone head.

I had thought their customer service was better now since they were still fairly new-ish at the time of my initial order. The dolls are beautiful, the quality really good and they are by far my favourites in my collection. Its a shame they still haven't been able to get their act together on the customer service end of it.

I hope you get this issue resolved soon. I agree that if the option for tan is on the website (which it still is, BTW), then they should either honour the original order or refund you the money and remove that option from their site if they aren't making it any more.

 

iron_dog, i know all about the "waited, and waited, and waited" thing. with my first AoD doll, they did not ship her out until ~2 weeks or more after they sent me a message saying she would ship, and when i received her... my online order status was still marked "before shipping". sorry, i think i may have repeated myself in this thread (or another, i have mentioned this on DoA before), but it is another example of CS failing. she arrived completely by surprise.

still i wanted to hope that this was because they are a small company who might be overworked or busy. but since i know they can contact me ASAP if they deem it important (see: sending me multiple emails in just 2 days telling me to change the skin tone order), it seems like now i requested a refund they are avoiding my messages.

i checked the website also and yes, you can still select tan dolls, order them and pay for them.

i would honestly be HAPPIER to get a tan Bing Shen than to get a refund, if they were to honor that, but i feel like they are being squirly or dishonest right now. or just lazy, which is not a good business practice.

the reason i want another AoD doll is of course the same as you: they make beautiful dolls, and like you, the one i already own is my #1 favorite doll in my collection.

so this is really conflicting for me... unless their doll artists are also their customer support though, i feel like there are 2 separate parties here, the people making the dolls are not to blame, those handling the orders perhaps are.

 

It is a shame that customer service is often the first causality in business *sigh*. I really hope you get this straightened out and get the doll you wanted *crosses fingers for you*.

I dunno if it's appropriate for this thread or not, but Doll-Love is a sister company to AoD and their dolls are very nice as well (I have one of their MSD boys) with the same sort of aesthetic styling. They don't have any of the AoD sculpts as they are separate companies, but you may see one that tickles your fancy and I know they do tan.

 

it's funny you should say that, because i have several Doll Love dolls on my "wishlist" and it's because they reminded me of AoD dolls! i had no idea the companies were somehow related... i especiallly want Yueyong. but yes, that discussion is for another thread. if i get my money back + don't go for another doll first, a Doll Love doll is going to be my next "GET".

thanks for the well wishes, i will see what happens with this and probably rant about the results at some point.

 

Yes, please let us know how this turns out.. I have been reading not so good things about them in the last year, which makes me really sad.

Also, I would NOT suggest baking your doll. Dyeing is a safer option as far as not accidentally damaging the resin...

 

i certainly will-- anyway, thanks for the tip about "home tanning", although i basically said i want a full refund unless they will honor my order regarding tan color selection. it's been over a week with no contact from them now, even though they spammed me with those 3 consecutive emails when they wanted me to choose new skintone. i decided to escalate my paypal dispute because i cannot get any response from them at all through email OR through paypal claims.

and yeah, i would even be willing to let it go if i could just get her in tan... though i don't know if i would order from them directly again even so. it's such a shame.

 

well, that was quick. after i *escalated* my paypal dispute to a full on "GIMME MAH MONEY BACK" claim, a wild customer service appears:

"Dear customer, i am sorry for late reply. We can make you tan color doll and now we are just waiting for tan color resin. We promise you that we will produce your order as we agreed. We will receive the resin next week. We need two weeks to make doll. So we will ship your order on Aug 16-20th or so. We will email you tracking number as soon as shipped. Thank you again."

i responded and asked them (again) because i had already asked in a previous email if the tan ban was temporary or permanent, but no response so far, so i cannot confirm if they are doing this just because i bitched to Paypal or if they were just temporarily out of tan resin and communicated that fact really badly.

i also canceled the claim, of course, which means i cannot re-open it if anything goes wrong... in other words, i'm placing way too much faith in them right now. but this is maybe the only way to tell if i should continue to be an AOD customer anyway. *places head in hands*

now to wait for late August! Bing Shennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn~

 

Yea! That's great news all the way around. Be sure to post pics when you get your new lovely home

 

it's great news for me - bad news for everyone else. i just (finally) received another email from CS regarding the question "are you making an exception just for me, or will you continue to make tan dolls for everyone in future?"

Dear customer,
no, we won't have tan dolls any more. We are sorry too.
I don't know whether we will change this or not in the future. But currently this is our plan.

If you have more questions,please let me know.

so, it really looks like they are just ordering a final batch of tan resin because i bitched so hard and escalated that Paypal dispute with them- they wanted my money bad enough to make a final exception.

obviously, i am just relaying the information i have been given by CS. i have no idea how many people actually like/want AoD to continue carrying tan dolls so maybe it's not economic for them to do it, but if that were the case you'd think they'd rather refund me than go to the trouble of ordering a batch of resin just to make my doll....?! however i feel like people who buy AoD dolls should be aware of this unless the announcement has been made or the website has already been finally changed (which it wasnt a couple days ago, but i havent checked as of just now)

edit: went to AoD site and their tan option is still up. they last updated their news center in February this year, so no announcements regarding this either...

 

Definitely yea! for you. I'm glad you've gotten it resolved. And thanks for posting their reply about whether or not they'll continue to make tan dolls.

it's a real shame that they're not going to do tan anymore. It's a lovely colour.

 

I think my girl dreams in color. I think if she were to smile it would break the world's heart. I was using a macro. I love how intimate this shot of her is. It reminds me of how we look at people who are saying something important, focusing on the words while the other features impact us in their own time. Tiamet is such a soft little girl. I love her to bits.

 

Frecklesssss~ She's adorable, Myr! I can't wait to start posting pics of Hiroaki.

 

I can't wait to see them I got more pictures of her... actually I got some pretty cool ones on the day I took this one but, I don't want to over post her. She so sweet and quiet. I love her!

 

Myrretah - i love dolls with freckles! they're so sweet!

everyone else - to continue the saga of my AoD Bing Shen it's now the 29th and no contact from AoD. the CS rep i talked to said she would ship between the 15th and 21st with a tracking number. Nothing. here's the mail i just sent:

Hi [name redacted],

It's now the 29th August and I haven't heard anything about my order. You said shipping would be estimated from 15th August to 21st August, but I haven't received any contact. Is there a delay or problem with the order? Did I miss an email you sent?

My order is still marked as "pending" on the AoD website. Just to note, the doll I ordered from you last year is still marked as "pending" too, even though I received her in January, you never updated me of her shipping status that time either or even changed her from "pending". So it's impossible for me to know what "pending" really means.

I don't mind waiting a longer time for the doll if your company needs more time to finish it, I would just appreciate to know why there is a delay and if you can give an accurate guarantee of when I might expect her to ship. I also will hold you to your word that I will get a tracking number for her.

Thanks very much!
-

i apologize if not everyone wants to hear my woes, but i think it's very important that everyone knows how AoD handles their customers if you deal with them directly.

i should have known better but i really thought (hoped) my first doll experience with them was a one off. the second time around, while i am very very happy that i got my way regarding the doll and her skin tone (i was really surprised they offered to make her instead of refunding me), i am still dissatisfied with the fact that they are making promises they cannot keep to.

as my email said, i DON'T mind waiting for something i really want, she can take 3 or 4 months to get here just like my Yuki did and it would be okay with me as long as they would just admit that instead of what is essentially lying to me and leaving me in the dark regarding her ETA.

both my orders with them - one from Oct '11 which i received in Jan '12, and this one from July '12, are still marked "pending" as of today...

 

I finished Hiroaki's face-up!



I'm not thrilled with his lashes and brows, but I really like how the scars came out.