Iffy auction?

Hello izumiyavi,

Yes, I did receive emails from AOD, and the whole misunderstanging has been explained to me. I am very glad that you actually took the time out to write and try to clarfy matters in this thread.

 

thank you - I'll be watching for your grand opening. I rally love that first girl and the Ming guy.

 

God, what a mess.. O_o
I'm curious about the dolls, so I hope everything resolves itself. Personally I'll live through other DoAers and see their dolls in the flesh. I'm intrigued by the company, but not by their Ebay seller, I still think that was iffy. Ah well.

 

idrisfynn, this is the AOD's first time selling on an American auction site. They do have the 1/3 dolls which they are selling on EBAY, but they have not yet released it to the agents. Typically, Chinese auction sites are setup differently than Ebay, the rules and protocol are also different. If we must fault AOD, then it is for that fact that they didn't do their homework on the American market/auctions ahead of time. This is a learning experience for them. As I am interested in becoming an agent, I have been in daily contact with them. Several times a day, as a mtter of fact. They will change the store name and definitely take out Hotdollzone. They'll insert nude pix of the dolls both front and back so people can see what they look like underneath the clothes. They are updating their Chinese site and will soon lauch their Engish site. Let's not jump to conclusions, and let's give them sometime to get over the rough patches. I think one thing us Americans tend to do is to judge other people and other culture from an "American" point of view. I think sometimes we need to step into another person's shoe just for a second. I don't know if I'm making myself clear, but I guess, what I'm trying to say is that let's not be so judgemental. Time will tell................

 

I am beyond angry right now. Such mismanagement is totally unacceptable.
I hear from 2 people and they say the auction is legit. They say there is a 60 cm Ming being made up and photographed. I hear from a third person. He says I can only buy through eBay. OK. Fine. I take the chance and bid.
This morning I have an email from the one gentleman - and I use the term loosely right now; he now says – in a round about way – that the ebay auction isn’t theirs.

First,thank you very much for your interest in AOD.
We are now under re-construction of our company' strategy towards international market.Because there are many gossip which directly lead us to an unfavorable position.
I personally do not eliminate the possibility that other company destroy our reputation. We will not make any declaration at this time.We will work hard on completing our English version website.I think all the gossip will stop by that time.
Sorry for any inconvincence that may cause by our company's conduct.
Also,i would like to use my Chinese name Zhang rather than Alan(English name)to reply to our customer.
Do feel free to contact with me if you have any question.
Mr.Zhang

The only other company involved is the one running the auction on eBay. And notice that he informs me he prefers to be known by his Chinese name, not the pseudo-English one he used in the previous emails (one of which was signed Angela?) - these emails came through as Alan Lau. So now we are changing our personal names. Who knows who you are speaking with when you email them. They may all be the same person who has a phone book in front of him/her, pulling out random names. Nice way to pass the blame. So-and-so did it, who doesn’t exist. And the one that claims to be the US representative doesn’t appear until she is implicated. Nice.
I have notified eBay that the auction is a scam. So is another member here. As much as I love the Ming doll I will not buy it. I will not consider this company, not until they grow up and learn how to deal in a business-like manner, if even then. Their reputation has been destroyed by their own stupidity.

 

Sharron, Mr.Zhang is the Mr. Chang that I was referring to. I only knew his last name in Chinese or I spell it Chang, but it should have been Zhang. Anyway, He is from AOD and they are selling on Ebay as top_sincerity. I keep him informed of all the concerns and confusions that I read here, and after my email to him about the pm you sent me, he told me he was changing the auctions and taking the name Hotdollzone out. I didn't keep track of the auctions, and I didn't know that he meant taking them out. Did he end the auction before or after closing? Would you like me to contact him about this? I still think this is young company trying to make it in a market that is totally foreign to them. I can only say that they are trying to deal with an American market the Chinese way. He has quoted me the price for two dolls and I'll be paying by paypal. If I don't get my dolls within 45 days, I should be able to file with paypal and get my money back. It is quite understandable that you are upset, but, wait and see how it goes for me. Okay?

Linda

 

LadyFeather>> I have only found out about this thread today because pegapup mentioned it in her email to me.

I will not say anything else about the Ebay auctions as I'm not in-charge of them, but I can say that I am legit. All this is just caused by some miscommunications and nothing more.

 

All this miscommunication is reminding me of the old Abbot and Costello skit "Who's on first?"

However, I think there is a way we can get to the bottom of this in a civilized fashion. Izumiyavi: If you have one of these dolls in your posession, could you please post a picture of them with a cat of some sort? It could be a real cat, a toy, or even a drawing.

I agree that this has been a very disoganized launch, but it seems that all we can do at this point is wait for everyone who ordered to recieve their dolls.
I hope that everything is settled and the company proves to be a reliable source...

 

If I may put my two cents in. Personally I think it was rash of AOD to end the auctions, but it's not a scam. A scam would be for them to wait for the auction to end, take people's money and then disappear. I think they are haste in ending the auction, just as they are haste in selling too soon on Ebay. As I've stated on my previous posts, I am interested in becoming an agent so I'm willing to take the risk. Wait and see if I right and that I actually get my dolls, and then we can go from there.

 

They ended the auctions??? I can still see them on eBay - what auctions have they ended prematurely?

 

Just a note here, could it be the company the e-mailer is referring to Doll Zone and not the Ebay auctioner? Not that Doll Zone doesn't have a right to complain about the Ebay auctioner using their name as part of their Ebay Store (which actually isn't illegal but does look like search spamming)

It is too bad this company if legit did not do more research before all this. And the Ebay seller needs to remove the other company dolls from their auctions. Not only is it misleading but could lead to much trouble from Volks and the others, since they are very protective of their dolls' images.

 

idrisfynn, I AM new on DOA, but I've been buying dolls on ebay for years. I have 405 positive feedbacks and I am embarrassed to say out of the 500 or more transacations I have on Ebay, at least 95 of them are as buyers. I very rarely sell any of my dolls. I don't even mind if you or anyone else check my feedbacks on ebay, it's the same ID as I use here: Venture-1. You don't need to trust me, I am not trying to sell you or anyone anything. Not yet, anyways. I am simply relaying to the forum my communications with AOD because we share a common interest here - AOD dolls. Out of this forum, I think you are the most negative with AOD. That is your opinion and that is okay. I been collecting dolls for over 13 shares, and yes, I've seen my share of the scams. BUt, I remain optimistic that not all new sellers or new companies are scammers.

 

Um... the only Dollzone mention here wasn't so much about the name but because in their original auction for Nana on Ebay they had actually put pictures of a Fenyo instead of the doll that's there now, and they were called on it ( I put a photo comparison on the first few pages).

They pulled the pictures, so one can assume that was just a mistake ( though I found it iffy, personally) .

Just like, as someone else pointed out, on their ebay layout they have dolls from other houses. Just.. misleading and somewhat dishonest, in that handling.

I think right now there really doesn't seem to be a marketing strategy from AOD, or any clarity on who is or isn't an authorized agent, the photos, the sizes, the release date....


...so, I'd just wait. If someone HAS actually gotten one of their dolls, maybe its better to wait and see what their experience was -- and see up close some actual owner pics.

 

I just want to make it clear that when I said I have 405 positive feedbacks and 500+ transactions on Ebay, I don't mean that the rest of the feedbacks are negative feedbacks. I have only positive feedbacks. It just that some of the transactions are from repeated sellers, and Ebay only counts them as one feedback.

 

oops, not 13 shares, but 13 years. I've been collecting for 13 years. I collect mostly vintage Chinese dolls and have just recently started with BJD.

 

Actually, I think that a lot of people are probably feeling cautious/negative about AOD -- it's hardly just idrisfynn. Everything so far has been incredibly confusing and dodgy. The difference is that the people with the most interest in these dolls are the ones who want to buy them, ergo they are the ones posting in this thread. The ones who are being turned off by what is going on are merely leaving the thread -- and the company -- behind them and looking somewhere else.

We have really had some truly awful scams on the forum in the last couple of months and I think a lot of people are feeling pretty burned and worried about their money. And I think they have every right to feel that way, and to be wary of a company that has thus far shown that the left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing.

You are more than welcome to feel positive about this company.. but those of us feeling skeptical are also more than welcome to feel this way.

Btw, you can edit your previous posts to fix mistakes rather than correct them in later posts; it saves the thread a lot of extraneous posts.

 

the auctions are still up. The only thing I can see is they have changed their ebay store from Hotdollzone to aoddoll. Maybe that made the listings temporarily invisible untile the search refreshed, but it looks like they are still there (12 of them).

 

ditto - would love to se some kind of real verification.
I would also love to know which body they have. The bodies in the actions are different from what's on the AOD website. And the bodies on the AOD website are the ones I prefer, so I really how that's what the english site will offer.

 

I agree that one is entitled to one's opinion and that it's best to be Careful. I am not down playing the pain of being scammed, like I said, I've seen my share. I never encouraged anybody to buy from AOD or bid on the auctions, infact, I said the opposite. Don't buy, don't bid. Wait and see if I acutally get my dolls first and then go from there. That means, if I was wrong about them, then you can patt yourself on the back and said, ha, I was smarter than her, I didn't fall for that. If I do get my dolls, then you can decide at that time to buy, to bid or whatever. Why is this so hard for some people to understand?
By the way, thanks for the info. As you know, I'm new to this, and I'm still learning.