Lack of quality customer service/etiquette: still order from companies?

I prefer pleasant interaction but I keep in mind that many companies are staffed by people with only a nominal understanding of English ( I know this is a generalization and all aren't this way) so I give them a great deal of leeway in my communications.I suppose it would depend on how badly I wanted the doll though.

 

Bad customer service would be a deal breaker for me. If they don't want to take the time and answer my questions,I'll just order from a company that will.

 

Are you communicating strictly through e-mail?

It's worth noting that a LOT of BJD companies conduct their customer service almost exclusively through the Q&A boards on their websites. A company that appears to never answer your email may well answer your question thoroughly and politely within 24 hours if you post to their Q&A board instead of emailing them. What appears to be slipshod customer service may well be excellent customer service...if you pursue it through the proper avenue.

Some companies are better than others when it comes to customer service. You can go through all the Company Reviews in the reference area if you want a clearer picture on how any given company serves its customers. But it's also worth noting that a lot of BJD companies are verrrrrrrry small. There may only be one person on staff who speaks English with any kind of fluency -- and in the case of some of the smallest ateliers, where it's pretty much just a one-man show, they may need to find someone who can give them a hand with translation. If that one English-speaker isn't in the office that day, or happens to be on vacation or called in sick, then answers have to wait until the English-speaking employee can get back to work.

In general, asking in the right place coupled with understanding of the language barrier can net you very good customer service results.

 

It's one thing if when you ask a question and they respond in an abrasive tone, because type isn't the same as speaking in person , or maybe you're just asking questions that could have been answered a million times already. That's whatever. What I won't put up with though is when I'm asking a question which cannot be answered by my own research, yet still I'm being ignored. Or when I've already paid for something, they now can't be bothered to answer me, or want to act apathetic when something goes wrong. Or ones that blatantly lie to your face about when your doll will ship? Sorry but I have very little tolerance for that.

So I guess the answer to the question is hell no. I can learn to live without the doll or be patient and see if it pops up on the MP. I know this is an age old adage, but I'm not about to throw a few hundred bucks to a company that's going to treat me like some insignificant thug. Because of this trend in company behavior, I've learned to shop through dealers and buy secondhand.

 

I've heard enough bad things about SOOM's customer service to make me not want to buy their dolls....As pretty and as good quality I've heard they are I'm not really one to take a risk.>>:

 

Tez has said it very well... also as an example... Iplehouse works 9-5 5 days per week. It took me a while to catch on to why it took so long occasionally and was so quick at others to get a reply. My week is not bound by those time frames and when I noticed the date/times I was able to improve my response times ^^. And yes there definitely language barriers. What you might call terse could just be formal translation functions... I read scanlations and got a good understanding of this by asking about the reason behind mangle translations.

 

From a company that is in the US or Europe? No. Asia? Yes, definately. The language barrier is huge, but also the cultural barrier. We have different ideas of what is 'polite' and 'proper', or even what is crucial versus what is not, in different parts of the world. Since I cannot properly explain myself to them, and they cannot properly explain themselves to me, I give them lots of leeway. I do need to trust them ofcourse, but trust is build by the consequent deliverance of high quality dolls in the past, not by short waittimes or flawless communication (though they are both nice!). They need to react when something went seriously wrong, but for me they don't need to answer questions about eyesizes for example, i.e. the things you can could look up on the site by yourself or find on a forum like this.

 

I really can't say I've ever experienced bad customer service from any of the companies I've bought from. They've been extremely polite and kind, always. Answering questions, sometimes even sending impromptu mails just to thank me for patroning them and wish me a good holiday/season or whatever

Then again, I haven't bought a doll or anything like that since around 2010 and things might have changed. I don't really know what classifies as "bad service" to others, but a short answer to a question isn't one of them. Lack of an answer might lead me to think I asked through the wrong channel. I'd probably look through some customer reviews and see how other people have experienced it, and if the overall tone would be negative I might be inclined to agree that the company might not be so good on customer service.

However, working in the serivce industry myself I very well know when a customer is demanding too much of a person. And I am pretty lenient ^^

 

I find it extremely difficult to want to support companies with bad customer service. I think what Anne Mae said is wrong in many ways, because while you see one company from Korea having extremely good customer service (and this doesn't includde fast responding and short wait times, as sometimes if it's a small company, they might outsource for the translation) and then the other company from Korea again having bad customer service (refusing to accept faults/send replacement parts/poor business management etc etc etc), then it's clear it's not a thing of "etiquette" or "language barrier". I refuse to support that kind of way of thinking that basically says "I don't care about you (my customer)".
Mostly from what I noticed, this is a thing with the big companies (Soom, FL, Volks), where the bad customer service basically translates to "I don't care to service you because look at how big my fan base is and how many orders and money I get, no matter what I do wrong, so why would I need to bother?". Most of the smaller companies will basically do anything to help their customers.
For me, customer service for ANY kind of thing (not just BJDs) should be first because a business can't go on working without their customers. Would you buy anything online (apart from BJDs), receive it broken/messed up/anything and accept it and ORDER from them again? I think not.

Anyway, sorry for ranting u_u;;; This exact topic has been bothering me a lot as of lately, mainly because I see a lot of people don't really care about a company's customer service, and while I do think "their business, not mine", it's just ridiculous because I'm sure if it was anything else other than BJDs, they wouldn't find this acceptable.

 

I never had to deal with customer service ( all of my dolls were bought secondhand) but I think that there's a difference between general answer asking and problem solving when it comes to customer service. Like others have mentioned, the language barrier is an issue that can slow down answers and it's also important that you are contacting them the right ways. Some companies do specify on their website to not email and use the Q&A board, but not all do, so it's up to you to see what seems to be the best way of contacting them. I wouldn't mind if a company was taking a bit of time to answer to a simple questions, but I also knows companies that I wouldn't buy directly from them because I've known people who had problems with their dolls ( wrong colour, part broken in shipments) and that they had to fight through a long and tedious process to get it replaced

 

Really, Volks? Volks are my benchmark for high quality customer service because I consistently receive good service from them. I've never had a dismissive message from Volks and if there has been a wait for an item or they're entering a busy period with lots of Dolpas and store events they let you know by putting the information on their site. In recent weeks I've heard of people having some problems with Volks, but my first-hand experiences have always been great, so I would only stop recommending them if I started to get shoddy service myself.

There is a distinction between east and west when it comes to customer service. Some companies will tell you that your doll is almost ready when it most definitely isn't - this isn't because they're being mean or intending to lie, but because admitting that they are behind on production is a big no for an eastern company. Admitting they're in a slow period would let their business down and they would lose face as a company, so instead they tell the customer what the customer wants to hear. In the west if production is slow, it's slow, and western companies and dealers are more ready to admit that because it's more of a big deal to be upfront with your customers than it is to present a positive 'face' for your company.

In an ideal world we'd all know about cultural differences and be able to allow for them, whilst at the same time not being tolerant of blatantly bad customer service. Not sending out replacement parts, taking away earned customer points without warning, ignoring messages are all really bad customer service. Telling the customer what the customer service rep thinks the customer wants to hear isn't bad customer service in itself. Also, you have to consider the person who is answering Q&As is probably not going down to the factory floor to find out exactly what's going on with your doll. The answer they give you is always going to be an estimation because the doll that they may have cast for you could be riddled with bubbles and has to be junked & started again, or you ordered during an event period so they're casting a lot more dolls than usual and can't pinpoint exactly which doll is for Sparkleprinceling03 on DoA. Even standard dolls can be held up.

I would be more concerned about a company that consistently ignored questions from buyers, packed badly for international postage, had a bad track record with dealing with breakages and replacements and let their wait times creep up and up and up without addressing this with their customers. Companies that are a little slower to respond but always do, I would give them a chance particularly if every other aspect of their business was good.

Also - I know a lot of people hate it, but I actually prefer a company that doesn't mark down packages and doesn't mark things as a gift. I might get customs charges for it, but at least if something does go wrong I will actually get reimbursed for it. There was a situation a few years ago where a company sent a package of 6 dolls that got lost in the post, and the company had marked the package down to about $50 (without the consent of the customer.) There was no offer to remake the dolls until the situation had dragged on for months and months. I think going through it all publically is really what managed to get the whole problem sorted out, even though it was 6 months too long in being resolved. To the best of my knowledge B&G have decent customer service these days, at least they're still in business and I've not heard of anything of this level go wrong since!

 

I think it really depends on the situation for me, terse emails and lack of prompt reply from a native English speaking retailer would bother me more than it would if the retailer was not. As others have said there are language/cultural difference and basic practicalities to think of.

Most companies have addressed me as 'Dear' which I have always thought was rather endearing

 

It depends. If the tone just seems harsh, I often just assume it's a language barrier, or they are giving me straight facts without sugar coating, and I like that. It's much easier to understand and translate "No, we don't do that" than some big long apologetic explanation of why they can't do something. I try to keep my messages to them short and simple too, so it's faster for them to read, understand and reply. I know most companies have only a handful of employees, and only one of them may speak English, so I usually expect a reply within a week or so, not immediately. If they sat on the computer all day, they'd never get the dolls done! I try not to ask questions unless I absolutely can't find an answer elsewhere, and I expect to wait several months for a doll, so I don't start asking for a shipping date until I'm past the estimated shipping time. If they say it'll be 3 months, I really don't expect monthly updates on how my doll is doing.

HOWEVER, when the issue is lying, refusing to fix problems, or constantly delaying fixing a problem, then that IS a dealbreaker for me. Language barrier is not an excuse when I tell you "My doll arrived broken" and you say "Ok, we will send a new piece" and I wait for months with no resolution and every email I send gets a response of "one more week". That is just rude and irresponsible. Between a broken doll, being lied to and the problem not being resolved, I'll NEVER buy there again.

 

I haven't had any customer service issues with the companies I've dealt with. (Luts, Fairyland) They've both been very polite and answered my questions/concerns and were never once rude about anything I've asked. (Even if I kind of stupidly asked Luts why something didn't change on my order page... after, I learned they can't change what's written there. )

It's not necessarily a deal-breaker if a company comes off 'rude' in their responses or whatever, but I just keep in mind that there is a language barrier and things run a lot differently on their end. I mean.. if they consistently dance around the questions being asked and give you false info to shut you up, I'd consider not buying from them. (Luts is very good with their status updates. I asked about two order statuses and they were spot-on both times... but I might reconsider if they said 2 weeks and it ended up being a month more than once or something like that. But things do happen that they can't foresee.)

 

Jescissa I've heard Volks refuses to sell you replacement parts if the doll has been in your hands for over 12 days. Also, I don't know how much you follow DDs, but when they first brought out the DD3 bodies, they had MAJOR cracking issues with their skeletons, for which Volks refused to take responsibility and never acknowledged the fact. In the later releases, they DID make some changes to better the skeleton, which means they did know there were issues, but never refunded or gave replacement parts to anyone.

 

Basically, this, just this; it sums up the entire wall of text I would otherwise write. I personally won't stand for bad customer service, even if I personally haven't had trouble with the company myself. It simply makes me a lot less inclined to buy from them since at the off case something goes wrong with my order chances are I won't have any help in resolving my issue, and that aside I will be supporting a company that does not value their customers. I believe if more people were to think like that and "boycott" the companies with bad CS to some extent they would be more inclined to change their ways and become overall better companies.

 

I consider myself a very patient and understanding person so it would not be easy to get me to think lowly of a company's customer service. I always consider things like the language/culture barrier, time zone differences, ect. So I haven't had any "bad" experiences yet.

Overall, it would probably come down to me having to decide if the doll was worth it. I'd have to ask myself if the doll will be worth all the trouble in the end and if the satisfaction of finally having the doll in my hands would overshadow the bad service. ^^;

 

there are a few companies i wont order from that have bad communication. I just like it when people can let me know whats going on with my order. Even through a dealer, if the dealer can say "we havent heard anything, but we'll let you know if we do" is good enough for me. Just so I know that people didnt up and leave me hanging XD (abandonment issues? Maybe. XD)