LUTS, How can I trust you again?

Luts' policy on replacement is quite reasonable and nigh-on universal among BJD companies. Actually, Luts is somewhat generous in giving you a week: Elfdoll and Souldoll only offer a three day grace period. Volks and Unidoll, kindly and customer-friendly companies that they are, both give you two weeks--that's weeks, as in increments of seven days, not months. Dream of Doll gives you seven days if you can prove that the damage was caused by them before the doll went out, and holds the shipping companies responsible for any damages incurred in shipping--their website encourages people to refuse to sign for the doll unless they've taken it out of the box and inspected it first to make sure it's unharmed. Find me a UPS driver that will stand around and wait for you to do that.

Two months without more than a cursory inspection was, to be frank, asking for trouble. A lot of things can happen to a doll in two months--it can fall down a flight of stairs, get stepped on, take a header from a high shelf, be assaulted by small children, or just be mistreated. Doll companies aren't psychic, nor do they embed tiny cameras in the resin of their dolls' headcaps--they don't know what happens to their product after it leaves their hands. So when somebody says "I got this two months ago and it's broken! But I swear it happened in shipping, really," they're allowed to be a little . You'd get the same treatment if you asked for a price check at a grocery store--they're not going to take your word that this bag of sugar rang up wrong, they will send an employee to go check. And since doll companies can't ship you an employee to sit with your doll in your dorm room and make daily reports of "Nope, she hasn't touched it yet!" getting indignant about the company thinking that your claim's a trifle fishy makes no sense.

Luts' resin quality issues are something entirely else--if you say their resin and body sculpting sucks and other people agree with you, you've probably got a legitimate complaint and should quit buying from them. I, for one, raised a serious eyebrow at the state of that ankle joint--it almost looks like the mold they cast it in had old resin stuck in it or something. Anyone else with a MNF girl body willing to post ankle joint pictures to determine if this is an isolated event or part of a larger pattern?

 

I'm sorry about your baby, it must be pretty heartbreaking .
I can understand Luts' claim, but I'd think that they could replace that one part for you free of charge just for the sake of you paying so much money as a customer [that's considering that this kind of thing doesn't happen to them every day, that is]. But maybe I expect too much of people, I don't know.

 

I'd really like to see pictures of other MNF ankles.. are they really all like that...? Now I am wondering about my delf... I never paid much attention to the setup even when I sueded her... ::goes off to have a looksie::

Nope.. none of her joints are hollowed out like that. Did you send Luts the picture of the inside of the ankle?

 

I just checked my MNF Elf Shiwoo who I received today, and his ankles have no imperfections inside at all. I must say I've been very lucky, as pretty much all of my dolls have come straight from LUTS with no damage to them.

I'm sorry to hear about your Shushu, I hope it doesn't put you off her at all.

 

I am always sad to hear about problems with luts. I have personally ordered dolls from them over a dozen times and never had a single problem. Knock on wood.

 

I agree that two months is a long time to not notice a crack. When you recieve a package it is important to check the doll over for any damage straight away =/

As for the strange chaps, I have no idea! o.o; My CP girl is as smooth and unmarred as the day I got her with heavy play after a full year. Her waist piece popped out after a few days, but it was glued back in. That is about the only damage she has ever recieved.

I think CP resin is fantastic - much better than my DoD DoC girl which is very shiney and yellows far faster than my Lishe.

It's horrible that all that has happened to you and your friend, but I have to say that it is a rare thing to happen =(. It is perhaps related to tempreture, humidy etc. in your area as for the chaps, but with the leg crack, it is quite possible it was damaged in the post. I've seen that in particular damage happen to several dolls at either the ankle, neck or wrist, as it is where the resin is thinest.

I'm glad you got the replacement part for your Shushu elf though ^_^

Edit: And just to add, I've looked inside my Lishe's ankles. It looks much smoother and more proffessionally finished than yours does! I'm very surprised at this! o_o;;

It certainly looks like you have recieved either a very bad batch or that the package has been exposed to a high heat at some point, either in transit or at your own home.

 

I don't know about other places, but where i come from, you can't openthe package until you have signed for it. Some postal people won't even give you the box until you have signed for it! ><; Maybe it's different in Korea?

 

Normally, I would side with Luts, but I notice a few things in your damage photos.
1) No damage to the ankle ball. If the leg had been damaged by user impact, I would expect there to be matching damage on the ball where they had impacted.
2) Look at the inside picture of the crack itself. See how the edges at the tip of the crack are dull and rounded and blended into the resin, while at the top it's sharp? And how there's sort of a smooth dip going into it? I would expect the tip of a crack like this in resin to be very sharp, like it looks on the outside. I could be misinterpreting this -- it could just be dust or something -- but I would venture that there's a casting flaw there. It's next to a mold line; that's a common place for them. It looks to me almost like the resin didn't join fully at the seam, then later a piece chipped out (any resin shards running around in the box?) and/or that lap opened, and the split continued from there.
I could believe that this leg was flawed when it shipped. Maybe it broke at Luts, maybe it broke during shipping, maybe a day of humidity expanded the resin. Maybe you had your doll doing the can-can for all I know. But if there was indeed a flaw there, then I would consider that Luts' responsibility no matter what caused it to fail, because an unflawed part wouldn't have.

I'm not necessarily saying that Luts messed up and you're right. But I don't necessarily think you're being unreasonable in this particular case, either.

As for the chaps, the only other time I have seen those that badly was on a doll that was found to have cured incorrectly. It's difficult to judge from photos, but if they are spreading and you can feel them, I'd guess that is a defect.

 

The problem is that if they only give you 7 days to report a problem with the doll, what about defective parts that only surface once the doll has left the company? If they only give 7 days to report it, then they are in essence not taking responsibility for their defective parts. I can understand a small company not wanting to take a loss for that part, but don't you think keeping good customer service would be more important than a $40 part? I think so.

I think you're in the right here honey. I'm very sorry that you had to pay for that part.

Oh, well said!

 

So far, all my Luts dolls don't have that. Sorry to hear yours does. I agree, you need to check the doll as soon as it arrives. I always do.

 

this story has got me a bit worried... once my El gets here ishould give him a thorough check (didn't do a very good check with Mo but it's fine)

i'm very sorry to hear this story... it makes m worried. As i want to order more dolls from Luts, at least 2 more so it may cause a problem.

It sucks i know... hope all the best though even if it sounds like empty words. I'm sorry for you

 

I agree with you too, it looks like shoddy craftsmanship, and you should not have to pay for that!! The resin looks thinner where the crack is, and what are all those gouges or chip-looking marks in her ankle socket?

You must have been very busy to not have opened your package for two months!!

I'm very sorry that this has happened! I've seen posts about the "chaps" before, people complaining. I wonder if they use fillers in their resin? Perhaps it's poor mixing. Either way, I will definitely think twice about getting any other CP dolls!

Raven

 

omg this made me really worried. i am currently saving for a doll from them and i really wish it will be in a perfect condition, first doll and all, ya know D: but thanks for sharing this with us. if i ever order from them, this made me became very fussy and will definitely check everything thoroughly ever piece of it.

 

Yep... While I can see why they would refuse to replace the part free because of the amount of time that's passed, that leg part shoul dnever have made it out of the factory looking like that. The inside surface is just mangled. o_O

Re: the "chap"... Like Raven said, that's been noticed before. About a year ago, Luts had a whole batch of resin that apparently had that problem. (My own Nightengale's body came from that period. He has the same crackle-like look on both of his arms and one of his legs-) At the time Luts' reaction was much the same as what they told your friend. They claimed that there was no problem.

Fortunately, the crackled surface doesn't seem to have weakened the resin and in Nightengale's case they haven't gotten any worse or any deeper over time or with ordinary wear and tear. (Nightengale is an "active" doll... I play around with him quite a bit, so he doesn't spend all of his time sitting on a shelf in spite of the odd resin-)

It might set some people's minds a little more at ease to know that *none* of the other dolls or bodies I've gotten from Luts since then have had any sign of the same problem. I routinely check them all for damage, miscasting and other weirdnesses as soon as they arrive, and they've all been fine. So... Even though things like this do happen sometimes, the odds are still in your favor that the doll you'll get will be in good shape.

It's a good reminder to check the doll completely as soon as it arrives, though... In general, it seems like the sooner you can report the problem the more likely Luts is to do something about it.

 

Wow! That is so poorly made.

 

Perhaps LUTS is becoming just like all other companies when they become popular and start making a lot of money.

Customer service and product quality goes down, just to make more of a product?

That's one theory anyway, I can't say much more since I've never dealt with LUTS myself.

 

The only thing I could think that might cause it without the ball being damaged would be if someone was restringing the doll and banged the calf - since you usually restring from the neck to the feet, it would be possible. I'm not saying this is what happened, but from the companies point of view, there could be other explanations for the damage and they're not willing to give you the benefit of the doubt? It's a pretty obvious crack and, unfortunately, you must be one of the few people who don't pull their new doll out of the box and drool over it. I know I couldn't let any brand new doll sit in a box for 2 months, but then I always had to eat my easter eggs at once and open any presents the moment I saw them. I think it looks like some sort of stress crack but obviously the company doesn't or maybe they feel it could be how you had it stored, temperature or some other factor. I know it doesn't help when it's not your fault, but maybe when the new pieces arrive, take a photo of the inside and show the difference and ask whether they consider it could have been caused by a mistake in the casting. I've just bought a Luts doll - my first and he is absolutely gorgeous, I'd be devastated if I saw something like that on him.

 

Actually, you can sign the package that you are going to check for damages after you receive it. My mom did that with both the dolls I sent to her work.