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Nobility Doll Custom Order Feedback (Girl Muscle Body - Humbug's Design)

Apr 5, 2012

    1. COMPANY NAME: NobilityDoll

      * What did you order? Group Order: Custom 60cm Girl Muscle Body - Humbug's Design

      * When did you order? - and payed for in full ~ August 2010

      * How was the communication? Half decent at first, then virtually non existent. My misgivings started when I was not impressed with their sculptor's ability to do work outside their comfort zone. Nobility just could not seem to grasp that we wanted a BULKY female with muscle. They kept showing us designs that looked like a starved Hollywood model with a little muscle pinned on, and we kept sending them back with, "No, could you make her MUSCULAR please? Like in all the pictures we sent?" It went on for a few months of revisions. Oct 2010 to the next year was the total time for design and casting of the dolls. The final design was not what I had hoped, and not what Humbug's drawings had shown, but it was close, so I was willing to settle.

      * How easy was it to pay? It was very easy.

      * How long did it take to ship?
      They started shipping them out at the end of October 2011 but mine never shipped because someone else in our skin tone group told them to hold off on casting- Not only did he not tell us this, but Nobility didn't either, not until I had contacted them- They are hard to get a hold of, btw. They aren't exactly swift at answering their Q&A board, and the Engrish is very difficult to make sense of. They then told me they were not casting my doll because of something someone else told them. Someone not me. They also claimed to have told me so in an email, which I did receive but it had been so horribly garbled I had thought it said they were casting. They really could do with paying a better translator.

      By March 2012: It took me two weeks of wait time on their answers to confirm that Yes, I did want my doll cast, and yes, go ahead and use your NS since the person who had volunteered to send them the promised resin samples had neglected to ever do so, which led to them not casting my doll without telling me they were going to hold off on my order.





      * Was the quality appropriate for the price, in your opinion? Base Price $266 for a custom doll body is a VERY fair price, but the quality we got for that was frankly shocking. If I'd been able to see it befopre paying, I'd have expected to pay hardly $100 for a doll with this many blatant design flaws like nonfunctional joints, rough sanding and heavy seam lines.

      * Did the item look like the sales pictures? The item had a sort of resemblance to Humbug's design. It looked like the pics we agreed on with Nobility, but as stated above, I only agreed because it was plain we were not going to get through to them what we actually wanted and by that time I was willing to settle for less.

      * Were you satisfied with the product? Barely. Upon the arrival of the doll, in April 2012, Two of my friends who were NOT dolly people were shocked by her casting quality, or rather terrible lack thereof. She's got seams I could cut myself on and a lot of resin dust, as well as crud in her stringing channels. She arrived with both hips severely dislocated so badly when I opened the box that I thought they had half unstrung her. The S-hook was half embedded in a tangle of knots and half-buried into the resin of the neck. I had to cut the elastic with a razor to free everything up. Her resin tone is a good match to my Souldoll head, but her stringing was so screwed up I haven't been able to try the head on properly yet, ad I doubt I'll be able to until I fix the SERIOUS failures in the engineering.

      This is the kind of quality I'd expect from a single-person operation or a cheapy-cheap company who happens to cast BJDs- Even Resinsoul and Mirodoll, low cost Chinese companies, have far better quality control than this.
      I agree with others, "It should have been NobilityDoll's duty to ensure the doll's joints could function properly with the design".

      * If you weren't satisfied, how did the company solve your problem? It is too late for the company to do anything.

      * Would you order from this company again? NEVER.

      * Would you buy this company's products second-hand? Nope nope nope. I do not want anything more to do with them. As it is I'll be working for months to correct what they did to this poor doll and her beautiful original design.




      TL-DR:
      I am so furious with Nobility Doll for taking so long to get Humbug's lovely design even vaguely close to right, for their engineering being so faulty I'm going to have months of work to make this doll function AT ALL, and then with making me wait for months without telling me that someone else had told them to hold my order! Topping it all off, this looks like they slapped the doll together and more or less threw her in the box and out the door!

      Humbug, I cannot thank you enough for making this doll happen more or less in spite of their customer service "skills", but I am never buying anything from Nobility Doll again.

      Edit 4/12: I am asking them for a partial refund. I will update this if they agree to refund some of my money.

      4/17: Nobility gave me their answer:
      Hello there,

      I am sorry that you're not satisfied with our doll.
      The doll you placed order is for group order, so it's not possible to focus on individuals specific & personal demanding for quality or preference.
      As you know, cost, you paid, is 30% less than normal 60cm doll. In addition, you cannot refund because it's made by customized order.
      Concerning fitting line on the body, you can simply get rid of it by sanding, and it's very easy job. If you're not confident, please send it to me. I will do sending it for free withouht shipping fee
      Thank you for your understanding.

      So, I can't get a partial refund or any refund because it was Custom Work. (Custom Work they screwed up on royally.)
      And they believe it was okay to have horrible quality because it was a group order so they couldn't concentrate on individual quality. (THE HECK??)
      And the ruined state of the casting job is okay because if I work on it myself I can fix it. (Gee golly, Thanks! A huge mod project, just what I did not pay for!)

      OR I can gamble on shipping it back to them, and trust in their excellent standard of work to remove the seams for me. HAIL NO, thank you, I've seen the quality of your work so far. I wouldn't put a doll back into your hands if you paid me to do it.

      This is the end of my dealings with Nobility Doll.
       
      #1 Rosslyn, Apr 5, 2012
    2. COMPANY NAME: NobilityDoll

      * What did you order?Group Order: Custom 60cm Girl Muscle Body - Humbug's Design

      * When did you order? - and payed for in full ~ August 2010

      * How was the communication? Fairly good at first, then virtually non existent.

      * How easy was it to pay? It was very easy.

      * How long did it take to ship? The doll body started shipping out to customers in October 2011. The body was received by me in March 2012.

      * Was the quality appropriate for the price, in your opinion? Base Price $266 for a custom doll body is a VERY fair price.

      * Did the item look like the sales pictures?The item had a fair resemblance to Humbug's design.

      * Were you satisfied with the product? Ultimately yes but the engineering for the joints are horrendous. It should have been NobilityDoll's duty to ensure the doll's joints could function properly despite the design.

      * If you weren't satisfied, how did the company solve your problem? It is too late for the company to do anything.

      * Would you order from this company again? Probably not. Not because of design issues but because of their lack of communication. I felt forgotten and then dismissed.

      * Would you buy this company's products second-hand? This particular product? Not unless I was prepared to do serious modding or ready to accept a doll who's legs keep popcorning out of their hip sockets whether sitting or standing.
       
      #2 northern_raven, Apr 5, 2012
    3. COMPANY NAME: NobilityDoll

      * What did you order?Group Order: Custom 60cm Girl Muscle Body - Humbug's Design

      * When did you order? Joined the order with a friend (Falconair), we paid in full in March 2011

      * How was the communication? I was not directly communicating to them. But from the group order, they would take days to respond back even to the group order leader about concerns and changes. Very disappointed to see as we kept telling them it wasn't what we were asking for that they decided finally on the "only one set of changes from our initial design" rule, which felt like a response to the requested changes for the design to match the original drawings sent. IIRC, Falconair did have to send them an email asking about our order to get them to mail ours.

      * How long did it take to ship? The doll body started shipping out to customers in October 2011. Falconair and I received our bodies in Jan 2012. People who ordered long before us got their dolls after us. That is not really "right" to me.

      * Was the quality appropriate for the price, in your opinion? Part of what drew me to the order was I felt it was a very fair price. But the minimal number of people price for what was received? I would have been feeling very unhappy about it. I do not, however, think they had the right to cut so many corners on the finished product, no matter what the price was. There were problems (discussed in order thread) that I feel were the result of cheap or rushed casting. Even more annoying was a lack of L/R or even dots just to signify sides.

      * Did the item look like the sales pictures? I feel it looks like Humbug's wonderful drawings, but the company gave me the impression they were not really comfortable with the aesthetic.

      * Were you satisfied with the product? I was not. I thought it was beautiful, but personally, the engineering flaws were too much for me and the joint problems I have with my own body. I do not have the ability to put in the work that would have been needed to bring this body to a state I would have been pleased with. I rehomed her with someone thrilled to have her.

      * If you weren't satisfied, how did the company solve your problem? I don't think there's anything Nobility could do now, and they seemed unhappy about dealing with the order by the end anyways.

      * Would you order from this company again? No, I don't think I will.

      * Would you buy this company's products second-hand? If I saw one of their heads or something in person, I might. But based on this order, unlikely.
       
      #3 Ice Mutt, Apr 13, 2012
    4. COMPANY NAME: NobilityDoll

      * What did you order?Group Order: Custom 60cm Girl Muscle Body - Humbug's Design

      * When did you order? Joined the order in 2011, went in with another person on a custom resin color.

      * How was the communication? I was not communicating directly. I understand they were slow to respond to my custom-order partner on resin color and also slow for the group order leader about concerns and changes. Their artist was not happy with the idea and aesthetic we wanted, which was a true athletic body-builder woman or a "comic book heroine" type of build. The reference pictures we sent were extensive and from different angles and should have been plenty of good direction for proportions. The sculpt pictures kept showing a catwalk model instead of what we asked for. We insisted on greater muscle bulk in the arms, for instance. It was all there in Humbug's original drawings, so this was not a request for changes so much as better understanding of the original design.

      * How long did it take to ship? The doll body started shipping out to customers in October 2011. I had asked for a custom color in a sub-group and we had been prompt about sending along the Iplehouse hand to judge the resin color by, I got mine in 2012. People who ordered long after us got their dolls before.

      * Was the quality appropriate for the price, in your opinion? It was a fair price but not a bargain for a moderately well-finished doll. But what I got was a pretty surprising mishmash. The sculpt itself had some beautiful details, such as the serratus muscles that lift the ribs, but the seams had jutting edges that were sharp enough to cut, and the alignment of the joints and locks and string holes were messed up.

      * Did the item look like the sales pictures? The proportions look lengthened and skinny compared to Humbug's wonderful drawings, with longer legs, but after battles to get them to understand our requests, it's closer than it would have been at first.

      * Were you satisfied with the product? I was not. The relayed responses from artist or the company response sounded like they were not on board with the aesthetic. I thought the artist had a good idea goingin the final sculpt, but I've no idea who cut it up to do the jointing. The jointing was poorly engineered for how it came out in the casting. They didn't clean up the interior of the stringing channels and very little was done to clean up the seam lines. Perhaps the artist expected them to sand down the joint locks etc. to fine-tune, but that didn't get done. No really experienced sculptor would have made these mistakes with the joint locks, or entire lack of them. It's a shame, because the design could have been amazing. For two years I haven't had time to put in the mod work get her to sit and stand properly. I only got it done this year with 3 weeks of intensive work in my spare time and the extremely detailed guidance from a 2012 modification tutorial in DOA's customization section, for which I was pathetically grateful--I'd never have managed to fix it on my own. I added a few more details to get her to sit better. I still haven't got the knees entirely satisfactory. The sanding needed has changed the apparent color, so it no longer matches the head I intended to use, and I'll need to figure out body blushing or something to help with that. I kind of mourn the loss of what could have been.

      * If you weren't satisfied, how did the company solve your problem? At the time of the GO, better customer response and translation efforts would have improved understanding on both ends. Beforehand, perhaps they needed to give themselves a higher price to cover the time and effort involved, or else hire artists who were more familiar with the engineering needs. Putting in more time cleaning them up would have been helpful. Nothing Nobility could do, once they put the dolls in boxes.

      * Would you order from this company again? No, I don't think I will.

      * Would you buy this company's products second-hand? No.
       
      #4 girdethsvoice, Jun 29, 2014