Noble Dolls Discussion Part 1

This is just gut-wrenching!

 

For those with doubts regarding the news, I understand not wanting to jump on the bandwagon and not assume anything without 100% proven facts. I’m currently going to allow Layla a chance to respond to my messages until the end of the week. If she doesn’t get back to me with anything concrete (or doesn’t respond at all), I’m going to my bank to see if I can get my money back.

But honestly? I’m far more willing to believe what Cecile/Asella has to say to be true. Layla has been giving us all the runaround for well over a year. Contacting her is consistently hit or miss, we get a lot of “it’ll be here soon”s and then no follow up when any timeframe she has given comes and goes, she didn’t even so much as post on her FB page regarding her injury and how she’d be indisposed for X amount of time. I’ve even personally witnessed comments that were critical or negative get deleted from her FB page.

Any information we’ve gotten about Jpopdolls in this thread has been from us posting about whatever correspondence we could get in private emails or FB messages. Any other competent business owner would have been posting publicly about the delays. As far as I’m concerned, Layla has wasted away any amount of good faith I’ve been willing to give her and I am no longer interested in giving her a benefit of a doubt. I need full transparency and PROOF that these allegations aren’t true.

But anyway, as it is now, we have the creator of the dolls stating that things are too iffy for her to ignore and suggesting customers to look into ways to get their money back if at all possible. I really don’t think she’d take this stance for no good reason.

Speaking of, she posted a comment to my IG post regarding the situation:

I’ve since asked her if she could possibly let me know who the casters are. I’ll post here with any new information I get.

Also got this other comment from someone else on my IG post.

I replied to them to request sources, I’ll post again here if/when I hear back from them. But yeah, if this claim is also true, then yeah, I’d say nail meet coffin here.

As for the message I sent to Layla, FB messenger says she has viewed the messages more than 14 hours ago and I have not gotten a response yet.

Anyway…really wish none of us had to deal with this crap. I was already having a pretty piss poor month and then this comes out during what was supposed to be a fairly relaxing long weekend for me. 14 years in the hobby and this is the first I’ve ever dealt with something as bad as this.

 

I may be more fortunate than most, since I live in the same state as her so I may be able to get a police report or small claims suit filed, even 2 years on.

For people who live elsewhere, it is definitely going to be an ordeal. This is my first time ever dealing with something like this.

My FB message to JPop has also been left on Seen so far, btw.

 

Got a response a little earlier on Facebook from Alena (the volunteer that helps handle Jpopdolls’s messages there) to email Layla about the situation. Wasn’t expecting to get a response, but I just did a few minutes ago.

Take that as you will. We’ll just have to wait and see what statement comes out in the coming days. Frankly, I’m taking this response with a grain of salt at this point.

 

I got the exact same message. We'll see.

 

We prolly all got the same message regardless of whether we contacted her about orders or to complain about the Fb post.

 

@Candycanes02 Yeah, I’m pretty sure she’s just been copy pasting the email she sent to me to everyone else because others have noted that they had ones that started with “Dear Alisha” instead of their names lmao. What a freaking mess.

 

I guess maybe I'm less upset because my money is gone either way and either I'll get a doll or I won't? I'm just not outraged like everyone else? I don't think we've been given the run around, being bad at communication isn't a crime. Stealing money is a crime but I'm not convinced that's what happened. She doesn't seem to be suited to be a small business owner and that's ok, not everyone is. I'll just keep hoping for my doll. If I was still within the PayPal claim time I'd file a claim but I don't feel like calling my bank.

 

It’s probably my depression but I don’t care what happens with my order cause the money is gone anyway, and I’ve been doing just fine without it already. I do want people to beware about ordering from them though cause I know not everyone can gamble with $600-700.

 

Imagine being a doll artist produced by Jpopdolls, having you dolls sold as preorders years ago (2017 for me), everybody got their doll a VERY long time ago, but you never receive the payment for those preorders... I just want to inform that it's not only one problem with one preorder for one artist, those problems are way bigger. And I'm not the only one...

 

I'm so very sorry to hear this & you do not deserve that, but I'm glad that you have spoken out about this company as well, just as Asella did bc it means that now ppl who are still waiting or hanging in there for their doll orders can pack up the dream & move on. Some of us (maybe most of us) are not made of money & it's quite heartbreaking to be taken advantage of like this, when we work hard to save up our money to be able to afford to buy a BJD. But what really gets to me the most is that this woman Layla knew there were issues going back 2 years ago, but still kept taking preorders 1 after the other. By that stage she knew she was not going to be able to deliver, but kept on taking ppl's money on the pretence that we were going to eventually get our dolls.

 

There's a preorder right now for MSD Raspberrys on the artist's instagram! Login • Instagram


(Summary of order details per the post)
Open through April 30 (or all orders taken). Normal (400 euros), light tan and blue (420 euros) and dark tan (440 euros). No faceups. Includes doll, heel feet, and shipping bag. Professionally cast. Layaways okay 2x or 3x. PayPal preferred. Shipping available worldwide.

See the artist's post for details and how to order.

 

Well, here we are in June - Spring is ending (if we count Summer as beginning on the 21st of June) and I've not had any updates about the Raspberry pre-order since the email I think most of us got in the wake of Asella's Facebook post in February. I emailed 2 weeks ago saying that I'd like a shipping guarantee by the end of Spring, or else a cancellation of the order. I am not surprised that I've not had a reply yet, but I am disappointed!

I have a lot of empathy for their situation and I'm patient for dolls - but they are running a business, they do have all our money, and it's kind of not... our problem to solve.

I'm also quite sad because I wanted to cancel my order and get in on Asella's own Raspberry preorder that she ran earlier this year (which would have suited me better in any case as I'm in the UK), but of course I had no reply to my email requesting a cancellation in the time frame that would have allowed me to participate.

Has anyone ever had any luck juicing their money back, bank-side? I don't think my partner used PayPal. I'm just kind of miserable about it at this point. I was so excited for an opportunity to buy a little artwork I've wanted for years.

Mind you, this is my first rubbish experience with a pre-order in 15 years of being in the hobby, so that hit rate ain't so bad...

 

I've heard that some buyers are considering a lawsuit, but that may only be possible for US residents.
Maybe you can talk to the bank and hear if they have any suggestions?

 

If your partner didn't use paypal, I think disputing it might actually be a little bit easier, since if you circumvent paypal, paypal itself can and will probably kick up a fit... your experience would probably depend a lot on your specific bank and what their timeframe for disputes are. Honestly I'd reach out to them now, since I think Jpopdoll's actions (... and inaction is an action), speak louder than anything else, at this point.

 

For anyone else who is out a doll+money, there is a FB group for people to organize. There is a link to the WA Attorney General to submit a fraud report -- the more people who submit, the better. The post with the relevant business info and link to the report form is pinned to the top of the page.

Here's the group.

 

I just realized I never posted on DoA after getting these dolls! I ordered a couple of handmade dolls from Asella back in 2018 and 2020, and they arrived in August 2023. Side note: The wait sounds way worse than it was - there was a lot of communication. I wasn't ever worried about them getting here.

I originally ordered a milk white Rivanone and a pink Rendezvous. The Rivanone eventually turned into a pinkish Raspberry instead (I might be biased but it's literally the best sculpt ever). Both dolls are gorgeous! They're not as "professionally" finished as the Raspberry I ordered from Jpopdolls, however, they're still very beautifully finished. I really love the handmade touches they have. They also arrived with faceups and body blushing (GORGEOUS body blushing at that). Asella also included hand-written CoAs for both dolls.

Rendezvous is a sculpt that was originally supposed to debut in LDoll 2020, which was cancelled for obvious reasons. She has a cute open mouth, although I do need to sculpt a new tooth piece since the one she arrived with causes the front of her head to sit a little unevenly with the back.

Interestingly enough, the Raspberry I ordered from Asella has different hands and thigh joints than my Jpopdolls Raspberry, so it turns out I did NOT buy the exact same doll twice thank you very much. I was told by Asella that this is the improved version of the body with improved sitting, which I have to say is definitely noticeable! The dolls still need to be restrung (hopefully getting that done next month) but they sit quite nicely even though they're quite loose.

Photos of Raspberry: Imgur: The magic of the Internet
Photos of Rendezvous: imgur.com

And here's a photo of both!